Changes to our school times and routines from Monday 15th March 2021

Firstly, the support and cooperation I have received from parents and carers gives me the confidence to take the next step towards returning to normal school opening and running arrangements.

I have changed our Covid Risk Reduction Plan to alter break, lunch groupings, (whilst still at this stage keeping classes apart), and change our school start and finish times to be closer to how we ran pre-Covid.

Year groups will now play out at the same times, although still within defined areas for each class. This will give us the timetable flexibility to allow greater mixing and playing together when the restrictions are further relaxed.

I am replacing School A, B and C with 2 new timings and as outlined below:

SCHOOL 1 – Year 1, year 2 year 4 and year 5 classes     8.40am start / finish at 2.50pm

SCHOOL 2 - Reception classes, year 3 and year 6 classes   8.50am start / finish at 3pm

 (Nursery timings will remain as now)

If you have children in both School 1 and 2, please aim to drop off School 1 first and then make your way around to the School 2 classrooms. In the afternoon, please collect any siblings from School 1 classes first and then from School 2.

To help with social distancing, we have new arrangements for dropping off year 3 children at the top of the playground and year 5 and 6 by the farm path / blue cage.

We are the largest primary school in Tameside, with the greatest number of parents and carers visiting site. Please help me to keep everyone safe by continuing to wear face coverings, by keeping apart and by not arriving early and congregating on the yards.

This step towards ‘normality’ will give all classes more focused teaching time and will help staff to implement our plans to reconnect all children with their classroom learning and begin to make rapid progress.

 Our plans need to strike the right balance between community safety and the educational opportunities that come with a return to ‘normal’ schooling. Please do everything you can to ensure these changes do not adversely affect the infection rate. Let’s ensure that the recent lockdown was the last!

Thanks for your continuing support,

Mr Fell