Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Friday 20th March Update

  Fri 20 Mar 2020

  Dear Parents,

   

  Thank you for your ongoing patience at this difficult time where we are all facing questions over what this means for our families on a practical basis. This is also amongst the backdrop of worry and concern on what this means to our future wellbeing. It is an anxious and stressful time for everyone to some degree.

   

  As a school we are trying to make more sense of our responsibilities as well as our support for all children and families. I do not wish to criticize the handling of this by any agency service at this time but please appreciate that we are responding to a rapidly changing environment and information we receive is not in advance of information which is available publicity. We are trying to stay ‘ahead of the game’ but as you will see from previous plans and communication with you it is very hard to keep pace.

   

  Please rest assured we will give you information and more importantly answers as seen as we have them for you.

   

  Today is Friday! It will be our last ‘normal’ day in school for quite some time. We will be prioritising our children’s wellbeing and education today. I know this is an uncertain time for them too. It is pretty much business as usual. It is not a time for celebration, nor is it a time for undue tears and worry for our children. I know that all staff support me in a view that it should be calm and happy today. I appreciate your support with this today and at the end of home time.

   

  As a school we have several major things we are working on behind the scenes:

   

  1. Preparing to support the children of key workers (critical workers) who will be continuing to attend school.
  2. Working on internal systems to ensure staffing, communication and necessary services are running safely.
  3. How we prepare for helping children’s learning whilst not in school.

  Please be aware that at the centre of this is the government’s intention of slowing the spread of infection and we need to support this as best we can.

  There is a weblink Closure of educational settings: information for parents and carers which has been made available which will answer many of your questions.

  The guidance issued this morning will add a little clarity. You will see that on point 4 it explains who will be counted within this group.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Section 4.2 states the “children with at least one parent/carer who are identified as critical workers by government can send their children to school if required”.

   

  However there is clear guidance on social distancing. The government is asking parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible, and asked schools to remains open only for those children who absolutely need to attend.

   

  “It is important to underline that schools, colleges and other educational establishments remain safe places for children. But the fewer children making the journey to school and the fewer educational settings, the lower the risk that the virus can spread and infect vulnerable individuals in wider society”.

   

  “Schools are therefore, being asked to continue to provide care for a limited number of children – children who are vulnerable and children whose parents are crucial to COVID-19 response and cannot be safely cared for at home”.

   

  (Taken from: Guidance for schools, colleges and local authorities on maintaining educational provisions) 19^th March 2020.

   

  With this in mind as well as to minimize the risk to other families and staff we really do urge you to only send your child if you are absolutely unable to safely look after your child at home. We will expect that is you are only working part of the school day or parts of the week that your child is looked after by you at home.

  As we move forwards we will be asking you to let us know which times of the week your child will need to attend school.

   

  Children of Key Workers (critical workers)

   

  We will be giving more guidance on how this will work practically once we have confirmed your child’s place within school.

   

  ion ofKeep an eye on your email for an update regarding this, if you are identified as a critical worker.

   

  Please do not send your child to school if you have not received a confirmation email from us that your child is able to attend.

  Please forgive us if we challenge your request, we don’t wish to be obstructive or rude but we do need to operate robustly and fairness if this is to be a successful implementation of the government strategy for schools.

   

  Ongoing Education

   

  Whilst I’m sure a few days away from school and a slower pace of life will be welcome by children (and maybe adults) there will be a time when we need to keep the children busy and to continue with their learning at home in some form.

   

  Today we will be sending an exercise book home for the children to work in. Obviously not all learning will be recorded in their book but we hope the children will take pride and care of it as if it were their school book. You may wish to add your own comments within it and try to encourage them to maintain their own high standards that they are capable of.

  This weekend the children may receive their normal homework or their learners may have been kind and let them off without any! – I would encourage at least some reading over the next few days.

   

  We hope that on Monday afternoon/Tuesday morning teachers will be putting on the weeks learning activity ideas for the week. (We will be running a Tuesday – Tuesday week in terms of directing learning).

   

  Please be aware that these activities may not fill the week but can be extended by yourselves if you wish or you can make good use of many of the resources available.

  We will give you further help and guidance on how you can support your child’s education at home over the coming weeks but as this is a situation/context we don’t wish to overload you at this point but to support you and your child is making the adjustments needed.

   

  Whilst there is much information for you to digest at this time point and still many questions you may have. I hope this helps in explaining the situation regarding school. More information will be given over the next few days.

  Please forgive me if I don’t respond to all emails as quickly as you would like, I hope to cover most queries within the general communication to you.

  May I just take a little pause and sincerely thank-you all for your patience and offer of support. All staff have really appreciated the way you have responded to us in our efforts in making sense of this new challenge.

  Whilst this will be our last day in school for a while and we may be physically more distant and indeed feel a little more isolated we really hope we can keep some contact with you via email and website and provide some sense of continued Wren Park Community. I’m sure we will all become more creative and IT savvy through this.

  In the meantime I would like to offer my usual wishes for you and your family. I hope you are able to relax a little, enjoy sometime together and keep safe and healthy.

   

  Take care of yourselves, family and friends.

   

  Best wishes,

   

  Alex Buckley and all the staff at Wren Park.

   

   

   

   

   

   

• Key Workers

  Thu 19 Mar 2020

  19^th March 2020

   

  Dear Parents,

   

  You may be aware of the announcement that the children of essential Key Workers will be allowed to attend school whilst the school will be closed to all other children.

   

  We fully support the work done by these key workers and understand that this work is essential at this time.

  At this point it is a little unclear from government exactly the extent of the category Key Worker, but we believe those to be:

   

  • NHS frontline staff
  • Teacher/School staff
  • Fire brigade
  • Prison service
  • Delivery or distribution of food/groceries
  • Production/distribution of medical supplies/equipment
  • Police or armed forces
  • Social Care

  Whilst I appreciate that some parents will find it difficult to provide the childcare and education required at home I would like to stress that it is the expectation that children will not attend school unless both parents are working within a frontline service and that they will be required to work away from home during the school opening times.

   

  As far as I understand the aim of this government strategy is to create an environment of “Social Distancing” and that it is expected that less than 10% of children will be at school for this strategy to be delivered as intended.

   

  If you consider that you meet the criteria of essential Key Worker help us by sending an email by 1:00pm tomorrow (Friday) with the following details:

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Childs’ / children’s name:

   

   

  Class:

   

   

  Nature of essential work role 1:

   

   

  Employing service 1 address (to enable us to verify details):

   

   

  Nature of essential worker role 2:

   

   

  Employing service 2 address (to enable us to verify details):

   

   

  Best email contact:

   

   

  Mobile number:

   

   

  We will aim to send you a confirmation at the earliest point if we agree that your child can attend school during the period of school closure. Please do not send your child to school on Monday until we confirm that they are able to.

   

  I appreciate that these are difficult times for everyone but we do need to plan for the care of these children under very difficult circumstances with regard to staff cover. It may be that our position regarding qualifying Key Worker services changes in light of any government guidance. Please bear in mind these are new times for us all to navigate through. I do not wish to add additional stress to families in any way but we will need to be robust in only offering support to those essential Key Workers (yet to be clearly defined by government).

   

  Best wishes,

   

  Alex Buckley

• Key Workers

  Thu 19 Mar 2020

  Dear Parents,

   

  You may be aware of the announcement that the children of essential Key Workers will be allowed to attend school whilst the school will be closed to all other children.

   

  We fully support the work done by these key workers and understand that this work is essential at this time.

  At this point it is a little unclear from government exactly the extent of the category Key Worker, but we believe those to be:

   

  • NHS frontline staff
  • Teacher/School staff
  • Fire brigade
  • Prison service
  • Delivery or distribution of food/groceries
  • Production/distribution of medical supplies/equipment
  • Police or armed forces
  • Social Care

  Whilst I appreciate that some parents will find it difficult to provide the childcare and education required at home I would like to stress that it is the expectation that children will not attend school unless both parents are working within a frontline service and that they will be required to work away from home during the school opening times.

   

  As far as I understand the aim of this government strategy is to create an environment of “Social Distancing” and that it is expected that less than 10% of children will be at school for this strategy to be delivered as intended.

   

  If you consider that you meet the criteria of essential Key Worker help us by sending an email by 1:00pm tomorrow (Friday) with the following details:

  Childs’ / children’s name:

   

   Class:

   

  Nature of essential work role 1:
   

  Employing service 1 address (to enable us to verify details):

    

  Nature of essential worker role 2:

    

  Employing service 2 address (to enable us to verify details):

   

  Best email contact:

    

  Mobile number:

   

  We will aim to send you a confirmation at the earliest point if we agree that your child can attend school during the period of school closure. Please do not send your child to school on Monday until we confirm that they are able to.

   

  I appreciate that these are difficult times for everyone but we do need to plan for the care of these children under very difficult circumstances with regard to staff cover. It may be that our position regarding qualifying Key Worker services changes in light of any government guidance. Please bear in mind these are new times for us all to navigate through. I do not wish to add additional stress to families in any way but we will need to be robust in only offering support to those essential Key Workers (yet to be clearly defined by government).

   

  Best wishes,

   

  Alex Buckley

   

   

   

   

   

   

• School Closure

  Thu 19 Mar 2020

   

  Dear Parents,

   

  I understand that this will be an incredibly challenging time for us all with the news that we will be moving to school closure from tomorrow afternoon.

  I know that we will all have many questions about how this situation will affect our families, work, school and education of our children.

  As yet there is little information I can share with you which hasn’t been shared on National News last night and this morning.

  I will however keep you as up to date as I can when we receive some clarity from DfE and Local Authority. Please keep a look out for daily emails/updates over the next few days.

  These are unprecedented times and we will be working hard behind the scenes preparing for the coming weeks.

  May I ask for your patience and understanding over the next couple of days and allow us to look after the children in school as well as make the necessary arrangements and adjustments that are required. Please do not contact school unless there is a significant need to as we will be working hard on putting out information as quickly as we can to help all parents.

  Today we will be talking to the children about our school closure ahead and explaining to them in an appropriate way why the measures have been put in place at this time and reminding them that although they may not be in school for a while that we will be setting them some learning tasks to keep them busy!

   

  Best wishes to you all at this time.

   

  1.    A. Buckley

• Coronavirus Update 18th March 2020

  Wed 18 Mar 2020

   

  Update regarding Coronavirus

  Dear Parents,

  Further to our letter dated 12th March I said I would give updates regularly about school arrangements at present and how we are preparing for the coming weeks. Please do take a moment to read about where we are up to with our planning and how you can help us with some actions at home.

  The past few days have changed things quite markedly in the outside world and this is starting to impact upon our lives to some extent and is likely to impact further over the coming weeks.

  The Year 5 children had a fantastic trip to London on Monday and Tuesday but we could see how London was starting to close down and prepare for "Social Distancing". I would like to thank the children and staff for their attitude and calmness despite the disappointment of having to come back a day earlier than planned. Thank-you to all parents for their support with this challenge. I certainly think the children enjoyed all the activities we did in the short time.

  I know that we would all like some clarity at this time and I appreciate there will be parental opinion as to how we respond but at this point the guidance we must follow is that we must try to remain open until instructed to close by DFE and Public Health England.

  We are however preparing for the eventuality of closure and how we might support the children and families during these difficult times.

  There are two possible scenarios which we are preparing for.

  The first scenario will be one of a partial closure - This will be when the situation arises where we are short staffed due to illness/ self-isolation. In this case we will aim to communicate this at the earliest point identifying which year groups will be closed. We will consider if it is possible that this is a "rolling closure" meaning that we all share the burden by closing on a rota.

  The second scenario is where we face a full closure due to Government instruction or staffing limitations. In this case all children will be off. On the first day there will be some transition time where teachers are preparing suitable teaching resources and activities which will become available on the website under each year group. If we need to remain closed for any length of time we will develop more materials and suggested activities and it will be a very useful resource for children and parents.

  In both events we will aim to keep you up to date by sending out regular texts and emails.

  In the meantime parents should be aware of the following most recent Government guidance.

   If one person in any household has a persistent cough or fever, everyone staying there must stay at home for 14 days.

   People should minimise their social contact.

   People should avoid non-essential travel

   Everyone should avoid gatherings and crowded places.

  Within School Actions:

  We are having to make some changes in light of the guidelines.

   Y4 Swimming Lessons cancelled

   Y2 trip to Chatsworth cancelled

   After school clubs and activities cancelled from Monday until after Easter

   PA Easter Bingo cancelled

   Parents Evenings cancelled (we will provide some further information shortly)

   Y3 French Day cancelled

   Y1/Y2/Y3/Y5 sports events out school cancelled

   Y5 Bikeability cancelled

  Additional measures are:

   We will no longer allow non-essential visitors into school.

   There will be no music lessons delivered by peripatetic music teachers.

   There will be no whole school assemblies- these will take place in classrooms.

   Continued regular handwashing.

   Continued staggered lunchtimes.

  We also ask that all parents do not enter school under any circumstances other than through main Reception.

  Please note we will continue to offer Breakfast club at this time but we request parents do not enter the school building and "handover" at the main reception.

  Looking after your children’s emotional well-being

  We appreciate that there are all sorts of emotions we have during this uncertain time. The news, social media, Government documents, stories from friends mean it is difficult for us adults let alone the children to make sense of it all. We will aim to be calm and measured in our approach to minimise children’s distress and anxiety. We will acknowledge the current local, National and Global picture with children as it comes up and we will talk to them and answer questions from them responsibly and as factually as possible providing some reassurance if we feel this is needed. Children will talk and gossip (just like us adults!) - if you can offer them some support at home that would be really helpful.

  In addition we will continue to stress good hygiene control.

  Absence from School

  If for any reason your child will be off school either illness or through self- isolation of the family please email or call school leaving name, class, reason for absence. Should your child need to be off for more than two weeks (14 days isolation) please call/ email and update us so we can record absence accordingly and avoid unnecessary follow up calls during this difficult time.

  Further Information

  If you require further information then I am sure there is a wealth of sources on the internet but the link below would be a useful reference.

  https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan

  We will keep you posted and I would like to thank-you for your support and understanding during these challenging times.

  Best wishes to you and your family.

  A. Buckley

• Coronavirus

  Thu 12 Mar 2020

  Dear Parents,

   

  Although there is no significant change at the moment regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19) with regard to school I thought it would be useful just to update you with what our plans may be over the coming weeks.

  Firstly we will follow the advice of DFE and Public Health England. At the moment we are getting daily updates. It seems likely that at some point in time there will be an escalation of response to the threat of COVID-19 and there will be a move to the next phase of the Government action plan (contain and delay spread of infection). The emphasis at the moment is on contain and research phase.

   Whilst we are not thinking that a school closure will happen or that it is imminent there is a possibility that this may happen and we are making plans for this eventuality. This will not be a school initiated decision but one we will take following advice from DFE.

   What might this look like practically?

   We will notify you by text should there be a need to close. I expect that we would notify you at the earliest point and we would be closed from the next day. Please make sure we have your up to date contacts for the text messaging service.

   We use the school website keep you updated on closure information.

   The staff will be looking at their planning and what they would have covered within lessons. From this they will be adapting these plans and setting work which can be done by the children at home. As there will be no direct teaching this work will include a list of project based activities, practice of basic skills and some ideas the children can extend and explore.

   We will also direct you to any websites with activities appropriate to the year group. If for any reason the work seems too hard or too easy you could always access the activities from the year group above or below.

  We may also send home an additional reading book.

   We will be working hard on making further activities available to you throughout any closure via our website.

   School Trips

   I have sought further advice with the Local Authority Health and Safety about our trips planned (Cadbury World Y6) and London (Y5). At the moment the advice is that we don’t need to alter our plans and that these can go ahead.

  Cadbury World today have said that it is currently “business as usual” but there are extra hand sanitizer stations and washing stations in place.

   The usual reminders regarding hygiene are to be reinforced and monitoring that this is being done eg. washing hands.

   We will continue to check with the school travel company regarding the London trip and are making some back up plans in the event of closures of any of the places we plan to visit. We will keep parents of Y5 children informed at regular times throughout the visit.

   We would like parents to feel comfortable with our arrangements but it is ultimately your decision on whether you are happy to allow your child to go on the planned trips at this time. If you decide that your child should not go on the trip please send them to school as normal and inform the office staff that they will not be going.

   Within School- Education

   We will continue to have a measured and appropriate message to our children around basic hygiene as well as providing any reassurance that may be needed.

   We will be talking about the Catch it, Bin it, Kill it approach to all things coughs and colds related symptoms as normal.

   We do have hand sanitizer gel stations within the hall and we will be reminding children to use them as well as washing their hands.

   I am sure that some children may become anxious with what they hear in the news and from discussions at home (and indeed with their peers within school). We will provide calm reassurance but answer any of their questions as best we can. We will also encourage children to be responsible and calm should they be caught up in the speculation at this time.

   We have recently employed a cleaner who works throughout the school day. At the moment she is ensuring that all frequently touched surfaces (door handles/ push plates) are cleaned throughout the day.

   If your child is ill

   If your child is ill then the usual arrangements are in place ie.48 hours off from last bout of sickness.

  If your child is running a temperature then they are unwell and need to stay off school.

   Further Information

   If you require further information then I am sure there is a wealth of sources on the internet but the link below would be a useful reference.

  https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan

   We will keep you posted but at this point in time there are no significant changes to our daily routines within school provision.

   

  A. Buckley

   

   

• Sing Squad's Christmas visits

  Thu 19 Dec 2019

  Mrs Glynn's Sing Squad have been spreading the festive cheer by visiting the hospital, the local church and Derby Heights Care Home to sing Christmas songs and carols.

   

   

   

  

• Reception visit toThe North Pole

  Mon 16 Dec 2019

  Last Wednesday, the Reception children went on a visit to the North Pole, where they met the Head Elf, a talking polar bear and Santa. They first had to go through a magic door to check who was on the good list. All of the children were but some of the adults were on the naughty list!

  Santa met all the children and gave out fantastic presents. Everyone had a cold but fun tractor ride looking for snowmen and scarecrows and ended the day letting off some steam in the play area. Everyone had a magical day!

  

• Year 1 Christmas Craft Mornings

  Wed 04 Dec 2019
  This week the Year 1 classes invited parents and grandparents into school to enjoy a morning of craft making in the hall.

  

• Rockstar Day!

  Fri 29 Nov 2019
  To end our Maths Week in school, we had a Rockstar Day where all the children were invited to come to school dressed as rock stars. We had some fantastic costumes.