Dear Parent / Carer
In light of recent announcements from various unions, a review of our current risk assessments and a review of staffing levels the Chair of Governors has made the difficult decision to fully close the school tomorrow Monday 4th, to ALL pupils and families (including keyworker and vulnerable children), in order to prepare to move the school to remote learning and reopen for keyworker children and vulnerable pupils. A text message will be sent to all families later today to assess the levels of need for these groups and I ask that youbear with us over Monday as we now undertake the task of collating all this information and planning a way to return as many children as possible into school given staff levels and health and safety requirements. If you qualify for a key worker place please can you let us know if you wish to utilise this place by responding to the text as soon as possible – please note we may need to limited places to families with 2 keyworkers and single parent households first.
This means the school will now reopen on Tuesday 5th to confirmed Key worker and vulnerable children only.
In addition, staff will be delivering remote learning packs to all children on Monday to use alongside Class Dojo, with sufficient work to last beyond the potential 2 weeks.
I understand that you may have many questions and I will be happy to answer these tomorrow. I apologise for the short notice in terms of tomorrow but I am sure you will appreciate this is a rapidly evolving situation over which I have little control. Can I thank you for all the kind messages received across the day. Your continued support is much appreciated.

FROM Thursday 31st December

Durham County Council will be in Tier 4: Stay at Home

Please click on the link below to view the poster more closely.

please click here.

From Wednesday 2nd  December

Durham County Council will be in Tier 3: Very High alert.

Please click on the link below to view the poster more closely.

please click here.

As children across County Durham begin their half-term holiday, a new voucher scheme has been launched to support families who rely on free school meals.

Durham County Council announced it would step in to provide this vital support last week following the House of Commons vote against extending the national school meals scheme to cover school holiday periods.

From today (Monday), parents and carers whose children are eligible for means-tested free school meals will be able to apply for one £15 voucher per child on council’s website at www.durham.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals. After filling in a form, they will then be sent a QR code, which can be redeemed at any PayPoint or Post Office and used to buy food and drink supplies. Residents can find their nearest PayPoint at www.paypoint.com/en-gb/consumers/store-locator or Post Office branch at www.postoffice.co.uk/branch-finder.

Anyone who struggles to access the internet or does not have a device that would support the digital code can call the local authority’s County Durham Together community hub on 03000 260 260. Staff will be on hand from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, to help people with the forms or talk through other options.

The scheme will run throughout this week, but the council will ensure it is extended to cover the Christmas holidays if the Government’s position does not change.

Dear Parent / Carer,

As we approach the final few days before the reopening of school to all classes from Reception to Year 6 on the 3^rd September (Nursery Class will restart on Monday 7^th) can I take this opportunity to remind you of our new start and end times.

Please remember that we have had to make changes to the structure and routines of the school day to ensure we are able to open to all, and run the school across 2 sites, working within 4 distinct bubbles:

• Early years (Nursery and Reception)
• Keystage 1 (Years 1 and 2)
• Lower Keystage 2 (Years 3 and 4)
• Upper Keystage 2 (Years 5 and 6)

These new timings are as near to normal as possible and should remove the congestion of families at the start and end of each day:

Remember that if a child becomes ill during the school day, we will ask that they are collected immediately and are taken home. If your contact details have changed please ensure you update these with the school office immediately upon reopening.

Should you wish to remind yourselves of the latest government advice for parents/carers it can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-earlyyears-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/what-parents-andcarers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-in-the-autumn-term

A copy of Public Health England’s leaflet ‘Returning to Primary School: what parents need to know’ can be found here: https://coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk/schools-/resources/parents-leaflets/

Parents and carers have also asked what they can do to support their child’s education and school. The main things you can do are:

• Ask your child how they are feeling about going back to school.
• Give them as much information as possible.
• Encourage them to talk about their worries and contact the school if you require any additional arrangements to support their return.
• Highlight anything to the school in good time.
• Explain to your child what might be different at their school.
• Explain and stress good hygiene and safety arrangements.
• Encourage your child (depending on their age) to take some responsibility for personal hygiene, such as hand washing and using sanitiser, and to be aware of their surroundings.
• Reassure your child that these are to keep them, their teachers and their friends safe.

Finally, I hope you will enjoy the last few days of your Summer Holiday and we look forward to welcoming all our pupils and families back at the end of this week.

Yours sincerely

Mr M A Watson

Head Teacher

Dear Parent / Carer,

As we approach the reopening of school to all classes from Reception to Year 6 on the 3^rd September (Nursery Class will restart on Monday 7^th) I wish to revisit and share some information on routines and procedures with you.

Firstly, we have to recognise that the last few months have been very challenging for all of us and painful for many with the ongoing risk and impact of Covid-19. The running of the school is not exempt from this and therefore, we have had to make changes to the structure and routines of the school day to ensure we are able to open to all, and run the school across 2 sites, working within 4 distinct bubbles:

Early years (Nursery and Reception)

Keystage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

Lower Keystage 2 (Years 3 and 4)

Upper Keystage 2 (Years 5 and 6)

As you read the attached plan you will see that it has been necessary to stagger start and end times (within no more than 15 minutes of our usual daily timings) to increase the safety of all our staff, pupils and families.

The new timings are as near to normal as possible and should help those returning, after such a long absence, to regain a sense of normality. Although the impact of Covid-19 leaves the school far from normal and means some of our usual provision is not possible, or simply not possible at this time as you will see in the attached plan.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure we can provide as safe an environment as possible for our children to learn and play we must also be conscious to the fact that if a positive case is recorded within the school it will mean that the entire bubble will need to self isolate, staff included. Therefore please follow the guidance and routines, including timings as strictly as possible.

Remember that if a child becomes ill during the school day, we will ask that they are collected immediately and are taken home. Children who display Covid-19 type symptoms or children who live with someone who has Covid-19 will not be able to attend school. Isolation and self-isolation rules MUST be followed. If a child or an adult in their bubble is confirmed as having the virus, the whole bubble of 2 classes including the staff working with that bubble, will be sent home immediately to self-isolate in line with Government guidance.

I hope you enjoy the end of your Summer Holiday and look forward to welcoming all our pupils and families back in the coming weeks.

Yours sincerely

Mr M A Watson

Head Teacher

PLEASE CLICK HERE for : Reopening plan and revised start and end times

Dear Parent / carer

As pupils return to school I thought the following App may be useful for you.

CorrMed, together with sponsors from GOJO and Gama have created a completely free to use game for young children to help them learn about hand washing.  I am delighted to say it has been endorsed by Infection Prevention Society (UK).

It is available for Android phones and there is a web version.

The app can be found here

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tipitap.handwash&hl=en

 Links to both the web version and the Android app can be found from this page

www.handwashsquad.com

Dear Parent / Carer,

As we start the first day of the Summer holidays, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Summer Holiday. It has been another challenging year for everyone in the world of education, in school and for all our families as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic so I would like to start by thanking you all for your additional understanding, patience and support over the last few months.

I would also like to thank staff across the whole school who have made it possible to support those of you continuing your learning at home but also making it possible to remain open throughout the whole period to our keyworkers and children attending from Reception, Year1, Year 6. In addition, they have also supported transition for Year 2 pupils moving to Upper School. It never ceases to impress me the resilience, determination, and commitment of the whole school.

Also, I fully appreciate how demanding and exhausting the endeavour to home school has been therefore on behalf of all the staff and Governors can I thank you as parents / carers for all that you have done to support your child through this unprecedented period and keeping in touch through messages, emails, sending pictures and completing tasks shared on our school website.

Now we are looking forward to September and plans to reopen to all pupils and considering what this will look like, we are of course excited to plan for a return to school for all pupils. Myself, Senior leaders and The Governing Body have been constantly reviewing the provision we have been able to provide over the last four months and are now developing detailed plans to make sure we can safely welcome all of our children back in September.  Thank you, once again, as parents and carers for the patience, support, and kind comments during these past few difficult months while we strive to continue to support all in our school community.

Currently, risk assessments are being developed in line with current government guidance to ensure that protective and safety measures are in place for all staff and children when Reception to Year 6 return to school on Thursday 3rd September 2020 with Nursery restarting on Monday 7th. Both school sites will continue to look different and some routines will be somewhat different too.

Restart Information

Reception Children should continue to be dropped off and collected from the school car park and Nursery children dropped off at the gate to the Nursery outdoor play area.

Inside the school building current plans are to maintain bubbles by planning for staff, play areas, playtimes and lunches to be staggered and separated. A ‘bubble’ will comprise no more than 2 classes maximum allowing us to run the day to day routines and procedures required, like lunchtimes. Bubbles will be set up for Early Years (Nursery and Reception), Keystage 1 (Years 1 and 2), Lower Keystage 2 (years 3 and 4) and Upper Keystage 2 (years 5 and 6).

There will be no before or after-school provision in the first week (3^rd/4^th September), however we are planning to reintroduce Breakfast Club from Monday 7th September 2020. This may initially be for particular year groups and we are looking at the best way to provide a Keystage 2 breakfast club if possible. Breakfast club will be booked in advance and we will contact all families who currently use it upon our return to book places running from 8am. Children will probably need to be sat and socially distanced from other children.

Whilst we continue to look at the potential to run after school clubs, we will not be making this provision available until after the first half term. This will remain under review by myself, Senior leaders, and the governing body. We will decide before the end of the first half term about the remainder of the Autumn term.

When dropping off and collecting we continue to ask that you do not gather on the playground are at doorways and keep to 1 adult per child / family. Should you need to discuss anything with the class teacher we ask that you follow current procedures and contact them by phone or via school email. If your child receives medication, we will ask you to contact the school office to arrange drop off and collection if necessary.

Current procedures for moving around the school including access points, one-way systems and removal of gatherings like assemblies will continue.

Uniform – like now, we will be suspending the wearing of school uniform and ask that your child continues to wear a clean change of clothes each day. For older children they may wish to wear their sports gear rather than bring a change of clothes to school. Children should not bring anything other than themselves, coat, hat (if necessary) packed lunch and water bottle. We must minimise the amount of objects moving between school and home setting. We will provide all other resources required and this will greatly reduce the movement of items between households and the school setting.

Our curriculum will change for at least the first half term to include a recovery curriculum approach, an increase in personal, social and emotional lessons based on Jigsaw Curriculum planning, a range of short tests and check-ups to ascertain each child’s individual needs and requirements. We will however start with foundation subjects for each year group from the second week. Details of the half term curriculum were sent out in my previous letter.

For those children who missed the Year 1 phonics test, the Government has also introduced the requirement to test these children within the Autumn term. All other end of year testing will also resume within the new year.

Some aspects of the curriculum including homework will be placed online using the various e learning platforms that have been established over the lockdown period and we will survey parents in September to better understand children’s internet access. Reading materials are currently running online along with Class Dojo and all these will remain in place come September, especially in case of local lockdowns.

We are currently making plans to ensure that we can provide meals to all children whilst meeting the current guidance not to have children facing each other whilst having lunch – for some classes this may mean that they continue to take their lunch in the classroom they are working in.

We will need to maintain social distancing and maintain appropriate levels of cleanliness, this will include separating Year group Bubbles, accessing through different doorways and at different times. We will update all families with final times and access routes in August along with an update to the current reopening action plan. Hygiene measure will also include using handwashing / hand sanitiser at key points throughout the day, as at present.

If a child becomes ill during the school day, we will ask that they are collected immediately and are taken home. Children who display coronavirus type symptoms or children who live with someone who has coronavirus will not be able to attend school. Isolation and self-isolation rules MUST be followed. If a child or an adult in their group is confirmed as having the virus, the whole group including the staff working with that group, will be sent home immediately to self-isolate in line with Public Health England advice.

Whilst we anticipate these are some of the measures we will be taking to reopen in September we also know that guidance, and therefore plans, may change before then. Further details and any changes will be shared with you with as much notice as possible to support your family and child’s routines from September.

To finish I must also add that as difficult as this period has been, it continues to be a great pleasure and a true privilege to be Head teacher of Leadgate Primary School and I look forward to seeing you all in September.

I wish you a very enjoyable and relaxing summer break and every good wish for success and happiness to all our Year 6 children as they have now left the school to face their future in the Academy.

Your sincerely

Mr M A Watson