Parent Update
Dear Parents and Carers
Well the expected announcement was made today that we can welcome all children back in September. Although the guidance has been sent out to schools, as you can imagine this is going to take us a while to fully unpick and for us to review and update our current risk assessment. The measures that are likely to continue to be in place are likely to include staggered starts and finishes, which we are already used to and we will let you know as soon as possible the details of these for your child in September. We will continue to have in place extra hygiene procedures including regular washing of hands, sanitiser and extra cleaning of surfaces during the day, in order to further reduce the risk of transmission. As you may be aware cases in Basingstoke and in particular in our area have been very low, however we all need to continue to work together to ensure that this remains the case.
Thank you so much to all of you who have sent in your fantastic photos of the events you completed for our Virtual Sports Day – keep them coming. So far the children in school have managed to dodge the showers in order to complete their various activities in school. A huge thank you to all of you who have already made a donation to the Ark Cancer Charity to mark this event. Keep spreading the word and if you have not yet made a donation we would ask you to consider supporting this really worthwhile local charity.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/st-mary-s-junior-school-old-basing1
F.O.O.B.S are also looking into putting a fundraising event in place which would replace our usual highly successful Summer Fair – the concept being considered at the moment is ‘Summer Not Fair’. Please look out for further details.
As mentioned in a previous email, next week your child will be receiving their report either on the day they come in for their meeting with their teacher or through their bubble for those attending school.
As usual we have set a short holiday homework to keep the basic skills ticking over during the holiday. You will find these tasks inside the envelope containing your child’s report. Don’t forget that the library challenge is still taking place this year albeit through the use of e-books. Years 3 and 4 will still have access to Education City over the summer and current Year 5 and 6 students will still have access to Mathletics.
We also wanted to mark the end of this year and so have also added in a little something for each child from all of us. We hope that these help to inspire everyone to keep on reading.
This week we also sent out an email to the Year 6 parents outlining the activities that we have planned to celebrate the time that they have spent with us. We have tried to include as many of the activities as we usually do, although as I am sure that you can understand they have had to be adapted in the current circumstances.
Over the last few weeks we have been working with Sports Xtra to make arrangements for a summer activities camp. This has now been confirmed and will run for the middle three weeks of the summer holiday from 3rd – 21st August. The infants have set up a similar summer camp with SCL for younger siblings to attend. Full details including costs and booking instructions can be found on the attached flyer.
Library Book Search
We still have a large number of school library books which have still not been returned. Please, please, please could you have a really good look around at home so that our library will be fully stocked when we return in September.
School nursing Service Support
The service can offer parents/carers of children between the ages of 5-19 years old the School Nursing ChatHealth texting service. Parents and carers can text their message to a dedicated number, 07507332417 where the school nurse will respond within one working day. The school nurse can offer advice and support about general health and wellbeing issues such as behaviour, toileting, sleep and healthy lifestyles. They will be able to signpost to other services if necessary.
The School Nursing service also has a ChatHealth service for young people between the ages of 11 to 19 years old. Young people can text their message to a dedicated number, 07507332160 where the school nurse will respond within one working day. The school nurse can offer advice and support about general health and wellbeing issues.
New guidance published on keeping children safe from abuse and harm
The DfE has jointly published new guidance with the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Public Health England on keeping children safe from abuse and harm. This guidance brings together sources of information about the main risks children may be vulnerable to during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and signposts you to help and support available. This includes guidance on keeping your child safe online.
The guidance can be found here:
The DfE has also published guidance for parents and carers setting out what they need to know about changes to after-school clubs, holiday clubs, tuition, community activities and other out-of-school settings for children and young people during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, whist schools are closed over the summer. They have included information on what clubs and activities children and young people can attend, and what new safety measures parents and carers can expect them to have in place.
Basingstoke Cycling Support for Schools
The Borough Council would like to make you aware of a brand new on-line cycling resource launched by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council:
Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council (BDBC) recognises the significant benefits that cycling provides, including improvements in health and wellbeing and helping to reduce the number of people driving cars for their journey.
The Borough benefits from the National Cycle Network (NCN) Route 23, which is largely traffic-free between Basingstoke Town Centre and Chineham. As part of their cycling strategy, BDBC wanted to refresh and update their current cycle map to enable users to have the ability to access an on-line version of the map.
The refreshed map highlights designated on and off-road cycle routes within the borough, quiet or traffic-calmed roads, cycle parking, key public transport interchanges and points of interest, which includes schools.
The new online map is device independent, allowing access via browsers (except Internet Explorer), tablets and smartphones. The user can pan around the map, zoom in and out, and click on key features to view additional information. They can also report any related maintenance issues to BDBC using a link to the ‘report it’ facility on the BBDC website.
Next week we look forward to welcoming in Year 3,4 and 5 children for their session with their teacher. Please look back at the previous emails to ensure that your child attends the correct session at the correct time so that we can ensure that groups remain separate and cleaning can be completed between groups.
The weather forecast is looking a little better for next week and I hope the rain stays of for the weekend so that we can all get out and about.
In the light of today’s announcement please be patient with us. As soon as we have finalised our plans and shared them with our Governing Body, we will communicate these with you. Please be reassured that this will definitely be before the end of the term.
Best wishes
Caroline Welch
Headteacher