Nursery News 25th January 2021

NURSERY NEWS

25th January 2021 – Edition 213

Find out About:

A: Closure Processes, Methods of Communication

B. .Covid updates.

C. Catkins Children Parent Consultations.

D. Mrs Flynn is leaving.

A: Closure Processes, Methods of Communication

We have certain procedures to follow when we are informed that a pupil or member of staff receives a positive Covid 19 test result. We have to inform the Department for Education and Public Health England. They then email model letters out to us, to send to staff and parents. These model letters have to be checked and rewritten to suit our schools situation. There will always be one letter that we send to everyone to let them know that there has been Covid case in school. Last time there was also a second letter that we had to send to parents of children who had been a close contact of the confirmed case, advising parents their child should self-isolate. This process took two hours to complete, from receiving the phone call from the parent to sending the emails out.

Our quickest way of communicating to all parents is to send out a Groupcall text message. These messages are emergency alerts. The system is designed to send short messages. We may, in future, alert parents to positive covid situations using the Groupcall Alert. In all situations we would then send out the Department for Education letters by email, and then an update newsletter with an explanation of dates the positive covid case(s) attended.

B. Covid updates.

The new Covid variant is reported to be more transmissible. We have seen a rise in the number of families who are calling us to say that a parent has been a confirmed Covid case. I have decided to reduce as much risk of transmission as possible. We have seen how disruptive a single confirmed pupil covid case can be. We are trying very hard to ensure classroom staff have contact with only one bubble.

We have two staff teams school, one team working with the Main Nursery Bubble and one team working with the Catkins/Blue Group Bubble.

Mrs Davies and Miss Howe are trying to have no contact with each other, and managing one bubble each, so that in future, should one bubble close, there should be a manager available to stay in school and open for the other bubble. This plan will be compromised should any staff member have to be at home for any reason.

I am also trying to keep office staff away from all children and parents. So please be patient with us if you arrive late in the morning, when all keyworker staff are inside with their group. If a member of staff is looking reluctant to come close to your child it’s probably because they are working with the other bubble, or in the case of office staff, no bubble at all!

We can try our best.

C. Catkins Children- Parent Consultations (via telephone).

Each term we offer the opportunity for all parents to have a parent consultation with your child’s keyworker to share information about your child’s progress. We have a number of children not attending Catkins at the moment due to parental choice. These consultations will be scheduled for parents of Catkins children who are currently attending Nursery. These telephone consultations will take place on Friday 12th February, between 1:00pm and 2:30pm. One of the Catkins keyworkers, Mrs Brinkley, Miss Tyler or Mrs McGrath will call you at some time this week to arrange an appointment.

If Covid impacts upon these arrangements in any way, we will reschedule the appointments for a different day.

All 3+ Nursery age children (this includes blue group too) will have their parent consultations during week beginning 22nd February. We will announce booking arrangements for these consultations next week.

D. Mrs Flynn is leaving.

Mrs Flynn is leaving Willow to pursue a career opportunity within her family’s business. So, we are saying goodbye to her this week, as her last day will be on Friday 29th January. Mrs Flynn has been in post as School Secretary, for the past 4 years or so, and during that time has worked hard to help run a busy school office and help parents with any school related problems and queries. Her cheerful personality will be missed as she always does everything with a smile.