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• Letter Full Reopening of Schools - 8th March

  Mon 01 Mar 2021
  Our Lady of Lourdes R C Primary School,
  Rudgwick Drive, Bury, BL8 1YA
  Telephone Number: 0161 761 2026
  Email: olol@bury.gov.uk
  Executive Headteacher: Mrs J E Davies BEd
  Chair of Governors: Mr J Walsh
  At Our Lady of Lourdes, we follow in the footsteps of Jesus to love, learn and grow
  Love, Learn and Grow
  1 March 2021
  Dear Parents and Carers,
  Full reopening of schools – 8th March
  It is with great delight that I write to you to confirm the arrangements of all children returning to school on Monday 8th March. All the staff are excited to be welcoming all the children back to school.
  The systems of control that were in place before lockdown remain in place with the addition of staff carrying out lateral flow testing twice a week and also the use of face coverings in and around school for staff. Staff wear face coverings as they work in shared areas as well as walking around the school building. They do not wear them in their own classes.
  Below, I have listed the information you will need before returning to school on Monday. If you have any questions, please do contact the school office.
  STAGGERED START AND FINISH TIMES
  We will continue our system of staggered start and finish times and use of the one way system with the gates. The times have altered for some groups so please read the timings below carefully.
  Reception, Year 5 and Year 6 – 8.30am – 3.00pm
  Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 – 8.45am – 3.15pm
  It is important to stress that parents and carers should not stay on the playground or on the pavement outside school chatting, they need to drop off / pick up and leave as soon as possible. Face coverings must be worn on the playground unless you are exempt. Only one adult should be bringing or collecting children to reduce the number of people on the playground.
  SCHOOL UNIFORM
  Children will be expected to come to school in their full school uniform. If you are struggling with new school uniform, please speak to the office as we have a lot of donations of good quality uniform in school.
  On the day your child has PE, the children will be expected to come into school in their full PE kit for the day. This is to reduce the number of items children are bringing into school. Children do not bring their PE kit into school on other days unless they are doing an after school club. On the day your child has forest school, they should come into school in their forest school clothes with a change of dry clothes to go home in.
  SCHOOL EQUIPMENT
  We need to limit the items children bring in from home. Children on packed lunches can bring their lunch boxes to school. Children must bring in their own water bottle. Children should not bring in their own pencil cases, these will be provided. Children will bring home reading books from school and they will be thoroughly cleaned before resending them out to other children.
  ATTENDANCE
  The Government Guidelines state that attendance is mandatory from 8th March for all those who are eligible to return. If your child is unwell, you must inform the office immediately about your child’s illness and this will be recorded. If your child
  does become unwell with a new persistent cough or a high temperature, or has a loss of, or change in, their normal sense of taste or smell, they must stay at home and arrange a test to see if they have coronavirus. Communication between home and school is essential to enable school to carry out the appropriate measures in protecting all the children in school.
  The guidance on holidays in term time remains the same. The Headteacher cannot authorise holidays to be taken in term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
  REMOTE EDUCATION
  In the case that we have to close a class due to a positive case of coronavirus, remote education will be in place as it has been during lockdown. You will need to access Tapestry (reception) and Seesaw (year 1 – 6) to keep up to date with the online learning and communication from the class teacher.
  OLLIES BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL CLUB
  Ollies Before and After school club will remain closed on 8th March. This decision will be reviewed before Easter. Parents will be notified of any changes at the earliest opportunity. Please contact Ollies if you have any questions about this matter.
  EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
  We will not be reintroducing our extra-curricular activities timetable until the summer term.
  HOME TESTING KITS FOR PARENTS
  The Government announced this weekend that all households with children of school age can get 2 rapid COVID-19 tests per person per week. A new home ordering service is being launched today which will allow people to order lateral flow tests online and have them delivered to their home.
  This intervention is to help stop the spread of coronavirus. The more people in our community who carry out these tests will prevent the spread. Once we get further details for ordering your tests, we will forward this information on.
  THE CURRICULUM
  A lot of our parents who have been working at home with their children are concerned that their children will have fallen behind their peers who have been in school. Our school priority is to focus on those children who have been at home during lockdown. The children have had excellent teaching and learning through remote learning but we recognise that working at home for some children is not the same as when they are in school. We will be using the next few weeks to recap on work covered to ensure children do not have any gaps in their learning. Our journey to excellence will continue with our learning and teaching. Parents and carers will have the opportunity to discuss their concerns at their child’s parents evening in the week of 15th March.
  THANK YOU
  As I have communicated before with parents and carers, on behalf of all the staff in school, I cannot thank you enough for your ongoing support and commitment to your child’s education. It has been an extremely difficult year for everyone but we have got through it working together as a team.
  I look forward to seeing all the children in school on Monday.
  Kind regards,
  JE Davies
  Mrs J.E. Davies
  Executive Headteacher