16^th July 2020

Keeping in Touch - 15

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our final Keeping in Touch letter of the year.  We are hoping to return to the more usual  monthly newsletter from September, if things remain steady.

There are genuinely no words that could possibly capture and adequately describe everything that has happened this year, but one thing I do know is that we couldn’t have done it without you all.  Please accept our most enormous, heart-felt thank you for your patience, kindness, understanding, support and generosity through these extraordinary times.  We are certainly all ready for our rest and I am sure you are too!

Russell Leavers:

As any academic year comes to an end it is always sad to say goodbye to the Year 4s as they move on to Alameda, or indeed to other middle schools, but this year is particularly heart-wrenching as you can imagine.  It was wonderful to see them all this week and a real credit to them to see the way they simply fitted straight back in to school life for the day.  They all looked very smart in their Year 4 Leavers’ Hoodies (HUGE thank you to the PTA for those!)  The Year 4 children have been a fantastic year group with many wonderful characters.  I am really going to miss them. They have been supportive Sports Ambassadors and super Year 4 helpers around the school.  The children have been the Russell Rights role models, and have become more resilient than any of us expected they could be.   I wish them all the very best in the future.  We hope to be able to invite them back for one last party (the leavers’ party they missed), as soon as the weather and government rules allow!

I would also like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to our Year 4 parents, some of whom have their eldest child leaving Russell, and we realise we will be losing you too.  Thank you for the huge contribution you have made: many a PTA event and fundraising, classroom support, helping on trips etc.  Simply, thank you: we are really going to miss your incredible support at Russell.

Diary Dates:

Friday 17^th July – Children break up for the summer holidays

Summer Holidays Monday 20^th July – Monday 7^th September (Thursday 3^rd and Friday 4^th  September are INSET days – no children)

Monday 7^th September – Year 1, 2, 3 and 4 children return to school, ‘Home’ Visits for new foundation stage children begin

Wednesday 16^th September – Half of new foundation stage children start school

Thursday 17^th September – All foundation stage children in

Thursday 17^th September – 7:30pm – PTA meeting (virtual)

Tuesday 22^nd September – Phonics for Y1 and Y2 parents 2:30pm (virtual)

Thursday 24^th September – New Intake Meeting (Sept 2021 starters) 9:30am (field)

Thursday 1^st October – FS reading and writing workshop for Foundation Stage Parents 9:15 – 10:30am (virtual) and  New Intake Meeting (Sept 2021 starters) 2pm (field)

Monday 12^th October – Parents’ Evening 4:30pm to 7pm, Finance and Resources Governors meeting at 6:30pm (likely to be telephone/virtual)

Tuesday 13^th October – Parents’ Evening 3:45pm to 6:30pm (likely to be telephone/virtual)

Wednesday 14^th October – New Intake Meeting (Sept 2021 starters) at 9:30am (field)

Friday 16^th October – Possibly a PTA Halloween Discos from 3:45 – 7pm (dependent on guidance at the time)

Friday 23^rd October – School breaks up for half term

Please see the school website for more dates beyond this

More detailed information on the above events will follow in due course

Message from the PTA

Uniform request - calling all year 4 parents! We would very much appreciate a donation of any school uniform you will no longer need for our ever-popular uniform sale (fingers crossed we will be able to hold one in Sept). Unfortunately, at this current time, we can only collect from Year 4 leavers but all other years please do hold onto any unwanted uniform for a little longer, as we always appreciate all of your donations. A box will continue to be available in reception from Mon 7^th Sept for any year 4 parents having a sort out of uniform over the summer.

Amazon Smile – Do you order a lot from Amazon? Russell Lower School can really benefit from Amazon Smile - a small donation from every purchase goes to school so that your children can benefit! Go to your account and enable it now, its even available on the app! Thank you

9^th July 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

 Keeping in Touch – 14

 More information about the full opening of Russell Lower School in September

 I hope this letter finds you all safe, well and continuing to cope in these extraordinary times.

 Firstly, thank you to those of you who are continuing to support your children’s learning from home.  This will make an enormous difference to their confidence levels when the children do return in September.   Also, for your support with all our transition events this week.  We have held 9 transition events across the week, and have particularly loved seeing our Year 3 children back in school, albeit briefly.

 Secondly, I want to thank you for your patience.  I know you will all have been desperate to know how school plans to ‘look’ and ‘work’ in September, but following yet more government guidance last Thursday, we have had to carefully consider what is safe and possible. 

School will look very similar to how it does now in September, so will be quite familiar to our new Year 1 (old FS) and new Year 2 (old Y1) children and parents, but will be very different for our new Year 3s and 4s.

Infection control measures

At all times, we will be adhering to the government’s guidance.  Our infection control and protective measures will continue to be based on the government’s 5 key approaches to minimising transmission in schools: anyone with Covid symptoms, or who lives with someone with symptoms, must not attend school; frequent handwashing protocols; good respiratory hygiene (catch it, kill it, bin it); frequent cleaning of ‘high contact’ surfaces and areas through the day, creating ‘safe bubbles’ in school, and, via staggered lunches, play zones etc, minimise wider contact.

We will continue with specific safety routines, such as comprehensive cleaning regimes, timetabled handwashing, staggered playtimes in set zones, parents being asked to enter school through a specific gate, drop children at a particular classroom door and not enter the building, class bubbles, seating children at tables facing the front and staggering the beginning and end of the day times to reduce crowding. 

Equally, we will adapt the curriculum so that we are prioritising ‘settling in’ and reducing anxiety activities, building in time for handwashing etc. We will be quickly assessing gaps in the children’s knowledge and skills and planning to address them, but don’t worry – the children won’t even know we are doing this – they will be ‘activity based’ and part of a normal lesson.

We will continue to teach an ambitious and broad curriculum in all subjects in the autumn term, but we will use the existing flexibilities within this to cover the most important missed content.  We will of course re-establish good progress in the essentials of phonics, reading, language and vocabulary acquisition, writing and maths.  However, we will use the full curriculum to achieve this.

The government has always made it clear that early years and primary age children cannot be expected to socially distance from each other and staff.  Remaining in a bubble for the core day, and rigorous hand washing will help to minimise the risks.

During the core day, children will remain in their class bubbles and not mix with other bubbles.  For example, they will not attend physical assemblies (these will be remote) and they will continue to play in zones.  However, for extra-curricular clubs or for Aviary (Before and After School Club), government guidance allows us to put the children into year group ‘bubbles’, which means that these things can resume, with some changes, in September.  The government have asked us to advise parents to limit the number of different wraparound providers (different clubs) they access, as far as possible.  We would therefore suggest that you do not enroll your child in more than 2 ‘clubs’ a week (for example Aviary and Drama)

Aviary – Before and After School Club

Aviary Club will return with year group bubbles within the main hall

The Aviary will operate its usual hours, from 7:45am to 6pm

Breakfast will only be served up until 8:20am.  If your child arrives after this time, they should have already eaten their breakfast

Cover will be seamless within school i.e. if your child starts at 9am or finishes at 3:10pm and will be attending Club, you do not need to worry about any ‘time gaps’, we will staff these.

We will have to limit the numbers of children attending club due to safety requirements.  We will not be able to take as many children as we have been able to before.  We will be unable to be so flexible with ad-hoc cover.  You will be required to have booked a place in advance

Once we are full, we will operate a waiting list system and notify you when a place becomes available

You MUST reply to Mrs Appleby’s Aviary email to secure a space, even if your child has been attending the Aviary Club previously, please do not assume your child has a place

You will be notified by email by Thursday 16^th July as to whether your child has a place, or is on the waiting list.  Please also check your junk/spam mail.  If you haven’t heard anything by this time, please do email Mrs Appleby to check.  We are hopeful that we will be able to accommodate the vast majority of children and will do our very best to make this possible.

If you have any queries about the Aviary Club, please email: theaviary@russell-lower.co.uk.  This will put you in direct contact with Mrs Appleby who administers everything to do with the Club

Other key information:

School will start at either 8:40, 8:50 or 9am.  It will finish at either 3:10, 3:20 or 3:30pm Monday to Friday, to enable staggering.

School will NO LONGER close on Friday after lunch as staff can now move between bubbles to provide cover and PPA.

A full school meals menu will resume.  For most year groups (Y1 to Y4), lunches will be eaten in the classroom, not the dining hall.  Alternatively, as always, your child can continue to bring their own packed lunch from home.  Our new Foundation Stage children will eat in the dining hall and will have their own class ‘bubble’ tables.  As before, meals that require paying for (Year 3 and Year 4) will be paid via Parent Pay.  New parents, and New Intake Parents (new Foundation Stage) will be sent Parent Pay log in details once their child is officially on roll in September.  This allows you to pay for anything school related.  Please be reminded that you will need to log in and activate this before it can be used.

Children will be expected to wear school uniform as usual please. Uniforms do not need to be cleaned any more often than usual, nor do they need to be cleaned using methods which are different from normal.

Parents will be notified by a further letter next week, about more details such as what time their class start/finish school, how to get in touch, which gates to use, where to drop off etc.  Don’t forget there are also the Class Welcome videos coming to the Kids Area of the website next week.

Bags, reading books and reading diaries etc. can, from September, move freely between home and school

We totally understand that this will already be a time of high anxiety for you and the children, and by not being able to come into the school and chat to the teacher, will only make this harder for everyone.  I can assure you that all the staff at Russell are excellent, and your child will be really looked after and supported in their new class bubble.  We will also be continuing with the class email address to facilitate direct contact with the class teacher.  These are all in the same format doveclass@russell-lower.co.uk (please substitute your child’s class at the beginning – no capitals, no spaces, no plural i.e. dove/penguin not doves/penguins). 

Safety – Covid-19 specific actions

We have a duty to ensure that parents/carers and staff understand that they will need to be ready and willing to:

book a test if they are displaying symptoms. Staff and pupils must not come into the school if they have symptoms, and must be sent home to self-isolate if they develop them in school. All children can be tested, including children under 5, but children aged 11 and under will need to be helped by their parents/carers if using a home testing kit

provide details of anyone they have been in close contact with if they were to test positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) or if asked by NHS Test & Trace

self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone who develops coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms or someone who tests positive for coronavirus (COVID-19)

Anyone who displays symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) can and should get a test. Tests can be booked online through the NHS testing and tracing for coronavirus website, or ordered by telephone via NHS 119 for those without access to the internet.

Parents and staff should inform school immediately of the results of a test:

if someone tests negative, if they feel well and no longer have symptoms similar to coronavirus (COVID-19), they can stop self-isolating. They could still have another virus, such as a cold or flu – in which case it is still best to avoid contact with other people until they are better. Other members of their household can stop self-isolating.

if someone tests positive, they should follow the ‘stay at home: guidance for households with possible or confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection’ and must continue to self-isolate for at least 7 days from the onset of their symptoms and then return to school only if they do not have symptoms other than cough or loss of sense of smell/taste. This is because a cough or anosmia can last for several weeks once the infection has gone. The 7-day period starts from the day when they first became ill. If they still have a high temperature, they should keep self-isolating until their temperature returns to normal. Other members of their household should continue self-isolating for the full 14 days.

Regrettably, again this does mean that we may need to close a whole bubble at very short notice and send the children home.  Thankfully we have not needed to do this at all yet, but it remains highly likely that we will have to do this at some point, and parents will need to be ready to collect children very quickly please.

Attendance

As you may have read in the press, from September, the government has made it clear that they expect all children to return to school full time.  Now the circumstances have changed; it is vital for all children to return to school to minimise as far as possible the longer-term impact of the pandemic on children’s education, wellbeing and wider development.  Missing out on more time in the classroom risks pupils falling further behind. It is very well evidenced that those children with higher overall absence tend to achieve less well in both primary and secondary school. School attendance will therefore be mandatory again from the beginning of the autumn term. This means from that point, the usual rules on school attendance will apply, including:

parents’ duty to secure that their child attends regularly at school where the child is a registered pupil at school and they are of compulsory school age;

schools’ responsibilities to record attendance and follow up absence

the availability to issue sanctions, including fixed penalty notices in line with local authorities’ codes of conduct

Obviously, if you have any concerns about this, please do contact us and we will work with you to allay any fears or concerns you have.

Well being

The Department for Education is providing additional support for both pupil and staff wellbeing in the current situation. Information about the extra mental health support for pupils and teachers is available using this hyperlink.

Home learning

Please note that Mrs Brown has put the Foundation Stage Spellings and Sight Word lists on the school website as some parents have requested these for use now, and over the summer.  These are now on the Kids Area – Foundation Stage – Reading Sets (Sight Words) - Spelling Sets.  These might also be useful for our new intake Foundation Stage parents, Year 1 parents and Year 2 parents.

Next week our ‘Russell Summer Challenge’ will be out for your child to have a go at over the summer, if you would like to.

Next steps

I will be in touch with you again next week, giving you more detailed information about returning to school and your child’s class bubble.   Please continue to be patient whilst we work out detailed operational plans, as I am sure many more of your questions will be answered in the next letter.  Thank you.

To everyone, a really HUGE thank you for your on-going patience and understanding.  It continues to be the most challenging of times, but the safety and well-being of our children, parents and staff are paramount.  This must always be our first concern.

If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch using the office@russell-lower.co.uk address. 

Stay safe and well everyone.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Nicki Walker

Headteacher

25^th June 2020

Keeping in touch 12

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this latest letter finds you all well and enjoying the heatwave.  There is always something!

Current position

As you will all know, there have been further ‘relaxations of the lockdown’ announced by the Prime Minister this week.  Although the new 1m+ social distancing sounds like it might change things significantly in schools, the other guidance around schools (such as consistent bubbles of 15) has not.  This means that nothing has really changed in terms of the school position this term.  We would also like to continue with all the 2m safety measures we have put in place around the school and the site as these are working well in terms of keeping all of us safe.

You will also know that the Prime Minister has said that the government intends for all children, in all year groups to return to school, full time, in September.  This is the basis that Russell is working on too. 

Farewells and Transition

Teachers have begun making their ‘End of Year’ consultation phone calls home.  If you have not received one of these yet, please do not worry as they will take us until the end of term to complete given the need to staff our bubbles too.  If you feel you need a call more urgently, please do let us know and we will call you sooner rather than later.

Teachers are also busy making their ‘Class Welcome Message’.  These video clips will be available to aid transition in the final week of term.

Our first transition on the field event will take place on Monday 29^th June, with Year 2 children invited back to join us on the school field in the new Year 3 bubbles.  Thank you to the enormous amount of you who have already confirmed that your child will be able to join us using the Google Form.  If you have not already let us know, could you please complete this form as soon as possible as we will follow up anyone we have not heard from.  All the Year 2 and Year 3 teachers cannot wait to see all the children again – and even the weather is looking favourable!

The following week (w/c 6^th July), we will be holding transition events for our Year 3 children and our Foundation Stage and Year 1 children.  More information about these will follow next week in specific ‘Transition Event’ letters.

In the final week of term (w/c 13^th July), we will be holding our ‘Return to Russell’ days for our Year 4 leavers.  We have already asked Year 5 Alameda staff if they can join us, and are desperately looking forward to seeing all the children again.  Again, there will be a separate letter with all the details you need regarding this event over the coming week or so.

As I have said before, we only wish we could offer your children much more, but due to all the safety guidance and local conditions, we still cannot relax any measures.  We will also have to hope this settled weather holds out for us.

For all the ‘events’ or ‘sessions’ mentioned above, we will write to you nearer the time with more details and ask you to confirm, one way or the other, whether you intend to send your child in to Russell to take up this opportunity.  Again, this must be entirely your own free choice.

Classes and teachers for September 2020

The planned transition events will enable the children to meet their new teachers.  We know that this is a very exciting, but also a very anxious time.  Please do try not to worry.  All the teachers at Russell are superb (I know I am biased!) and your children are more resilient than we give them credit for.  The teachers will do their very best to support an effective and smooth transition, even in the challenging circumstances.  The grid below sets out which class will be taught by which teachers:

FS - Swans Mrs Brown – new class	FS - Doves Mrs Hale – new class	FS - Swifts  Mrs Moore – new class	Y1 - Owls  Mrs Milligan – receiving Swan Class	Y1 - Puffins  Mrs Cox -receiving Swift Class	Y1 - Wrens Mrs Jochacy and Mrs Rogers-receiving Dove Class
Y2 - Greenfinch  Mrs Johnson- receiving Owl Class	Y2 – Penguins Miss Sensoy -receiving Wren Class	Y2 - Robins Mrs Hitchings receiving Puffin Class	Y3 - Goldfinch Miss Walker - new class	Y3 - Blackbirds Mr Syrett - new class	Y3 – Nightingales Miss Thompson -   new class
Y4 -Woodpeckers Miss Rawlings -receiving Blackbird Class	Y4 - Kingfisher Mrs Tuck - receiving Goldfinch Class	Y4 – Starling Mrs Moffat – receiving Nightingale Class

All the teachers met with each other (socially distanced of course!) on Monday evening to further their transition conversations.  Both Miss Sensoy and Mrs Rogers (our new members of staff) also joined us, and are fully up to speed already.  They are excited and looking forward to joining the Russell team.

The summer holidays

School has been open for longer than any other school year this year.  Russell has provided on-going Key Worker provision since March, only closing for 4 days over Easter.  In that period, we have been open for more than 4 weeks longer than some other local schools.  As a result, our site staff, cleaners, office staff, teaching assistants, teachers and leadership team have worked incredibly hard and need the planned summer holiday to both have time with their families, rest and prepare for the next academic year, which in itself will provide many challenges.  I know that many of you will be wondering if there is going to be any ‘summer school’ or catch up planned over the summer at Russell and I want to be incredibly honest and upfront with you and let you know that school will only be providing a ‘pay as you go’ summer camp provided by our sports and PE partners Premier Sport for the first 3 weeks of the school holiday, after this the site will be closed.  This will enable everyone to come back refreshed and ready in the autumn term.  We are already formulating ‘catch up’ plans with governors, and these will be implemented with fresh energy in the autumn.  Please do not think the children will miss out.  Thank you for your support with this.  We really do appreciate it.

We are busy planning a simple ‘Russell Summer Challenge’ over the holidays, which will be purely optional, but will also hopefully provide you with some really rewarding shared activity ideas to continue ‘learning’ in the broadest sense of the word.  Watch this space!

I attach a copy of the 2020/21 academic year calendar which I sent out earlier this year again for your reference.

Reading and Library Book Plea

As you will be aware, with the speed of closure in March, many of the children still had Russell reading and library books (either colour banded or Accelerated Reader - number coded, inside front cover).  We desperately need these books returning to us please, or our shelves will be empty in September!  There will be ‘Book Drop Boxes’ at all of our transition events and up by the main foyer (a box under a table outside the school office) from Monday next week.  Could you please return them to us?  Thank you so much.

Bringing things into school and taking things home

As you will be aware, we must minimise the number of items coming into school and going home to you.  This is to minimise cross-contamination and is why we cannot have reading books and diaries going between the two.  For this reason, I must ask you NOT to send bags into school with the children please.  Although caps (if required), sun cream (if required), water bottles, snack pots and lunchboxes are needed, can we please request that these are not put into bags that come into school.  You are welcome to bring the items to school in the bag, but remove the items and give them to your child before they enter the classroom.  I know this may feel like a lot of items for tiny hands to carry, but it is a part of the very careful risk assessment that we had to complete prior to opening and must insist that is adhered to please.  Thank you for your support with this.

As you know, we do not routinely send things home to you any more – which is such a shame and the children produce some lovely work which now adorns their classrooms!  However, we will be sending your child’s school books home to you in one ‘pack’ at some point later this term.  These packs will be Covid-secure as staff will have packaged them and left them for 3 days to ensure there is no risk of cross-contamination.

Home learning

Thank you for the enormous efforts you are making with your home learning.  There is some phenomenal work coming in via email.  We couldn’t be prouder of everything you are all achieving under incredibly difficult circumstances.  Please do continue to use the resources that are available.  For example, Mrs Hale’s phonics videos and Foundation Stage learning is often getting very few views now.  We are delighted that so many children are in school now (almost 90%), but please don’t forget the resources are there, and keep learning going right up to the summer holidays if you possibly can.  Thank you SO much.

E Safety, Games/Apps and devices

We know that, especially during the lockdown period, there will have been a lot of pressure on parents to let children have ‘screen time’.  Equally, we know that children want to play games and on sites/Apps that are too old for them.  Fortnite and Tik Tok are two that come up regularly.

The UK’s Chief Medical Officer has provided advice on screen time. Here are a few of the tips to help your children strike a balance:

• Sleep matters Getting enough good quality sleep is very important. Leave phones outside the bedroom when it is bedtime.
• Sharing sensibly Talk about sharing photos and information online and how photos and words are sometimes manipulated. Parents and carers should never assume that children are happy for their photos to be shared. For everyone – when in doubt, don’t upload!
• Talking helps Talk with children about using screens and what they are watching. A change in behaviour can be a sign they are distressed – make sure they know they can always speak to you or another responsible adult if they feel uncomfortable with screen or social media use.
• Keep moving! Everyone should take a break after a couple of hours sitting or lying down using a screen. It’s good to get up and move about a bit.
• Family time together Screen-free meal times are a good idea – you can enjoy face-to-face conversation, with adults giving their full attention to children.
• Use helpful phone features Some devices and platforms have special features – try using these features to keep track of how much time you (and with their permission, your children) spend looking at screens or on social media.

To ensure your children are safe, try and make use of parental controls

• If you have downloaded new apps or bought new devices like web cams or tablets, remember to adjust the privacy and security settings to suit you.
• There is technology to help you manage the content your children can access:
• Government has encouraged Internet Service Providers to help parents easily filter content. Switch on family friendly filters to help prevent age inappropriate content being accessed on devices in your home.
• Parental controls put you in control of what your child can see. Internet Matters has step by step guides on how to set these up.

And finally…

As before, I will continue to write to you at some point each week and keep you up to date with any developments and all of our transition events, but equally do feel able to get in touch with any queries.

Take care and stay well.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Nicki Walker

Headteacher

 

• Oak Academy_FAQs - Primary parents and pupils.docx
• Parenting under pressure.pdf
• NASP_COVID-19 Parental Resource_UPDATED.pdf

21^st May 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

Keeping in Touch – 8

More information about the wider opening of Russell Lower School on 1^st June

I hope this letter finds you all safe, well and continuing to cope in these extraordinary times.

Firstly, I want to apologise for the time taken to get this letter out to you.  You will have seen in the national media that schools’ gradual reopening is a hugely contentious topic and one which has caused much debate.  As a result, guidance from the DfE and others has been, and continues to be, constantly changing making it incredibly difficult to set any plans in stone.  Russell can still only plan to reopen to our Foundation Stage (Dove, Swift and Swan Classes) and our Year 1 (Owl, Wren and Puffin) children on 1^st June, if the government decides it is safe at that time, and even then, we will keep this under constant review.

Since I last wrote to you, the teachers, support staff and governors have been working tirelessly to maintain home learning, keep in contact with our families, run our closure provision for key workers, digest and implement the DfE guidance, seek to find answers to our numerous questions, assess and mitigate risks and plan all the actions required to ensure that school is as safe as it can be. 

School will look very different to the children when they are able to return to school.  We are making some very significant alterations to the way we are doing things in order to minimise any possible transmission.  We greatly appreciate your support during this very difficult period of time.

 

Infection control measures

At all times, we will be adhering to the government’s guidance.  Our infection control and protective measures will be based on the government’s 5 key approaches to minimising transmission in schools: anyone with Covid symptoms, or who lives with someone with symptoms, must not attend school; frequent handwashing protocols; good respiratory hygiene (catch it, kill it, bin it); frequent cleaning of ‘high contact’ surfaces and areas through the day and creating ‘safe bubbles’ in school, where smaller groups of children create a bubble and, via staggered lunches, play zones etc. minimise wider contact.

This will lead to more specific safety routines, such as comprehensive cleaning regimes, timetabled handwashing, staggered playtimes in set zones, parents being asked to enter school through a specific gate, drop children at a particular classroom door and not enter the building, capping class sizes at 15, seating children at individual rather than group desks and staggering the beginning and end of the day times to reduce crowding.  Classroom will look very different, with minimal furniture and resources.

As a result of the requirements, you will realise that not all children will be able to stay in their own classroom, or be with their own teachers and teaching assistants.  Lots of things will need to change to comply with the guidance.  Equally, we will adapt the curriculum so that we are prioritising ‘settling in’ and reducing anxiety activities, building in time for handwashing etc. and ensuring we minimise resources needed (and therefore reduce any possible sharing).

Significant social distancing measures will be put in place, but the government has made it clear that ‘early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff’.  Whilst it is great that the government is being very realistic, it does mean that I cannot guarantee that such young children will be able to comply with social distancing requirements.

A key principle of the method is that ‘bubbles’ must remain consistent.  Children should not be moving between bubbles and staff should be as consistent as possible.  This requirement will mean that, unfortunately, we will be unable to provide our normal Breakfast/Before School Club provision, or our After School provision for the time being. 

I realise that these changes are hugely inconvenient and highly undesirable, but we must adhere to the guidance to ensure everyone’s safety, and can only apologise.

Other key information:

• School will start at either 8:40, 8:50 or 9am.  It will finish at either 3:10, 3:20 or 3:30pm Monday to Thursday, to enable staggering
• School will close on Friday after lunch (to all but key workers) at either 1pm, 1:10pm or 1:20pm – this will enable teachers to plan lessons, plan home learning for year groups not at school, make contact with parents and children in Years 2, 3 and 4 and clean resources, it also means we can avoid swapping ‘cover’ staff in which would increase the risk of infection
• School meals will continue to be provided, but will be limited to a school packed lunch or a hot jacket potato (variety of fillings offered).  As before, these can be ordered on the day at morning registration and will be covered under infant free school meals for children in FS and Y1.  Lunches will be eaten in the classroom, not dining hall.  Alternatively, your child can continue to bring their own packed lunch from home
• We will be unable to run any extra-curricular clubs until further notice
• Children will be expected to wear school uniform as usual please

• As Foundation Stage and Year 1 teachers will now be teaching full time, they will be unable to continue to provide the home learning packs that we have been producing weekly.  We strongly encourage all children in FS and Year 1 to attend school, but if you choose to keep your child at home we would ask you to use the resources produced by Oak Academy or BBC Bitesize instead of the Russell home learning packs from 1^st June onwards please.  The teachers will simply not have enough time to do both
• Parents of Foundation Stage and Year 1 children will be notified by a further letter next week (during half term) which ‘bubble’ they are in, which adults are with them, what time they start/finish school, how to get in touch etc.  We also hope to get a ‘welcome back’ video out to the children via email.

 

Splitting the classes was done totally fairly, by taking register order and halving.  I am afraid, due to the already highly complex nature of all these arrangements, we will not be able alter your child’s ‘bubble’.

We totally understand that this will already be a time of high anxiety for you and the children, and by not being able to come into their own class and teacher will only make this harder for everyone.  Believe me, if there was anything we could do to avoid it, we would.  I can assure you that all the staff at Russell are excellent, and your child will be really looked after and supported in their new bubble.

As I said in my previous letter, the government would like to strongly encourage parents of children in returning year groups, to send their children into school.  Getting back to school in some form before the summer will enormously support children’s mental well-being, social skills and academic progress.  However, the government has made it clear that there will not be any penalties at this stage for non-attendance.  For the time being, the school’s usual attendance policy (including the use of fines) will not be used.  If you do send your child back into school from 1^st June we would expect consistent attendance please, only being absent for any illness.

Key worker provision

We will be continuing to provide Key Worker places for essential front line workers, as the government has requested.  This will continue to be Monday to Friday, all day.  If you feel you now require a key worker place, please contact the school office as soon as possible as we do have to cap places at 15 per bubble, as per government guidance.

 

What about Year 2, 3 and 4?

As you will already know, the government’s published ambition is to bring back all primary aged children for at least some time before the summer holidays, again, as long as it is safe to do so.    The government have not shared with us how they think this will be possible.

The local authority continues to lobby central government to see if bringing Year 4 children into school sooner is possible.  Since I last wrote to you a week ago, there have been several virtual meetings between Russell and Alameda staff, and a transition letter and time line is due out to Year 4 parents today.

I am deeply saddened by the fact that we do not have our whole school community together yet, but know that it is completely impossible at this time, whilst the measures outline above are still necessary. We do understand what difficulties this is causing for families, and we are aware of the huge sacrifices that you have already made.  We miss everyone very much and just want to get ‘back to normal’, but, like other schools, we just cannot do this yet.

Thank you for continuing to support your children’s learning from home.  This will make an enormous difference to their confidence levels when they do return.  After everyone has had a rest over half term, please continue to do everything you can to keep learning going at home using the Russell home learning packs, our ‘Kids Area’ of the website, Oak Academy lessons and resources and BBC Bitesize resources.  It is even more frustrating for our other year groups now that all our teachers will be teaching all week, so they will have very little time to prepare their home learning packs, reply to emails etc.  Every single teacher is determined to find the time to provide these things for you and your children, but please bear with us as we will be very stretched from 1^st June onwards.

Next steps

FS and Year 1

I will be in touch with you again next week (during half term), giving you much more detailed information about returning to school and your child’s bubble.  The government should make a final decision about whether it is safe to return to school by Friday 29^th May.  Please look out for an email from us around this time as there may be further announcements that we need to respond to.

In the meantime, a message from Mrs Brown to all FS parents:

Thank you for using the home learning packs and your own creative ideas to support your children’s learning at home. Tapestry has been an invaluable tool for keeping in touch during this challenging time and it has been a wonderful way to engage with the children and see what they have been learning at home. Now that Foundation Stage children are expected to be in school, staff will no longer comment on Tapestry posts but will add WOW moments to your child’s journal. If your child is not attending school, please continue to use Oxford Owl reading books and Oak Academy

Maths resources, as staff will no longer be able to provide video resources for use at home.

 

Years 2, 3 and 4

Thank you for all your support from home.  Please bear with us while we adapt to the new school environment – particularly week commencing 1^st June.  I will write to you again during week commencing 1^st June, with more details of transition arrangements (between years and schools), and with other updates.

To everyone, thank you for your on-going patience and understanding.  It continues to be the most challenging of times, but the safety and well-being of our children, parents and staff are paramount.  This must always be our first concern.

School continues to remain open throughout the half term, so although I cannot yet answer any detailed questions about FS and Y1, if you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch using the office@russell-lower.co.uk address. 

I hope you have a lovely half term break next week.  Stay safe and well everyone.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Nicki Walker

Headteacher

14^th May 2020

Keeping in Touch – 7

Planned reopening of schools to some year groups from 1^st June

Dear Parents/Carers, 

I hope this letter finds you all safe and well.  Thank you for all your comments and feedback from our staff video ‘We’re all in this together’ which came out on Monday.  Truth be told, we all enjoyed ourselves a little bit too much producing it!  Our thanks go to Mrs Tuck and her daughter Malaika who were the technical whizzes behind it.  We have been very impressed with some of the videos, pictures, photos and emails that you have been sending in to us too – what a creative and clever bunch you all are!

Thank you for your patience in waiting for me to get back to you following the government’s latest announcement.  You will have seen in the national news that schools plan to reopen in some form from 1^st June to nursery, reception (Foundation Stage), Year 1 and Year 6 pupils if the government thinks it is safe at that time. 

The government has made it clear that these are the only year groups it plans to bring back to school at this time, regardless of the school system (i.e. 3 tier with transition points in Year 4 and Year 8).  However, the government’s ambition will be to bring back all primary aged children for at least some time before the summer holidays, again, as long as it is safe to do so.  Ensuring your child has a successful transition to their next school remains a key priority for us. The local authority is also lobbying central government to see if bringing those year groups (Y4 and Y8) into school sooner if possible.  I will keep you informed.

I know that it is a very unsettling time, but rest assured, we are doing everything we can to make sure it is calm and safe for school to reopen in the coming weeks. This includes working very closely with the DfE, the local authority, unions and FARM schools (Firs, Alameda, Russell and Maulden) to ensure safety, consistency and fairness for all our families and children.

The FARM schools are now at the stage of creating detailed plans that we will share with you next week, so you know what the school’s reopening will look like in practice and how we plan to make it as safe as is possible for everyone.   Thank you for bearing with us; we are being asked to do something that has never been done before and for which there is no blueprint.

Plans will include key changes:                            

• Limiting class sizes
• Staggering break times, and pick-up and drop-off times
• Changes to timetables
• Increased cleaning regimes

As with the government’s ‘tiny tweaks and ultimate caution’ approach to coming out of lockdown, please do not expect that it will be ‘normal’ school if we are able to return from 1^st June.  We need to set up plans and timetables in order to accommodate everyone safely in much smaller classes, continue with key worker provision and ensure we can still expand to bring in more year groups in the near future.

The government would like to strongly encourage parents of children in returning year groups (YN, YR, Y1, Y6) to send their children into school.  Getting back to school in some form before the summer will enormously support children’s mental well-being, social skills and academic progress.  However, the government has made it clear that there will not be any penalties at this stage for non-attendance.  For the time being, the school’s usual attendance policy (including the use of fines) will not be used.

In the meantime, school is still open only for vulnerable pupils and the children of critical key workers. We know some employers will be encouraging you to return to work, but we are not currently in a position to extend places to other children until we receive further government guidance.

I would like to thank you for your continued support in helping your child learn from home, and for the creative ways you have all found to keep in touch with us – and each other. You have been truly remarkable!

I will be in touch with you again next week, giving you more detailed information about what returning to school will ‘look’ like.  I will also keep you updated when we know more about reopening for other year groups.  Again, if I can plea for your support in not contacting us with the understandable myriad of questions you must have at this time, we would really appreciate it.  We simply do not know all the answers yet and promise to contact you as soon as we do.

If your child is in one of the year groups that is not hoping to return to school from 1^st June, we will continue to provide you with home learning, and free school meal support, for those eligible, in the usual way.

Thank you for your on-going patience and understanding.  We really are ‘All in this together’, and enormously value and appreciate your support at such a challenging time for everyone.  Of course, if you have any urgent questions or queries about other things, please do not hesitate to get in touch using the office@russell-lower.co.uk address. 

Stay safe and well everyone.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Nicki Walker

Headteacher

• Keeping in touch letter 5 4_5_20.docx

• Keeping in touch_3_21st April_final.docx

• Keeping In Touch Letter 2.docx

 20^th March 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

Temporary Closure of Russell Lower School

It is with much regret, that we are closing our doors to most of our wonderful children today.  These are certainly strange times!

I want to take a moment to thank you all for your incredible support, encouragement and understanding over the last few weeks.  It has been unbelievably challenging, but the flood of emails, notes, telephone messages and even gifts thanking us has really kept us going.  I cannot thank you all enough.  Yet again, the Russell community has pulled together and shown everyone what it is made of!

We are going to miss the children terribly, but we know that home, with their grown-ups, is the safest place for them.

We will continue to be in school, so do contact us with any issues – big or small.  We are here to help. 01525 755664 or office@russell-lower.co.uk

The whole of the Russell Staff send you all our very best wishes.  Look after each other, try to keep learning and stay well.

We will be in touch (hopefully soon), to let you know when it is possible to safely re-open school.  In the meantime, do use the website to keep you up-to-date.

By the middle of next week, I am sure we will all be adapting to our ‘new normal’. We are a versatile and resilient bunch!

Thank you so much again.  Your on-going support has been invaluable.

Take good care.

King regards and many thanks,

 

Nicki Walker

Headteacher

18th March 2020

Dear Parents and Carers, 

As time passes, increasing numbers of children are involved in household self-isolation and consequently missing school.

We know that school attendance is the single biggest factor in pupil achievement, so we know this will have a big impact.  If you and your child feel well enough, continuing with a little learning each day will really help us get off to a flying start when everyone returns.

We plan to send every child home with a simple, year group specific ‘Home Learning Pack’ that the teachers are currently preparing.  If school has to close, we will send the packs home on this day with the children.  If you are already self-isolating, we will email the packs home as soon as they are ready.

In addition we have set up the following:

On the school website (Kids area tab) you will find:

1)    Links to our recommended educational sites (also below)

2)    Year Group folders with Maths, English and Themed tasks in word format for your child to complete from home.  These will be placed on the website daily following any whole school closure

3)    Key Performance Indicators in each year group folder which helps parents understand the end of year ‘targets’ for their children

As well as using these resources we would strongly recommend daily reading (with recording in diary), completion of learning logs, use of TT Rockstars/Hit the button and writing a daily diary.  We know that keeping these ‘core’ skills going with really support on-going progress.

Although we cannot insist that you complete some school work with your children whilst you are at home, we can tell you that the evidence, where this happens ‘little and often’, is overwhelmingly positive.  Thank you so much in advance!

If you would like to bring in completed work when we return to school, teachers will then look at it.

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2-games.html

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://www.tutordoctor.co.uk/blog/2016/january/top-5-educational-websites-for-primary-school-ch/

https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html#.VpP5hDZH3zI

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/    (Natural History Museum)

https://www.brainpop.com/health/

https://www.educationcity.com/free-resources/

https://www.funbrain.com/

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/

https://www.shaunsgameacademy.co.uk/

https://teach.starfall.com/lv/

https://www.learninggamesforkids.com/

https://www.funology.com/

https://www.boomerangtv.co.uk/

https://pbskids.org/

https://www.makemegenius.com/

 

We also subscribe to Espresso learning.  To find out more about how to access this please follow the link in the 'kids area' tab. 

If you would like to know even more information about your child’s learning, do have a look at our ‘Curriculum’ tab on our website: www.russell-lower.co.uk

Thank you for your on-going support.  We know that if the children continue to learn a little every day they will be in the best possible position when they come back to school.

Yours sincerely,

Nicki Walker

Headteacher

• Parental Letter Cornavirus_16_3_20.docx