Columbia Grange School

Summer Holidays 

16th July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers

We hope you and your family are continuing to be safe and well and coping in these unusual circumstances.  We wanted to take this opportunity to ‘thank you’ all for the amazing job you are doing juggling your family needs, supporting your extended family and friends and becoming your child’s teacher and therapist. We know this is not an easy job and we hope you have found our support helpful and encouraging.

We are writing this to update you all with regards to the arrangements for our return to school in September We have been pleased with the uptake of places since the end of June and it has been lovely to welcome over 70 children back into school in some form. We are aware that many of you would have liked more time for your child than we were able to offer, but we wanted to ensure fairness and equity to all pupils and families who wanted, and would benefit from school time. 

The children who have returned have coped remarkably well so thank you to parents/carers and staff who have ensured the smooth transition.

The first day of school in September will be Wednesday the 2nd.  At the time of writing we plan to welcome all back to school on a full time basis for the autumn term.  Our new starters in class 1 will be doing transition visits this week and starting full time the week beginning Monday 7th September. 

Due to the need to maintain some social distancing and avoid too many people congregating at the school entrance we will be implementing a staggered start and finish each day. The intention will be for the staggered start and finish to consist of two groups both with a defined start and finish time. Most likely this would be the buses arriving and dropping off between 8.45am and 9.15am and parents dropping off between 9.15am and 9.30am. Collection for buses between 3.00pm and 3.15pm and parents 3.15pm and 3.30pm 

 As we have been doing these last few weeks we will be asking for parents to remain in their vehicles and staff will collect your child from your car and bring your child to you at home time Currently we are in dialogue with Home/School Transport with regards to this arrangement, but rest assured we will be in touch before school returns in September with full details. We are hopeful this arrangement will only be in place temporarily, but this will be dependent upon Government guidance.

As a school please rest assured that we are following all guidance in order to keep both children and staff safe. We are developing comprehensive risk assessments and updating our code of practice in view of a full opening and these will be published on the school website once completed and approved by governors, staff and trade unions.  We have a robust cleaning regime in place, with surfaces and equipment cleaned regularly and all shared rooms cleaned between use. 

I hope the above information is useful, but should you have any further questions please do get in touch. We look forward to welcoming everyone back in September.

We would like to thank all staff in school who have worked extremely hard during this unusual time, and we would now like to give the staff a break as you are aware they have been working through the holidays since March and are in need of some down time, rest and recuperation.  So the google classroom and phone calls with stop from the end of term

I can still be contacted and I urge parents to do so please if you are in need of any support and advice over the 6 weeks.  My email is Lesley.mavin@columbiagrange.co.uk and I will be checking my emails on a daily basis 

Sue Bennett can also be contacted for speech therapy advice on 0191 691 3937 during the first week and the last week of the holidays    

Finally, and most importantly, we would like to wish a fond farewell to our leavers this year, who have sadly missed out on the usual end of term school memories and celebrations.  We wish them all the very best in their new chapter and hope some belated celebrations may be possible 

 Have a very restful summer and with very ‘best wishes’

Lesley Mavin

Head teacher

Derek Freeman

Chair of Governors

We are delighted to share that we have received our fourth outstanding OFSTED report.  A massive thank you and well done to all our staff, pupils and all stakeholders.