Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Approach to COVID-19 testing across the Kemnal Academies Trust’s Primary Academies
Fri 22 Jan 2021Dear Parents / Carers
I am writing to share information regarding our approach to COVID-19 testing.
You will be aware that Primary schools have been asked by Central Government to roll out a programme of home testing for staff. In order to enhance our protective measures, we are introducing the regular home testing of our staff who are currently working in school. This means that our staff who have no symptoms, can self-test for COVID19 twice weekly if they wish, using lateral flow tests. Any staff member who tests positive is required to stay at home and self-isolate to reduce the risk of them unknowingly passing the virus on to other staff and children at school.
COVID19 infection rates remain high across the country at the moment, and the safest way to reduce transmission of the virus is for close contacts, both staff and children, of positive cases to self-isolate. This is in-line with the guidance for all other sectors of the community and NHS Test and Trace guidelines. We acknowledge that this could disrupt your child’s onsite education. However, we are providing remote education to all students who are at home at this present time and all students self-isolating will be able to access our remote education offer. The period of self-isolation is ten days.
We want to provide reassurance that the rollout of regular testing for asymptomatic staff who have not been identified as a close contact, is a positive addition to the protective measure that we have implemented. We have confidence that this regular testing will help to identify those who have the virus unknowingly and reduce the risk of the virus spreading within our school community.
Children and staff must continue to adhere to the national guidance and strict protective measures which have been implemented in our school. This includes social distancing, face coverings where appropriate and regular hand washing. Lateral flow tests are an additional protective measure, not a replacement. This increase in testing, along with the protective measures already implemented will ensure that our school remains a safe place to learn and work.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Yours sincerely
Mr J Manclark
Headteacher
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REMOTE LEARNING: A message from Mr Manclark
Fri 08 Jan 2021Dear Parents/Carers
As we are coming to the end of the first week of partial school closures because of the National Lockdown, I wanted to say a big thank you to all parents & carers for the great work you are doing to encourage and support children with their remote learning.
All of us here at school appreciate how difficult this can be, especially if you have younger children at home or are having to balance remote learning with working from home yourself! Well done to you all.
The school will continue to deliver online lessons every day and provide work for all children to do and will always be available if you have any questions or concerns. The school are here to support, not add to your already considerable pressures as parents. Parents can make contact with their child’s class teacher by email using the following :-
reception@dmpa-tkat.org
year1@dmpa-tkat.org
year2@dmpa-tkat.org
year3@dmpa-tkat.org
year4@dmpa-tkat.org
year5@dmpa-tkat.org
year6@dmpa-tkat.org
Parents can also contact the office through admin@dmpa-tkat.org or they can telephone the office and leave a message for teachers on (01843) 223989.
Children can contact their class teacher through Google Classroom.
Together we will ensure your child does not fall behind because of Covid!
Take care and stay safe, everybody.
Best wishes.
Mr J Manclark
Headteacher
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Year 5 - Space Topic
Tue 05 Jan 2021The term has begun and year 5 are excited to be starting their new Topic of Space! Will we discover life forms on other planets? What will we learn about the important elements of our Solar system? Whatever we discover, we will post on our year group page - watch this space!
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National Lockdown arrangements
Tue 05 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope this finds you and your family safe and well in these most difficult of times. As I am sure you are aware the Prime Minister has introduced a new national lockdown. This means our school will remain closed to all pupils except the vulnerable and the children of key workers. This will be reviewed by the Government for the February half term.
We will continue to provide remote teaching and learning for all of our pupils who are not in school and there is an expectation that parents will support their children to engage with this by ensuring they participate on a daily basis. Children have been provided with log in information for their Google Classroom which will have a daily timetable of lessons being taught. If you do not have access to Google Classroom please contact the school immediately. Children in years 2-6 can also access Times Table Rockstars and the Accelerated Reader quizzes, passwords for which the children have been provided with.
Children in Reception have been set work using the Marvelous Me app. Please contact the school if you are not able to access this.
It is extremely important that your child engages with remote learning to ensure they do not fall behind and have the opportunity to keep in touch with their teachers and peers.
I have already shared the eligibility criteria for Key Workers and Vulnerable children, but these can also be found HERE. If your child is in the vulnerable pupil or Keyworker priority group and you wish them to attend school you should inform us straight away. Please note that the need for social distancing, smaller group sizes and other COVID 19 mitigations means that places are restricted. If we have more pupils wanting places than we can safely accommodate then the Kemnal Academies Trust has advised us that we should prioritise and/or rota places. If we need to do this we will let you know. Those pupils attending school will be supervised to broadly follow the same curriculum as those pupils who are being taught remotely.
For those pupils entitled to free school meals, we will be sending out arrangements shortly.
I absolutely share your disappointment that we have not been able to return our school to its
normal happy thriving place for all pupils and understand the challenges that families will face during this second lockdown. Rest assured we will do all we can to provide a meaningful and supportive experience for your child through this lockdown and look forward to returning to normal as soon as we can.
If we can support you in any way, please feel free to contact us.
Kind regards.
Mr J Manclark
Headteacher
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Key Worker and Vulnerable Children
Mon 04 Jan 2021Dear Parents / Carers
Further to my communication from yesterday, this is a reminder that children of KEY WORKERS and children identified as VULNERABLE are able to come into school tomorrow (Tuesday and Wednesday). Full details of who may be eligible can be found HERE. If you would like your child to attend school over the next couple of days, please let us know before 3pm today.
VULNERABLE CHILDREN
Vulnerable children and young people include those who:
- are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, including children and young people who have a child in need plan, a child protection plan or who are a looked-after child
- have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
- have been identified as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who could therefore benefit from continued full-time attendance, this might include:
- children and young people on the edge of receiving support from children’s social care services or in the process of being referred to children’s services
- adopted children or children on a special guardianship order
- those at risk of becoming NEET (‘not in employment, education or training’)
- those living in temporary accommodation
- those who are young carers
- those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)
- care leavers
- others at the provider and local authority’s discretion including pupils and students who need to attend to receive support or manage risks to their mental health
KEY WORKERS
Health and social care
This includes, but is not limited to:
- doctors
- nurses
- midwives
- paramedics
- social workers
- care workers
- other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers
- the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector
- those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
Education and childcare
This includes:
- childcare
- support and teaching staff
- social workers
- specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response to deliver this approach
Key public services
This includes:
- those essential to the running of the justice system
- religious staff
- charities and workers delivering key frontline services
- those responsible for the management of the deceased
- journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting
Local and national government
This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of:
- the coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
- essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), including in government agencies and arms length bodies
Food and other necessary goods
This includes those involved in food:
- production
- processing
- distribution
- sale and delivery
- as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)
Public safety and national security
This includes:
- police and support staff
- Ministry of Defence civilians
- contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
- fire and rescue service employees (including support staff)
- National Crime Agency staff
- those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas
Transport and border
This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure through which supply chains pass.
Utilities, communication and financial services
This includes:
- staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
- the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
- information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response
- key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services)
- postal services and delivery
- payments providers
- waste disposal sectors
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UPDATE: Re-opening in January
Sun 03 Jan 2021Dear Parents / Carers,
As I am sure you are aware our school is in a COVID 19 Tier 4 area and the new strain has significantly increased the number of people who are being infected. The safety of our children and staff remains our prime concern. As result, on the advice of the Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT), we have taken the difficult decision, at short notice, to delay the opening of our school. This is to enable us to review our risk assessments and put in place any further safety measures that may be needed.
At the direction of the Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT), Monday 4th January (tomorrow) will now be an INSET day and our school will be closed to all children. On Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th January school will now be open to vulnerable children and children from Keyworker families only. If you wish your child to attend under either of these categories please contact the school and leave a message on (01843) 223989 and office@dmpa-tkat.org - staff will get back to you at some stage tomorrow. All other children will be taught via remote learning (details of how this is organised will be shared on Monday 4th – tomorrow). We intend to open our school to all children from Thursday 7th January, but this is subject to any changes to national guidance. We will of course let you know of any changes as soon as we know.
This decision has not been taken lightly and we fully appreciate the inconvenience this will cause, but the safety of the children and staff comes first. We are grateful for your understanding and continued support during this most difficult of times. We share your ambition and hope for school to be safely open for all children as soon as we possibly can and return to normal education and school life.
Kind regards
Mr J Manclark
Headteacher
