Just a few updates this week about minor changes in school for the Summer Term:
School Day:
Staggered start and finish times will remain as they have been this term – at least until half-term. We will hope to reduce the “stagger” and maximise learning time in the second half of the Summer Term.
Lunches will remain in the classrooms until the hall project is complete – this may be for the first half of the Summer Term. There are very minor changes to the published Surrey menu to accommodate this change of location, but the main meal content remains the same. Click here to see updated menu.
After-school sports clubs will be starting after half-term. The teacher-led year group clubs are open to everyone and we are asking parents to email if you would not like your child to participate in an additional active session through the school week. Where it is possible to run indoor clubs which are COVID-secure for our school bubbles, we will facilitate these for after school providers such as Engineers R Us and Code Camp and more details will follow as appropriate at the beginning of term.
PE:
Changing for PE remains challenging in a COVID-safe environment, especially higher up the school, but we would like children to wear their PE kits for PE in the Summer Term. On the days when they have PE, children may come to school in PE kit:
Red shorts, navy T-shirt and trainers
Plain navy joggers and the school navy PE sweatshirt may be worn, (or the school uniform jumper if children don’t have these) Branded items, hoodies or other colours /styles of kit may not be worn in school.
Uniform:
As usual in the Summer Term, children should wear the summer uniform when we return in April. This includes the usual black school shoes and hair accessories (for long hair) in school colours. Please make sure any nail varnish worn over the holidays is removed for the first day of school.
Year 6 Mobile Phones:
If at all possible, please avoid the need for mobile phones to be brought into school. It is not possible for these to be held securely in school during the current COVID regulations for school bubbles. If it is necessary for your child to bring their phone into school e.g. because they have a long journey home on their own, please complete and return a home school-agreement which will be emailed separately to Y6 parents after this mailing. These agreements should be sent to your child’s class teacher on the Y6 homelearning email.
Homelearning Emails:
While it remains necessary for parents to have limited face to face contact with staff, we feel it is important that the homelearning emails remain in use as required for next half-term to enable any necessary contact. We would ask parents to remember that class teachers have a very full day job which is not office-based and parent emails can add to workload and stress. Thank you for only emailing when strictly necessary – brief emails requesting or offering information which may have been previously communicated at the classroom door are great!
Masks:
School staff will be continuing to wear masks within the communal areas of school (not classrooms) and continuing to test twice-weekly to ensure our community is protected.
We will review all of the above arrangements again at May half-term. The current Risk Assessment is on the school website here and is due to be updated when we return as new guidance is being issued regularly.
Absences:
Thank you for all your consideration in keeping your children off school if they are unwell. We have tried to tread a line which is cautious but sensible, in order to keep the school operating as fully as possible. This approach bore fruit last week when a child who had been asked to get a follow-up PCR test (following a negative lateral flow test) turned out to have a positive PCR test – this enabled us to keep the year group open and avoided 30 or 60 children having to isolate!
We are really grateful to those parents who have been supportive of our endeavours. The whole community benefits when we work together in this way and we are delighted that there have (so far!) been no new bubble closures this week. Long may that last!
If your child were to test positive or to develop COVID symptoms within 48 hours of being in school (that is to say, at any time between lunchtime on Maundy Thursday and lunchtime on Saturday 3rd April), please do inform the school so that we can contact the families of children and staff who have had close contact. You can use the emergency@xaviercet.org.uk and office@cardinalnewmanschool.co.uk. Let’s hope everyone stays healthy and safe this holidays!
Online Safety:
We have had a spate of concerning online incidents at home over the past few days, often when children have clicked on seemingly innocent links which have taken them to inappropriate online content. Children have been disturbed by this content, with one child saying, “I can’t get it out of my head now.”
We are all aware that the internet has a darker side, but we are really seeing an impact on children as young as Year 3. We are resending the Online Safety information for parents which was shared in the Autumn Term following Sharon Girling’s excellent workshops with children and parents. We would urge you to read the information carefully – especially the information around Tiktok settings and filtering software – and to satisfy yourself that your settings at home are as tight as they can be on all the devices your children might access.
Sharon Girling talked a lot about open lines of communication with our children and that is never more important than when they are online. We teach the children to tell an adult if they see something inappropriate – it is rarely their fault when adult content shows itself to them – but some children are afraid to speak to the adults at home for fear of getting into trouble. Please have those conversations with your children and reassure them that you want to help them to use the internet safely and that you will help them to stay safe online.
Safeguarding our children’s innocence is an increasingly challenging task in our current climate, but we hope the information and websites attached will support parents in this mission.
Coffee and Conversation - Tuesday 27th April
We are redesigning the school website and would welcome parental input on this topic, as well as some discussion about online safety and about clubs for September. As always, we would welcome questions from parents in advance on any general topic. Parents are reminded that the clubs survey is still live click here and the information gathered will be very valuable to inform our choices about the extra-curricular programme from the Autumn Term.
Holy Week:
We have been reflecting on the events leading up to Good Friday this week and we held a whole school liturgy this morning, with a focus on the symbolic action of washing feet. You can see some of our reflection on this topic on our Maundy Thursday padlet here.
We are very much looking forward to celebrating whole school Mass together for Eastertide on the first Friday back. Year 2 children will be supporting Father Bill with readings and prayers for our Easter Mass.
Wishing you a very happy Easter weekend and all the best for the Easter break! Let’s hope it’s sunhats and ice cream weather!
Catherine Burnham
Headteacher
