Treeton Church of England Primary School,

Telephone No: 0114 269 2677  e mail:  enquiries@tp.dsat.education

Website: www.treetoncofe.co.uk       Headteacher ~ Mrs D H Ball  

May 13, 2020

Dear Parents

We are sure you have seen or heard by now that the government is hoping for some year groups to return to school in June if it is safe at that time to do so. The year groups that we are being asked to plan for are our nursery children, Reception children, year one and year six children. This is in addition to the children of critical workers who have had access to the provision since lockdown.

The government has set out what schools need to consider in relation to social distancing, which include among other things having fewer pupils in school, staggered lunches and breaks, plus having staggered times for different groups to arrive and leave school.  It includes too some advice about how we protect the most clinically vulnerable, and which groups of children and staff need to stay at home. Behind the scenes, we are busy working out how many staff will still be able to attend the setting (some are in this clinically vulnerable group), how many classrooms we need to manage groups of up to 15 and how many staff we need to teach the pupils.

We need to be very clear that social distancing is not possible in a school.  We will be following the government guidance closely and will let you know nearer the time what measures we are putting in place once we reopen. 

It is also worth noting that, once year groups return, it will not be ‘normal’ school. The guidance states that children will need to be grouped in smaller sets of no more than 15 and will not mix with other pupil groups.  This means that it is not necessarily the case that your children will return to their usual teacher, their usual classroom or see all their friends.

To help us plan a possible reopening, we need an indication of how many of you are planning on sending your child back to school this summer if school reopens for your child. To this end, please complete this survey on our website: survey Monkey’:  Link here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/B78R5BQ

Please complete this as soon as possible so we can group children and organise staffing.

The government recognises that some of you will prefer to continue to keep your children at home, since you know your children and personal situation best - and therefore has confirmed that absence rates will not be tracked and fixed notice penalties not issued for non-attendance.

The government have advised that if we are not able to open for all of the 4 year groups listed above (due for example to staffing issues) we should prioritise opening for the youngest children first.

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

We will be in touch soon once we have analysed your responses and have been able to draw up our plans to open school safely.

With kindest regards

Mrs D Ball

Headteacher