17^th July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Looking forward to September

After what has been such a challenging few months for everyone, we are so pleased to be planning for all our children to return in September. We are continuing to work through the Government recommendations to ensure our return will be safe and calm in September, however this letter contains some of the essential details you will need to know. Please ensure you read it carefully and keep it for your reference.

Bubbles and safety

To keep all the children and staff safe, we are going to be working in “bubbles”; these will be class bubbles inside and year group bubbles outside and in communal areas of the school. Nursery and Reception will be a bubble together. We will still be doing additional handwashing with all the children and extra cleaning throughout the day as well as following other Government recommendations for schools.

Uniform

We are expecting children to be wearing school uniform in September. We will be spending more time outside so it is really important that your child also has a waterproof coat, sensible shoes and a cap or sunhat if the weather is good. However, we understand that if you are wanting to air or wash your child’s clothes more frequently, there might be some occasions when this is not possible. Please just try your best.

PE

On P.E. days your child can come to school in P.E kit: T-Shirt, joggers or leggings (shorts if the weather is warm enough) trainers and their school sweatshirt. Older children should keep a spare T-Shirt in their locker, in case they need to change. All PE will be outside as much as possible so please make sure they have appropriate kit.

Staggered break and lunch times

As a safety measure we will need to stagger the children’s lunch and break times and ensure that each Year group bubble has their own play equipment to use. We will go through all of this with the children on their first day back.

Resources and equipment

We have been making up resource packs for every child, this has all the equipment that they will need including stationery and some learning tools like 100 squares and word lists in them. Your child will not be able to bring in or use their own stationery we will provide them with everything they need.

What should my child bring in?

• Named coat in case of bad weather
• Named sunhat or cap if the weather is good
• Named water bottle- this is very important
• A bag to keep their reading book, and the things identified here in
• Juniors-If your child is bringing in a mobile phone please make sure you have signed the permission forms, phones will be stored in year group boxes collected in the classroom then taken to the office for safe keepin

Other items from home

It is really important your child does not bring in any other toys or items from home at this time. If they do bring things in we will need to ask you to take them away with you. This is to help keep everybody safe.

Reading books

Children being able to borrow reading books and read at home is extremely important. We will be putting systems in place to ensure that all children will be able to safely borrow books and so that when they are returned they can be left for the recommended period of time before anyone else uses them again.

Start and finish times

To avoid overcrowding at the school gates we need to make some different arrangements at the start and end of the day. The grid below shows the start and finish time for each year group and where your child should be dropped off or picked up from. We understand that for some of you with children in more than one year group this may be difficult. Please don’t worry, arrive at the earliest time that your children should be in and then work your way around, we will understand! It is important, however that those who can arrive at allocated time slots do- this is to keep us all safe. We are still asking that you keep family members to a minimum at drop off and pick up, to avoid lots of people in the same place at the same time. We have ensured that all children get their full hours in school.

Speaking to teachers/ access to the office

The teachers will need to be with the children at the start and end of day, if you have an important message for that day, please phone or email the office and they will get it to your child’s class teacher. However, we do still very much want to keep our home school contact going so please, if you do want to speak with your child’s teacher, contact the office and ask them to call you or arrange for a meeting. We are aiming to bring Parents Evenings forward this year so that we can all be in touch and discuss the children’s needs and achievements sooner than we would normally do. Unfortunately, we are still not in a position where parents can come into school. If you need to be in for any reason then you must phone or email the office in advance and make an appointment unless we have arranged a meeting with you.

Breakfast and After School Club

We will be running breakfast club as normal however, to ensure the children are kept safe in their bubbles each year group will have an area to eat and play in. Infant start time is 7.50am Junior start time is 7.45am.

After school club will look different in the Autumn Term due to restrictions on numbers and recommendations around not mixing. We will be able to provide after school HUB clubs, but these will need to be on the separate sites and will run from 3.00pm until 5.00pm for the Autumn Term. We will not be able to provide a meal for the children. This will be reviewed ready for the Spring when hopefully we will be able to offer a full service again. To express and interest please email the relevant school office.

We will not be running after school enrichment clubs on either site in the autumn term. We are planning for all enrichment clubs to re-start in the spring term.

Please ensure you contact us via email at: admin@hertfordinf.brighton-hove.sch.uk OR admin@hertfordjun.brighton-hove.sch.uk if you require Breakfast and/ or After School provision then the office will send you the relevant booking forms. Breakfast club at the Juniors will now require booking, and spaces are limited.

Finally, then, it remains for me to wish you and your family a happy and peaceful summer, to thank you for your support and understanding during this difficult time and to ask you to bear with us as, once again, as we plan for the unknown.

I need to say a special thanks to all our staff, all of whom have been dealing with their own personal lockdown circumstances, but who have risen to the challenge of this difficult time superbly! It has not been easy for any of us and we have really appreciated your kind messages of support and appreciation.

I wish all staff and families a wonderful summer break- do take care and please, do keep safe.

Kind regards,

Hertford team

A message from the School Nurses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48j6pMpDkis