I have recently spent a long few days away from school on jury service. There was not much fun to be had there, I can tell you, and it’s been great to be back with the children. Southill is such a happy place to work! My thanks to everyone who helped cover for my absence, especially Mrs Wood who held the fort admirably. Headteacher’s News has now resumed in its usual format.
Climbing frames
You may well have seen the construction of two new wooden climbing frames – one on the KS1 playground and the other on the field. The great news for the children is that the equipment has cleared the safety inspections and is ready for use from Monday. Watch out for reports and pictures on the website and social media.
Covid news
We are slowly seeing increasing rates of absence for children due to positive tests for Covid-19 reasons. We keep Dorset Public Health and the local authority informed and they are finding nothing to worry about in our figures because there is no evidence of transmission through the school. This is immensely reassuring but we need to remain vigilant to help keep these numbers down.
School’s policy has been updated in light of new guidance. Please see my news post dated 20th October for details. This information was also sent as a ping on the same day.
Covid contact letters
While numbers are relatively low, we are managing the cases carefully in school. Should there be two or more children in any class that receive a positive test result at the same time, we will inform the parents of that class so they can be even more vigilant than before.
Finally on Covid
Dorset Public Health have asked us to remind you that it’s good advice for parents to test themselves twice-weekly with LFTs so they can prevent children being sent into school from infected households. This will help keep the numbers of infections in the school community as low as possible.
Parents’ Evenings: keeping safe
We are looking forward to seeing you at our meetings next week. If you have not yet made an appointment, please do so as soon as possible.
The guidance below is designed to help keep you and our staff as safe as possible during the meetings, and is similar to the successful way we ran parents’ meetings last summer term. Please follow the guidance carefully. Thank you.
- Parents should not come in to school if they have any symptoms of Covid-19 or have recently received a positive test result.
- Two adults per child maximum please. To minimise numbers of people on site, please do not bring other children unless absolutely necessary
- Hand gel will be available for you to use as you arrive
- Teachers will arrange seating so you are at least 2m apart from them
- The meeting will take place in a well-ventilated area, in most cases close to an open door
- Parents should access their child’s classroom by walking around the outside of the building and using the fire door. Year 1 parents should enter through the Library. Signage will be put up to help you find your way. Please wait outside and do not come into the building until invited to do so.
Parking in Hawthorn Road
I have received a number of complaints about the parking in Hawthorn Road at the start and end of the day. In particular, cars are parked very close to the junction with Sycamore Road, making it difficult to navigate out safely. Please park safely and sensibly wherever you choose to park. Thank you.
No access to broadband?
The Department for Education are running a small-scale pilot project in partnership with BT to provide fixed-line home broadband connection to families without access to broadband internet. As part of this pilot scheme, they will provide selected schools and colleges with pupils in years 1 to 13 with voucher codes to distribute to pupils they have identified as being eligible. If you are interested in getting involved, please let me know.
