Latest News and Updates

Many thanks for your support in trying to reduce numbers of pupils on site where possible and using the provision in school carefully. As you will have read in the Crossdale News this week some bubbles are close to capacity and we want to ensure that we can continue to offer places to critical workers on the days that they are working and unable to supervise their children safely at home.

However, given the increased number of pupils on site  we will need to move back to start and staggered times to reduce the number of parents on site at one time from tomorrow (Wednesday 3rd February).

We now more than ever need staff and parents  to be diligent about following our procedures carefully and consistently as well as strictly keeping to government guidelines to keep our pupils, staff and families safe.

1. Please ensure you stick to the start and end times to the day detailed below. Please don’t be early or late and help us control the number of people on site:

• YR 9:00am - 3:30pm
• Y1 8:55am - 3:25pm
• Y2 9:05am - 3:35pm
• Y3  9:05am - 3:35pm
• Y4 8:55am - 3:25pm
• Y5  9:00am - 3:30pm
• Y6  9:05am - 3:35pm

2. Only one adult per family should accompany their children onto the school site and should be  wearing a face covering (covering their nose and mouth) at all times that they are on site.
3. Parents of children in Base 2 and 3 – please let your children go to the ‘Be Safe Bees’ alone to avoid congestion near entrances to the school. Parents of children in Y3 and Y4 should stand on the middle playground, but not past ‘The Tower’.
4. Please be mindful of social distancing with teachers and avoid congregating on the playground. You can send any questions to your child’s teacher using the class email system.

To answer your questions and point you in the right direction, Mr Cresswell, Mrs Westie or Miss Seedhouse will be available on the gate every day from 8.55am and after school until 3:35pm. 

Kind regards,

Mr Cresswell

From next week, staff in primary schools are being asked to use a covid-19 self-testing kit twice a week and report their results to the DfE and to school. The aim of testing is to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19. Testing will help identify and isolate more asymptomatic people who might otherwise spread the virus.  

If a member of staff tests positive, we will need to notify parents and close, or partially close, bubbles in school. The length of time a bubble is closed will depend the outcome of a second test the staff member will need to take.

Although this testing regime aims to make our school safer for staff and children, it seems likely that there will be some disruption as a result of any positive tests that may not ordinarily have been detected.

For parents accessing our critical worker provision in schools, it would seem sensible to ensure you are familiar with our home school offer using the SeeSaw app. This will enable your child to access education in the event of a bubble being closed.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Dear Parents,

As we respond to the latest school closure announced on Monday 4^th January, we continue to receive guidance and information from the government.

I wrote to you on Sunday to update you with a detail added to the critical worker guidance on Friday afternoon, ‘Children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can.’

Acknowledging the higher than expected numbers of pupils attending school, and concerns about community transmission rates, Matt Hancock has now urged key workers not to send their children to school if they can manage at home. The health secretary told Sky News: “If you’re a key worker and your partner doesn’t work then you shouldn’t be sending your children to school. That’s clear in the guidance.”

I  understand the latest statement from Matt Hancock will only apply to a few families. I am not sending this information to make parents feel guilty or to contradict information that employers have sent out – these are challenging times for everyone, but I have a responsibility to share guidance with you and urge parents not send their children to school whilst transmission rates are so high unless it is necessary.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Mr Cresswell

NB Please read Thursday's blog if you missed it: PROOF OF CRITICAL WORKER STATUS

Do you have any old, unwanted laptops you could donate?

We can repurpose old laptops for free into usable devices to help our children!

Some of the children at our school would benefit from us having some old laptops we could give them for home learning during lockdown as they haven’t one at home. We are having to loan them school ones but we don’t have enough!

 We are working with the charity Retech (www.retech.me.uk) to repurpose old laptops into simple devices that will enable children to access Home Learning during lockdown. The charity will professionally wipe the laptop of all old files, software and operating systems so there are no data security worries. The laptop will then get new software installed on it and be given to a child who we know needs one for their home learning and future homework. The charity can re-purpose almost any laptop, don’t think yours will be too old!

Ideally we would like the laptop to come with a power lead, but without is ok. Even if you just have old power leads, please donate them, they may help us.

Please drop them off at our school if you can. Come to the office (in school hours) and someone will come and collect it from you. If you can’t get to school, but have one you want to donate, just email or call us. We will organise someone to collect it from you.

Please forward the poster below to friends and family!

Many thanks :-)

We wish to try to build a picture of the levels of internet access pupils have available to them and also the devices they are using and sharing when undertaking home learning. This will help inform our plans for home learning and how we source and deploy available resources. 

Please click this link and complete the survey - it may help Crossdale obtain more devices, or get improved access to the Internet, for our children. This could really help many of our families at this time. 

All information that is gathered will only be used for the purposes identified above and will be destroyed once it has been used for this purpose. As with any information we gather it may be shared with the Department for Education but this will be as per their published privacy notices and data collection procedures and rules. 

Following the Prime Minister's announcement this evening, Crossdale will be closed to most pupils tomorrow. Provision will be in place for critical workers. If you completed our critical worker survey this morning or yesterday evening, your child will be on the register and we will be expecting them.

We will also be in touch with children who might be classed as vulnerable about provision in school.

Online learning will be in place for those children at home who cannot attend school.

Windmills is open for breakfast club tomorrow and we will update you about Windmills wrap around provision going forward in the coming days. 

School dinners will be available as normal.

All pupils in school tomorrow start at 9am and finish at 3.30pm.

Windmills preschool is open as normal for all pupils and we will update you about preschool going forward.