Phased Reopening of Mudeford Junior School
Dear Parent/Carers
I hope you are all keeping safe and well.
The school has been busy providing childcare for the children of key workers and delivering food hampers to those families in need. Mudeford Junior School has been open throughout the Covid-19 lockdown and will continue to be open during half term week for those key worker families.
We have continued to provide a Free School Meal provision for those eligible children in the form of a food hamper every two weeks. If your circumstances have changed and your household income has reduced, you may be eligible for Free School Meals. For more information go to www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals. Christchurch Food Bank have also contacted us to say that they are there to help if you are finding it difficult to feed your family. Please contact them on christchurchfoodbank@gmail.com or 07587371088 and they can arrange for a food delivery or for you to collect.
On 10th May, the Prime Minister announced a road map towards recovery, including plans for the phased return of children back to school. The indicators are that the school will be open from 1st June for Year 6 children and that the remaining year groups will return to school four weeks before the end of the summer term.
The government guidance stipulates that no more than 15 children can be taught in a classroom and that we should assume all eligible children will attend school for the purposes of the first stage of planning, even if we think that this is unlikely. Over the last week the School Leadership Team has carefully compiled an extensive risk assessment with the sole focus being both the safety of the children and the staff. Detailed discussions have focused on how to split the children into suitable class sizes factoring in the varying capacities of our classrooms, access to toilets, staggered entry into, and exit from school, usage of corridors and walkways, lunch provision, use of equipment in the school and cleaning and maintaining hygiene.
The government has informed schools that most classes should be split into two with 15 children in a group. This figure is based on infant school classes of 30 children. This cannot be the case in our school where we have 33 children in every class. I feel confident that the school’s risk assessment will minimise the risk, allowing the children to return to school in smaller groups and in a phased manner. As year 6 will be the first cohort returning to school, more detailed information will be sent over the next couple of days.
As it is predicted that normal schooling will not resume for some time, the significance of home based learning becomes more important and we appreciate every effort you are making to support and encourage your child.
As always, stay safe,
Kind regards
Mr. Partridge
Headteacher