Letter from the Head

Dear all,

I know many of you will be worried that the changes announced and the increase in transmission rates of Coronavirus, will impact on learning and our school day.  Some changes have been made already, such as:

.         the ending of swimming lessons – the leisure centre will close on Thursday, so our last swim until it re-opens will be Wednesday 4^th November.

.         the cancellation of our October Disco, if you have any Halloween dress up or pumpkin photos to share please email them to the office and we can put the best ones on our website!

.         We have already planned our Christmas events to be virtual and will be recording our carol service and performances for families. Please check if your child’s permissions regarding sharing of images needs to be changed in light of this.

.        School photos are going ahead and will take place across both main halls with two photographers who will socially distance for individual photos only, there will unfortunately be no family group photos.

·         Remembrance – we have not been able to source poppies this year so please see link to donate alongside the lovely picture of our Little Pirates Poppy Wreaths and pictures to support our British Legion.

·         It is Movember – I have had the pleasure of seeing some great moustaches on dads and babies! If you have any photos please send them in so we can support your fundraising efforts.

·         Children in Need – our school prefects will be offering Pudsey headbands and wrist bands next week – more on this from our new prefects!

.        RSE survey – this has just gone out on parenthub. Please fill this in.

We are logging all visits in class bubbles to enable us to track adults and children in the event of a positive test. Staff have already been wearing face masks in communal areas and hand washing and hand sanitising on entry and departure from the building and each room.  Earlier in the term we recruited 2 new cleaners who work through the day cleaning touch points repeatedly. In addition, we welcomed 4 new MSA staff to ensure we can keep class bubbles as separate as possible during lunch breaks. I want to thank our Kitchen staff and MSA team who are working very hard to deliver and serve to each classroom.  Of course we are a school with young children and there will be times when the children play outside, that they move across to another bubble. We have not ‘fenced them in’ to their play zones, be assured that this is mitigated by being outdoors and the additional hand washing and cleaning that we are doing.

Thank you to all the parents who are have spoken to us at the gates. As you can see from the information sent out on parent hub earlier this week, we are making adjustments to the timings of the school day. We have made these changes for a number of reasons

.        Pupil safety around cars at the main gate

       .        Pupil and parent number at the main gate pose challenges for social distancing

.         We want to ensure as full a school day as possible despite the need to stagger times

In doing so we are mindful that you may be worried about drop of times for your family due to work and/ or multiple children to drop off to different year groups. Please do not worry, we should be able to accommodate you. Just ask a member of the leadership team on the school gate or email the school office.  We have tried to minimise changes as much as we can by looking at

.         How much time each year group is in school

.         Keeping either gates or times the same (wherever possible)

.         Sensible routes to classrooms and handwashing facilities that minimise cross over

At Drake and Little Pirates we are fully committed to keeping our school open delivering the schools mission vision and aims through our values.  Each half term we will begin with a values day. We will share photos on our website in class pages. Visits and visitors will be carefully planned and may be virtual – Reception class virtual visit from the British Trust for Ornithology, a real visitor (socially distanced) Viking day in Year 4.

We know how worrying all the changes can be, we share those worries. However, we continue to work to find ways to make sure the children have access to a full and joyful curriculum, time with friends to play and the support of our Drake school family.

Kind regards,

Louise Rosen

Headteacher