#InspiredToLearn COVID-19 Update - Wednesday 20th May 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
Firstly and most importantly I hope you are all safe and well?
Following my letter dated Monday 18th May, I am writing to update you on our plans for emerging from lockdown. As stated previously, at this stage, our advice remains the same.
We would urge parents/carers not to make any promises to your children about when school will return.
Monday 1st June 2020 - Pre-School (Year Two) emerge from lockdown and move to a temporary model of operation (see details below).
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 - Pre-School (Year One) emerge from lockdown and move to a temporary model of operation (see details below).
TEMPORARY MODEL OF OPERATION -
Please be assured that the School and Pre-School have worked closely together on a shared approach.
In Pre-School, Year 1 and Year 2 children returning to pre-school will initially follow this temporary model of operation -
- Children will be divided into groups, each group will contain no more than eight children and two adults. Pre-school practitioners will use their professional judgement and parental session requests to assign every child a group, these children will remain in this group throughout the rest of the summer term. Days CANNOT be changed.
- Each group will be provided with a designated section of the Pre-school that will include indoor classroom provision and clearly defined outdoor learning spaces -
N.B - KWC = Key Worker Children
- Children will have snacks, lunch and circle time in their groups. Groups will not mix. Other areas such as the wider school grounds will be used but use of these spaces will be managed carefully to ensure groups remain separate.
- Wall mounted hand sanitiser stations will be installed in the following locations -
- There will be a slight change in the Pre-school day with drop-off staggered from 08:45-09:15am daily and collection staggered between 2:45-3:15pm daily. A slightly shorter Pre-school day has been designed to support our increased cleaning regime. Exact timings for drop-off and collection will be confirmed by Julia and Caroline with you in due course. The following one-way system will be deployed at drop-off and collection times to support social distancing measures -
PLEASE NOTE: Under current guidance, only one parent/carer can escort a child to/from Pre-school. Where possible, siblings should also not escort a child to/from Pre-school.
- The one way system will be supported by positive ‘visual reminders’ that educate children about the importance of social distancing, examples include -
- We will do everything we can to encourage children within a group to remain two metres apart, however, from our experience in our Key Worker School this is impossible with the age of children we are working with. WE THEREFORE CANNOT GUARANTEE SOCIAL DISTANCING WILL BE MAINTAINED ONCE IN PRE-SCHOOL.
- Equipment will be divided between groups and all unnecessary items in classrooms will be removed and stored elsewhere in the Pre-school.
- Soft furnishings, toys and soft toys that cannot easily be cleaned every day have been removed.
- There will be designated entrance/exit doors for each group (these are defined by the green arrows on the map, see page three of this letter). Each parent/carer will need to say good-bye at the designated entrance/exit door and will not be allowed in the classroom.
- Government guidance has advised that children wear clean clothes daily. We do not want to put parents under undue pressure to wash school uniforms every evening so for this period of time children (and staff) will have the choice to attend in non-school uniform.
- In line with current practice, no visitors/staff/children/families/contractors can enter the building if they have symptoms.
PRE-SCHOOL CLASSROOMS
Yesterday, in preparation we undertook a deep clean within Pre-school; every item has been removed from the classroom spaces before returning items, inline with current government guidance. Here are some photos of the Pre-school classroom layouts with further resources to be added e.g. duplo.
Following on from this a video and further photos will be available before the 1st June.
TOILETS - We will not limit children’s access to toilet provision. We will increase cleaning of these shared spaces. Pre-school Year 1 children will be using the toilet within their Year 1 Base. Both Year 2 Pre-school groups will be accessing their usual Pre-school toilets. Children will not be sent in groups to wash hands before eating and will be sent in staggered times. The adults in your child’s group will be able to support them with toileting if needed.
If children require a nappy change, staff will continue safe hygiene practices.
- Outdoor equipment/apparatus/play equipment/climbing frames will not be used unless it has been cleaned between each group and each evening too. This will likely result in reduced usage as we prioritise the cleaning of other more critical shared spaces including toilets and specialist changing facilities.
- At this stage, we cannot see how it is possible to run before school and after-school provision for children in Pre-School, Reception and Year One with the current restrictions. If you are a key worker and require this provision, please see the specific note below.
SPECIFIC ADVICE FOR KEY WORKERS -
We are still here for you through this challenging time. Pre-School, Breakfast Club and After-School Club provision WILL REMAIN OPEN AND DELIVER PROVISION FOR THE CHILDREN OF KEY WORKERS who have NO OTHER OPTIONS OPEN TO THEM throughout half-term week (week commencing Monday 25th May 2020).
From Monday 1st June, Key Worker School provision will continue to be available for all children including Pre-School, Breakfast Club and After-School Club provision. If you require this provision please email Julia or Caroline with your requirements or comment on your session slip.
HOWEVER, if your child is Pre-school Year 1 and/or Pre-school Year 2, you will need to decide if they attend Pre-school Year 1 or Pre-school Year 2 (with provision available from 08:45AM to 3:15PM) or Key Worker Pre-School (with provision available from 08:00AM to 6:00PM) they cannot attend more than one group. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this option further.
SPECIFIC ADVICE FOR SHIELDING FAMILIES -
If a child, young person or staff member lives in a household with someone who is extremely clinically vulnerable or has a medical condition which puts them in a vulnerable group, they will not be allowed to return to pre-school. This is to ensure the safety of the household as per current government guidelines.
ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) -
Please note, Mrs Brooker is our teaching assistant trained to provide emotional and social skills support to children. Throughout this period Mrs Brooker has been working extensively to support identified children and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. To complement Mrs Brooker, Miss Johnson (Deputy Headteacher) will be supporting our ELSA offer and coordinating our ongoing emotional well-being response to COVID-19. Anyone with any requests or queries related to ELSA should email Miss Johnson initially at -
PRE-SCHOOL FEES/EXTRAS
Following on from our refund letter dated 18th May, should you wish your child to return from 1st June, any overpaid fees/extras can be carried forward and deducted from your Summer Term 2nd half invoice. Should your child NOT return you will be refunded for the last two weeks of the Spring Term 2nd Half. PLEASE NOTE all parents will receive an Extras invoice for the half term. If you are not receiving Government 3 Year old Grant Funding you will also be invoiced for your days. If you decide not to send your child back to pre-school until September you WILL NOT be charged due to the current situation.
SUNSCREEN AND HATS
Currently, due to our beautiful weather,which we are hoping will continue please could all children bring a named sun hat to Pre-school. Sun cream, which will last throughout the Pre-school day, should be applied at home as, due to the current situation, we will be unable to re-apply.
TRANSITION TO RECEPTION
We pride ourselves in the provision we provide for our Pre-schoolers due to begin Reception.
Here at The Prince of Wales, we do not see ourselves as two separate places, but in fact an EYFS Team! The smooth transition, welfare, happiness and confidence of our children are at the pinnacle of what we do, regardless of which School they will attend.
As an EYFS Team, we have extensive and thorough opportunities that, traditionally, we would have in place following half term. Needless to say, many of these will not be able to take place due to the current restrictions and guidelines in place with regards to mixing and social distancing. However, please rest assured we will do everything we can to adapt our current opportunities. For instance, I, Mrs. Johnson, would have offered some parent workshops based around school readiness and early reading, writing and maths; I will be able to still do these virtually.
Mrs. Smith and myself will carry out "door step" home visits to introduce ourselves and to have a chat. Julia will be in close liaison with myself, discussing each individual and, similarly, Julia will be contacting the Reception classes of our Pre-schoolers that are attending different schools. I will, likewise, be making phone calls to all our new starter families and also other Pre-school or nursery settings with children joining us who haven't attended our Pre-school.
In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact myself via email should you have any further questions.
AND FINALLY…
I would like to remind all parents and carers that we have adopted a ‘YOUR CHILD, YOUR CHOICE’ ethos and will continue to fully support children and families who choose to stay at home.
We will continue to do this through our Virtual School Programme and associated support activities including phone calls, food parcels, physical resource deliveries, loan of school equipment (including desks, chairs and Chromebooks) and virtual ELSA sessions (as required).
Parents will not be penalised by the authority if they decide they do not want to take up the offer of childcare or any school sessions.
If you have not already done so, please do email me your views as parents and carers about the approach being proposed. Understanding your views and your intentions should the wider opening of schools take place as described from Monday 1st June 2020, will help us to best prepare for this challenge. You can share your views by emailing me at j.nineham@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk or headteacher@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk if you have already emailed, please feel free to email again as required.
Parents of Pre-School, will be contacted in due course with additional information about which group and days their child(ren) will be offered as well some age-appropriate resources to support your child returning to pre-school.
We continue to stand with you at this time.
Yours faithfully,
J Nineham Sam Johnson Gary Spracklen
Pre-school Leader EYFS Leader Headteacher
APPENDIX A
Ref
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Question
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Response
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001
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Markings along the corridors may be beneficial, like in shops, to help the children with social distancing – as a visual reminder as much as anything that they shouldn’t be too close to each other.
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Response - Yes, this is something we are exploring.
Updated Response - Actioned. See visuals on page four of the letter dated 19/05/20.
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002
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Could a one-way system be put in place around the school, and for the drop off and collection of children, to avoid crossing in corridors?
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Response - Yes, we anticipate implementing this.
Updated Response - Actioned. See visuals on page three of the letter dated 19/05/20.
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003
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Is there a danger that any child not with their main teacher may be disadvantaged?
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Response - We will seek to mitigate this risk as much as possible by using other team members from the child's class. Some children may be placed with the teacher they will have in September, which will have some advantages.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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004
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I note that read, write, inc. lessons won’t be able to take place – will children in school still be doing their power maths and literacy as per the virtual school timetable?
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Response - Yes, and we will include some Read, Write Inc. elements - however, we will not be able to re-group in the way we would do traditionally on a stage-not-age basis.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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005
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Will there be a restriction on the number of children able to attend Pre-School on any one day?
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Response - Pre-School presents its own challenges. It's not so much the number but more who they will be mixing with each day. We'll be making detailed plans in the coming days and will share these in due course.
Updated Response - Please see information on this letter.
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006
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When children are divided into their groups could they have a couple of their close friends in that group to help with the nervousness or anxiety that they may be feeling due to this different way of working? Especially as they will be doing everything with this group all day.
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Response - Grouping will depend upon demand. But, yes, we will seek to make appropriate groupings where possible.
Updated Response - Children will be divided into two groups per year group. Each group will contain no more than fifteen children and two adults. Teachers will use their professional judgement to assign every child a group, day to day group sizes will depend upon demand.
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007
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Will Local Food Links be supplying hot lunches?
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Response - Yes, a limited menu will be offered. More information about this service will follow.
Updated Response - Unchanged. As soon as we have information from Local Food Links we will share this with all parents/carers.
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008
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Have any thoughts been given to the induction of children that are starting school in September, and what may or may not be possible with regards to this?
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Response - Mrs Johnson is currently working on plans for this and will share these in due course with parents and carers.
Updated Response - Unchanged. Mrs Johnson will be in touch again shortly with all parents/carers.
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009
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I wonder whether it may be worth you providing parents with a link to the BBC covid locator site – this allows people to enter postcode (in our case, ‘Dorset’) and to look at case numbers. Today, there are 347 confirmed cases in Dorset, out of a local population of 376,484 (0.09% of the population). The death toll in Dorset has been ~120 in total (up to 1st May). This kind of data provides some objective reference point to an otherwise complex decision of whether to send children back to school.
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Response - We're in a difficult and constrained position of what we can and cannot share at the moment, although I fully recognise the point you raise and the potential usefulness of the website.
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010
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Will the pre school building be reopened?
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Response - Yes, we expect so. Unless demand is very low across Pre-School and Reception in which case we may combine these two groups in Reception. The total number across the three year groups (Pre-School Year 1, Pre-School Year 2 and Reception) would need to be below fifteen for us to do this. This is unlikely.
We are preparing to open the Pre-School building.
Updated Response - Pre-school will be open.
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011
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How will you manage keeping groups of children separate as not all pre-school children attend everyday?
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Response - This will depend upon demand. Children will be grouped based upon demand - if needed a rota system may be deployed. However, priority will be given to the children of Key Workers.
Updated Response - Using the returned parental slips we will be grouping the children
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012
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Please could you confirm your criteria for deciding COVID symptoms. Cough, temp, both..Etc.... will you send the whole class home immediately if a child becomes symptomatic? Will testing be offered to this child/family?
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Response - If a child or adult shows symptoms and tests positive for COVID-19, then the whole group that the child was in must be sent home and they must self-isolate for 14 days. The Department for Education has promised that testing will be available, although we haven't got the details on this yet.
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013
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Where would we stand on equipment (PD Base Child) coming back and forth between school and home?
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Response - We'd work with you on this. We'd like to minimise this where possible but as long as we clean items in between - then I am sure we can manage anything that's required.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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014
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Would XXXX still have access to the physio room to have physio and for staff to use the hoist?
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Response - Yes, but depending on demand these sessions may be rationed as the room would need to be cleaned thoroughly between each session.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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015
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Would there be staff available and able to help XXXX XXXXX with hoisting and care as I know this normally takes two people?
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Response - Yes.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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016
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XXXX has a lot of equipment for positioning and learning aids. Would this all stay in the class with him?
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Response - Yes.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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017
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Are staff happy to have close contact with XXXX to meet his care and educational needs?
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Response - Yes.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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018
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Would we be sent photos of how the layout will be?
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Response - Yes, we will be taking photos and creating some videos - these will be shared before the 1st June.
Updated Response - Unchanged. Our aim is to share more photos and some videos during half-term.
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019
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FIRST EMAIL - I encourage all staff (and if possible students) to wear face masks whilst at school. This would make me feel more comfortable about XXXX returning.
It's been proven that countries that have adopted or mandated mask usage, have had huge success in containing the spread of CV19 (as can be seen in this very detailed article). It's not so much about the wearer from getting infected but the asymptomatic wearer from infecting other people. As you will read in that article, masks don't need to be expensive and can be home made cheaply. Thus easily accessible to staff and parents. So if everyone is wearing one, it drastically reduces the chances of the virus spreading.
At the bare minimum, I would encourage this for parents at drop off and pick up.
SECOND EMAIL - OK, but this is an opportunity for POW to lead the way on this like you do in so many other areas. Even the govt guidelines (belatedly) advise the use of masks in indoor public spaces as per the following section on masks:
3.6 Do people need to wear face coverings at work? Face coverings are not compulsory. However, if you can, people are advised to wear face coverings in enclosed public spaces where social distancing is not possible or where you are more likely to come into contact with people you do not normally meet. For example, on public transport or in some shops. Face coverings can help us protect each other and reduce the spread of the disease if you are suffering from coronavirus, but not showing symptoms.
3.7 Will a face covering stop me getting COVID-19? The evidence suggests that face coverings can help us protect each other and reduce the spread of the disease if you are suffering from coronavirus, but not showing symptoms.
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Response (following First Email) - I cannot promise we will change our approach but please know that your comments have been noted and will help us shape our provision moving forward.
Response (following Second Email) - Thank you again for your comments.
Please be assured that we are aware of the conflicting advice.
In this week's Department for Education guidance it states: "Wearing a face covering or face mask in schools or other education settings is not recommended".
"Face coverings may be beneficial for short periods indoors where there is a risk of close social contact with people you do not usually meet and where social distancing and other measures cannot be maintained, for example on public transport or in some shops. This does not apply to schools or other education settings.
"Schools and other education or childcare settings should therefore not require staff, children and learners to wear face coverings. Changing habits, cleaning and hygiene are effective measures in controlling the spread of the virus."
The guidance, from the Department for Education also adds: "The majority of staff in education settings will not require PPE beyond what they would normally need for their work, even if they are not always able to maintain a distance of two metres from others."
Again, I cannot promise we will change our approach but please know that your comments have been noted and will help us shape our provision moving forward.
Updated Response - We will follow the Department for Education’s guidance and will also respect staff (and pupils) personal wishes to wear a face covering if requested.
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020
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What sort of provision will there be for maths and phonics/reading learning in particular?
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Response - We are aiming to restore routines as much as possible. We will still be teaching phonics but the standard Read, Write Inc. approach will not be possible due to the inability to mix children from different groups (which is a key part of the 'stage-not-age' Read, Write Inc. approach).
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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021
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How will the children be encouraged to limit close interactions?
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Response - We will operate a child focused approach that seeks to educate over a period of time. This will be through specific inputs and regular positive reminders. Teachers will also model good practice.
Updated Response - Unchanged.
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Further Pre-school Questions:
1.
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You state that you will ask pupils to stay 2 metres apart and space chairs this far apart?
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Response - We will seek to put control measures in place but this is more likely to look like art easels being placed further apart and defined areas seperated more than usual.
Updated Response - Pre-school classrooms have been rearranged to allow for social distancing.
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2.
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Will the teacher/TA also be expected to stay 2m away from the children? Can they comfort a child if they need it?
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Response - No, adults will continue to care in the same way as before.
Updated Response -Unchanged
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3.
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If the children start playing together will they be separated or allowed to play?
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Response - They will be allowed to play in their small groups.
Updated Response -Unchanged
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4.
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Will they still have a variety of items to play with? So there are no fights for items and they can keep occupied?
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Response - Yes, a variety of appropriate items will be available to learn with.
Updated Response -Unchanged
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5.
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If they are to be outside for a portion of the day, what will they be doing? Will all the outside toys and play equipment be off limits?
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Response - Outside provision will be encouraged. The equipment may be limited but our grounds are extensive and we will make the most of these.
Updated Response - Each group will have designated outside areas with a choice of equipment.
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6.
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If I do send her back and she finds out upsetting could I then pull her back out?
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Response - This would be your personal choice. We will always respect your wishes.
Updated Response -Unchanged
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7.
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Is snack provided? Where will the children have lunch?
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Response - All snacks will be provided and prepared by the group’s adults. Lunch will be eaten in your child’s group classroom.
Updated Response -Unchanged
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REMINDER - If you have not already done so, please do email me your views as parents and carers about the approach being proposed.
Understanding your views and your intentions should the wider opening of schools take place as described from Monday 1st June 2020, will help us to best prepare for this challenge.
If you have already emailed, please feel free to email again as required.
