Dear Parents,

Thank you all  for your ongoing support as we navigate through these unprecedented times. We’ve sent you lots of requests for information over the last couple of weeks, and thank you for taking the time to respond as the information gathered has really helped us to plan our provision and keep all our staff and children, as safe as we possibly can.

We have made the decision to limited the service we are offering within our schools and college. We will continue to offer onsite support only to those children who live in households where both primary caregivers (or the primary caregiver in a single parent household) are key workers, and those who are the most vulnerable. From information gathered, we have identified who those children/young people are, and we will be contacting you to confirm we are able to offer you a place week commencing 30th March 2020. If you do not hear from us please do not send your child into school/college on Monday. To all other children we will be offering packs/advice to work on from home; phone calls/ emails and in some cases Keeping in touch visits. We will not be offering any on site school/college provision during the Easter holidays but will continue with phone calls/emails offering support from a distance. We will be in touch after the planned Easter holidays with updates for the following week.

Again, thank you for all your support and cooperation at this time.

Thank you

Katie Murray
Headteacher

#OnlineSafetyAtHome

Online safety has been launched to support parents and carers while your children are at home. Fact sheets are on the links below:

thinkuknow-parents-helpsheet-primary

thinkuknow-parents-helpsheet-secondary

Each pack will contain simple 15-minute activities parents can do at home with their child using our Thinkuknow resources. Please choose the relevant pack for your child.

 

Think u know resources

20^th March 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

Re Covid 19 closures      

Thank you so much for your support over the past few days as we navigate this unprecedented arena of trying to keep our Percy Hedley family safe in these challenging times. Whilst we had anticipated school closures and had plans in place for this announcement- the current guidance has left us frantically working to ensure we can continue to deliver an appropriate service to your children whilst maintaining the health and longevity of our staff team.

The latest government document has asked us to work within these principles:

1. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.
2. If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
3. Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
4. Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.
5. Residential special schools, boarding schools and special settings continue to care for children wherever possible.

As such we aim to offer the following:

Schools to stay open to a number of pupils.

Communication sent out yesterday asked you to inform us if you intend to keep your child at home during this time. I would ask that you inform us as soon as possible today (20.3.20. no later than 2pm) if you intend to send your child to school on Monday.

I am altering the time of the school day to begin at 9.30am- this will give us the opportunity to ensure we have full staff teams in place and can keep your children safe once they arrive in school.

The service we will be offering at this time will not be our usual service. We are running on a skeleton staff team and cannot offer the teaching or therapy normally on offer. Our main aim during this time is to keep your children safe. I cannot guarantee all children will be working with their usual staff team.

For those parents who chose to keep their children at home, or are required to by the guidance of social distancing or self isolation. We want to ensure we continue to support you at home. As such we will be:

• Sending links/work/support plans home for parents to support their children in the home.
• Making contact with all families regularly either by phone or email.
• Conducting some keeping in touch visits/support visits (where possible and where deemed necessary). Please can you have handwashing facilities available for staff.

Please bear with us as we fine tune this offer- it may not be up and running immediately.

 

To support us in staying safe during this time we will also be:

• Taking your child’s temperature when they arrive at school and not allowing entry if it is 37.8 degrees or more.
• If you child becomes unwell at school we will be isolating your child and asking you to be collect them if their temperature is 37.8 or above, or they develop a continuous cough.
• All pupils should enter the building via the pupil entrance- there will be no access via the front office.
• If your child is unwell and you know they will not be attending school please let us know as soon as possible via phs@percyhedley.org.uk
• If you wish to send a packed lunch for your child please feel free to do so- we hope to offering catering facilities as usual.
• Please ensure your child has all their medication and usual supplies and our contact numbers are up to date.
• I will be planning rotas on a week by week basis- so if you would like to child to come in the following week as situations change- please can you let us know by noon on Thursday of the week before via closure.phs@percyhedley.org.uk

 

Please be aware that this is a continually changing climate and we are working continuously to ensure we offer a fully supportive service. However, we are bound by the same challenges and constraints as everyone else at this time. Any of this information may be subject to change at any time. I will not put children or staff at risk and I urge you to follow the guidance issued by the government, particularly in related to social distancing and self isolation.

Social distancing information:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-for-vulnerable-people/guidance-on-social-distancing-for-everyone-in-the-uk-and-protecting-older-people-and-vulnerable-adults

Advice on self isolation:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-advice/

Please continue to follow our foundation social media page for any updates and our usual text to parents route. Thank you so much for your continuous support, as always I am amazed by the resilience and flexibility of our Percy Hedley Family and know that with our combined and supportive efforts we can overcome these truly challenging times.

Stay safe everyone

Katie

Please click on the link below and complete for your child/children.
Thank you.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdeOhFccoRWx6nrdYKcyXSJT8AynYE7bmkdlXEAFdh63Nve3g/viewform

Re: Covid 19

I am writing to reassure of the measures we are taking as a foundation to protect against the current outbreak of corona virus.

We have been following the ongoing updates from the DFE and Public health and have both risk assessments and contingency plans in place to ensure we maintain continuity of service (as far as possible) and keep all staff and pupils safe.

We have worked closely with our cleaning contractor to ensure they are using appropriate cleaning products and have increased the cleaning regime within the schools.

All staff have been provided with antibacterial wipes to ensure ongoing cleaning happens throughout the day.

There are sanitising stations in the buildings and direction for people to wash their hands before entering the building. In addition to signage in all bathroom areas.

We are continuing with personal protection equipment with all personal care including aprons and wipes.

Staff have been advised to follow latest government guidelines, currently  to self isolate if they have a continuous cough or a high temperature, we recommend they keep us to date with any changes.

If pupils display the symptoms we advise government guidelines are adhered to in the same way. If pupils are presenting as poorly in school we will be sending them home to isolate as advised.

Non essential visits to school have been cancelled and school trips into the community have been postponed.

Contingency plans are in place for both school and short break closure. Residential children who are not 52 weeks may also need to stay at home.

Children are supervised during handwashing and are taken to wash their hands at regular intervals. Staff are vigilant if children are touching their face and will take them to wash their hands.

We will continue to review our policies and amend plans as guidance changes.

I hope this reassures you that we are taking every measure possible, whilst we endeavor to protect the vulnerable children in our care and ensure we continue to provide a service to those in need.

The BBC has launched a ‘digital wellbeing’ smartphone app for children called Own It.  The app uses a combination of self-reporting and ‘machine learning’ to build a picture of a child’s digital wellbeing and serves relevant content, information and interventions designed to help children understand the impact that their online behaviours can have on themselves, and others.

Check it out – https://www.bbc.com/ownit

A huge thank you for the donations that we have had so far for our annual Mothers Day sale.  The sale will be on the morning of the 20^th March, with all students being able to access the sale if they wish.   This is a chance for students to buy a present for their mums, grandmother or a special lady in their lives.

Presents will be available to choose for £2 from the sale and students will have the opportunity to add a tag to their present which they can personalise.

If there are in other contributions to the sale which have not been sent into school yet please could these be brought in for the attention of Rebecca Fletcher by Thursday 19^th March to allow for the sale to be organised for the Friday morning.

Donations could be anything from jewelry to scarves, unwanted Christmas or birthday presents, smellies to gift sets, cosmetics or chocolates.

As always your support is gratefully received and I look forward to again supporting the students with their decisions!

 

Please see attached letter with details of a Social Coffee morning, which I will be facilitating prior to the E-Safety Workshop on Thursday 11th February.

Social Coffee morning February 2020