If you have struggled financially during lock-down, please see below. Working with Keyworth United FC, we are able to access packs to help you get your children active! Contact us on contact@crossdale.notts.sch.uk today if you would like us to obtain one for you.
Further information can be found on the attachment below.
Dear Parents and Carers,
You will all be very aware that Crossdale has been closed to most pupils since March. You will also know that the children of critical workers have continued to come to school throughout the intervening period and, since 8th June, children in R, Y1 and Y6 have been able to attend school.
Over the last 2 weeks it has been a real pleasure to have more children back in school and a joy to see how well they have responded to the changes we have put in place to promote good hygiene and social distancing. Seeing how happy the children are in school has made us determined to give even more pupils the chance to spend some time in school; in fact, we’d like every Crossdale child to have the chance to spend some time in school before the summer.
Government guidance received this week now gives us the flexibility to invite different year groups into school. However, existing guidance around class sizes means Crossdale is already ‘full’ – most days we have 7 groups of up to 15 pupils (bubbles) being taught in separate classes. Consequently, we have neither the space nor staff available to offer provision for more bubbles. The latest guidance gives us the flexibility to invite more year groups into school but does not give us the scope to have more bubbles in school at any given time. Quite a quandary…
Our response to this quandary is informed by our desire to give every pupil some time in school to allow them to reconnect with friends, teachers and the routines and heartbeat of Crossdale. It is extremely important to us that children should not return after the summer having been out of school for 6 months. As such, we have devised a plan that gives every year group some time in school over the coming weeks – for some year groups the time is brief, but it will still be important in terms of transition to their next year group.
Our updated plan does mean that children in R, Y1 and Y6 will have their time in school reduced, but this is a compromise we felt we had to make in order to benefit as many children as possible. Had we continued with the current timetable for R, Y1 and Y6, we would not have been able to offer any time in school to other year groups.
Planning for more pupils coming to school has been made more challenging by the availability of staff; the current crisis means our normal staffing complement has been significantly reduced and sourcing supply teachers has become problematic. If staffing availability changes, it may mean we can increase our offer for some year groups, but it could also mean we need to reduce it. We will keep you informed as the situation evolves.
Children attending school over the coming weeks will follow our Rainbow Rules – the children already in school have followed these rules very well and, in line with our risk assessments, staff are promoting the good hygiene practices that reduce virus transmission risk. The curriculum will focus on well-being and activities that support key skills. We will also continue to offer home learning activities until the end of term for children not in school.
To summarise:
We do appreciate there is a lot of information to digest to digest here. Please read both attached documents carefully and contact us using contact@crossdale.notts.sch.uk if you have any questions. We will contact all parents on Monday 22nd June with more information about bubbles and dates when pupils can attend.
It is my sincere hope that the school experience children have over the coming weeks is a precursor to them coming back to school more consistently after the summer. As a parent and a teacher, I know how important it is for the children to be in school and with their friends and teachers. The government have not yet given a timescale for the release of their plans for schools in September, but I will communicate them with you as soon as we get them.
Kind regards,
Peter Cresswell
Ideas for parents to use with their child to prepare them for their return to school.
We hope that the information about returning to school provided so far has been helpful – remember that we are here to answer any further questions you may have.
We are still aiming to re-open for more children in Reception, Year One and Year Six from 8th June (click here for details of our staggered start). For those children who are returning to school , there may be a variety of feelings being experienced. Children may be excited; happy; confused; apprehensive etc - and a mix of all of these! This is only natural, so just reassure your child that it is normal to feel a range of emotions at this time.
The aim of the information below is to provide you with some ideas about how to support your child’s transition from home to school – actually, they are rather like the activities you may have done when your child first started school. Just like adults, feelings of apprehension can be reduced if we know what we should expect from a situation.
If you have any specific concerns about your child’s transition back to school and/or you feel that there is some information that we need to know in order to support your child, then please contact Miss Seedhouse via the school office, 0115 9748088 or office@crossdale.notts.sch.uk.
Some Ideas to Support Children Before they return to school
You can subscribe to a feed of the latest news items, using the link below. Subscribing to this news feed is free and will keep you up-to-date with the latest news stories that have been posted.To subscribe, simply right-click on the link below, click "copy shortcut" and then paste the URL into your feed reader software.
Subscribe via RSS (Latest News and Updates)