The Courier

Dear Parents

In today’s Courier you will see a news update on our plans for redeveloping the on-site nursery building. We will be naming the building the Horton Centre, in recognition of the school’s origins at Horton Crescent in the centre of town. I’m delighted that we have now reached a point where planning permission has been granted and we are starting to look at the finer details with our identified building contractors.

I know that parents will be keen to understand the impact of the building work on the school operations. I can assure you that I am equally determined to make sure that this works well for the benefit of everyone. For that reason, we have brought forward the entry date to the building which should allow us to crack on with preliminary work during the last month of the school term. This will be carefully managed with little or no impact on the children’s learning or play.

Obviously, the next big question will be when the project will be finished. Our plan is that the sign off date will be at the end of August, allowing us to enter the building the week before the start of the school year. I would make it clear that if for any reason we are not able to get in at that time, we have clear plans in place to accommodate all of the children within the existing classrooms. 

I will be able to give a full update on progress and plans at the Welcome Evening on 1 July, when we will be a month into the project. The opportunities that this new build provides for all the children in the school are enormous, not just in the short term but going forward for years ahead. These are exciting times for the school, there is no doubt about it.

My congratulations to the cross-country team that took part in the races on Wednesday. Lots of the children were a little nervous beforehand but everybody came back thrilled with the experience. I am hoping to get over to Crackley Hall myself next week to accompany the boys’ football team, which I am looking forward to.

April showers seem to have moved forward to May this year and we have had plenty of varying intensity at school in the last week. These looks set to continue over the weekend so I hope you can dodge most of them and enjoy some quality time with your children.

Best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

On Monday this week the government announced the next stage of the route out of lockdown which comes into force on Monday 17 May 2021.

As part of this, schools have been issued with renewed guidance on all aspects of educational provision. In truth, much has not changed and the common sense interpretation of the new document is that we continue much as we have done over the last number of weeks since the return to school in March. For example, the staggered day and zoned play areas will remain in place. We will continue to request that visitors to the school follow our strict covid protocols and that deliveries and drop offs of uniform are left in the boxes outside the front door.

Guidance around wearing masks has not changed for primary schools and staff will continue to wear them in public areas and when moving around classrooms in close proximity to the children. Again, there is no change to the requirements for testing should you or anyone in your household develop symptoms and possibility of groups having to isolate if they if we do encounter a live case is still there. We will continue to advise parents to wear face coverings when coming onto the school grounds, in line with Warwickshire Authority guidance.

One thing we do intend to change is the groupings of children within their bubbles. The bubbles themselves will remain firmly in place and children will be taught by specialists in their home form room. However, we will now allow more collaborative learning where children can work together in pairs and in groups within their class bubble. This is an important part of the way that children learn in primary schools and I'm pleased to say the new guidance allows this to return.

We will continue to watch closely the gradual relaxation of safety rules and we will follow these in school based on our own risk assessment of the children's needs. I cannot thank parents and the wider community enough for all of the support that you have shown for our risk assessment measures during the last year or so. The support that you have all given to the school during this time has been a major factor in us being able to provide a safe working environment for children and staff.

On that note, please note if children have any of the Covid symptoms they must receive a negative result from a PCR test before returning to school. A lateral flow test is not sufficient, due to the variance in reliability of the tests.

Parents are discouraged from taking pupils out of school during term-time because of the impact it has on their learning. Should this be unavoidable, permission should always be sought in advance from myself.  I am able to pre-authorise absences on certain grounds such as religious observances and special family occasions.

Please ensure you submit any absence requests in good time, through either My School Portal or via the office email admin@crescentschool.co.uk.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster