To help families we hope that the following is useful. Please check regularly as information may change at any time. We will update as often as possible.
Last updated on
Friday January 15th at 3.45pm - updates are in red
Can I complete the key worker attendance form for week beginning January 18th?
No. Many thanks to all the parents that completed this on time. Mr. Averis and Mrs. Carvell have used this information to safely plan groups of children in the school. If you are a key worker and need to send your child to school week beginning January 18th please ring the school office.
How many pupils will be at school next week?
There will be about 210 pupils attending school every day next week, week beginning Monday 18th January. This is about 45% of our pupils.
Can I complete the key worker attendance form for week beginning January 25th?
Yes.
All key workers need to 'book' places for their child for week beginning January 25th? CLICK HERE. You need to complete the form by 9.30am on Friday 22nd January.
Thank you to all the parents that are completing this early to help us plan staffing. Special thanks to key worker parents that are supporting us by keeping their children at home if they are able to.
Have there been any positive cases of COVID19 confirmed at St. John's this week?
No. We have not had any new positive cases of COVID19 in our pupil or staff community during the week beginning Monday 11th January.
Will my child be taught by their class teacher in school?
Most children will be with their teachers. However, staff availability, staff training, general illness and COVID absences mean that some children will not be working with their teacher.
All children will be working in their year group bubbles.
I am a key worker. If I have booked a place for my child, but no longer need them to attend, do I need to ring school to let you know?
Yes please.
Please note that we will not be ringing key worker parents if their child is not in school and you have booked a place. Many key workers are following the government advice and are keeping their children at home if they are able to. This means that parents may had booked places for week beginning 11th January when the advice was to send key worker children to school all the time. This advice from the government changed on Thursday 7th January and many parents are now supporting us and the community in keeping children at home if they are able to do so.
We will ring the parents of invited children if we are expecting them in school and they haven't attended.
Which children can attend Nursery?
The government made it clear on Thursday that our nursery should be open to all children, not just the children of key workers. Therefore from Monday 11th all nursery children are able to attend our nursery.
To ensure that our children and staff stay as safe as possible Mr. Gallen will be ringing parents next week to offer some alterations to session times. This will be done to try to even out the number of children that attend each session. Our mornings are more popular than our afternoons and we will try to balance out numbers so that distancing can be encouraged as much as possible and Mrs. Gallen and Mrs. Grigoriu are also able to stay safe to ensure that our nursery stays open.
Which children can attend school during the second national lockdown?
The government have made it clear in their updated guidance that parents and carers who are key workers should keep their children at home if they can. CLICK HERE. Therefore we have updated our guidance for key worker families below.
Two groups of children are still able to attend school.
Will end of year government tests and assessments take place in summer 2021?
No end of year tests will take place. Teachers will be using informative teacher assessments at the end of the year so that parents and your child's next teacher are still able to see how much progress each child has made.
Will staff wear face coverings?
Yes, staff may wear clinical face masks during the day.
After speaking to Derbyshire Health and Safety on Wednesday 6th January it was recognised that staff may wear clinical face masks when working with children and social distances can not be observed. Previously the advice was that staff would wear face coverings when working with other staff and social distances could not be observed.
We have always taken our health and safety advice from local and national government to ensure that all children, staff and our community stay as safe as possible, therefore from Thursday 7th January your children may be working with staff wearing clinical face masks.
If a parent or visitor comes into school to meet a member of staff both the visitor and the staff member will wear face masks if social distancing isn't possible.
Our latest risk assessment can be found on our website. CLICK HERE.
Is the daily milk still being delivered school for children that are entitled to free milk or pay?
No. Unfortunately we were told today that the daily milk delivery will not take place during this lockdown.
My child has had their birthday at home and has missed school and their friends. Is Mr. Averis going to do his weekly vlog for children at home and give a birthday shout out to all the remote learners?
Yes. Mr. Averis will be dusting down the recording studio and will record a weekly vlog for children and parents as he did all spring and summer.
If your child has had a birthday please complete the 'Birthday Shout Out' form at the bottom of this page by Thursday evening every week, and Mr. Averis will use it in his weekly vlog on Friday.
How do I find out if I work in a key industry?
The government have published a list of key workers. CLICK HERE.
Will books at breakfast be running?
Yes. Arrangements for books and breakfast will continue as normal.
Will you still have the staggered start and end times to the school day during the second national lockdown.
At present, yes. We are still expecting over 200 children to attend school every day. The staggered start and end times will remain the same in January as they were in the Autumn term.
What before and after school clubs are running at St. John's?
Question – Will you be providing snacks to infant children at break times?
At present we have some fruit in school for infant children. We do not know if we will be able to offer this throughout the second national lockdown.
What are the arrangements for the beginning and end of the day?
The arrival times are -
Routines
Arrangements for the end of the day
Routines
At the end of the day can parents leave the playground through the big double car park gates, rather than walk around the side of school?
Yes. Children in reception or year 1 that pick up at 3.30 can leave through the double car park gates if they wish and they are still unlocked when they want to leave. We hope that this will make social distancing easier.
Parents with no children in reception or year 1 need to continue to use the side footpath.
Please bear in mind that parents that choose to leave school through the double car park gates will not be able to collect any scooters from the scooter park as you would have to walk against the one way flow of all other parents.
We hope that using these gates to exit school at the end of the day at 3.30pm when reception and year 1 children leave their classrooms helps us maintain safe social distances. Parents that leave via these gates before 3.30pm are clearly not helping our community, especially if they leave whilst reception and year 1 parents are still arriving.
Parents can not leave by the double gates before 3.30pm
We will continue to monitor this and update our procedures if necessary to help ensure our safety.
Do you have a risk assessment to help keep everyone safe?
Yes we do. Parents can see a copy of it on our website. CLICK HERE.
We purchase the risk assessment from the local authority and make minor adaptions to suit our school's needs.
The latest Risk assessment, version 6, was shared on the 11th November 2020. This risk assessment clarified some information about isolation periods.
Day one of any isolation period is now to be counted as the day after symptoms are first shown. Extra information about this clarification can be read either in the risk assessment itself, CLICK HERE, or on our 'What to do if you have Symptoms?' page. CLICK HERE.
Do parents have to wear a face mask when dropping off and picking up children?
On the 5th November Derbyshire County Council wrote to all schools, parents and carers asking then to wear face coverings when bringing children to and collecting them from school. A copy of this letter is on our website. CLICK HERE. We will be encouraging all adults to follow this advice at St. John's and will appreciate your support in this.
How else can I help keep me and everyone else safe at the beginning and end of the day?
To help ensure the safety of all we would like to remind families of the following information we have already shared.
When else do parents have to wear a face mask at St. John's?
All parents that come into school buildings, with an appointment with a teacher or other member of staff, are required to wear a face covering. If the meeting can be held in a room where social distancing can be maintained it may be that the member of school staff agrees in certain instances that the parent can take the face covering off. For example if the meeting involves a child and the removal of the covering would help the meeting be more successful.
When do I need to bring my PE kit into school?
Children only need to bring their PE kit to schools on the two days a week that they have a PE lesson. They will then bring it home at the end of the day.
PE kits will not be kept in school over night.
Children in reception are allowed to keep their PE kits in school. Our new reception classrooms have plenty of space to allow us to store them safely. Also, having reception children's PE kits in school allows us to easily help our youngest children and change them into dry clothes if they have had a little accident at school.
Why do I have to queue in the morning to get into school? It is difficult to socially distance when waiting for my child to start school.
Parents that have to queue have arrived too early.
Many thanks to all of the parents and families that are helping our community by arriving at school at the correct time. Unfortunately, despite our requests in the newsletter and online there are still many families turning up too early, putting the safety of our community at risk. Our procedures for the morning are highlighted below.
What happens if my child or some one in our house has COVID-19 symptoms?
We have set up a separate part of our website to help families who have children or family members that display COVID19 symptoms. We hope that this important information is now clearer and easier to access. CLICK HERE.
To help prevent the risk of COVID19 transmission you are not using play equipment at lunchtimes. Can my child bring a small toy from home into school?
Yes. We are really pleased with how well the children are playing and behaving on the zoned playground and adopting to new routines in school and would like to help them further.
Unfortunately we are following advice and not using the school playtime play equipment as the balls and hoops may roll into other playground zones and therefore increase the risk of COVID19 transmission in between year group bubbles.
With this in mind children are invited to bring in small, non electric, pocket toys that they can play with and use in their playground zone. We hope that this will give children an opportunity to play small games on the playgrounds with their friends. The toys need to fit in a pocket and encourage the children to play in a small group of friends. Toys or cards that encourage swapping are not allowed as when swapping occurs some children always end up upset. The school can not take responsibility for the toy.
Why do parents have to follow a one way system that changes direction at the end of the day?
The one way system is in place to help ensure social distancing. The one way route is reversed in the evening so that the children don't have to walk across the car park and arrive and leave school along the safer footpath.
What are the times and arrangements for nursery children?
Nursery sessions are running as normal from 8.45am to 11.45am and 12.35pm to 3.35pm.
Nursery children need to be dropped off and picked up from the nursery gate as normal. There are no staggered start or end time for the children in the nursery bubble.
Question - Are two parents or carers allowed to pick up or drop of their child and go onto the playground or is it only one adult?
Only one parent or carer per family is allowed to come onto the playground to drop off or pick up pick up their children.
Why doesn't the timetable at the end of the day allow for siblings to leave at the same time, this is going to make picking up difficult?
We appreciate this and are sorry that we can’t have siblings leaving safely at the same time.
Question - Do I have to come onto the playground to pick up or drop off my child? Can I wait outside the front of the school as usual?
When the parent or carer drops off or picks up their child they are invited to come onto the playground. Parents that do this need to use the one way system in place. Parents that want to pick up and drop off from the front of the school on Laund Nook are welcome to, however, reception and year 1 parents need to come onto the playground. If waiting on Laund Nook please be considerate of neighbours and do not park on the yellow zigzags
Will other adults teach in my child’s class?
Yes. We are following advice and will be able to have other adults teach in other bubbles. For example -
Will children stay in their bubbles at playtimes and lunchtimes?
Yes. At playtime the playground will be divided into zones and bubbles of children with have exclusive access to these zones. This means, for example, that both year four classes will be able to play together at lunchtime, but year four children won’t be able to play with year five children who will have the year five zone to play in.
The reception and nursery children will only use their own playgrounds.
Will school trips and residentials take place?
We have planned visits for next year and will follow advice at the time to ensure that they can run safely.
At present we have residential visits booked for our year 5 and year 6 children and hope that they will be able to take place. More information will be published later.
Am I allowed in school to speak to my child’s teacher or to go to the office?
Not without an appointment. Any parent or carer that wishes to come into school to see an adult needs to make an appointment so that a socially distanced meeting can be arranged.
No parents or carers can come to the office to drop off letters or information, please send all information to school with your child or via email.
Question – How can I as a parent help St. John’s keep all children and staff safe?
Thank you for wanting to help. Our Belper community is continuing to show how it can support and help each other. To help us can you please –
Question – How can I pay for school dinners this term?
To help us reduce the amount of times staff handle anything from other environments that may be contaminated we are asking dinner money to paid in the following ways, in order or priority -
School dinners will increase in price by 10p a day from September 2nd and will now cost £2.20 a meal. CLICK HERE for extra information.
Use this form to let school know if your child has had a birthday during the lockdown. Mr. Averis looks forward to reading out your message in his weekly vlog.