26th June 2020
To all parents/carers
COVID-19 Update 26.6.20
Thank you for completing the questionnaire. It was lovely to hear all your positive comments, these have been passed on to the staff. It was great to find out that confidence in returning to school is high both for now and September and that most children are eager to return. We are just as eager to have them all back with us. We have noted some general concerns and I will explain them here. Mrs Nicholas and Miss Symons have picked up individual queries and will contact you directly if they have not done so already.
The environment is and will continue to be nurturing, as far as is possible. Most staff have chosen not wear protective masks but will ensure other precautionary measures are in place, lots of handwashing, wiping of surfaces and resources, extra cleaning, body orientation when close to a pupil e.g. to administer first aid or personal care, ventilation of classrooms, being outdoors as much as possible.
We will not have a breakfast or after school club now or in September because this means children mixing from different bubbles and therefore increases the risk of cross contamination. This may change after October half term though. The same applies for siblings not being able to join the year groups who have been invited back, we are planning on introducing more year groups in the next couple of weeks so they would not be able to change their bubble to their correct year group.
With regard to the practicalities of social distancing in a small school, we are very lucky to have a high staff to pupil ratio and this allows us to have more bubbles with fewer children. All present bubbles have less than 15 pupils in them and all September bubbles will have less than 20. Lunch/breaktimes and drop off/pick up times will be staggered so that children are not out at the same time.
Children will still be able to socialise but only with those within their bubble, this gives them the opportunity to build stronger bonds with their year group/classmates, we will relax this measure when we feel it is safe to do so.
Where year groups are part time (hopefully only for the first half of Autumn term), we will provide children with activities to complete at home as a continuation of their learning in school. This only applies to Boskenwyn reception and year one due to high numbers. We do not expect children to attend another school setting on non-school days as the risk of cross contamination would be high, parents who have signed up to another setting will have to choose which setting to attend and stick with their decision. This does not apply to childminders due to small numbers. School will be closed to all pupils from Friday lunchtime (staggered finish times will be sent before term starts) to enable deep cleaning of the schools and for teaching staff to have their statutory planning, preparation and assessment time. They would normally have this time covered by another staff member so we are doing this to prevent introducing other adults into bubbles.
We intend to have the children outdoors as much as possible, outdoor learning is great for their health and wellbeing and this will be the focus our of inquiry topic for September.
I think I have covered the queries there, if you have any others then please do not hesitate to email me on head@germoe.cornwall.sch.uk. Most parents have signed up to our Facebook pages but if you know of anybody who hasn’t then please direct them to our school websites as all the information we share here is duplicated on the websites. Any information which concerns individual children is emailed personally.
Many thanks, have a lovely weekend
Paula Blackburn
Attached some photographs of the children who are already in school having lots of educational fun!
