Newsletter 1 - 11th September 2020

Thank you to everyone for following our new entrance and exit routes.  The Car Park is working well and stopping the need to park on the roads, we hope you agree!   There will be some further minor works to finish but we are very pleased with the results particularly as we have such limited budgets.   

Please remember that you need to come to the gate to collect your child/ren from Mrs Hirst.   We do not want children to walk across the car park alone, thank you.

Please leave as soon as you have your child to reduce the amount of people in one place and keep the car park flowing. 

Whilst the ground is dry, the safest route to the gate is on the grass verge.   

Please arrive within bubble times to maximise safety.

Car park gates will be shut promptly at 9.10am.   Any late arrivals will need to come to the office and will be given a separate route in to school. 

 

Please bear with us!

In such a small school the COVID-19 requirements are tricky to implement with such a small staff. We ask you to bear in mind that the only staff out of class on a daily basis are Mrs Macmillan and Mrs Hirst with support from Mrs Salter on Monday and Thursday mornings. There are a LOT of duties, cleaning, supervising, gates etc which are completely the right thing to do, but take alot of time. Please be assured that we are working as hard as we can and if we cannot get back to you in our normal time zones, we will as soon as we can. Thank you. 

 

Kent Test 

As many of you will know the Kent Test has been moved to 15th October this year. Year 5 will be receiving their normal high quality teaching within class but we are not allowed to teach specifically for the test. We received information from KCC yesterday to say that they hope to publish guidance to schools at the end of next week regarding administering the Kent Test during these Covid-19 times in terms of covering the myriad of possibilities that could occur. 

 

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From Ms Lavey

Lockdown for all of us was really hard.   Tragically my best friends' son took his own life in June.  He suffered with his mental health and sadly left behind a wife and 3 year old daughter.  My friend loves sewing, so I suggested we make some masks and with everything we sell, all the proceeds go to Mid Kent MIND.  We have been busy! Last week we made our first donation of £1000 to the charity. We are still making and selling.

They are 3ply, 100% cotton, reversible and  cool machine washable.  They are £5 each and that £5 goes all to MIND.  Please contact me if you would like to order any.

Katherine Lavey 07793145720.

Thank you.

Our new Class 1 pupils have made a brilliant start to their education at CG! They are settling really well and are coming in and out of school with big smiles and much joy.  Welcome to all new parents, we are sorry that we cannot welcome you in our normal ways but hope that you too are starting to feel settled and happy in our CG family. Thank you to all of you for signing up for our Home Visits at School; it has been lovely to get to know you and your child better. School lunches next week! Thank you to Mr and Mrs Edwards in Class 1 for creating a brilliant Mud Kitchen for Class 1; it is amazing! 

We normally hold Meet the Teacher sessions at the beginning of every year. Unfortunately, this year we are unable to do these face to face. However, next week you will receive a virtual version detailing all of the same information that you would normally receive. This is for classes 2, 3 and 4, as Class 1 have had Home Visits at School instead. 

Forest School

We have sought advice from KCC regarding Forest School and how best to proceed with this. They have advised that currently it is fine for us to do Forest School, BUT staff who teach Forest School should be within the same Bubble as the children that attend Forest School. This is to minimise risk and stop any 'cross-bubbling'. Therefore, we are really sorry but we will have to change the planned order for FS this year.

This means that Class 4 will need to go first as Mrs B and Mrs Moorhouse are within the class 4 Bubble.

Class 4 will be split into year groups with Year 5 attending first:  

 

We will be taking Year 5 for 4 weeks, starting next Friday 18th September. 

YEAR 5 - 18th, 25th September and 2nd and 9th of October. 

 

We will then take Year 6 for 4 weeks, starting Friday 16th October. 

YEAR 6 - 16th, 25th October and 6th, 13th November.

 

After this we will re-evaluate according to the national picture at the time. 

We are really sorry that Class 2 children were thinking that they would be attending FS this term, but am afraid that this decision is beyond our control. 

School Lunches

Please can we remind all parents who are now having to pay for their dinners that they must ensure that they complete a Cranbrook Payment Form.     From 18th September we will be unable to provide you with a dinner unless this form is completed.   Kindly email the office if you need to complete one.  Thank you!

We are very fortunate to have Cranbrook School providing our meals as they are of excellent quality so a BIG thank you to them and particularly Head Chef Graeme Edmonds.

Home School Agreement

Our Home School Agreement for the academic year 2020-2021 will be coming out to you next week, please look out for it and share it with your child, completing the form as required.