From Monday, the children will be separated into ‘pods’. If a child has been allocated a place, parents will have received a letter explaining which pod their child is in. Children will not mix with children from other pods within school. At the moment the pods have 6-7 children in each (although not all children will be in every day based on work patterns). As time goes on the pods may expand, but will not be greater than 15 children. If the pod numbers go above 7 the children will be split into 2 classrooms, each with an adult in, but the children will play together as a pod at break and lunchtimes.

Unfortunately, due to the logistics of this arrangement, the children may not be in their normal classroom or with their normal teacher. The classrooms will also look quite different as much of the unnecessary furniture and resources have been removed to make them safer and easier to clean (see the photos above).

Uniform

We understand that lots of children will have grown over the last bit of time, and so uniform might no longer fit (and we don't want parents buying new uniform which they might also have outgrown by September). We also understand that (whilst it isn't in the guidance we've had) some parents might wish to wash their children's clothes when they return from school. Some children will be wearing uniform but lots won't, and there won't be any pressure to wear it if parents choose not to.

Before School Restarts

Before they return to school, the children need to be prepared for the fact that things will be quite different. They need to understand about:

• the importance of washing their hands regularly and properly (they will have training in school on this too).
• trying to remain 2m apart from other people.
• the importance of not mixing with children from other pods. This will be extremely important, particularly at the start and end of the day.

We cannot guarantee that the children will remain socially distanced within their own pod, but in order to avoid cross contamination they must not have contact with children from other pods (unless they are family members).

Each morning children need to be checked to ensure that they don't show symptoms of Covid-19:

• a high temperature – above 37.8 degrees.
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

If they have any of these symptoms please do not bring them into school and follow the self-isolation guidance.

Start of the Day

At the beginning of the day, parents can come onto site from 8:30. Please respect social distancing when entering and leaving site, and when you are waiting for school to open. Please go straight to the waiting or drop off areas. Rubber markers / painted spots on the grass indicate safe distances to stand.

For drop off parents have 2 options:

1. Waiting with their child in the allocated pod waiting area. Children will be collected from this area by the adult supervising them, and taken inside to wash their hands.

1. From 8:30-8:45 there will be a ‘drop off area’ allocated for each pod, near the football goals on the field. Parents can leave their child in this area, which will be supervised by a member of staff. They will then be collected from this area by the adult supervising them, and taken inside to wash their hands.

If parents have more than one child, they should leave the oldest child in the ‘drop off area’ and wait with the younger child in their waiting area.

Children can bring their own water bottle into school. Please do not send your child in with other unnecessary items from home.

Lunchtime

There will be no hot school dinners over the next bit of time in order to maintain the pods over lunchtime. Children who are entitled to Universal Free School meals will be provided with a packed lunch. Parents can pay for a school dinner as normal, however this will be a packed lunch. Children will eat outside whenever the weather is good enough. If the weather is not good enough they will eat their packed lunch in their classrooms. The children will then play with the other children from their pod in a designated area of the playground, which will be separate from the other pods.

End of the day

Children will leave school at the normal time. Parents should wait in the designated waiting area (the same as for the morning), whilst maintaining social distancing. Children will be brought out to that area of the playground. If parents have more than one child, they should collect the first and then go to the other child’s waiting area, again whilst maintaining social distancing. The member of staff will wait with your child until they come out. Please prevent children from interacting with children from siblings’ pods.

Future Weeks

Each week there will be a ‘booking form’ on the website in this section. If it has been agreed that you have a place, parents should you fill this in each week as early as possible, letting us know on which days in the following week their child will be in (even if they will not be in at all that week).

I know that these arrangements are slightly complicated, and school life will be very different for the children over the next bit of time. Thank you for working with us to make it as safe as we can for everyone.