Coronavirus - Advice for Parents

Summer Letter (Years 7 - 10 2020)

July 15th 2020

Dear Parent/Carer

A most unusual year and still contains so many unanswered questions. One thing we do know is that school will be fully open in September. So here are the arrangements.

Thursday September 3rd: Year 7 and 11 only

Friday September 4th: All years in

Covid-19 Safety arrangements

Firstly – common sense.

All rooms will be supplied with sanitizer for student and staff use for both entry and exit from class
All rooms will be provided with washing down facilities such as spray, cloths...etc. to be used after each lesson
Lidded bins will be in each classroom with tissues for ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’
Individually named pencil cases with appropriate equipment will be given to each student by the form tutor at the beginning of each day and collected at the end of the day. This will be wiped down/sanitized for next day use
There will be no assemblies
School will start at 9:00am for 20-minute form time them lesson 1 at normal time of 9:20
Appropriate signage regarding social distancing and hygiene will continue to be displayed

Movement around the School

This is the biggest challenge, but please see the diagram below.

Please note:

It is a clockwise move around the school
The main Maths/English corridor is 2-way as it is the only corridor that is more than 2m wide
All other corridors are 1-way only
1-way system past science, through the hall and into DT/Art/Food (who exit via the external doors)
Scenarios: If a student has DT followed by English, then they leave DT via the external door and walk round past Music, through the main entrance, up the 2-way system and into English (OR they could walk all the way round the school and enter English via the English external door)
English teachers will meet and guide student movement up into their areas
Ms Adams will meet and guide student movement up into her Maths room
Students may have to wait outside a classroom before entering to allow teachers to finish cleaning

Break times

We will run a 2 break system with KS3 at 10:40 and KS4 at 10:50

Lunch times

We will run a 2 lunch sitting: KS3 first, then KS4
12:20 is KS3 lunch. KS4 will go outside for their break, play football…etc.
12:40 is KS4 lunch. KS3 will finish lunch and will go outside for their activities…etc.

Student showing symptoms/becomes ill

Please do not send in your son/daughter if they show symptoms at home
Any student who comes to school showing any symptoms, or becomes ill during the day, will be immediately (and kindly) isolated in the First Aid room. Parent/carer will be contacted to pick up.
Appropriate and measured response will follow depending on outcome of the sickness (i.e. it may just be a normal cold)

Behaviour

Full uniform to be worn (this is addressed further in this letter)
Any student who does not respect the need to social distance and our guidance outlined in this letter will be sent home
Phones: These need to be handed in at the front as normal practice

Slight change to the school day

Because we want to minimise classes mixing as much as possible we are starting school at the slightly later time of 9:00am instead of 8:40am. This is for the first ½ term only. The day will look as follows:

09:00: Students arrive & Tutor time
09:20: Lesson 1
10:00: Lesson 2
10:40: Break (split)
11:00: Lesson 3
11:40: Lesson 4
12:20: Lunch (split)
13:00: Lesson 5
13:40: Lesson 6
14:20: Tutor time
14:40: Home

Uniform

The bane of every school, but an issue that is very important to the continuing development of the school. School uniform needs to be impeccable. We will start the year as we intend to carry on with a real drive on School Uniform and ensure all students arrive to school in the correct uniform. As always, there are genuine exceptions to the case, of which the only acceptable one being is a medically certified sensory issue to certain fabrics that a small minority of our student’s experience with clothing. As a school, we already know who these students are and these have been agreed in advance between school and home. The rest of the school community should be arriving in full school uniform which is:

Black shoes (not trainers)
Black trousers (and/or skirt)
White shirt/blouse
School Tie
Black blazer or black V-neck jumper

Year 11’s have a choice; either the school uniform, or they can wear a suit/smart office wear.

Please note: the wearing of tracksuit bottoms, white trainers, hoodies….etc, is not acceptable school attire. Any student arriving to school without the correct uniform and without a parental explanation, will either be sent home to put the correct uniform on, or, will need to be transported into school the next day by their parent for a meeting. Apologies if this sounds draconic, but the wearing of uniform is important to Batchwood.

Taxi arrangements

We have been informed by HCC that Taxi arrangements will be as they have always been. The recommendation therefore is that all students wear their face masks when in their taxi
Arriving to school, each taxi will wait with their passengers inside until invited in. This will be done taxi by taxi. This is so each student can sanitize their hands and we avoid ‘grouping up’. Students can then hand in their phones in and go straight to their form room.

Final words

It just leaves me to wish you all a very happy, safe and relaxing summer break. Just as a reminder, school begins again on Thursday September 3rd for years 7 and 11 only, with years 8, 9 and 10 returning on Friday Thursday September 4th 2020.

Have a fabulous and safe break.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Kemp
(Headteacher)

Download Summer letter (Years 7 - 10 2020) - pdf

Full details and general advice about Coronavirus can be found on the Public Health England website:
Coronavirus (COVID-19) - what you need to know