Welcome To
Regents Park Community Primary School
Believe in Yourself - Anything is Possible!
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Dear Parents/ Carers,
As you know, earlier this month the Government made some announcements regarding the possible reopening of schools from June 1st. At the time I told you we would look at what the Government was asking schools to do in terms of planning to reopen for Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children.
Since then, myself and the leadership team have been busy reading through all of the many documents the Government have published for schools on reopening, looking at and creating risk assessments for reopening and planning what it would look like and also meeting and discussing with governors, other school leaders and the local authority, Birmingham City Council, to decide on what would be safe for all the children and staff of Regents Park.
In addition, I also sent out surveys to the parents of children in the year groups identified by the Government. It was clear that the vast majority of parents feel it is still too soon to be sending children back in to school as in each year group between 60 - 80% of parents said "No" they wouldn't send their children in to school on June 1st and many others said they weren't sure.
Like many of the parents, I also still have concerns and feel there are some questions that need answering before being fully confident that children and staff can return to Regents Park safely. Of course the Government may make a decision not to reopen schools anyway from June 1st but, unfortunately, we will not know this until May 28th at the earliest. As a result, at this time, I have asked the Governing Board to agree that school does not reopen on June 1st, even if the Government announce in the next week that it is safe to do so.
Regents Park will remain closed during the week beginning June 1st whilst we continue to assess the situation at national and local level. We will continue to plan our reopening but this may not be until at least June 8th providing myself and the Governors feel it is safe to do so.
When we do return to school and begin to reopen, it is unlikely that we will have all of the identified year groups in at the same time. We are likely to reintroduce children back in to school slowly in small groups and possibly on a part time basis in order to make sure everyone is safe. I will provide more information about this when we have confirmed the date for our reopening.
In the meantime, we will continue to provide support for all children and signpost you to activities and ideas on the school website so that children can continue their learning at home supported by parents. Teaching staff will continue to call and check up with families on how they are doing in terms of their health and wellbeing and also how children are getting on with their learning. We are continuing to provide support in the form of vouchers for children eligible for Free School Meals and we will also continue to support the key worker/ vulnerable children who have been coming in to school whilst we have been closed.
I am sure all parents will agree that we are doing the right thing at this time for all the children and staff at Regents Park. We do not want to keep the school closed longer than is necessary as we are conscious of the impact it has on our children's learning. However, it is our number one priority to make sure that everyone is safe and healthy and to make the right decision on reopening at the right time.
Just a reminder that whilst school is closed, there may be no one available to answer the school telephone so please email enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk if you have any questions or require any further information.
If you are celebrating Eid this weekend then I'd like to wish you Eid Mubarak on behalf of all the staff of Regents Park. We hope you continue to stay home as much as you can and stay safe and healthy.
Eid Mubarak everyone,
Mr Beale
Dear Parents/ Carers,
Over the last couple of days, the Government have been sharing their COVID-19 Recovery Strategy and have made some announcements regarding primary schools and how they might reopen from June 1st.
We are still waiting for more information from the Department for Education but what we do know so far is that from June 1st, the Government are hoping that Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children might be able to return in small groups depending on what the national infection rate is like at that time.
The Government have also said that their ambition is for all primary children to return to school for a month before the summer holiday if feasible.
The Government have published more information for parents here: Opening schools and educational settings to more pupils from 1 June: guidance for parents and carers
As you can tell, nothing is definite about reopening at this stage as it depends on lots of external factors and, here at school, we need to do lots of work to decide on how to manage a phased reopening in order to keep children and staff safe. I will contact you with more information as and when I am able to share it.
In the meantime, nothing has changed for the next three weeks. We are continuing to provide children with ideas and activities for home learning on the school website and school is closed for all children except those whose parents are key workers or who are seen to be vulnerable. Staff will contact families again next week to check on how children are and provide guidance on children's home learning.
Whilst school is closed, there may be no one available to answer the school telephone so please email enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk if you have any questions or require any further information.
We hope you continue to stay home as much as you can and stay safe and healthy.
Take care everyone,
Mr Beale
There is now a page for parents that explains everything you need to know about the Free School Meal vouchers we are sending out during the school closure due to COVID-19.
This can be accessed via the Parents tab on the school website and then clicking Free School Meal Vouchers.
For a direct link to the page please click here
Dear Parents/ Carers,
I hope you are all fit and well and keeping healthy and safe at home. It is very strange to be sending you this update on what should have been the first day back after the holiday at the start of the Summer term.
School continues to be closed for the foreseeable future
As I'm sure everyone is aware, the Government have announced that lockdown measures will continue for at least another 3 weeks which means that school will continue to be closed for the foreseeable future. When we are told that school will be allowed to reopen, we will contact you immediately and let you know our plans for opening safely again.
Class Teacher/ Parent contact this week
During this week, all class teachers will be ringing home to contact the parents and carers of children in their class to check up on how they are, how the family is doing and to see if you are able to access the home learning activities they are planning and sending out.
When staff ring you may see "No Caller ID" or Withheld Number" in your caller display. Please make sure you answer so you can speak to the teacher and catch up with them. It would also be good if your child could speak to their teacher too - I'm sure they would enjoy speaking to them themselves.
Please let staff know if there have been any change of circumstances at home, particularly if children or family members have been ill and affected by Coronavirus.
Arrangements for children who are vulnerable/ key worker children
For the last 4 weeks we have only been opening for children who are vulnerable or who are the children of key workers. On most days this has only been for 2 children, at the maximum it has been 4 children. As there have been so few children attending we have now teamed up with Heath Mount Primary School in Balsall Heath and, from today, the children have begun attending there instead.
If your circumstances have changed and you think that your children fit in to one of the two eligible categories, then please contact school to let us know by emailing enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk
Learning at home
It is very unfortunate that children's school learning has been disrupted but hopefully you are managing to support your child's learning at home using the activities and ideas that staff are sharing with you on the school website each week. There are some activities that children can complete online and some that may just need children to have access to pencil and paper. Please remember that children may need support so if you can help them or if there are other family members at home who can help them, then that will help their learning. The link to the Home Learning pages on the school website is: https://www.rgntpark.bham.sch.uk/home-learning
Some guidance for parents on supporting children's learning at home has been published by the Department of Education and can be downloaded here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-primary-school-children-continue-their-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19
Lots of new resources are being published and created to support learning at home and staff are sharing these on Twitter or on the Home Learning pages of the school website. A couple of new resources just published are BBC Bitesize https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize and Oak National Academy https://www.thenational.academy. Both include lesson ideas with video clips and are separated into age groups to help you find suitable activities.
Some resources to support SEND pupils have been published on the Sensory Projects website: http://www.thesensoryprojects.co.uk/covid19-resources
Free School Meals Vouchers
Families who have children eligible to receive Free School Meals vouchers have been contacted by Mrs Kelly. We are now using the Government scheme for providing vouchers using a company called Edenred. Mrs Kelly has organised vouchers for those eligible from now until May half term.
We understand there may be some delay in parents receiving the voucher codes as lots of schools are using this scheme. We hope the codes arrive as soon as possible but if you have any problems then please email enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk
Some parents have asked why their child is not eligible for FSM vouchers if they are in EYFS or KS1 and normally receive a free meal at school. All children in EYFS and KS1 receive a free meal at school from the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme. This is different from receiving means-tested Free School Meals which are dependant on whether as a family you are on certain benefits. Children that are from families that are not on these benefits would then pay for school meals when they move into Y3.
If your circumstances have changed, perhaps because of unemployment, and you believe that you are now eligible for Free School Meals, then please email enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk and we will contact you to discuss this with you.
We hope that by continuing to follow safe practice regarding social distancing, we will all be able to return to school sooner rather than later. Please keep safe and stay fit and healthy and hopefully we will see you soon.
Best wishes everyone,
Mr Beale
Dear Parents/ Carers,
I hope you are all healthy and well and keeping safe at home indoors as best you can.
School has been closed for nearly two weeks although we have been open to support vulnerable children and children whose parents are key workers. We have had between 2 and 4 children coming into school being supported by a skeletal staff including myself, Mr Genner, Miss Miles, Mr Khan, Miss Carrick and Mrs Folbigg - thank you to all of them and to Mr Marlowe for cleaning school each day whilst we have been open.
Since Tuesday, we have had no children in and aren't expecting any children in again now until at least April 15th. As such, there are now no members of staff on site as they are all at home following social distancing guidelines. This means that there are no staff available to listen to answering machine telephone messages.
If you need to contact school for any reason (for instance, if your circumstances change and you require help finding child care provision), the best way of doing so will be to send an email to enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk
Over the last couple of weeks we have also been organising food for children who are eligible for Free School Meals (not universal free school meals for EYFS and KS1 children). During the first week we sent out food packages using food from our school kitchen. This week we have sent out Asda vouchers to families with children who are eligible.
Over the next couple of weeks we are organising vouchers offered by Birmingham City Council to cover the two week Easter holiday period. Then from April 20th we will be sending out vouchers that have been offered nationally. We will contact parents of pupils who are eligible to let you know about both of these schemes.
Hopefully the children are keeping busy and making use of all the ideas and resources that staff have been sharing with them on the school website and also on Twitter. Please feel free to use Twitter to update us on anything they are getting up to! We will continue to update the website (click on the following tabs - Children then Home Learning) and post ideas and resources on Twitter (@rgntparkschool).
The next couple of weeks are likely to be very difficult for everyone - children, families and staff - as the virus affects more people. Hopefully you will all stay safe and in good health and it won't be too long before things can return back to normal.
Again, don't forget to contact us and update us on anything we can help with using the enquiry@rgntpark.bham.sch.uk email address and we will get back to you.
Take care everyone,
Mr Beale
Dear Parents/ Carers,
The DfE has published some information for parents regarding school closures:
Closure of educational settings: information for parents and carers
Also, Dr Tim O'Neill, Director for Education and Skills at Birmingham City Council has issued the following letter for parents regarding school closure:
Dear Parents and Carers,
You will all be aware of the announcement made by government earlier this week that schools are to close from today to all but certain groups of pupils.
The government has updated its guidance today about school closures and this is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers. If you’re unsure about whether your child would be classed as vulnerable or if you are a key worker, please read the government guidance and speak to your child’s school. If they are able to, schools will be opening on Monday for vulnerable children and those of key workers. In the days and weeks that follow, schools will be working in local areas to group together and make the best use of resources. Schools will keep in contact with you as arrangements are made.
The resilience shown by your children’s schools over the last few weeks has been truly remarkable and I’m sure you share my heartfelt gratitude for how school staff have responded to this outbreak. Everyone has total commitment to ensuring that this unprecedented situation is handled as well as possible. Schools are working on innovative ways to make sure that children can access learning over the coming weeks and will be in touch with you about this.
I know that this will have been an extremely unsettling period for you and your children, especially those due to sit exams or leave school or move to new schools later this year. Please be assured that schools will continue to do everything they can to support pupils during this difficult time. Please also see the council’s website for a range of other information about services at this time https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/news/article/560/covid-19_affected_birmingham_city_council_services.
Kind regards
Dr Tim O’Neill
Director for Education and Skills
Dear Parents/ Carers,
Overnight the government have published more information for schools on who could be identified as being a "key worker" and, as such, eligible for child care provision in school from next Monday 23rd March.
The first thing that has been re-emphasised in the guidance is that:
This is because the fewer children making the journey to school, and the fewer children in educational settings, the lower the risk that the virus can spread and infect vulnerable individuals in wider society.
However, if a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them at school for the forseeable future.
If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision and we would ask you to complete the form below or ring the school office today to let us know.
Provision for children of Key Workers - Questionnaire
LIST OF THOSE WHO COULD BE IDENTIFIED AS KEY WORKERS:
This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.
This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.
This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.
This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).
This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.
This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.
This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.
Dear Parents,
We are still making plans for next week to support pupils who are vulnerable and also children whose parents are "key workers".
At this point we still do not have guidance from the government to help us identify who key workers are. However, to help us plan as best we can it would be useful if we could ask parents to give us as much information as you can, i.e. whether parents might be identified as being key workers and whether you would need support from school to look after your children during the day from next week.
In order to help us with this, could you please click on the link below and complete the online form as soon as possible, preferably before 11am tomorrow, Friday 20th March.
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hK6Sjwgw_kWNfZnF5eaflVzZGxWxCk1DitHfegI2LyZUQ00ySTdEU1BEWDdXTk9VMkMyRFBQMkJCSi4u
Thank you
Dear Parents/ Carers,
I'm sure many of you will have seen the news this evening and the statements by the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary about schools closing for the forseeable future at the end of this week from 3.00pm on Friday 20th March.
Schools have been asked to consider how they can then provide daytime schooling from Monday 23rd March for children whose parents are "key workers" or children who are seen as being "vulnerable", providing there is the staffing to do so. We will look into this tomorrow and let you know more when we have looked at more guidance.
In the meantime, school will be open as normal tomorrow (Thursday 19th March) and on Friday 20th March for all pupils who are able to attend.
Mr Beale
Dear Parents
As you will be aware, this has been a difficult week at school. As we have been instructed to do, we have stayed open to provide your children with a safe place to come and learn during what is a very worrying time for many of them. I am proud of the way our Regents Park community has responded during such a challenging time. I am sure you would like me to thank all the staff who have come in to school despite their own anxieties and worries about their own families to ensure that the children's learning at school could carry on.
It is now looking increasingly likely that schools in England will be asked to close by the end of this week. There will be an announcement by the Education Secretary at 5.00pm today and we will update our website in response to this announcement.
Children will be coming home from school today with a pack of work to keep them busy over the next couple of weeks - this is to be used when school closes and parents are asked to support children with it. More activities and links to online learning will be added to the school website. If your child isn't in school, please contact the school office as soon as possible to either arrange to pick it up if it's safe to do so or organise for someone else to do so.
Thanks again for your support and understanding.
Mr Beale