School will remain OPEN for all children during lockdown from November 5th

Dear Parents/ Carers,

I hope you all had an enjoyable and restful half term holiday. As you will no doubt be aware, the Prime Minister announced on Saturday that there will be a national lockdown from 5th November until 2nd December. Whilst this will undoubtedly affect many people and their working arrangements, the Government have made it clear that schools will remain open for all children. As such, the teachers and staff here at Regents Park will continue to provide the education your children need academically whilst also continuing to support their mental health and wellbeing in school. Government guidance can be read here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november#going-to-work

In terms of what happens within school from Thursday little has changed at present from what we have been doing since September. The Government and the local authority haven’t as yet issued any further guidance for schools so, please be reassured to know that we will continue to take all the precautions that we have been doing so far to keep the children and staff safe in school. These include:

Maintaining a reasonable social distance between adults and children where possible
Minimising contact between class and year group bubbles in school
Minimising movement around school
Ensuring there is an increased focus on handwashing and effective hygiene routines for all
Making sure that classrooms are well ventilated and encouraging more teaching and learning outdoors where possible
Ensuring there is increased cleaning across school throughout the school day
Ensuring all pupils and staff follow Government guidance on self-isolation, testing and track and trace procedures

We ask parents to support us by making sure that you follow the guidelines we have issued previously. I will ask again for ALL parents to wear a mask or face covering when entering the playground to collect children and to maintain at least 2m from all other parents and families.

Please note that during that during this time, the school building will be heated as normal but windows opened for good ventilation. This will mean that children will need to wear layers of clothing, i.e. a vest or T shirt under their shirt and wear a jumper or cardigan to school. All children should bring in a coat for outdoor break and lunch as we will ensure outdoor play unless it is unsafe to do so.

As school will remain open during this lockdown, remote home learning will only be provided to children if their class or year group bubble closes or they are asked to self isolate for a period of time. We hope that all children not self-isolating will be in school where they will learn best.

We will update parents if and when we are given any further guidance. In the meantime, we would like to thank you again for your all support. Please remember to keep up to date with more school news on our school website, school app, twitter and by text message.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A Beale

Headteacher