Dear all,
Here is my final update of the school year.
It is a long one as it contains all the key information about September. If you have any questions – please get in touch.
You can also view the full written back to school plan here: COVID-19 back to school plan and risk assessment
I have also uploaded the parent update meeting slides from 8th July
Have a great summer.
Mr. Guest
You can download the PDF version my final update here DOWNLOAD: Parent update letter (edit 1st Sept: school morning snack begins on Thursday 3rd September – please pay online); KS2 paid fruit snack begins on Monday 7th September.
or view below.
Parent update from Mr. Guest (20th July 2020)
Contents
End of year message from Mr. Guest 1
Whole School Opening from September. 2
Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th September. 2
Nursery and Reception starting information. 3
Pick up and drop off expectations. 3
Testing for COVID-19 – Parental expectations. 3
Breakfast Club and Funtime after school club. 3
COVID Parent Questionnaire – VERY IMPORTANT. 4
Snack – including new afternoon snack. 5
Preparation for further closures. 6
Home learning page on the school website. 7
Competition to design Commonwealth Games Mascot 7
BBC launch – Tiny Happy People. 7
What to do if your child has symptoms. 8
End of year message from Mr. Guest
I am immensely proud of the Colebourne family of pupils, parents, staff and governors for the amazing response to the pandemic. For many staff and families there has been significant challenges, and for some, the loss of loved ones.
I would like to take this chance as part of the final update of the school year to thank a few people.
Firstly, the children; they have been incredible during this time and so many have been able to continue the fun and learning opportunities that we have provided. They have joined in with many Zoom sessions and posted lots of work to their portfolios.
To, the parents who have continued with their incredible support for their children, but also the school as a whole. We recognise the challenges that some of you have faced and we continue to be here to support you. We also know that for many, this has been a great opportunity to spend some quality time with your family.
To the governors, who in these very challenging times provided clear support and challenge to ensure key decisions are in place.
To the staff, who have once again risen to a challenge none of us could have realistically prepared for. Thank you to the teachers and teaching assistants for all the online learning materials, messages to children and parents and for delivering activities to the bubbles; to the admin team for continuing to keep the ordering, admissions and finances in order; to the site team who have continued to work on site the whole time to ensure the safety and security of the site; to the pastoral team who have made hundreds and hundreds of calls and messages to children and families and been their to provide the support when it was needed; to the tech team for ensuring an amazing amount of home learning infrastructure and organisation was in place.
We truly are an amazing community who will continue to grow and work together to ensure the best opportunities, experiences and outcomes for everyone.
Our school moto: ‘Working together to achieve success for all’ has certainly been lived over the last few months.
I truly hope that everyone can have a safe summer break.
Mr. Guest
Whole School Opening from September
The first 2 days back will be half days. This will enable us to help ease the children back into school and for us to assess our procedures that we have in place. The details are here:
*This will allow all the upstairs classes (Y4-6) to be dismissed and any siblings can then be picked up straight after without the need for parents to wait around. If your child is in year 4, 5 and 6 and the 3pm pick up time causes you difficulties – please get in touch with us and we can arrange to keep them until 3.15pm.
Nursery and Reception starting information
Emails have been sent to all new Nursery and Reception children which outlines their start times. If you are unsure or haven’t received this information, please get in touch.
Pick up and drop off expectations
Please ensure you read and understand these instructions. Members of staff will be on duty to help.
- Keep a social distance from other familiesDO keep at least 2m away from other families DO NOT approach other families
- DO NOT shake hands
- DO NOT hug other families
- DO NOT approach staff
- Follow the one way system
- DO keep to the left
- DO drop off / pick up your child promptly and then leave the site
- DO only have only one adult bring / collect your child to school wherever possible.
Drop off expectations
At drop off, please walk down the pedestrian driveway, say goodbye to your child as you are walking / queuing up and then grown-ups loop around the mini roundabout we have created and walk back up the driveway and out of school.
Pick up expectations
- DO arrive on time
- DO keep a social distance from other families while waiting
- DO follow the one-way system
- DO Keep left along the marked-out pathways on the playgrounds
- DO stand behind the red lines while waiting for your child
- DO keep a social distance from staff
- Pickup points and times are as follows:
- Years 1, 2 and 3: Between 3.00pm and 3.15pm
- Years 4, 5 and 6: 3pm (let us know if this is a problem)
- Children will be sent to you as you arrive
Testing for COVID-19 – Parental expectations
- If anyone in your household has symptoms – you MUST ALL stay at home; DO NOT come onto the school premises.
- Contact school as soon as possible.
- Get tested: the guidance is very clear: Do not wait to get tested – apply for the test as soon as you have symptoms.
You can order or book a test here: https://www.nhs.uk/ask-for-a-coronavirus-test
Information about testing: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing-and-tracing/get-an-antigen-test-to-check-if-you-have-coronavirus/
Breakfast Club and Funtime after school club
From Monday 7th September, Breakfast Club and Funtime Club will be reopening but only by advanced booking.
If parents need the provision of either or both clubs, please contact the main school office on Tuesday 1st September to Wednesday 2nd September.
COVID Parent Questionnaire – VERY IMPORTANT
At the end of August, we will be sending you a link to an online questionnaire about how your child has managed cover the lockdown. This will help us understand how your child has been getting on during the pandemic and will help us plan the support we may need to put in place. Please compete this for each child you have at Colebourne.
If, for any reason, you are concerned about your child returning to school in September, please get in touch over the summer or early September.
Dinner arrangements
School dinners will begin on Monday 7th September.
To allow for better separation of bubbles we have new arrangements in place for dinner timings and dinner hall service methods. Please see below:
| Lunch Hour | Dining slot | |
| Nursey | 11:30 – 12.30 | 11:30 – 12.00 |
| Reception | 11:30 – 12.30 | 11:30 -12:00 |
| Year 1 | 11:40-12:40 | 12:00 – 12:25 |
| Year 2 | 12:10- 13:10 | 12:10 – 12:35 |
| Year 3 | 12:35-13:35 | 12:35 – 13:00 |
| Year 4 | 12:15-13:15 | 12:45 – 13:10 |
| Year 5 | 12:40-13:40 | 13:05 – 13:30 |
| Year 6 | 12:40-13:40 | 13:15 – 13:40 |
Children will wash or sanitise their hands before eating. Children will collect their main course and pudding at the same time and sit down. Once children have finished, they will scrape their plate and sit back down. They will then wait until a lunchtime supervisor says they can leave; this is to allow the managed movement of children out of the hall and to stop and cross bubble interaction.
Due to social distancing in the kitchen, there will also be a reduced menu. I will share this menu with you once it has been finalised.
Children starting Year 3
- When children move from year 2 into year 3 they are no longer entitled to government funded universal meals.
- If your child is entitled to free school meals (based on receipt of certain benefits) then they can continue to have free meals.
- If your child is not entitled to free school meals, you will need to decide if you you pay for a school meal or if you child will bring sandwiches; School meals are charged at £2.25 per day.
- We will contact Year 3 parents in September, to collect this information.
Free school meal checking
If you think that you may be entitled to benefits related free school meals and do not currently receive them please go on the online checking service to check your entitlement.
Snack – including new afternoon snack
School snacks will be available from Monday 7th September.
(edit 1st Sept: school morning snack begins on Thursday 3rd September – please pay online); KS2 paid fruit snack begins on Monday 7th September.
A new afternoon snack option for KS2 is also being introduced to ensure that the junior children have enough energy for the day (KS1 children already get a piece of fruit in the afternoon as part of a national fruit scheme)
Key snack details:
- KS2 children are no longer able to bring in money for snacks; school snack needs to be booked for the half term, via payment on EDUSPOT
- Children need to bring their own drink; drinks are no longer being provided for snack time;
- Payments will go onto the online payment system- Eduspot over the summer
- 40p per day for a school morning snack;
- 20p per day for an afternoon KS2 piece of fruit (KS2 Afternoon Fruit)
- Children can bring in their own morning and afternoon snack if they prefer.
The half termly morning snack payments have been reduced in cost by the equivalent of two weeks to account for the missed weeks before lockdown.
NB: Any new parents: We will set you up with online payments in September
Class Dojo over the summer
You will have noticed that your child now has their new class name on ClassDojo. Children can continue to post work on to their portfolios so the teachers can see them when they return in September.
Keep an eye out on ClassDojo over the summer as there is going be some fun videos posted.
Please remember that teachers are unlikely to respond to messages over the summer.
PE Kits for PE Days
PE kit arrangement will begin from Monday 7th September.
At this time, we do not want children to be getting changed in school. Therefore, children need to come to school in their PE kits on their PE days. Nursery and Reception do not come in PE kits on any day; they should come in main school uniform each day.
PE day kit should be:
- Black leggings, jogging bottoms or shorts (if it is hot)
- House colour t-shirt
- Trainers or pumps
The PE days are as follows:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| Year 1: | x | x | |||
| Year 2: | x | x | |||
| Year 3: | x | x | |||
| Year 4: | x | x | |||
| Year 5: | x | x | |||
| Year 6: | x | x |
If there are any changes to this, your child’s class teacher will be in touch.
ParentView survey
Parents can answer a few questions about Colebourne as part of the OFSTED Parent View platform. These overall results can be seen by everyone, but the comments can only be seen by OFSTED. We would appreciate it if you could complete this.
https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/homepage
Pastoral provision
We recognise that many of our children may need some additional pastoral opportunities during the return to school.
In order to meet this need, while maintaining the integrity of the bubbles as much as possible we have allocated certain pastoral staff to certain year groups as follows:
| Nursery: | Mrs. Smart |
| Reception: | Mrs. Smart |
| Year 1: | Miss. Jones |
| Year 2: | Miss. Jones |
| Year 3: | Miss. Jones |
| Year 4: | Mr. Newton |
| Year 5: | Ms. MacAllister |
| Year 6: | Ms. MacAllister |
When working across bubbles, strict social distancing will be in place when working with children and may include sessions taking pace outdoors.
Lunchtime pastoral rooms: Year group pastoral rooms will continue to take place every lunchtime, but these will be done in year groups and will be run by staff already working in the year group.
Extra-curricular clubs
Extra-curricular clubs such as football, dance, choir, cooking will not likely begin until at least after half term. I will keep you updated as the term progresses.
Preparation for further closures
We hope that we do not have further school closures, but the government has asked us to prepare plans for full/partial closures just in case.
We are working on this and will publish this in due course but will include such things as:
- the use of technology to support learning;
- support for families with limited or no technology;
- support for children self-isolating;
- continuation of learning for part and full closures.
Parents Evenings – Thanks
Thank you to all those who attended the parents’ meetings over the last few weeks. It was amazing to see so many of you. So many of the children had grown so much!
We hope this gave you and your child a chance to finish the school year and begin the summer holidays. The staff were delighted to see so many of the children – it helped them to be able to say goodbye too!
A huge thank you too for all the lovely gifts and kind words about the staff and school.
As a Colebourne community the togetherness we have is very special.
Summer Packs
We hope you find the summer packs useful. Please enjoy some of the fun activities and try to complete some of the learning activities if you can.
PLEASE DO NOT LET ANY OF THIS CAUSE ARGUMENTS IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD – THE BOOKS AND ACTIVITIES ARE THERE TO DO IF YOU CAN.
Home learning page on the school website
We have put together a specific home learning page on the school website which contains all the links to main home learning resources we have been using. Here is the link: COLEBOURNE HOME LEARNING PAGE
You can also just scan the QR code that was in the letter I wrote to the children in the summer home learning pack.
Year 6 Leavers Assembly
During the final week we also had some special socially distant meet ups with our year 6 leavers. It was lovely to be able to give them a send-off and hand over a special 2020 leavers t-shirt to each of them.
We will be hosting a proper get together party for our year 6 leavers when we are able to.
Competition to design Commonwealth Games Mascot
The Commonwealth Games is looking for children across the country to design their own mascot and be in with a chance of winning family tickets to the Opening Ceremony on 28th July 2022.
To find out more, including details of how to enter click here: https://www.birmingham2022.com/Mascot/
The winning design will inspire the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games’ official mascot.
BBC launch – Tiny Happy People
The bbc have launched a new part of their website aimed at helping parents develop their child’s communication skills. You can explore simple activities and play ideas. It is really good – so please take a look.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people
Contact over the summer
Staff are NOT expected to respond to messages via email or class dojo over the summer
- You will be able to contact the following people:
- Trevina Edwards (Family support worker): edwards@colebourne.bham.sch.uk
- Smart: s.smart@colebourne.bham.sch.uk;
- Guest: s.guest@colebourne.bham.sch.uk
- Colebourne Helpline: phone/text: 07841010082
These accounts / numbers will be checked at least weekly.
Symptoms of coronavirus
Please remember, the main symptoms of coronavirus are:
- a high temperature
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
- a loss or change to sense of smell or taste – this means they cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
There is also an increasing amount of information suggesting a rash may also indicate you having the virus.
What to do if your child has symptoms
If your child has any of the main symptoms of coronavirus:
- Stay at home (self-isolate) – do not leave your home or have visitors. Anyone you live with, and anyone in your support bubble, must also self-isolate.
- Get a test – get a test to check if you have coronavirus as soon as possible. Anyone you live with, and anyone in your support bubble, should also get a test if they have symptoms.
-END-