Dear parent/carer,
I hope you have all had a good summer and your child is ready to return to school next week. We know this might be a cause of slight anxiety and worry for some of them, but we hope they are also excited to get back into school. As I stated in my last letter, the first week back (week beginning 7 September 2020) will be a staggered transition week due to the amount of time students have been out of school and because of all the changes and systems we have had to put in place short term due to Covid-19. A reminder of the days is below:
|
07/09/20 – week A
08.50 – 15.00 each day |
Year 7 intro day in school.
Year 11, 10, 9 & 8 Project work – at home.
|
Year 8 intro day in school.
Year 11, 10 & 9 Project work – at home.
Year 7 in school.
|
Year 9 intro day in school.
Year 11, 10 & 8 Project work – at home.
Year 7 in school.
|
Year 11 intro day in school.
Year 10, 9 & 8 Project work – at home.
Year 7 in school.
|
Year 10 intro day in school.
Year 11 virtual careers day – at home. Year 9 & 8 Project work – at home. Year 7 in school.
|
The project work will be published on to each Microsoft Teams area on Monday 7 September 2020 so that all students have work to complete at home on the days that they are not in school for this week. Each year group will have one day in school during this week, apart from the new year 7 cohort who will be in every day for a transition week as they did not have a proper transition in the summer.
As I stated in my summer letter, we will be reflecting on our modified timetable after four weeks and we will let you know via letter whether it will be continuing as is, or if further changes will be made. Just a reminder that on the days your child is timetabled for PE they should come into school in their full PE kit for the whole day to avoid over using the changing rooms, we will let you know when this changes back to using the changing rooms.
The modified timetable will run from the week beginning 14 September, please see below for a reminder of the start and end times of the day:
| 08.30 – 08.45 |
Gate A – year 7 Gate B – year 8 Gate C – year 9 |
15.00 |
Exit through year group gates by 15.00
|
| 08.45 – 08.55 |
Gate A – year 10 Gate B – year 11 Gate C – college |
15.05 | Exit through year group gates |
The position of the gates is shown on the site map at the bottom of this letter.
Below is reminder of how the break and lunch times will be staggered between Key Stages and the areas that each year group will have:
| Free Time | KS3 | KS4 | KS5 |
| Break & Lunch |
Year 9 – Art Café/Art playground/Art and DT toilets. Year 8 – M3/Willows area and hardcourt/gym and PA toilets. Year 7 – M1/main playground/main corridor and front toilets |
Year 10 – M3/Willow and hardcourt/gym and PA toilets.
Year 11 – M1/main playground/main corridor and front toilets |
Social distancing in the college. |
Our breakfast club will be running at usual from 08.00 – 08.40 but students will be asked to socially distance in their year group bubbles. Once we are back at school fully, we will let you know what will be happening with after school clubs.
In terms of face coverings in school, we are not an area that has restrictions in place, in fact Warrington has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. For that reason, face coverings in communal areas will not be mandatory in school at the present time, although this may change. Students are welcome to wear face covering in communal areas on corridors, at break time and at lunch time if they wish to. If they do wear a face covering at these times, then they must follow these rules:
- Face covering must be plain and dark coloured – no patterns, designs or logos.
- When worn, they must cover the mouth and nose fully.
- Hands must be cleaned before the face covering is put in place.
- Students must not touch the face covering or their face whilst it is on.
- Hands must be cleaned before the face covering is removed.
- The face covering must be stored in a dry sealable plastic bag immediately after removal.
- Hands must be cleaned once the face covering is safely stored.
- If a face covering becomes wet or damp, it must be disposed of immediately and not worn.
- Face covering cannot be thrown into a normal bin or put in a recycling bin.
- They must be put into a sealed plastic bag and disposed of in a normal bin.
- It is really important that face coverings are not discarded on the floor around school.
If these guidelines are not followed, then wearing the face covering becomes pointless and can actually cause the spread of bacteria and germs more than not wearing any face covering. It is the responsibility of the child to make sure that all of these rules are met. If your child uses public transport to get to school, then they must wear a face covering and these rules must be followed with the face covering removed before they come into school.
Please ensure that your child brings as little as physically possible into school. They must have their own equipment as we cannot lend out pens and stationery until further notice, they will not be able to share their equipment with other students either. We would highly recommend that your child has their own hand sanitiser in school with them. We will be providing it in school, but it will make things easier of they have their own meaning they can clean their hands more often and at a better distance from others. There will be plenty of tissues available in school but if your child has their own supply too, it will be helpful. To ensure good respiratory hygiene, we will be promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach around school. We will be encouraging that there as few visitors to school as possible for the first four weeks of school. Please make sure your child is organised and has everything they need for the day to discourage missing equipment having to be dropped off at the school reception area.
Alongside all of the measures we have put in place that I detailed in my July letter, we will be making it clear to student that they must keep a two metre distance from staff wherever possible and at least a one metre distance from each other. We will be taking it very seriously if any student is deliberately breaking social distancing or any rules we have had to put in place in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We will be following government guidance on what to do if there are any suspected cases of Covid-19 in the school community. Please do not send your child into school if the have a new and persistent cough or a high temperature, or has a loss of or change in, their normal sense of taste or smell. If they have these symptoms, they should self-isolate for ten days and arrange to have a test. We will be sending any student home that displays these symptoms to follow these same rules, we will have a small amount of home-testing kits in school that we will be able to distribute as appropriate. Once you have the results of a test, school will advise you of next steps depending on the result.
We are looking forward to having our students back in school and welcoming our new year 7s into the Birchwood family. Things will be different in the short term but we are confident we will all settle into our new normal very quickly and enjoy the year ahead.
Best wishes and take care,
Ms Emma Mills
