Welcome to our page, which we hope will be a one-stop place to go for information regarding the possible impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on our school.

Please be assured that we are receiving daily updates from Public Health England and the DfE regarding this matter and we are following their guidelines.

COVID Safe Home School Agreement

LATEST INFORMATION 26/5/20

 

This handbook is to support parents with understanding what to expect from the school environment in the key year groups that are expected to return to school first.

ALL PARENT LETTERS REGARDING COVID FOLLOWING THIS DATE CAN BE FOUND IN THE PARENTS' SECTION OF THE WEBSITE

15th May 2020

Dear parent/carer,

As we move closer to wider opening, I want you to know that we are planning for every single step of the reintegration of the year groups who will be invited back into school. We are considering everything from how we can ensure that you are not crowding at traffic lights on your way to school, making sure there are never too many parents on the playground (staggered start times) and ensuring that all children and adults can socially distance safely at all times. We currently have a firm plan in place for the scenario of EYFS, Year 1 and Year 6 returning, but there are ongoing negotiations with government, unions and health experts to make a final decision about what the expectations will be on that first day. At this point, that is why I have not shared a definite plan of staggered timings with you because I don't want to send out information that may need be changed afterwards. I have done this before and guidance has changed overnight! As I am sure, guidance is changing on a daily basis at the moment. Schools in our consortium are discussing an agreed approach to reopening. We will be meeting next Thursday and following this, will share the relevant information with parents. What I can tell you is the following:

- Pick up and drop off times will be staggered

- Break times will be staggered

- Parents with more than one child who fit in the category for school reintegration will be able to drop off all children at the same time (this is currently children in EYFS, Year1 and Year 6 and our current key worker children who already have places in school)

- Our current plan is for no more than 8 - 10 children in one learning space (this might change depending on changes to government and medical guidelines, but as this stands, this is our aim)

-  All meals will be packed lunches, either provided by school (for example if your child receives free school meals) or by parents, which will allow us to create safe spacious areas for children to eat their lunch

- There will be one way systems in the corridors where necessary

 

We are working hard to plan the safest ways for parents and children to enter the site and will inform you of these as soon as we can. If, after discussion with unions and medical advisors, the government confirms that all three of these year groups will return to school, we understand that this will be particularly challenging for our youngest children because school will feel so different and there will be new rules that have not existed before. They might not have the same teacher all day, for example. We will be considering different approaches as to how reintegrate your child into a school setting that will not be the same as it was when we temporarily closed in March. We are currently discussing ways that we can communicate directly with you and your child (perhaps remotely) before school reopening, so the children feel more confident and know that there is nothing to be worried about, even though things will be a little bit different. We want to reassure parents that the children will be safe, and share with children that, even with some new rules that we might now have had before, school will still be fun and a great place to be. Obviously we can be more clear about that once government, unions and medical bodies have cemented the safety practices necessary to reopen successfully. We hope you are all safe and well. Our teachers and teaching assistants would like nothing more than to have ALL the children back to school, but our main concern is the safety of your children, your own safety, the safety of our staff and the safety of our community. We need to keep everyone as safe as possible and find ways to prevent the virus from spreading so that we do not have another spike.

Please let the school know if there is anything you need

11th May 2020

Dear parent/carer,

I hope this email finds you all safe and well and that you were able to enjoy the sunny bank holiday. I am sure many of you will have heard the announcement from the Prime Minister about certain year groups returning to school at the beginning of June. The year groups that are currently being suggested are Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. At this point, the practicalities concerning how this would be carried out have not been fully shared by government or local authorities. Understandably, there are a lot of unanswered questions, which cannot be fully answered because as the Prime Minister stated, the return to school is conditional. For example, the government might suggest that the children will not be in school for a full day, so that children come to school at different times. On the other hand, depending on the R rating of the virus they might suggest it is okay for these specific year groups to be in all day, every day.

The local authority will be in close discussion with Headteachers to ensure that all children, staff, parents and families will be returning to safe school environments considering all these different implications and scenarios. I am sure you can imagine that I am already drafting out some plans, considering how we can implement social distancing both in the classrooms and during break, lunchtimes and toilet breaks. As soon as we have more clarification from the local authority and government, we will be able to share our full safety plan and assessment of the risks with our school community.

What is clear so far is that it will only be three year groups: Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, so even if your child has a sibling in another class, they will not be able to return to school. At this point, we are not sure what this means for key workers children (currently in school) who are not in these year groups. I would suggest that these children will be considered to be in exceptional circumstances and will be allowed to attend school, but this is just an assumption on my part. This will be a government and local authority decision. My priority is to ensure that your children and my staff feel safe and happy in school. I do want to reach out and reassure you that we are already working to ensure that this school will be a nurturing place for your child to return to, whenever they walk through our doors. As soon as I am in the position where I have approval from the local authority to share a possible plan with you, I will do. However, this may not be for a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I must emphasise that the school is only open for the emergency childcare of the children of key workers. You should not visit the school unless is very specific circumstances agreed with the Headteacher. This is not only due to safety but also because on most days, there are no members of staff in the office, it is the Headteacher taking calls in the office where possible and I cannot be available to do this all the time. If there is anything, you need please let the school know. If you are struggling with technology and finding it hard to access the home learning, please let us know. If your family cannot get out of the house because someone is poorly, please let us know - we can help you to get food and prescriptions if you need it. The school is still open with a different role. Please remember we are here to help.

With very best wishes

Jo Herrero

What to do if you feel unsafe at home:

 

If you feel unsafe at home, or feel worried about a friend or sibling during the current situation, here are some things you may be able to do to get the help you need:

• Text a trustworthy family member or safe adult who may be able to help you

• Call Childline 0800 1111 and talk through how you are feeling and your concerns

• Call one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads at school 

• Call the police in an emergency (999) or a non emergency (101)

• Speak to Young Carers if you are looking after someone at home 02476 217740

• Look online at support from the Family Information Service www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenandfamilies

• If you feel unsafe or in danger call the council helpline on 01926 414144

*If you are unable to do any of the above because it isn’t safe to do so, perhaps you could alert a neighbour or passer by to your situation

27/04/20 Our Online Shakespeare Festival

 

Dear parent/carer,

 

If you'd like to, we invite you to step away from home learning for over Tuesday and Wednesday and get involved in some Shakespeare.  Some of the teachers have included some Shakespearean tasks in the home learning.  If you'd like to carry on with your usual structure, please do, but we'd like to tell you about the fun activities we are sharing through our virtual Shakespeare festival (through our Trinity TV Facebook Page) and we would love you to get involved.

 

You can dip in and out as you like throughout the day (rather like you would at a normal festival).  What we encourage is lots of family chatter, lots of questioning, lots of debating and even some acting at home (if the mood takes you!)

 

Day one is about rehearsal and introduction to Shakespeare - so we'll be sharing lots of animations and clips about Shakespeare and his theatre, but most fun of all, Mr Sandle Keynes and I will be sharing family drama warm up games that you can really enjoy at home.  These will help you (at any age) to explore some of the themes in Shakespeare.  And they don't just work for Shakespeare, they work for most literature! Just watch, take part in the privacy of your living room, check in and out as you see fit.  

We'll also give you the chance to watch a play on stage with us, sharing a 'screening' from one of our world class theatres.  You  can watch with us at the time we post, or in your own time, or not at all!  It's up to you.  You might just want to watch a short extract, just to get a flavour. 

 

Day Two Is About Character, Dilemma, Celebration and Performance - throughout the day, your teachers will appear as Shakespearean characters, who will share their dilemmas with you.  They've got difficult choices to make. They will speak in modern language and end with some Shakespearean quotes from their characters.  Can you help them to decide what to do?  You'll find out whether you influence them at a later date, when they return to tell you what they did.  Your lovely photos in profile holding flowers will be part of our virtual procession at the end of the day, and we'll be doing country dancing at the end of the day, which we would like you to join in with in your homes.  Send us a photo or a short video clip of you joining in - we'd love to see it.  There will be an animated tale for us all to watch together (if you are free at that time!) and we'll end the evening with the chance to watch an orchestra perform some music inspired by a Shakespearean play.  Again, watch it with us when we post it, or watch it in your own time (or don't watch it at all!  It's up to you!).

 

A programme of our festival will come out later today through Studybug.  Remember, taking part is entirely up to you.  The teachers would love you to engage with some of the things that they have planned.

 

Best wishes

 

Jo Herrero

21/4/20 Introducing our Online Shakespeare Festival

 

Dear parent/carer,

 

This weekend would have been the Shakespeare Festival, a great tradition in our town.  As the oldest school in Stratford, we have always held the honour of leading the primary school procession.  Also, we have been an important part of the country dancing for the last seventy years!  It may not surprise you that Mr Sandle Keynes, our drama lead, came to speak to me about what we could do in school to keep the tradition going.

 

We'd love to do a virtual Shakespeare festival which we will hold over Tuesday and Wednesday next week.  We'll give you lots of information from the RSC as well, so that you can watch some of their great productions online.  We were going to put the wonderful portraits your families have been producing on the school fence, but for a rather special reason, we've decided to hold off, because we've had a great idea (see below).

 

You can take part in the following ways:

• A big part of  the day is the procession to Shakespeare's grave at Holy Trinity church where we usually carry bunches of flowers to leave in Holy Trinity Church.  We'd like you to send us a photo of your child/family IN PROFILE PLEASE holding your bunch of flowers for Shakespeare  for a 'virtual' procession.  
• Please only send these photos to  admin@willowsprimary.org.uk.  We need them all sent to the same place please.  Any problems, let us know.The flower bunches do not need to be elaborate, daisies will do!  Anything you don't mind picking in your garden! We will put this together as a procession you can actually watch live at a set time (leave that with us!) and we will laminate all the photographs and line them up on the fences that line the street outside our school.  But for that to work, we need lots of photos please.  Spoiler alert! We are also going to do something very special with our virtual procession, but we cannot reveal this until next week!  An added touch (if you wish) is to include your favourite quote from Shakespeare!
• Learn the country dancing steps on Trinity TV throughout the week  example here https://www.facebook.com/holytrinitysch/videos/252531119221637/ (originally shared by Miss Smith on Monday) https://www.facebook.com/holytrinitysch/videos/250864176040539/)  and film your children/family doing the dance.  Miss Smith will show you how to put the full dance together this Friday. Try to keep the film no longer than 3 minutes so we can download them easily. It's really, really simple.  And it's a way of keeping our 70 year tradition going.  Mr Sandle Keynes, will use his technical skills wizardry to put this together.  Films are probably best sent through private messenger on our Trinity TV page https://www.facebook.com/holytrinitysch as it is easier to upload and save them from here, but if you are not on Facebook you can use admin@willowsprimary.org.uk.  

Please can we ask you not to share these through twitter (although we do love you using twitter!), as sometimes it is easy for us to miss your wonderful creative pieces.  It is much easier to gather everything through the admin email and private Facebook Messenger.

 

There will be lots of other lovely festival surprises, but we will reveal more throughout the week.

 

Make sure you check in with your teachers this week using the emails that have been sent out to you.  This week and next week they will be sending short summary reports to help you to emphasise certain areas of learning with your child.

 

With very best wishes to our Trinity families

 

Joanne Herrero

20/04/20  Midterm School Reports and Check ins

 

Dear parent/carer,

 

As you will be aware, school reports usually come out in July.  However, we realise that you have missed a parents evening and as you work at home with your child, it would be really useful for you to know the specific areas that your child needs to work on with some suggestions from the teacher.

So we are going to produce two, shorter reports this year.  The first will come to you as an email and will arrive some time within the next two weeks.  Teachers will send the reports as soon as they complete them, they will not be sending them all on the same day.  We ask for your patience.  All parents will have received their child's brief summary report by Friday 8th May.  It will not be a longer report like the one you usually have in the summer.  Later on in the year, we will give you another, short report which focuses on your child's character and the things that they have enjoyed and studied during their time in school.  We know you will want to know the best ways to help your children now, so that is why we want to send out something specific and brief so it can go out as soon as possible.

The idea of this report will be to help parents to understand which areas they might need to target with their own child.  It will be  focus on the specific areas that you might wish to emphasise with your child  during your time at home.  This extra one to one support that the children have with you will provide a great opportunity to focus on areas that your child finds more difficult.  Remember that you have class emails and you can call school for further advice. 

This is why it is really important that you check in to with the teachers between now and Wednesday, so we can also ensure that we have the right email address for you.

I hope this letter finds you all well.  In your check ins, please do let us know if you need our help.

Sending best wishes to all our families

 

Joanne Herrero

17/04/20 Easter Letter - introduction to new class emails

 

Dear parent/carer,

All the staff of Holy Trinity Primary School hope that you have had a restful Easter in what has been very strange circumstances for all all of us. The first half of our summer term begins on Monday, so we will be continuing to share home learning activities on our pages.

The school building is open and the phone will be on. There will generally be someone available to answer until 12 noon, but please understand that staff numbers are much lower at the moment, and each person has several different roles which might call the office monitor away briefly! You can contact admin@willowprimary.org if you can't get through on the phone and would like to speak to someone. The response will be as quick as possible.

As I mentioned before the holiday, we would like parents to have class emails, so that if you have any queries about the home learning, you are able to share them with the class teachers.

Queries about home learning can begin from Thursday next week, as we'd like to use Monday to Wednesday for email register check ins (do remember you can still phone the school or contact the admin email up to that point).

We would really appreciaite it if every household could just initially check in with us with your specific class email to let us know how your families are at home. The teachers can then register who they have heard from, so we know if there is anything that needs to be followed up or anyone that needs help. You can write as little or as much as you like. A sentence will do! e.g. 'Hi, it's the Smiths checking in and we're all okay', or 'it's the Smiths and we're having problems accessing the home learning because we only have a phone, our computer has broken' or ' we all have to self-isolate and we are running out of food' etc

We'd just like to know that you and your families are okay as there are lots of ways that we can help if we know what is needed. Even if we can't help directly, we will know someone who can! Please note that just for the check in emails, teachers will only respond with 'thank you' or 'we will be in touch' as, depending on the situation of the class teachers, there may be only 1 class teacher in charge of the emails for those three days, and they may be dealing with more than 60 responses.

 

You will be able to find the class emails on the homepage of the website from Monday. Teachers will respond to your emails on the same day where possible, and always by the following day. They will not send or look at emails later than 5pm. If you would like your query to be answered the same day, please send your email no later than 12 noon. Many of our teachers are still coming into school, so we are using class emails rather specific teacher emails, so that you can contact a year group teacher where the class teacher is not available.

 

Parents have found many of the home learning videos on the class pages useful, so we will continue to share those where we feel it is relevant.

 

We have trailed using zoom with small groups, and have set up very strict guidelines for parents to consent to, and to which pupils and teachers must adhere when it is being used. We will send further information to parents about this, fully understanding if parents wish to opt out of this facility. We are offering it to bring an extra layer of contact to the home learning, but we are being extremely careful about its use so that it is as safe as possible. More information will be shared about this next week.

We will continue to improve our home learning, so you and your children can have the best experience in the home environment.

 

Please keep tuning into Trinity TV and give your teachers an encouraging 'like'. We’ve given you all a rest from it this week, but next week just wait until you see more of your amazing portraits. They are fantastic. Please let us knowabout birthdays through private messenger on our Trinity TV page. We will then do a special birthday shout out for your child or family member at this strange time when birthdays feel so different. Our next big family project will be our Eurovision Song Contest replacement! More information about that next week...

 

With my very best wishes

 

Mrs Jo Herrero

Headteacher

Latest Information 19 03 20

 

Latest Information 19 03 20

Friday 20th March will be the last day that our school is fully open.  Warwickshire County Council are meeting with headteachers this afternoon to discuss what provision can be made for the children of key workers.   At this point, no decisions have been made about which schools will be open, but it is unlikely to be all schools.  Because discussions are only just beginning to take place this afternoon and schools are still waiting for clarification from government, we will not be able to give you further information about which schools will open, until tomorrow.  We do really need your patience at this time whilst the local education authority puts together a plan to make this work.  At this time we cannot offer specific information about who qualifies because this has not yet been clarified.

Latest Information 18 03 20

Your children (and the staff, including some visiting supply teachers) have been an absolute delight today.  The school is full of smiling faces and I've seen some fantastic learning going on.  I am so proud to be part of this school community.  You've all obviously done a great job at supporting your children through a time that is very confusing and concerning for them). 

 

We have now set up a Home School Learning page. From Monday, there will be work posted for each year group every day. Go to the website, 'children', then 'home learning at Holy Trinity School' or click here https://www.holytrinity.warwickshire.sch.uk/home-school-learning-at-holy-trinity-c-of-e-primar/ 

All the links and information that you will need will be found there from Monday.  

 

IF we can make it work,  we are planning to set up a kind of 'Trinity TV' where you will be able to 'tune in' at different times of day and get story time, special keep fit activities, messages from different teachers and some special learning tips.  Your child will need to be supervised by an adult to watch it.  More details to follow...

Latest Information 17 03 20

 

Our staff numbers have reduced, not because any of our staff have any symptoms, but because they live in households with people who may be highly vulnerable, or they have health conditions themselves.  At the moment, we are able to cover this.  We may come to a point where the school will need to partially close, or close completely, but this decision will be made in discussion with governors, Warwickshire LEA and the Department for Education.  At the moment, it is still business as usual!

 

We know that there are many families where children and adults need to self isolate.  At this point, we will not be sending work home, but by Monday next week there will resources available for each year group for children who will not be in school.  At the moment, schools are expected to stay open, so this does not mean that I am anticipating that school will be closed next week.  Government guidance is changing daily and things are moving very quickly.  We will update you as regularly as we can with the most up to date information.

Latest information letter sent to parents 16 03 20

I would just like to say a big thank you for your support and smiles on the playground this morning.  You’ve all clearly done a great job with reassuring your children and staying calm.  We will keep you updated regularly about what is happening in school.

The school is taking every responsible step to safeguard pupils and staff.   As you will be aware, the government is saying that schools must stay open at the moment.  Until the local authority or the department for education say otherwise, we are bound to adhere to this.  The school website coronavirus page provides up to date information.  The school has prepared action plans, and risk assessments.  We would kindly ask parents to resist asking when we are planning to close the school as this is not a decision that is in our hands.  We can only plan to close the school in certain circumstances, but as yet, those circumstances have not arisen.  These might include if there are not enough staff in the school, or if there has been someone on the school site with the coronavirus. 

The school gets cleaned to a very high standard every day.  Lockers and door handles are sanitised every day before children come into school, and children have a handwashing timetable that ensures that they wash their hands when they enter the school in the morning.  Handwashing is regular throughout the day and well supervised.

If you have any medical queries about the coronavirus, please avoid calling the school office as we are experiencing a high level of calls and as we are not medical professionals we may not be able to answer your query.  Please call the advice line on the card, where you will be given the most up to date information about the right actions to take.

To help you here are some useful links:

The government Website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

 

The DfE website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19

 

NHS England:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/eprr/coronavirus/

 

Symptoms of coronavirus

The symptoms of coronavirus are:

• a cough
• a high temperature
• shortness of breath

but these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness.

The symptoms are similar to other illnesses that are much more common, such as cold and flu.

 

Department for Education Coronavirus helpline

On Monday 3^rd March the DfE launched a new helpline to answer questions about COVID-19 related to education. Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:

Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)