Headteacher’s Letter – 03.03.21

3^rd March 2021

Dear parents and carers,

Further to my letter on 26th February, I write to you with more details about our reopening on Monday 8th March 2021. Parents and carers who have consented to their child being tested for Covid-19 on site will receive an additional, separate letter later this week, with details of those specific arrangements.

Attendance

Students return to school will be staggered from Monday 8^th March in order to allow for testing of students when they first return to school. Each year group will have their first test completed the day before they return to school. Details of the return date and testing dates for each year group are listed below:

Further instructions and timed testing slots will be specific for each year group and will be sent in a separate letter to all parents and carers.

From the date of your child’s return, school attendance is mandatory and our usual rules and procedures around attendance and punctuality will apply. The only exception to this is if your child is clinically extremely vulnerable and has a shielding letter, in which case the Head of Year should be informed. Clinically extremely vulnerable students should not attend school until further notice and teaching staff will continue to provide remote learning via Google Classroom.

Please remember it is vital that your child self-isolate and not attend school if they:

• have any of the coronavirus symptoms and/or have tested positive for Covid 19 in the last 10 days;
• live with someone who has any of the Covid 19 symptoms and/or has tested positive for coronavirus in the last 10 days;
• are a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid 19.

Further details in relation to self-isolation can be found on the NHS Website.

Health and Safety

The control measures we have had in place have been updated and are broadly similar to when we reopened in September. More details can be found in our Risk Assessment, which is on the school’s website and is updated regularly. However, a brief summary can be found below:

• ensuring where possible, year groups do not mix and remain in ‘bubbles’
• regularly reminding students about hygiene and social distancing
• increased and enhanced cleaning of toilets and touch points
• staggering start times, breaks, and lunches
• using specific entry and exit points for year groups
• encouraging hand sanitising between every lesson
• no parents and carers are allowed on site unless they have an appointment (most contact with home will continue to be via telephone)
• students will be offered two home test kits a week after the initial 3 tests taken on school site for those who have consented. These test kits will be distributed from 15^th March onwards.

Face Coverings

There is a new requirement that all students and staff must wear a face covering (not a visor or shield) when they are inside and cannot maintain a 2 metre distance from others. This new requirement includes time spent in lessons. The requirement does not include:

• students who are exempt from wearing a face covering;
• students when they are engaged in strenuous physical activity e.g. when participating in P.E lessons;

This requirement is being reviewed by the Department for Education during the Easter Holidays. A reminder that students’ face coverings should be appropriate and not contain logos or slogans.

Timings of the school day

These are as they were previously. We will be following the staggered timetable attached. For details of when break, lunch and individual lessons are please refer to your child’s year group on the attachment.

Expectations and Support

Lockdown has been a challenging period for everyone and we recognise that students and their families will have different and mixed emotions about the return to face to face education.

Structure, routine, certainty, and a return to ‘normality’ are in the best interests of all young people both academically but also, and more importantly, socially and emotionally. It is for this reason the school’s expectations will remain as they were before this lockdown.

The school has been working with Tower Hamlet Education Welfare Service (THEWS) for some time. We have developed support materials for students struggling with mental health issues and who have found lockdown challenging. Helpful resources and materials can be found on the school website (https://www.stepneyallsaints.school/for-parents/guidance-and-advice-for-parents/emotional-well-being​). The pastoral care of your child is of the utmost importance to us so if you think your child may struggle with the reopening of schools or may benefit from additional support when they return, please do not hesitate to discuss this with your child’s HOY in the first instance.

Finally, we would like to thank you for all your support both in helping your child learn from home these past two months and in preparing them to return from Monday 8th March. We will continue to keep in touch if we update our plans or if we need to make changes due to new government guidance.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Woods

Headteacher

• Download Headteacher letter 03.03.21attachment - Staggered Timetable
• Download Headteacher letter 03.03.21