Latest News | Haggonfields Primary School

School Reopening Update

Wed 27 May 2020 Mrs H-S

Dear Parents & Carers,

Following the letter from Chris Moodie, the CEO of SNMAT, we can now share our plans for the first phases of reopening the school. The safety of our school community is paramount at all times and any planned reopening phases are conditional on our risk assessments as well as government guidance. Our school has its own unique set of challenges due to staffing, the number of pupils and the school site.

In order to ensure the highest standards of health and safety, the school will be closed for deep cleaning every Wednesday.

Phase 1- w/b Monday 8^th June: the ‘bubble’ of F1 children from Cygnus class.

We welcome back the F1 children from families who have already confirmed a school place.

F1 - 9:00am – 12:00pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Phase 2- w/b Monday 15^th June: the ‘bubble’ of F2 children from Cygnus class and the ‘bubble’ of Y1 children from Aquila Class.

We will also welcome back the F2 and Y1 children from families who have confirmed a school place.

Y1 - 9:30am – 12:30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

F2 - 9:15am – 12:15pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Phase 3 - w/b Monday 22^nd June: After a review, we hope to extend the school day for F2/Y1children.

Unfortunately, at this moment in time, we do not have the staffing, or the building capacity to welcome our Y6 children back. Our decision is based on the health and safety of everyone and is in line with government guidance. We will continue to review the situation.

Our school continues to be open for key worker provision from 8:45am -3:30pm. As throughout the closure, and in line with government guidance, this group must be prioritised. Any new key worker children places must be applied for via the application form. This is available from our office: office@hps.snmat.org.uk

Our teachers will continue to provide online work via MS Teams, Class Dojo and the school website for all pupils who are working from home.

School will be a very different environment from the one which we all left in March…our children and staff will need time and space to adjust to this very different way of working in our school building. Further details will be sent out to you next week. Please be assured that we understand the anxieties around children returning to school and we will support whichever choice you may make.

Best wishes…and stay safe,

Mrs H-S

School Reopening Update Letter

Tue 26 May 2020 Chris Moodie - CEO SNMAT

The following update, written by the CEO of SNMAT, has been sent out to our families on Class Dojo today. It can also be found in the 'Letters' section of the website:

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for your patience whilst the Board Of Directors has been considering the best way to proceed as we move towards re-opening primary academies. There is a great deal to consider, and safety has been at the forefront of directors’ minds throughout.

The re-opening of SNMAT primary academies will progress in phases. During each phase we will review our work to ensure that, before moving on to the next phase, it is safe to do so.

The directors are clear that:

SNMAT academies will prioritise vulnerable pupils and the children of critical (also known as ‘key’) workers.
Before extending any provision and taking in more children, headteachers and senior leaders need time to ensure that the government’s new guidance (published on Sunday, 24^th May) can be implemented. This guidance is impacting on risk assessments that we are currently undertaking.
We must protect the groups of children and staff that either currently exist, or will be created as we move forward. This will mean that we move cautiously and steadily.
Vulnerable children, and children of critical workers who have already been accessing the academy will continue to do so from 1^st June.

We have assigned specific dates to the first two phases:

1. Phase 1: 8^th June

1.1 SNMAT primary academies will open to the children of key workers who are not currently accessing the academy. This may be a phased re-opening for this group, with part-time provision in the first few days.

1.2 If the academy has further capacity, we will begin to welcome back the part-time children in F1 on 8^th June. This may also be phased in the first few days.

2. Phase 2: 15^th June: If the academy has further capacity, we will extend the offer to more children. This may also be phased in the first few days.

Headteachers will be in touch with you to share local arrangements.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Moodie

Chief Executive Officer

Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham Multi Academy Trust (SNMAT)

SNMAT Reopening Update Letter

Mon 25 May 2020 Chris Moodie - CEO SNMAT

The following update, written by the CEO of SNMAT, has been sent out to our families on Class Dojo today. It can also be found in the 'Letters' section of the website:

Dear Parents and Carers,

You will probably be aware that, at the Downing Street briefing last night, the Prime Minister confirmed 1 June as the earliest date that primary schools can begin to re-open. This does not mean that schools will all open on this date and, indeed, a great many schools and local authorities across England have already signalled that this will not be the case. The Board of Directors for the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Multi Academy Trust are currently considering the date that primary academies within SNMAT will further expand their current provision. I very much hope to be able to communicate this date with you in the near future. As ever, please be assured that the safety of children, staff and communities will be at the core of the directors’ decision making processes.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Moodie

Chief Executive Officer

Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham Multi Academy Trust (SNMAT)

School Reopening Update

Fri 22 May 2020 Mrs H-S

Dear Parents & Carers,

We are currently working on a strategy in response to the government’s planned phased re-opening of schools to more pupils from 1^st June at the earliest. The safety of our school community is paramount at all times and we are drawing up plans of how this may work in our school. Every school will face its own unique set of challenges due to staffing, the number of pupils and the school site. Any planned reopening is conditional on our risk assessments in school These are some of the challenges that we are facing as we plan to re-open:

The school is a lovely Victorian building; however, this means that our classrooms are small. Our classrooms can only accommodate 10 children when socially distanced. Our staff are preparing classrooms to accommodate these small groups of children in ‘bubbles’.
Many of our staff work part-time and this reduces the amount of bubbles that we can have. In order to reduce the number of people that your child will come in to contact with, each bubble must have the same members of staff.
The way that the site is arranged at school means that socially distanced movement presents a challenge. We have a long, narrow corridor. We have very few toilets and they are situated at the end of the corridor. We will need to zone areas of the school to ensure that each bubble is kept safe.
Our staff are working hard to find solutions to reduce risk to children, staff and the community. This includes removing resources and furniture from the classrooms so that all areas can be cleaned regularly. Each child will have their own learning space and set of resources.
The start/end of day times, playtimes and lunchtimes will be staggered for the groups to ensure that social-distancing takes place. Parents and carers will not be admitted into the building or be able to wait in a group outside.

We are currently waiting for further government guidance regarding the SAGE report as well as the government announcement on the 28^th May. The SNMAT will be communicating with you early next week and this will provide clarification of how we will proceed with a phased reopening. We understand the anxieties around children returning to school and we will support whichever choice you may make.

Best wishes...and stay safe,

Mrs H-S

Virtual Take Five - Week 5

Thu 21 May 2020 Mrs H-S

The week five 'Virtual Take Five' sessions are now available on our website in the 'Children' menu. Click on link for this week's poster to access the three video links: a basic practice, a simple practice and a movement/imagination practice. Your class teacher will confirm the password on Class Dojo today.

Take Five Celebration Flyer

This week we have also added a poster offering our children the opportunity to share some feedback about how Take Five is helping them to STAND STRONG and grow their “I can handle it” capacities. Each Amazing Breath, the organisation behind Take Five, thought it would be great to give our children the opportunity to share their Take Five experiences.

The ‘Celebration Flyer’ has some suggestions of how your child might like to share any feedback they have about Take Five/Virtual Take Five. Please send any poems, stories, photographs of drawings or models about Take Five to your class teacher in the usual way. We will then send them on to Each Amazing Breath. Please make sure that the child’s name is not included on the work or photograph. Each Amazing Breath will publish the year group and name of the school if they use the feedback on Social Media or their website.

Each child will receive a ‘Take Five Hand Highlighter’ as a ‘thank you’ for taking part. Each Amazing Breath will send this to us ready for when all pupils return to school. The closing date for you to send any online feedback is Tuesday 9th June.

We really hope that you can encourage your child to take part –it is a great creative activity that they can enjoy doing during the Half Term holiday!

SNMAT Reopening Update

Wed 20 May 2020 Chris Moodie - CEO SNMAT

The following update, written by the CEO of SNMAT, has been sent out to our families on Class Dojo today. It can also be found in the 'Letters' section of the website:

Dear parents and carers,

When I wrote to you last week, I indicated that I would write again with an update when I could. Things have moved on quite significantly and I am now in a position to share the way that partner academies within SNMAT are planning to move forward. Things do, however, continue to be uncertain and – as such – our plans may also change in step with the government’s guidance.

The government is making a decision on Thursday, 28 May about the re-opening of schools in England. At present, the earliest that this will be is during the week beginning 01 June. You will be hearing a great deal about this in the press and other media; much of this speculation - please be assured that we will communicate with you when we have a confirmation of the way forward.
All SNMAT partner academies are actively planning to begin re-opening to more children.
We will continue to prioritise the children of critical workers and vulnerable pupils.
This is very new territory and, because of this, we want to know that our plans are effective before we move forward quickly. We will therefore trial our processes with limited numbers of pupils at first. When we know our strategies are working, we will look to re-open for more children. Your headteacher will be in contact to provide details and likely dates.
All academies and schools are likely to be offering different approaches to re-opening. This is because re-opening is completely dependent on the number of staff that are available to work. As with every other walk of life, there are members of staff in academies who have underlying health conditions, are shielding loved ones or have been advised to stay at home. In some academies the impact of this is limited; in others it has significantly reduced the numbers of staff who are available.
It has been suggested that supply teachers are used where staffing levels are very low. We have considered this and decided that, given the amount of time that most children have been away from the academy, introducing unfamiliar faces at the point of return would not be helpful. It would also increase the number of interactions between children and staff and therefore raise the level of risk. We have consequently decided not to pursue this as an option.
The planning that headteachers are involved in at the moment will mean that academies are very different places. Children will be in small groups that do not interact with others, and have the same staff every time they are in the academy. These are called ‘bubbles’ and will help children, staff and the community to reduce the risk of infection and transmission.
Many parents have already signalled that they do not want their children to return if we re-open in early June. I repeat the message that parents will not be penalised for this. If you have made such a choice and change your mind at a later stage, please be patient with the academy; it may take a number of days for the academy to make changes to accommodate more children. In some cases, where staffing levels are already at full capacity, it may not be possible for more children to attend until more staff are available. I know that you will understand that, if this is the case, children will be welcomed back as soon as they safely can be.
Please be assured that all SNMAT partner academies are receiving advice and guidance from our Health and Safety advisors. This is the same team that are advising the majority of schools across Nottinghamshire. We will be carrying out risk assessments in every academy and following the guidance closely.
In order to keep the remote/online learning working for those year groups that have not been identified by the government for a planned return to school, it is very likely that partner academies will be closed to all except critical worker’s children and vulnerable children for up to a day each week. This will also allow for more extensive cleaning of the areas being used.

I recognise that this is a great deal of information, and that it is likely that headteachers have also been keeping you up to date. At SNMAT, we are all very much looking forward to returning to some form of normality as soon as it is safe to do so; this will remain our key priority as we move into the next phase of this situation.

Please look after yourselves and your loved ones.

Chris Moodie

Chief Executive Officer, SNMAT

SNMAT Reopening Letter

Thu 14 May 2020 Chris Moodie - CEO SNMAT

The following letter written by the CEO of SNMAT has been sent out to our families on Class Dojo today. It can also be found in the 'Letters' section of the website:

Dear Parents and Carers

I am writing to you on behalf of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Multi Academy Trust (SNMAT) to update you as to the re-opening of schools in the near future. I am sure that you are following the latest government announcements and I wanted to ensure that you know what academies within SNMAT are doing to prepare for this.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the support that you have shown for schools in the past seven weeks. I know that a huge number of parents (many of them key workers themselves) have made sacrifices in order that their children are looked after at home. Thank you also for supporting your children with their home learning. We know that this is not easy, and teachers have been very proud of so many of the children as they have been working at home.

The government has asked that schools plan for re-opening for specific year groups. The earliest that this will be is the 1^st of June. This of course is dependent upon the country reaching the five key tests set by the government at that time, including that the rate of infection is decreasing. As you would expect, the safety of children and staff is our utmost priority. We are all very much looking forward to getting back to normal at some point in the future but – in the meantime – when we do start to re-open schooling, things will be very different to how they were in the past. We are awaiting further guidance from the government but at this moment in time, the key points that we can share with you are:

1. The government are planning for a gradual return to normality. This means that, where it is possible and safe to do so, we will open to the specifically identified year groups first. These have been identified in priority order as nursery (F1) and reception (F2), year 1 and year 6.

2. The government has not yet indicated when they expect other year groups to return to school but has expressed a hope that this will happen before the summer holidays begin. In the meantime, teachers will continue to provide online learning until the government directs us to re-open for these year groups. Your headteacher will be in touch to provide further guidance about this as, when schools begin to re-open, it is very likely that all of the available teachers will be in school teaching.

3. We have received guidance from the government about implementing protective measures in schools. Headteachers and their staff teams are currently using this guidance in their re-opening plans.

4. It is likely that re-opening strategies will be different in different schools. This is because each one is very different: the number of staff that are available will be a key factor, alongside basic things such as the number of entrances and the location of toilets and hand-washing facilities.

5. It is possible that when we re-open, we will do so in a phased manner. It may be that not all of the priority year groups are able to return straight away on 1^st June. This might also mean that children in the identifed year groups are offered part-time schooling in the first instance, with different start and end times for different groups. Please be assured that, where we can, we will offer full-time schooling.

6. We are aware that some parents have indicated a reluctance to send their children to school during this crisis. This is a parental choice. Whilst the government has made it clear that they are encouraging children in the stated year groups to attend, parents will not be fined for non-attendance. Headteachers will be in touch with the parents of the identified year groups in the near future to establish the number of children that will be returning as this will have a significant impact on our planning.

7. Class sizes will be limited to a maximum of 15, with smaller groupings where possible. We will be encouraging social distancing (whilst recognising that this is very difficult for the younger children) and groups will be isolated from one another to reduce the risk of transmission. This means that children will remain in their group throughout the re-opening period and will not mix socially or be able to swap with other groups.

8. We remain open to the children of key workers. We will apply criteria that reflect the government’s guidance on this. In the same way, we remain open to pupils who are identified as being vulnerable.

9. In order for the re-opening of schools to be a success, we must all work together. This means that all children who attend a school when it re-opens must follow social distancing guidelines at home too, otherwise the risk of infection will be substantially raised for all involved. We will be issuing more guidance about this in the near future.

I realise that this is a lengthy communication; there is a great deal of work to be done between now and re-opening and I know that the government will continue to provide us with guidance. I can reassure you that we will continue to update you when our planning has moved on. In the meantime, may I wish you well on behalf of the academy, thank you for your ongoing support and ask that you continue to be safe.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Moodie

Chief Executive Officer

Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham Multi Academy Trust (SNMAT)

Virtual Take Five - Week 4

Thu 14 May 2020 Mrs H-S

The 'Virtual Take Five' sessions are proving to be very popular with our families! Thank you for the feedback and photos that you are sending to the classteachers.

The week four 'Virtual Take Five' sessions are now available on our website in the 'Children' menu. Click on link for this week's poster to access the three video links: a basic practice, a simple practice and a movement/imagination practice.

Your class teacher will confirm the password on Class Dojo today.

School Closures Update

Mon 11 May 2020 Mrs H-S

Dear Parents & Carers,

I just wanted to reassure you that we are awaiting further clarification from the government following last night's announcement. There are still lots of unanswered questions for both schools and families.

At this time, there is no change to the guidance regarding our current provision. We will continue to provide care for the children of key workers who cannot be safely cared for at home. The message remains that it is still safer to stay at home.

Schools have not yet received any information to support us with the new plan to start the phased reopening of some year groups. We will receive further clarification shortly. Hopefully, this will detail how it is possible to social distance in schools and keep our children, staff and families safe.

Please be assured that we will not reopen until we are 100% sure that we have placed the well-being of the school community at the forefront of any changes. Until we have further clarification, we would ask you not to raise your child's hopes and expectations too high for a return to school on 1st June at this stage.

As always, we will keep you informed of any updates. Our plan is to continue to provide key worker childcare, online learning and support for our families in this difficult and uncertain time.

Best wishes...and stay safe,

Mrs H-S

Virtual Take Five - Week 3

Thu 07 May 2020 Mrs H-S

It's been great to hear your positive feedback about our 'Virtual Take Five' sessions. Lots of family members are getting involved and enjoying the breathing practices!

The week three sessions are now available on our website. 'Virtual Take Five' can be found in the 'Children' menu. Click on link for this week's poster to access the three video links: a basic practice, a simple practice and a movement/imagination practice.

Your class teacher will confirm the password on Class Dojo today.