St Luke's C of E Primary School, Glossop

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter

25.2.2021

Dear Parents,

I hope you have all had a good week last week and enjoyed the respite from home learning. I know a number of you are really enjoying home learning but everyone likes a break.

On Monday we had the announcement that schools will be open to everyone again from the 8th March. This is fantastic news both for the children and because it means infection rates are coming down. I am attaching a letter outlining all the arrangements that will be in place from the 8th. Don’t worry they have not changed significantly from the ones that were in place, but please do reread them to make sure.

There have been some questions asked about school uniform. The children are asked to wear school uniform. If your child has outgrown any item of uniform such as shoes I know it is not possible to shop for them at the moment so do not worry, send them in a suitable alternative as close to uniform as possible.

In order for staff to get school ready for Monday 8th there will be no live Zoom lessons on Friday 5th March. There will be work posted on See Saw but all staff will be in school getting the classrooms ready and so will not be available to lead those live lessons. As ever if there are any problems just phone school.

I know a lot of the children will be excited to be coming back to school and to be seeing their friends again however they may well be feeling a little anxious as well. Any change in routine brings with it those feelings of nervousness. Please reassure your child that lots of children will be feeling the same mixture of excitement and trepidation, that feeling in their tummy. Let them know that school is safe and they will be well looked after. These feelings will pass. If you think your child is more than a little anxious about the return please let me know and we will try to help them with this transition back into school.

Next Thursday is World Book Day. The booksellers of this country have again provided every child with a Book Token towards a book. This is incredibly generous of them at a difficult time for many businesses. I am attaching a pdf document which you can use instead of the physical voucher we usually give out. You can use this e voucher once for each of your children.

Raspberry Pi are running a coding competition for any budding programmers:

Inspire your child to create with technology! The Raspberry Pi Foundation is hosting an exciting, global technology showcase for young people, called Coolest Projects.

It is online, free to take part in, and open to all children aged 7+ who like coding and making things with tech. Your child can take part with a scratch project, a website, a game, an app, a robot, or anything else. After they register their tech creation for Coolest Projects, it will be showcased in the Coolest projects online gallery, for people all over the world to see. All ideas and experience levels are encouraged and celebrated!

Visit the Coolest Projects website to get started.

Junior Bake Off are looking for new contestants:

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes

Full reopening of School March 8th 2021

As you know from 8th March the expectation is that all the children will be back in school unless you have been advised by their clinician that it is not safe for this to happen. The children will be in class bubbles and in order to keep everyone safe during the pandemic the bubbles will be kept as separate as possible.

We are very lucky that the children returning to school has been prioritised. In order for schools to remain open it is vital that we all follow the guidelines even though it is tempting to cheat a little. We do not want to go back to home learning.

The routines we have adopted to minimise the risks; lots of handwashing, catching, binning and killing coughs and sneezes, well ventilated spaces and staggered playtimes will continue.

In the classrooms the children will be encouraged to keep apart from each other.

Equipment the children use a lot will be kept as personal equipment. Other equipment will be regularly cleaned.

Most of the children will continue to have lunches in the classrooms, it is working really well, our lovely kitchen staff have helped us make this possible. The only children who will be eating in the hall are the Reception children.

Things the children will need to keep in school

We are asked to minimise the number of things going back and forth between home and school so please can the children leave these things in school.

PE Kit

A water bottle – please do not send in a bottle every day with juice in, we ask that children drink water during the day apart from at lunchtime.

Wellies

Waterproofs if you have them – if not please can they bring a waterproof coat in every day.

Morning routine

The morning has worked well with a steady flow of parents and children arriving at school. (Thank you for all your support to help this happen). For this reason, we are going to keep using the system we have been with the one-way system around school. We will also ask you to continue to limit the number of adults who drop off or pick up your children to one.

The children will go in through their normal door and wash their hands.

We will continue to stagger the start times alphabetically by surname, so families only have one time.

8.40-8.45 A-F

8.50-8.55 G-M

9.00 – 9.05 N-Z

If you talked to us about the time you drop your child off and arranged a slightly different time that is still fine.

Please do not come onto the site before 8.35 as we are trying to limit the contact between people.

After school routine

We are also going to continue to stagger the pick-up times. We reverse the one-way system at the end of the day so parents go through the carpark and round the back of school. We then ask you to pick up any key stage 2 children from that yard and then continue round to pick up any younger children. This makes sure the children always walk on the path rather than on the carpark.

As soon as you have picked up your children please can you leave the site. I know this has been the hardest thing as everyone wants to stand around and chat at the end of the day but we are trying to limit the contact between people. I know it is tempting to visit the park with other families on the way home, please resist the temptation and follow the guidelines, the stay at home ruling still applies.

Please do not come on to the site more than a couple of minutes before your pick up time as we are trying to limit the contact between people.

3.15 A-F

3.25 G-M

3.35 N-Z

In the case of illness

If someone in your household tests positively for Covid 19 your child must stay off for 10 days.

If your child shows symptoms of Covid 19 (high temperature, persistent cough, loss of taste or small) you must keep them off school and get them tested. If the test comes back negative they can come into school. If it comes back positive they must stay off school for 10 days.

If your child develops symptoms at school we will isolate them from the other children, don’t worry an adult will take care of them, and phone you to pick them up in order to take them to be tested. They will need to remain off school until the result of that test.

If there is a confirmed case in school we will contact Public Health England who will help us carry out a risk assessment and advise us what to do. If they ask us to close a bubble or the whole school we will support remote learning until we can get the children back into school.

I hope I have managed to cover all your questions. If I have missed anything or you have any concerns do contact me.

Alice Littlehailes

Headteacher

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter

11.2.2021

Dear Parents,

Well it has been a chilly one hasn’t it. Some beautiful days but cold on the toes and nose. Summed up in the immortal words of Winnie the Pooh ‘Nobody knows tiddly pom, how cold my nose tiddly pom, how cold my nose tiddly pom is growing’!

Glossop Fair Trade Group have organised this year’s annual competition for the children to be something you can do at home. It is a delicious baking challenge. I know from the children just how much they are enjoying baking at home so do have a go at it. I am attaching the details. Any entries can be emailed to the school office or brought into school.

I have been told about some great Community Outreach Work which has been undertaken by the keyworker pupils at St Philip Howard School during this term. As part of their work they were asked to come up with some ideas of how to connect with the wider community in these unusual times, after looking at lots of different ideas they have decided to create a ‘Covid secure’ activity trail for the children of the Glossopdale area for the upcoming half term.

Starting last week they had 60 pupils decorating pebbles to be used on the trail. I have attached a map for you to see the trail and what they have created for the children, along with the activities. The trail is approximately 1.5km and appropriate footwear will need to be worn. They would love you to walk the trail over the half term holiday.

As set out on the map the pupils are to follow the path to find the various stones and answer the questions about the stones. Once they have completed the trail the school want to encourage the children to email the answers back to St Philip Howard so that we can involve the keyworker pupils in the outcome. I also want to email back a certificate to in effect thank them for taking part. The email to use is SPHtrail@sph.academy

Points to note:

1. It needs to be made clear that they shouldn’t move or touch the stones

2. As this is unsupervised please make it clear to your pupils that they should only go on the trail in their family bubble

3. They should remember to follow social distancing guidelines

School will be closed next week for half term. Just like at Christmas if anyone who has been in school, adult or child, tests positive over half term they must let me know as I may need to ask others in school to isolate. As the school office will be closed please inform me by texting or emailing headteacher@st-lukes.derbyshire.sch.uk.

It has come to my attention that people have started bringing their dogs to school again and leaving them outside the gate. Please can I remind you that this is not permitted, even if a member of school staff is asked to look after them. Even the friendliest dog can become anxious when left by their owner. We have had an incident of a pupil being bitten in just such a situation. I would ask you please not to use the school run as a dog walk, or if you need to stay with your dog at the gate and send your child into school from there.

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter

4.2.2021

Dear Parents,

So much to celebrate this week – mainly you the parents. I have been chatting to the children who are at home, in small groups, and they have been so positive about what you are doing. They all want to come back to school as soon as possible and I have reassured them that I will do everything I can to get them back in. They sometimes have down times missing their friends and wanting to get out and about but they all generally feel positive. They all talk about all the things they have learnt with you such as judo, cooking savoury and sweet, to ride a bike, roller blading, to look after a baby and many, many other things. They all talk about getting some exercise every day and how much they enjoy doing it with you. They talk about learning at home with you working not in a negative way but understanding the compromises everyone has to make. They know you sometimes have down times as well but despite that they feel happy and safe. It has been, and I am sure will continue to be, a delight to talk to them. On their behalf, because I know they will sometimes forget, can I say a huge heartfelt thank you. You are doing an amazing job.

Next Tuesday 9th February is Internet Safety Day. This is an annual event where we all remind ourselves how to stay safe on the internet and use this amazing tool appropriately. As the children are not in school we can’t do the big push on this we normally would so please could you take some time to talk to your children about the internet and how to stay safe. I am attaching a letter from a Derbyshire charity ‘Safe and Sound’ with information about a very interesting sounding workshop please do take the time to read it and if possible attend the workshop.

Just a reminder that we have been told that schools should shut as normal at half term. Just like at Christmas if anyone who has been in school, adult or child, tests positive over half term they must let me know as I may need to ask others in school to isolate. As the school office will be closed please inform me by texting or emailing headteacher@st-lukes.derbyshire.sch.uk.

I am loving all the sunflowers I am seeing. The whole school sunflower project will continue until after half term so do check back on Seesaw to see what suggestions there are. If you come up with anything extra do let us know so we can share your ideas with everyone else. I have already shared some of your sunflower pictures with the other schools in PEGS and invited them to spread the sunshine. They were very impressed.

Remember if your children want to enter our poetry recital they need to let me know by Wednesday 10th Feb.

I hope you all have a good week this week.

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes