Author: User

Newsletter
28th August 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,
Firstly, I hope this newsletter finds you and families safe and well, having a enjoyed the summer holiday period.
Return to school
As a school, we are really looking forward to welcoming you and your children back, next Thursday 3rd September. We understand that some children, and their families, may be anxious returning to school after, for some of you, such an extensive period of being at home. I would like to reassure you that senior leaders have been working extensively over the summer period to ensure that St. Luke’s is safe and secure for all children to return.
Firstly, we have undertaken a rigorous risk assessment in preparation for a full return to school, which meets all of the government’s guidelines and requirements. This will be available for you to see on our school website. Attached to this newsletter is guidance for parents about what we have implemented, and to give you detail of the changes made some of the routines and procedures that we had prior to lockdown. I would ask that you please read this before next Thursday so that you are aware of these key changes, and to make your child familiar with what they might be likely to expect. I would like to highlight some of the key aspects of this guidance to you here:
We are working on a staggered start and finish time basis, to manage the number of people arriving at, and leaving, the school site at any one time. Furthermore, the entry and exit points may have changed for some of you. This is very clearly explained in detail in the attached parent guidance.
Each year group will be a Bubble. Each Bubble will have dedicated classrooms and outdoor/playground spaces which only those groups use at any one time. Where a space is used by more than one Bubble, it will be thoroughly cleaned between uses.
Each year group ‘Bubble’ will have staggered break times and lunch times, and play in separate playground areas.
For health and safety reasons, parents will not be allowed onto the school site. If you wish to arrange a meeting on site, this must be approved by a member of the senior leadership team beforehand.
All parents will be asked to sign a declaration form upon their child’s return to school, which asks you to recognise your responsibility for monitoring your child, and your household, for any symptoms of Covid-19, and the importance of informing the school of this. You will find this attached to the newsletter. If you have access to a printer, we would be grateful if you could print it off, sign it, and return it to school on Thursday. However, paper copies will also be available at the start of the day.
All children will be expected to wear full school uniform, in line with our existing policy. Please ensure that these are regularly cleaned.
Before school club will begin operating from Monday 14 September. It will have the start time of 7:30am and any children attending will be taken to their classes during the specified start times listed in the parent guidance. Initially, Before School Club will be restricted for the use of working parents. You will be written to when school resumes in September and you will be asked to register your child to attend. Leaders are also in the process of making arrangements with Energy Kidz, the after-school club provider, to resume this service. Further information regarding this will be given in the next couple of weeks, through our school newsletters.
We do understand that some of these changes will take some getting used to, but please understand that procedures are in place to keep our whole school community safe, and are being constantly monitored and reviewed.
All of the staff here at St. Luke’s are very much looking forward to welcoming your child back next week. We fully recognise that this has been a very unsettling and challenging time for everyone, so we will ensure that we have a real focus on settling back into school, and making sure that your child feels comfortable and safe being back in the classroom.
Email contacts
On a different note, I wanted to inform you of the change of email address for myself, now as Head of School, and for Rebecca Abrahams, as Executive Headteacher. We are both available via email on the following addresses:
Cristina King : Head of School—headofschool@st-lukes.towerhamlets.sch.uk
Rebecca Abrahams: Executive Headteacher—executiveheadteacher@st-lukes.towerhamlets.sch.uk
All other staff remain contactable via their existing email addresses.
Once again, we look forward to welcoming you back next week. If you do have any concerns, please do contact myself or Rebecca.
With very best wishes,
Cristina King
Head of School