Dear parents and carers,
I am pleased to be able to welcome you all back to our new amalgamated Peninsula East Primary Academy. I hope that you have all had a wonderful break and are ready to send your children back to start the new academic year. We are so excited for what the year will hold and most importantly, that we can now invite you back into school! We will be informing you in advance of how termly assemblies, class assemblies and other events that we will be inviting you all to in the first few weeks back at school so please look out for the letter that we will be sending out.
Entrance and exit times for the school day
- Nursery
From Monday 6th September. Enter with parents at the left hand gate at 8.35am.
If your child leaves at lunch pick up time is 11.45am
If your child attends all day then pick up time is 3.05pm from the same gate as the morning.
- EYFS
From Friday 3rd September, children to enter with parents for their morning slot at 9am. Pick up morning children at 12 from the same gate.
Afternoon slot children to enter at left hand gate at 11.30am and to be picked up at hometime from the same gate at 2.30pm.
Please remember that they will need to have a packed lunch and a drink.
From Monday 6th September, enter from left hand main gates with Mrs Elliott/Mrs Elsworth at 8.30 – 8.50am.
Exit at the same gate at 3.05 – 3.15pm.
- Year 1
Enter on the left hand side gate 8.30 – 8.50am
Exit at the same gate 3.10-3.15pm
- Year 2
Miss Goldfinch’s class enter at the left hand gate
Miss Zeuli’s class enter at the right hand gate
Both enter 8.30 – 8.50am
Both exit at the same gate as the morning drop off 3.10 – 3.15pm
- Year 3, 4, 5 and 6
Enter on the right hand side gate 8.30 – 8.50am
Exit at the same gate at 3.15pm
Please remember that if your child arrives after the gates have closed in the morning and are dropped off at the school office, then they will be marked as late.
PE days
We are keeping our PE days where children will attend the whole school day in their PE kit for their assigned PE days. Please see the relevant chart below for your child’s PE day and remember that they now have PE kit that we expect them to wear on the day.
Nursery will not need to wear theirs on their first day, they will need to wear it from Monday 13th onwards.
- Monday – Year 6 and Nursery
- Tuesday – EYFS and Year 1
- Wednesday – Both Year 2 classes
- Thursday – Year 3 and Year 4
- Friday – Year 5
Uniform Expectations
As stated in my previous letter around uniform, we expect that all nursery and our EYFS class to have the new uniform and for the rest of the school, we expect that the old uniforms will be phased out by the end of this academic year. Please do notify us as soon as possible if there have been any issues around ordering the new uniform so we can best assist you if any issues have arisen. Please do not worry if there have been any delays in receiving the new uniform, we do understand that these things do happen and it is fine to wear other pieces of previous or plain uniform if needed. We do not expect any children to be wearing trainers unless on their PE day and if children do arrive at school wearing trainers, they will be asked to put on plimsolls that we will provide for them whilst they are in school. We do expect our children to be smart and as part of their learner attribute in being principled, we do expect them to tuck in shirts and ensure that they wear their uniform with pride.
Please also remember that for PE days, any children wearing earrings will not be able to take part in their PE lesson so please do remember to take these out before they attend their PE day.
Covid Updates
You will be pleased to learn that the government guidance now means that we will no longer need to keep the classes in class bubbles and both adults and children will no longer need to wear masks around the school site. This means that we will also be able to offer more after school clubs based around the children’s interests and we will follow up with a letter with the clubs for this term shortly.
We will continue with hand hygiene and reminding all staff and children that they need to wash their hands with soap and water on a regular basis and they can still use hand sanitiser if they wish. We will continue to remind the children of the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach and hope that you will support this at home too. Our superb cleaning regime at the school will continue as it was before and we will also ensure good ventilation around the school but will take this further into consideration as we move into the autumn and winter months.
Contact tracing and self-isolation
Contact tracing for staff and students will continue to be undertaken by NHS Test and Trace. This means that where there is a positive case in school the responsibility for tracing close contacts is with the NHS.
From the 16th August only those that have not been fully vaccinated will need to self-isolate. Staff and students are not required to self-isolate if they live in the same household as someone with COVID-19, or are a close contact of someone with COVID-19, and any of the following apply:
- they are fully vaccinated;
- they are below the age of 18 years and 6 months;
- they have taken part in or are currently part of an approved COVID-19 vaccine trial; and/or
- they are not able to get vaccinated for medical reasons.
Instead, they will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace, informed they have been in close contact with a positive case and advised to take a PCR test. The Trust encourages all individuals to take a PCR test if advised to do so.
We would only encourage you to take your child for a PCR test if they show any of the relevant symptoms of Covid and should remain at home until you have the results from this test.
Minibus from Stoke
Mrs White will be driving our morning minibus and Mrs Drobka will continue to drive the afternoon minibus. All children are now able to mix on the minibus and they will no longer need to wear masks, unless you wish them to do so. There will be two minibus runs from September. Please remember that after the last morning pick up time, the bus will not return and so you will need to be prompt catch one of the buses. As before, they will pick up and drop off from outside the Stoke school building and parents/carers are fully responsible for their children until they get onto the minibus. No children should be left unaccompanied by an adult to the minibus under any circumstances as it is not safe for them to wait for the bus by themselves.
Morning pick up times: 1) 8.35am 2) 8.50am
Afternoon drop off times: 1) 3.15pm 2) 3.40pm
For the afternoon pick up times, we will endeavor to get the younger children and siblings together on the first drop off where we can.
Can I also ask that care is taken not to block the gates in the morning and afternoon pick up times as the minibus needs to be able to swing out of the exit and this is difficult to navigate if cars are parked there.
Breakfast and After school club
As I shared in my previous letter, Breakfast club will resume from Thursday 2nd September and from Monday 6th September we will be offering an Afterschool club that will be led by Miss Mallinson and Mrs White every Monday to Thursday 3 – 5.30pm. You would have been able to sign up to sessions with the office before we broke up for the summer but if you have not yet booked a place for your child/children, then please do contact the office and they will be happy to assist you on this.
We look forward to welcoming you back on Thursday 2nd September and the EYFS team are looking forward to meeting parents and children during your agreed time slots on Thursday 2nd September. EYFS parents, if you could please arrive at the office and Mrs Elliott and Mrs Elsworth will be there to greet you.
Best wishes,
Mrs L Rimmer
