Thursday 14 January

Dear Parent/Carer,

REMOTE LEARNING, DIGITAL DEVICES AND INTERNET ACCESS

Thank you for all the help you have been giving your children to access the home learning; we believe that nearly everyone is up and running and the systems are working with work coming back into the teachers for marking. If you are having any difficulties submitting the work then please let us know. We will continue to contact parents on a weekly basis if we cannot see that the children are accessing their learning so that we can help you if required.

We recently asked you to contact us if your child has any difficulties with accessing suitable ICT equipment for remote learning. We have now been contacted by the Department for Education and have placed an order for devices; we hope to start contacting parents who have been in touch next week. If you have not yet contacted us but are having difficulties with ICT equipment for remote learning, please contact us in confidence via email (admin@ludgershallcastle.wilts.sch.uk) or telephone (01264 790375).

Wiltshire Council have also announced that they will be allocating COVID-19 funding to schools to enable us to buy digital devices to loan to pupils who are currently struggling to access learning from home. Within their specifications for allocation they have asked us to consider multiple siblings who are currently sharing a device and children who are using mobile phones to access learning. We are aware that some families have been able to use their X Box and Playstations and would ask these families to continue doing so in order that any devices we loan out can be targeted to those currently using phones or sharing devices. If your child is currently using a phone for learning or sharing devices with multiple siblings please contact us as above, if you have not already done so.

In the event that we receive more requests for devices than we are able to supply, we will allocate them as fairly as we can and will continue work to help all families as much as we are able.   

As we mentioned before, a new, temporary scheme has been launched, where schools can apply to increase data allowances for pupils in certain instances. Information about this scheme can be found here: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/about-increasing-mobile-data  Parents/ carers are not able to apply directly for this; applications can only be made by schools. If you think you qualify for this scheme please let us know, we will then be in touch to gather the information required for us to make an application on your behalf. If pupils do not qualify for mobile data increases, they may nonetheless qualify for a further scheme which provides 4G routers. Details can be found here: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/how-to-request-4g-wireless-routers Again, applications can only be made by schools, so please contact us as necessary.

Thank you for your continued support with the education of your children in these difficult times.

Best wishes

Andy Bridewell

3rd January 2020 

Dear parents and carers,

Firstly I would like to wish you all a happy new year.

We are very sorry for the short notice about whether the school will open but have been waiting for advice from the Local Authority and unions.

The governors, staff and I have made the decision to keep our school closed for most pupils for at least the next school week.

This will help minimise the risk of spreading the virus, especially the new variant.

We have more staff who need to self-isolate than we have had so far.

We will be open, as we were at the beginning of the first lockdown, for the children of critical workers and for children considered to be vulnerable by the Local Authority. We will of course provide remote learning opportunity for your children at home and will share more information about this tomorrow (Monday 4th January).

Please do not bring your children to school tomorrow unless one of their parents is a key worker or your child is considered vulnerable by the Local Authority.

The children should arrive and be collected at their usual staggered times.

Best wishes Andy Bridewell

15-10-20

Reminder from the governors. If anyone in your household is displaying Covid symptoms your whole household should self-isolate until the person/persons displaying symptoms receives a negative test result. Children should not be sent to school if anyone they live with is displaying symptoms.

16-9-20

To help you to make a decision on whether or not to send your child to school if they are showing possible Covid symptoms please check the NHS Covid information page for the latest advice. Thank you. 

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ 

3-9-20

Hello everyone, I hope that all of your children enjoyed their first day back at school. This morning ‘drop off’ worked like a dream and it was lovely to see everyone. We knew that we might need to do some tweaking with our new systems as we try our best to stay ‘Covid-safe’. ‘Pick up’ didn’t work as well as ‘drop off’ so we are going to try a different approach tomorrow. We will be inviting parents to wait on a socially distanced circle on the top playground until their children are brought out to the playground and then children can go to their parents when they see them. We think this will work better but please bear with us as we try to get things right. Many thanks Mr Bridewell

1-9-20

We are looking forward to welcoming the children back to Ludgershall Castle Primary School.  

Here is what you need to know before your children arrive at school on Thursday:

• Children will need to be brought to school by one adult per family and will need to arrive at school at the following times:

Years 5 and 6 at 8.45am

Years 3 and 4 at 9.00am

Years 1 and 2 at 9.15am

Reception at the session times that were provided to you before the summer holidays. (Please contact the school office via phone if you have not yet received this information.)

If you have children in more than one year group please bring your children to school at the time of the eldest sibling and collect all children at their allocated time too.

Collection times will be:

Years 5 and 6 at 2.40pm

Years 3 and 4 at 2.50pm

Years 1 and 2 at 3.00pm  

Reception at the session times that were provided to you before the summer holidays.

• Children will be greeted at the top playground from the red gates by Mr Bridewell, Mrs Poultney, Mrs Okley and Mrs Watson. They will then be shown to a socially distanced space in their new classes and be greeted by their new Teaching Assistant that will take them to their classrooms to meet their Teachers.
• When bringing children into school please where possible walk or cycle to reduce the numbers of cars around school.
• Children will need to wear school uniform and bring in their own lunch boxes, coats and water bottles. These will be kept under your child’s desk in the classrooms. We are waiting for confirmation on when snack will be delivered but hope that free fruit will soon be available to KS1 and Reception children shortly. KS2 should continue to bring something in from home. In the meanwhile we invite children to pick something from their lunchboxes.
• Children who are entitled to a Free School Meal will have their lunches collected from the kitchen by the class Teaching Assistant and the children will be eating in their classroom or weather permitting in an allocated outdoor space with their class bubble.
• Children are not required to bring in any equipment or pencil cases into school. All resources will be provided for each child to use.
• Children will not be issued with home school diaries; any issues that need urgent attention will be dealt with via a phone call from the class teacher to parents.
• There will be no after school clubs until further notice.
• There will be no PE lessons until the week commencing 7^th September. Children will be told on which days they will have PE and they will need to wear their PE kits to school on these days for the duration of the school day.
• We are moving towards a paperless contact solution. All updates will be done via the school website and Facebook page and we have recently invested in a School App that you will be able to download and receive alerts when new updates are posted. This is currently being set up and parents will be invited to join via text message in the near future.
• We ask that if you have any queries for the school office that you telephone the school rather than come to the office to ensure social distancing. If you need to meet with anyone or collect something from school a time can be arranged over the phone.

We hope that this information is helpful and if you have any questions please get in touch by calling the school during school hours or send us a message through the School Facebook Page.

25-8-20

We are looking forward to welcoming the children back to school next week on Thursday 3rd September. 
Please make sure you check the website and school Facebook page next week as we plan to share any final arrangements through these pages. Thank you.
In the meanwhile we hope you find this booklet shared by the LA with advice for parents for children returning to school helpful. 

29-5-20

To confirm, Years R, 1 and 6 will not be returning to our school on Monday 1st June but we continue to stay open for key worker children and children who are considered to be vulnerable by the government. 

There are going to be a few significant changes from Monday which will remain in place when some of our Year 6 pupils return on 15th June.

We are going to have ‘bubbles’ of people within the school and people within one bubble will not be mixing with anyone from another bubble. This is to reduce the risk of anything being spread from one group to another.

Each bubble will include 2 adults so that there is always at least one adult with the group of children, for example if one of the adults needs the loo. 

We are positioning mats or tables 2 metres apart so we can fit a bubble of 15 children and 2 adults in the hall and the same in our largest classroom which we will call our art bubble because we had intended to use this room as our art room.

In other classrooms bubbles will have up to 9 children and 2 adults.

From Monday key worker parents and the parents of children considered vulnerable by the government will be able to drop their children in the top playground. This must be a maximum of one adult per family. There will be spaced out cones where you will wait until a bubble adult collects the children for that bubble.

Families must remain socially distanced from any other family and wait by their own cone.

Children will have their own learning packs so that they don’t have to share equipment with others. They will stay in their own bubbles whenever they go outside for breaks or for outdoor learning. They will also remain with their own bubble for lunch which will either be eaten in their bubble room or socially distanced outside. 

This is what it will be like for all pupils who return to school but for those still at home we will continue to provide ideas and resources for home learning activities that suit you.

20-5-20

We have been busy working in school to get a sense of what normal will look like when we open. We want to be as open as possible with you as to what life back in school will be like whilst making sure everyone attending the school site is aware and sticks to the rules of social distancing.  

Children will be in classrooms where all small toys, books and soft furnishings have been removed. Depending on numbers this may not be the classroom your child is used to.  Our school is going to feel very different however, we will continue to show children our care in different ways that does not involve close contact.  

Below are our intentions of how our school will operate when we open.  

General operation: 

• Year 6 will start back first, giving us time to see how the children and staff adapt to the new way of doing things before we start to introduce the younger ones. 
• Children will be in a group of no more than 15.  We have planned for smaller groups of 8-9 children with one adult. 
• Children will be with one adult in a group and not necessarily with the same groups of children or teacher they were with before lockdown.  
• Children will be encouraged to wear clean clothes everyday, this does not have to be school uniform. 
• The children will need to bring in a water bottle with them, no water fountains or cups will be available to them. No reading books, diaries, pencil cases or any other items need to be brought in. 
• Children will be given their own ‘packs’ of resources needed which will be cleaned at the end of the day. 
• If children fall over or have a toileting accident the children will be encouraged to change themselves and clean their scrape or cut. We have sourced PPE (following the Covid 19 guidance for educational settings) which is for use by staff if more contact is needed.  Should a child fall ill then full PPE would need to be worn by the staff member dealing with them. 

Drop off and pick up: 

• Children will arrive to school in the morning and will need to be collected at specified times. This is to minimise the numbers of people on the site at any one time.  
•  Only send children to school with one adult to drop off and pick up at the allocated time. You should only bring siblings if you absolutely have no alternative option. If you do need to bring siblings they will need to be by your side and adhering to the social distancing measures we have put in place.  
•  The waiting areas will be marked out with 2m intervals.  
• There will be a member of staff available to help direct you to the correct place. 
• Drop your child off at the drop off point and then leave the school site.  
• Please do not hang around the gates for any reason. The children will be welcomed into their designated groups by the school staff. 
• At the end of the day, collection times will be allocated, parents will need to stand on the 2m distancing signs for each area and children will be sent to you one at a time.  
• Parents are not allowed to enter the school building or have contact with the staff looking after their child. Contact with the school can be done by phone, e-mail or a message on the school Facebook page. 
• This will continue to be our procedure for arriving and leaving school regardless of weather conditions.  

Break times and lunch times:

•  The children will eat their lunch in the classrooms unless the weather allows a socially distanced lunch outside. 
•  Lunch times and break times will be staggered so that groups of children do not mix with any other groups. 
• Children bringing home packed lunch will need to ensure that any packaging is entirely disposable – No lunchboxes within school at all. 
• Outside play equipment like the climbing frame will not be able to be used. 
•  Children will have an allocated play space at playtime and lunchtime which will only be with the children that are in their group. They must remain in this space during any outside play and adhere to the social distancing guidelines 

In the classroom:

• The children will remain in their allotted classroom for the duration of the day. They will not be allowed to see or mix with children from other groups at all. 
• The children will only be able to use the toilet one child at a time. 
• Children will not be allowed to leave the classroom for the toilet other than at their specified time before break and lunch, unless there is a medical need or matter of urgency. The toilets need to be cleaned by the teachers after every group has used them.  
• The children will sit at desks, where they will be at least 2m apart, all facing the same direction. This includes the Reception children.  
•  All unnecessary furniture, equipment and soft furnishing have been removed. 
• The children will work at their desks. They will not sit on the carpet.  
• The children will be provided with the equipment they need and it will only be used and touched by them. These will be cleaned at the end of the day by the teacher.  
• They will have some lessons that will involve a lot of independent learning as the teacher will not be able to sit next to them to give them targeted support. The teacher needs to keep social distancing when teaching. 
• The ‘learning focus’ will be on the wellbeing and nurturing of the children.  We will be doing lots of story times and giving the children a chance to talk and listen to others.  Some revision of basic Maths and English skills will be introduced also. 

Cleaning:

•  The classrooms will be cleaned throughout the day by teachers. The bins will be emptied and desks will be sprayed throughout the day.  

Key worker children:

• Any children that have been on the key worker list will still be able to come to school but unless they are a Year 6 child (or Reception and Year 1 when we re-open to these groups), they will remain in a key worker group and will not mix with any other groups of children.  
• Key worker children will still need to be collected or remain at home when parents are not working other than children in Year 6 (or Reception and Year 1 when we re-open to these groups) who will be with their own year groups. 

All these precautions have been put in place to stop the spread of the virus and to ensure that we all take as much care as possible in ensuring that groups of children do not come into contact. More details will be sent out next week regarding the times your children will need to arrive and be picked up from school and where from. We hope this has given you more information regarding how the school will operate during these difficult and testing times. 

Plans are subject to change if we hear anything more from the government or the Local Authority. 

As a school we will not be looking to fine anyone who makes the decision to keep their child at home. 

For further guidance from the government please read their parents guidance here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/reopening-schools-and-other-educational-settings-from-1-june

11-5-20

For the latest advice on dealing with Covid-19 please visit: 

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

3-4-20

From Monday 6^th April we will not have a staff member in the school office. If you need to contact the school you will be able to leave a message on the answerphone which will be checked periodically. Should you need to contact the school urgently, please call 07388 813326. Many thanks.

3-4-20

The School Nursing Team have asked us to share the following poster with all parents and carers. Please click on the document below to view details. 

20-3-20

To all parents with children that we have confirmed are eligible to attend on Monday under the key worker criteria. Please note that children should be dropped off at Reception for 9am and collected at 3pm. The children can wear their own clothes as there is a possibility that they may get a bit messy during the planned activities. Please bring in wellies, warm outdoor clothes and lunch unless you have already contacted us to order one. Many thanks.

19-3-20 

If your child has an inhaler/any medication in school that needs to go home. Please arrange for this to be collected if your child is not in school. We will send all medication home if your child is in school tomorrow. Many thanks. 

19-3-20

If your child is entitled to an income related free school meal. Please call tomorrow before 12pm to order a packed lunch for next week. These will need to be collected from school each day from 12 o'clock.

19-3-20

If you work for the NHS, Police Force or are a delivery driver and there is no one else to care for your children during school hours. Please contact us. We are awaiting a clear definition of what is classed as a key worker.