23.10.20

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all well, we miss you and the children!

Thank you for all your phone calls and kind enquiries about the health of the staff member who had COVID. She and her family are much improved. We really appreciate your kindness.

An update on the local area, I understand a lot of schools in Westminster have had to close year groups because of children and staff testing positive for COVID, that is, a year group bubble of 60 pupils at a time. One local school has had to self isolate two year groups of 120 pupils due to positive cases of COVID. Our school has two bubbles, in line with government guidance. As we are a small nursery , we have a total of 58 pupils on roll, we count as one year group, in contrast to bigger nurseries with 120-200 pupils, who may have several bubbles. We are lucky because we have the most amazing outdoor space and the children spend a lot of time in the fresh air.

 

As I stated previously, we still plan to open 2nd November. Our cleaning has increased workload for the staff tremendously but we will continue to sterilize toys and surfaces after morning and afternoon sessions. Areas are cleaned three times a day. Please help us by not allowing your child to bring in any toys from home. Thank you.

The advice from the government is that that the virus transmits from adult to adult rather than child to adult.

We did allow parents to come into the garden to settle their children as we felt it was not good for the child’s emotional health to be physically separated from their parent’s arms at the gate. I did have to remind some parents to wear masks, which, in a couple of cases was not well received. May I remind everyone, that whilst you may personally be exempt, that doesn't mean that you are immune.

Moving forward, I would like to ask parents and staff to remember to not hold conversations at the gate as the alley way is too narrow for social distancing between staff and parents. I acknowledge that this can be difficult, but request that you pass messages to your family worker via Michele or email. I have noted that parents are reminding each other to keep space, when lining up in the alley way, which is fantastic. Thank you. If you need to speak to the family worker please email us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

It feels instinctively wrong, to not be as physically available to our parents as we usually would be, especially as we are working with young children, but these measures are in place to keep us all as safe as possible.

 

A parent has requested assurance that this self isolation will not happen again. I cannot guarantee this, as the variables of a pandemic are not within my control. I can however, reassure parents that the cleaning has increased threefold by the staff, timetables have had to change, to accommodate this extra workload. Changes we have made in the last week of this term include; creation of an extra bubble for vulnerable children, shields to be worn by staff at the gate ,all meetings and conversations will be via phone or email for the foreseeable future, as the numbers across the UK are now in an upward trajectory, since we opened in September. We are as covid secure as possible.

A newsletter for the half term will be on the website on 23.10.20. Please look at the videos for home learning, your children may be happy to see their family worker providing online learning ( I know the staff enjoyed making the videos) .

We are excited to welcome the children back and thank you for all your support, have a safe and happy half term.

 

Regards

 

Rose Parle

Deputy Headteacher