02. School reopening arrangements

Start dates:

Getting to school

We have a very small catchment area so we hope everyone will continue to walk, cycle or scoot to school. Children will be able to leave their bikes and scooters on the school site but we continue to be able to accept no responsibility for these. Using a sustainable form of travel has always been important to us and looking after our environment is as important as ever.  For those very few families who do have to travel further, please look at the TFL site to plan your journey. A link to safe use of public transport guidance is available on our website. We politely ask that no parents drive to school and certainly do not enter Cross Street. Your support in ensuring the area around the school entrances remains as free as possible will be greatly appreciated by all.

Drop off arrangements:

To ensure that we minimise opportunities for contamination, we have put several measures in place.  Unfortunately, these measures include minimising those coming onto site.  This includes parents – which we are very sad about as we love to see you at the start and end of the day. We will have staff outside on each of the gates to welcome everyone into school, but we appreciate this will not be the same as seeing your class teacher each morning. 

Below is a table with start times.  Please adhere to these times. We have had to stagger the start to the day to minimise the number of people around the school gates. Please drop your children at their respective gate as quickly as possible and then vacate the area so that there is no gathering around the school entrances.  Please remain socially distanced using the markings provided. We are very lucky to have so many entrances and this will ease our drop off and pick up arrangements. Where siblings have different start times, please move swiftly between the drop off times.

On entering the site all children will be given hand sanitiser to clean their hands.  The members of staff will do this as they greet the .

Pick up arrangements

Please remain socially distanced using the markings provided and leave the area as soon as you have collected your child / children.

Timetable

Learning, Love and Laughter will go hand in hand with a recovery and wellbeing.  We have put careful plans in place to ensure that we can continue to offer a broad and balanced curriculum.  Your children will work in class bubbles during lesson time and year group bubbles for break and lunchtimes.  We have reconfigured our timetable and break times to ensure that bubbles can remain as separate as possible and have minimised the movement around school and between sites. Children will remain on the site where their classroom is located.  Where necessary staff will move between sites. Children will continue to have specialised lessons in music and PE. 

Classroom and equipment

All classrooms have been configured to allow for as much space as possible between students.  Windows and doors will remain open, wherever possible, to enhance ventilation. In Year 2 upwards tables will be arranged in rows facing the front.  Whilst the layout might be different, we will not let this deter from the energy and talk opportunities that we value so much. Each child will have either their own bum bag (Reception and Year 1) or their own pencil case (Year 2 to Year 6) so that they do not share items. These will have all the equipment that your child will need and will be kept in school.

Books and text books

Children will need to bring their reading books and reading journals between home and site.

Water bottles

Please ensure your child has a named water bottle they can refill on site throughout the day.  They will need to bring this with them each day.

Assemblies and events

There will be class and year group mini assemblies on Monday to Thursday, with a virtual whole school assembly on a Friday so that children can still see other children across the school and receive their weekly certificates.

Break and lunchtimes

Children will have their break and lunchtimes as a year group.  They will remain in their own playground space for the week and then rotate.

Lunch

All children that want one will have access to a paid school lunch.  Caterlink will run in strict accordance with government guidelines with cleaning between each year group.  Children will be seated on one side of lunch tables only.

Each day a meat and vegetarian option will be available.  Your child will need to make their selection as they enter the school and will be issued with an identifying band to wear by the member of staff on the gate.  This is to help assist in efficient and distanced serving of the food that is requested.

Please remember to provide your child with a healthy break snack, remembering that we are a nut free school. 

If your child brings a packed lunch into school, please ensure that this adheres to nutritional guidelines and is nut free.

Uniform

Pupils should wear full school uniform to school. Please ensure that every item of clothing is named. On their scheduled PE days we ask that children who have PE in the morning arrive in their PE kits (rather than school uniform) and then change into their school uniform after PE.  For those who have PE in the afternoon, they will change at lunchtime and will travel home in PE kit.  No PE kit is to be kept on site overnight. 

PE

We very much look forward to being back together for sport.  All PE lessons with Mr Pashley will be outside.  When it’s cold we would suggest black skins/leggings to go underneath black shorts and our outdoor PE Jacket to be worn when it’s raining. Sport will take place in year groups with no mixed year group sport.  Pupils will have their own equipment for each bubble and this will be left for 72 hours before being used by other groups.  We will focus on movement and sport specific skills, fitness and conditioning. We will adhere to individual sports’ national governing bodies’ Covid-19 guidance. It is unlikely that we will have competitive fixtures against other schools but we will continue to monitor this situation. 

Music

We will confirm arrangements for music lessons in due course as there are restrictions in place that we need to observe.  At this time, we will not be able to have our choirs or singing as our group sizes exceed the maximum number of 15. 

Extended provision

We will continue to offer an extended provision with before, during and after school clubs.  All these will be offered in year group bubbles.  As a result, we are not able to offer as many clubs.  There will be further information on this sent out shortly.  Fit for Sport will continue to offer a before and after school provision for all ages from Nursery to Year 6.  This provision will be in year groups on the relevant site.

Hygiene

Regular hand washing, classroom layout and enhanced cleaning services are amongst the measures we have put in place.

All pupils and staff are required to wash their hands and/or sanitise them before they enter the classroom; at the beginning of the day, after being outside, after using the toilet, before they eat or any other time they enter or leave a room.

Protocol for coughing and sneezing will be reinforced and facilitated. The younger children will have a sniffle station in each room, the older ones a catch it, bin it, kill it station.

The following will be provided:

• Lidded bins for classrooms and key areas in use
• Paper towel dispensers
• Tissues for each key area
• Wall-mounted hand-sanitiser for classrooms and corridors
• Handwash and hand-sanitiser stations across the school site

Ventilation will be enhanced by having windows and doors open whenever and wherever possible.

Cleaning

The school will be cleaned each evening. Toilet facilities will be carefully monitored.  Each toilet facility in use will be cleaned thoroughly midway through the day and in the evening. 

First Aid

PPE is available for staff administering First Aid in instances where social distancing cannot be adhered to, for example cleaning and applying dressings to cuts or grazes. 

Wellbeing

The wellbeing of everyone is always our priority.  We have Polly (and Herbie our school dog) based on site as our pupil mentor. In addition, all staff have received training from our Educational Psychologist on how we can effectively support children with their return to school. We will continue to run regular resilience groups and support pupils in both their academic progress and wellbeing needs. A wealth of resources and links are available on our website: https://barnesprimaryschool.co.uk/remote-learning/07-emotional-well-being/

Fire Safety

Evacuation procedures have been reviewed and revised where necessary to ensure that each bubble
can exit the building in case of a fire alarm without coming into close contact with any other bubble.
There will be a Fire Practice in the first few days of term to ensure that the procedures are robust and that all staff and pupils know what to do in case of an evacuation.

Visitors

Unless it is an emergency, or essential to the safe operation of the school, parents, visitors, contractors and delivery staff should not enter school buildings.  This will be very different for us as we are traditionally such an open school and you would usually have the opportunity to see your children’s teacher on a daily basis.  We will endevour to facilitate this through the members of staff greeting on gates and dismissing. 

Any unavoidable meetings in person with parents will be held in line with social distancing guidelines.

Attendance and Holidays

It is vital that children return to school for their educational progress, wellbeing, and wider development. School attendance will be mandatory from the beginning of the new academic year. This means that the usual rules on school attendance will apply. Parents have a duty to ensure their child attends school and we have a responsibility to record attendance and follow up an absence.

Shielding advice for all adults and children was paused on 1 August. This means that pupils who remain on the shielded patient list can return to school, as can those who have family members who are shielding. If this applies to you, we would recommend keeping up to date with government guidance. Some pupils, no longer required to shield but generally remaining under the care of a specialist health professional, may need to discuss their care with their health professional before returning to school in September (usually at their next planned clinical appointment).

What happens if my child cannot attend school?

Attendance at school is very important, but there will be occasions when your child cannot come into school, for example, if they have been told to self-isolate by NHS Test & Trace.

Where children cannot attend school because of clinical and public health advice, the absence will not be penalised. Remote work will be set for your child in this instance.

If your child is unable to attend school for this reason, or is away due to sickness, please email: absence@barnes.richmond.sch.uk stating your child’s first name, initial of their surname and class in the subject line.  Our usual sickness procedures apply when a child is unwell.  Please remember that children with diarrhoea or vomiting should stay away from school for 48 hours after their last episode. Remote work will not be set while your child concentrates on getting better and we will look forward to seeing them on their return to school.

What Happens in the Event of a Suspected Case of COVID-19?

It is imperative that children do not come to school if they, or someone in their household,
have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms or have tested positive. Please refer to the official
guidance which can be found here.

Coronavirus symptoms are:

• a new continuous cough
• a high temperature
• a loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell

Should a child develop symptoms during the school day, they would be taken to a designated space by a member of staff who would wait with them, using appropriate PPE and social distancing, until they can be collected. The parent of the child concerned should then arrange for a COVID-19 test to be carried out as soon as possible and to notify the school of the result. If the test is negative, your child may return to school as soon as they feel better. If the test is positive, then government guidance must be adhered to as detailed in the document links on our website: https://barnesprimaryschool.co.uk/reopening/08-government-advice/  We will move the remaining children from the bubble to a new location.

What Happens in the Event of a Confirmed Case of COVID-19?

In the event that we have a COVID-19 confirmed case we will be in contact on a need to know basis following the advice of Public Health England and Track and Trace.  If you are not contacted (in writing) then your child does not need to self-isolate.

Kindness and consideration

We value our partnership with you and look forward very much look forward to a time when we can
return to normal and you come into school as freely as you did before. However – very sadly – that this will not be possible initially.  Once again we politely request that you support us in keeping our community safe and demonstrating kindness to others by not presuming others share your view of the current situation.