Last week our new Reception intake for September had the pleasure of coming to meet Miss Underwood for a socially distanced story time session in their mini nursery bubbles. Whilst we could not invite parents/carers due to COVID-19 restrictions, the children were amazing at leaving them at the field gate and participating in the story session. Well done to both the children and families for such a positive start to Dunalley after our zoom event for new Reception families a couple of weeks ago.  

The children are currently participating in their health activities as well as continuing to enjoy the great outdoors with their Forest School learning, Commando Joe’s, mile running on the track and lots of PE lessons. There can be no doubt that this academic year, in particular, the children have been benefitting from our fantastic outdoor areas. They have certainly been active and outdoors in all weathers. It has been a pleasure to see them enjoying all of these activities each week.

We are delighted to announce our new classes for the next academic year.

Please see below to find out who your child’s new classteacher will be.

We are delighted to announce that we have two experienced members of staff joining the Dunalley team. Mr Price is returning to us and will be joining the Reception team and we are welcoming, new to us, Mr Oliver who will be teaching in Year 2. Mrs Flood will still be working with us in school covering planning, preparation and assessment time for teachers along with Mrs Freeman and Mrs Gurney who will be supporting various groups of children with their learning.

There will be an opportunity for the children to have a socially distanced meet up outside with their new teacher before the end of term.

New classes for 2020/21 academic year

Please see below the timings for the new academic year.

You will notice that we have retained the staggered drop-off and pick-up times but altered them to a 5 minute gap between year groups.

We will retain the separate Reception / Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 entrances and exits in the hope that this will ensure a continued calm, less congested start and end to the school day eventhough DfE guidance has said this can be curtailed. 

Families with children in different year groups can continue to drop off at their earilest time, and pick up at their latest time.

This academic year has proven to be like no other any of us has ever experienced. Here at Dunalley we have worked collectively as a team to enable school to function as smoothly as possible during these turbulent times.

Without all teams working together, from the senior leadership team to the teachers and teaching partners, admin, premises, lunchtime and Earlies and Lates teams, we could not have operated and implemented all of the COVID-19 requirements and continued to teach, implement remote learning as well as continue to make improvements to our school.

All teams have had to support each other, take over others’ roles due to absence, alter hours of working and endless other things. As a result of this, whilst we recognise that families might want to buy a gift for the teacher, we would like it if all staff, in whatever their role, were recognised for their contributions by asking families to make a donation which we will give to charity.

However, cards and messages of thanks will be greatfully received by all. We hope you understand our decision and, in what has been a monumental year for us all, a charitable donation will be a fitting way to say a very big thank you to all members of the Dunalley team.  Individuals within our team will be able to receive gifts IF you feel particularly strongly about bringing something in.

Following the confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in school this week, please can we continue to ask you to remain vigilant and to ensure that a PCR test is taken at the slightest sign of symptoms in your child/children or any member of your household. All members of the household must isolate at home until a negative PCR test is received. Your child/children MUST NOT BE IN SCHOOL until the results of the PCR test come back negative.

It is important that you notify school if anyone in your household has symptoms and is going for a PCR test. Please inform school by phone or email of the result.

If the school is closed, and the result is POSITIVE, please text or phone us on 07413 173395 immediately.  Mrs Godfrey is very happy to receive messages out of hours (early morning/evening/weekend) so that bubbles can be closed quickly.  This will help to reduce the transmission in our community.

Continuing to remain vigilant when numbers are rising across Cheltenham and Gloucestershire will, hopefully, help to ensure that we keep as many of our class bubbles open as possible for the last few days and we are not having to ask families or staff to isolate for 10 days at the start of the summer break.

We will continue to provide home learning via MSTeams/Tapestry for children that are unable to come to school because they are required to isolate.  These are children that

• have been sent home due to a bubble closure, or
• are awaiting PCR results because someone in their household is displaying covid symptoms or has tested positive on a lateral flow test, or
• have been tracked and traced because they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive on a PCR test.

Because school is the best place for children to learn, we are not required to provide home learning for families who choose not to attend school for other reasons.  Teachers will be focusing on teaching the children in school.

Please can we ask that you do not congregate outside school on the pavement for a chat with friends at the start and end of the day.

In order to maintain social distancing, families are having to walk in the road which is obviously not ideal from a safety point of view.

We are fortunate to have the park just a short distance from us which is a lovely place to catch-up with friends.

Thank you in anticipation of your support.

As usual we will be breaking up for the summer holidays after lunch on the last day of term.  The staggered finish times will be as follows:

As usual, if you have children in different year groups, please collect at the latest finish time. Lates will be operating until 3:30pm