Dear Parents and Carers

Although this school year will be remembered for the wrong reasons and it is sad that some of our school family have been adversely affected by the corona virus pandemic I would nevertheless like to thank you all for the support that you have given to your children and to the school. I would like to thank the teachers and support staff for the effort that they have put in to the year and in particular this summer term. We have tried our best to make school as enjoyable a place as is possible for those children that we were able to welcome back. It saddens me that I was unable to accommodate the remaining children and offer them a few weeks of school life before we closed for summer. You should be proud of the efforts that you have made to support your children particularly if they have been working from home and I am sure that they will soon pick up and carry on to enjoy success when they return in September.

As a school, although inundated with guidance on an almost daily basis we have tried to make our communications with you clear and helpful and I do hope that you find the latest school plans for opening in September equally so. The document is also available on the school app as well as parentmail and we have also added individual class time tables at the end for your information. Please note the drop off and pick up times as well as the school gates that apply to your child. We have worked closely with Green Park School to try to accommodate all of our children as safely as possible. Modelling of good social distancing will clearly be a help and we ask that you leave the school premises promptly. Please note Junior Children will go to their classes independently using the front school path. Unfortunately we are unable to allow parents access to the junior playground.

We are delighted to welcome back Miss Wood who is our Early Years Lead and she will be returning to take charge of our new reception class. I am pleased to be able to tell you that all our teachers will be in post this year and their year groups will remain the same as last year.

Much has been publicised about children catching up and filling gaps in their learning. Clearly this will be the case throughout the country with some areas struggling more than others. I am delighted to be able to tell you that due to prudent budgeting we are able to retain the services of Miss Cook who taught our reception class this school year. We have already organised and developed a time table were Miss Cook will be working across all year groups and particularly supporting our younger children with phonics, reading, writing and numeracy. We are both pleased and excited to be able to have the luxury of another highly effective teacher and I am confident that our children will benefit. We have also reorganised the layout of many of our classrooms to help to maximise the children's focus whilst minimising any transmission risks associated with this virus. Having regularly had 80 children attending school this has given us an excellent insight into how we will organise the school and I feel that the document that was sent to you on Friday should cover all aspects of our planned return.

We have been delighted with the way that the children have applied themselves in school and I see no reason why this should not continue when all children return on Thursday 3rd September. School is an extremely clean and tidy place and with your help and support I remain positive that we shall continue to be able to provide a broad and balanced curriculum as we gradually get the better of this virus.

There are still a number of school reports which can be collected from the school office. It simply remains for me to thank you all once again and wish you an enjoyable summer. I look forward to welcoming all the children back to school and continuing to do the very best we can to provide your child with the best education available.

Yours sincerely

Mr D MacAreavy - Headteacher