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Children’s Mental Health Week

Don’t forget to wear blue tomorrow as part of our activities to support Children’s Mental Health Week.

Tomorrow, we are launching a House Competition. We would like pupils to create a piece of art work to reflect the Five Ways to Wellbeing. Teachers will explain the competition rules and expectations during the morning meetings, this week.

 

Letter from HCC

Please read the attached letter from Hertfordshire County Council regarding school places for eligible families.

Since the beginning of Lockdown, pupil numbers at Bowmansgreen have risen from 55 to over 130. Whilst we will continue to provide places for eligible families, we have reached a point where we are having to review the organisation of classes, staff and timetables, to maintain the health and safety of all pupils and staff.

The overriding message from the Department of Education (DfE) and Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) is for families to stay at home whenever possible, to help reduce the spread of coronavirus within the community.

We know that current Lockdown measures are contributing to a stressful, pressurised balancing act for many households – with or without remote learning – and we will try our best to support families during this difficult period.

We look forward to being able to welcome all pupils back to school as soon as it is safe to do so and restrictions are lifted. In the meantime, we ask for your continued support in limiting the number of pupils attending school every day and protecting members our school community.

Morning Meetings

We are looking forward to seeing all those learning remotely this morning:  EYFS 9.30am     KS1 9am     KS2 8.45am

Invites have been sent via email with a link to Microsoft Teams.

Don’t panic if you have difficulty accessing the meeting today or if things don’t quite go according to plan. Let the office know and we will hopefully see you tomorrow.

Expect there to be glitches and technical difficulties – it is new for all of us and might take a couple of meetings before we get it right so please bear with us!

 

 

Headteacher’s Blog

You may be aware that on Friday, the government u-turned on the re-opening of schools in London, extending the partial closures to primary schools in all London boroughs. There have been many questions and concerns raised by the local community about a similar situation in Hertfordshire, involving St Albans primary schools, including from Daisy Cooper, MP for St Albans. Currently, all Hertfordshire schools are in Tier 4. However, primary schools in the neighbouring ‘contingency areas’ of Three Rivers, Hertsmere, and Watford are to remain partially closed for face-to-face teaching but St Albans primary schools are expected to open to all pupils from tomorrow (Please be reminded that Bowmansgreen is closed for an INSET day tomorrow, re-opening on Tuesday 5th January).

COVID-19 Snapshot of Hertfordshire

There has been no new guidance from the DfE to suggest – at this stage – that the expectation to fully open schools in St Albans will change before tomorrow.

Decisions to open or close schools are complex. It is a very complicated situation with no best outcome that I can see, that will please or benefit all members of a school community, at once. There are many factors to consider and decisions to make, some of which are out of the control of the school leadership team and governors. The health and safety of all pupils and all staff is however, very much my responsibility and one that I do not take lightly.

A range of factors could affect how Bowmansgreen will open to pupils on Tuesday. They include a change in the law; a change in government policy or HCC guidance; staffing levels; and if our own school risk-assessment highlights any serious health and safety concerns that we cannot remove or mitigate. During our INSET day tomorrow, we will be reviewing our school risk-assessment, taking into account the local situation regarding cases of coronavirus and the health and safety concerns of the whole school community.

I have been contacted by families who have been worrying about sending their children into school whilst the number of cases are high and the new variant of COVID-19 is so virulent in the local area. I understand your concerns and the dilemmas that you face and would want to support your decisions to do what you feel is best for the health and safety of your family.

Whilst wanting to remain positive and optimistic, I also want to be honest and realistic and warn parents that we may face a scenario where the health and safety concerns of individual staff members mean that we cannot open fully, to all pupils. A situation where face-to-face teaching is not available for some classes is a likely possibility, from Tuesday. I will have a definitive picture tomorrow morning and will update families accordingly.

It is likely that for some classes, most pupils will need be taught via remote learning, which will continue to be published weekly, on our website. If this becomes the situation for your child, you will be notified as soon as is practicably possible. As was the case during the national Lockdown, school would continue to provide face-to-face teaching for a limited number of pupils.

I appreciate that this will immediately cause concern and worry relating to childcare, your children missing out on more time in the classroom and with their peers and the prospect of more home schooling. I am very sorry that this might be the situation but I cannot currently see an alternative solution that does not compromise the health and safety of members of our school community.

I will update families as early as possible tomorrow, once a review of our risk-assessment has been completed and the reality of the situation is known.