Many thanks to those of you who made appointments to speak with your child’s class teacher this week at family meetings. We hope that you found them informative. The teachers enjoyed discussing how your child has settled into their new year group, the progress made so far and areas to work on. For those families where there were technical difficulties, staff will make contact to speak to you at a mutually convenient time.

This week’s zoom assembly was led by year 2 who shared their history work relating to Walter Tull and Remembrance.

Thank you to those who expressed an interest in participating in a Saturday visit to see the outside areas of school and participate in some OPAL play activities including our new mud kitchen and ‘beach’! Watch out for information to sign up for a slot, put this date in your diary it is happening on SATURDAY 4^TH DECEMBER.

All schools in Gloucestershire were advised yesterday that we need to continue to operate under our revised risk assessment and to keep measures in place as outlined in our outbreak management plan. This is because although rates have started to decline in Gloucestershire, they are still concerningly high, with current rates above both regional and national averages.  The regional group are therefore recommending that measures are maintained at least until the end of November.

This means within our setting the following additional measures, introduced after half term, will continue to apply:

• Maintaining year group bubbles for the duration of the school day. Earlies and Lates will continue to operate in phase bubbles (Reception/Y1/Y2, Y3/4 and Y5/6) as we acknowledge that this childcare facility is vital for many families. Older children will temporarily be encouraged to play with children in their year group and socially distance from those in a different year group wherever possible. We recognise that this is not achievable for children in reception, year 1 and year 2.
• Pausing in-person phase and key stage assemblies and moving to a virtual platform.
• Switching staff meetings to a virtual platform.
• Requesting that families arrive on time, not early or late and follow our one way system. Enter and leave the site as quickly as possible and avoid congregating in large groups. Wear a face covering unless exempt.

We are delighted that we are now able to resume our clubs with some alterations, despite the announcement made regarding keeping enhanced mitigations in place. We have had to re-allocate places for this term so that they only operate as single year group clubs. We are very fortunate that due to the number of clubs, that teachers have offered, each year group has 3 or 4 clubs. All existing places have been re-assigned and you will receive new text messages informing you of the new club allocations, days and timings.

Anti-Bullying Week is coordinated in England and Wales by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and takes place from 15 to 19 November 2021 and it has the theme One Kind Word.

Kindness is more important today than it has ever been. The isolation of the last year has underlined how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us. This is one of the reasons, that ‘One Kind Word’ has been chosen as the theme of Anti-Bullying Week.

We are starting our week with ‘Odd socks day’ on Monday 15^th November. Our week will continue with all children participating in activities to do with anti-bullying, online e-safety lessons and our Jigsaw (PSHE) unit of work ‘Celebrating Differences’.

Ventilation is one of the mitigations that we have to have in place for Covid-19. As the weather gets colder, please can we remind you that layers are important if your child is feeling cold. An extra layer under t-shirts and sweatshirts and wearing tracksuit bottoms instead of shorts may help.

A reminder of our current active uniform:

Bottoms:  

• BLACK tracksuit/joggers (plain – no stripes or patterns) or 
• BLACK leggings (plain – no stripes or patterns) or 
• BLACK shorts or cycle shorts (plain – no stripes or patterns)

Top:   

• Polo shirt – if you need to purchase more, please opt for white ones as we would like to secure as much consistency as possible.If you have an existing supply of yellow polo tops that fit, please feel free to use them; coloured P.E. tops with the school logo will also be fine. 

Sweatshirt:  

• BROWN sweatshirt or cardiganwith logo (available from SchoolTogs in the lower high street)  

Footwear:  

• Black trainers – no shoes please as children will need to wear trainers for P.E./playtimes/lunchtimes/outdoor learning/daily mile.   If your child’s current trainers are not black, and you do not need to replace them because they still fit your child, other colours are acceptable. 

If you are experiencing any problems with providing uniform for your child, please do not hesitate to get in contact with Mrs Ashton or Miss Willcox who will be happy to try and help.

Wellies and waterproofs – As the weather gets wetter and the field gets muddier, please ensure that your child has a pair of wellies in school and a waterproof coat. We have welly stores so wellies can be kept in school. Our welly swap is still in place so you can pick-up a pair of wellies from the main reception area and we would love to receive any more donations.

The Governors have sent out a uniform survey, please complete, if you wish to have your views taken into account regarding uniform moving forward. This survey will close at 12 noon on Monday 15^th November.