UPDATE: School Reopening Plans

Dear Parent / Carer

Reopening of Drapers Mills Primary Academy

I am writing further to my communication from 20^th May to confirm our arrangements for the reopening of Drapers Mills Primary Academy from Monday 8^th June for children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.

As highlighted previously, in order to ensure the safety of your child and social distancing, we have decided to have a phased reopening.  This means that we have divided our Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 classes into 2 groups - a group A and a group B. Your child will be allocated a place in either group A or group B and a 2 - week cycle will operate as follows, with group A starting on Monday 8th June.

The arrangements for vulnerable pupils and the children of Key workers will remain the same. They will form part of an additional group and will be able to access the school every day.

The next three weeks will therefore look something like this:

Nursery children will be able to attend every day.

Each group will work in a set classroom and will not move to other rooms at any time. This includes adults.

The classes will be split alphabetically into Group A or Group B. Please note that whilst your child will be in the same group as their siblings, unfortunately, as I am sure you can understand, we cannot make changes based on friendship groups or parental preference. You will be sent a text message to confirm which group your child is in, but if you are unclear or do not receive a message, please email office@dmpa-tkat.org before school reopens.

We are very conscious of the impact the current situation may have had on your child. The social isolation and anxiety related to COVID 19 is extremely significant and therefore we are ensuring that the staff team are equipped with supporting the children with their anxieties when they return.

On top of this, the school will be very different to the one they left in March. We have created a guide for parents that outlines our social distancing measures which can be found HERE. It explains that children will not be able to freely socialise or even communicate with their friends in another group; they will not be able to interact in the same way with staff and generally will need to act in a way that is strange to them.

Please therefore use the CHILDREN'S GUIDE TO RETURNING TO SCHOOL document which can be found HERE, which explains to them what school will be like when they return. We would suggest that you go through a few things each day so as not to overwhelm them with all the changes.

I fully understand the anxiety that you may be feeling about sending your child back at this time. To support this, we are happy to receive phone calls on the first few days of returning if you want to check in regarding how your child is doing. In order to reduce presence on the premises during the school day when we return, we ask that any communication is done via phone call or admin email.

It goes without saying, if your child or anybody else in your family is showing symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, then they should not come into school and follow the government guidance and self isolate.

Thank you for your continued support, it is much appreciated.  I hope you understand that a great deal of effort has gone into planning for your child’s welcome return, but we always use the latest advice so things may need to change at short notice.

If you have any questions please contact the school via the email or phone number above.

Yours sincerely

Joe Manclark

Headteacher