Newsletters

Belmont School 11th June Newsletter

Newsletter June 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to a great final half-term of this very unusual school year!

We are delighted that so many of you were able to take part in Monday’s virtual Parent Consultations and with your children. You will know from your conversations with your children’s teachers how they are progressing in their learning and what their next steps are. We are looking forward to working with you this half-term to support all of your children making even more progress, and our curriculum has been adapted to support this based on the children’s learning so far.  You will be able to read about this year’s learning and progress towards the end of this term when we send home the children’s End of Year Reports.

In the meantime we are working on transitions for new children due to join our school in Reception and Nursery in September, and the transition to High School for our Year 6 pupils.  More details of transition meetings are on our school website and Year 6 parents will be receiving news of our exciting end of Year 6 events.

It is great to be reflecting on pupils’ good attendance since the school re-opened in March, and we have had no COVID cases in the school since then. However, we do remain cautious about maintaining our school risk assessments and procedures because there are increasing numbers of reported COVID infections in our local community, and I would urge you to continue to follow the government guidance regarding testing if you or a family member has possible COVID symptoms, self-isolation and reporting this to the school. Harrow’s Director of Public Health has just written a letter for families regarding Surge Testing and financial compensation for working adults who need to self-isolate. Please do take time to read this and remember to wear a face covering when entering the school site, unless you are exempt.

This week we have been really encouraged by the speed of the staggered start in the mornings, and I have had conversations with some parents about reducing the window for different phases to enter the school site from 10 to 5 minutes. This would mean that Years 5 and 6 would still come into school at 8.30am, but we could get Years 3 and 4 into school at 8.35am, Years 1 and 2 at 8.40 am and Reception at 8.45am. Stargazers pupils would start at 8.50am.

At the moment we cannot find a way to lengthen the Nursery sessions so that both morning and afternoon classes have equal amounts of time in school, but we are confident that this should be possible in September.

We want to begin these new transition times NEXT WEEK, and we really need to you support us with this by bringing your children to school on time every morning, and collecting them promptly. Being late is distressing for children and also disrupts our smooth transition and keeping year group bubbles apart.

Finally, a reminder that your children need to wear the correct PE Kit and school uniform (see below) and sending children to school with a sun hat, applying sub cream before school and making sure they always have a labelled bottle of water — hydration is important! We are a healthy school and would encourage parents to provide healthy snacks when collecting children at the end of the day.

 

Belmont pupil's supporting the community:

We all want to say a huge well done and thank you to Shreya in Year 5 for supporting the 'Little Princess Trust' by donating her hair! 

Here is Shreya's Story:

Hi everyone, 

I'm Shreya and in year 5. I would like to highlight the issue of cancer in young children, who through cancer treatment have lost their hair. 

On 16th May I donated my hair to Little princess trust all 12" inches of it to help one child who has or going through this treatment, to instil confidence back into an amazing child's life!😊 

It feels amazing! I hope this gives you the confidence to do something like me or even something different.

Regards Shreya

Aged 10 - Raised £500 to date. 

Shreya is fundraising for Little Princess Trust, and they’d really appreciate your support.

Should you wish to donate, you can via the Just Giving link by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diksha-gajjar?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=diksha-gajjar&utm_campaign=pfp-email&utm_term=b5a4df28e586400ea518d058b3bb6cf4.

 

Attendance 

School attendance will be mandatory for all pupils from 8th March 2021. 

If your child is ill, please notify the school office on 0208 427 0903.

If you or your child develop any signs of a continuous cough, high temperature and loss of taste or smell, book a PCR test immediately and let the school know as soon as you have been given the results - DO not send your child to school.

Quarantine and Self-Isolation after Overseas Travel

Booking holidays during term is not permitted and the school cannot authorise any holiday requests. However, we are aware that some families may have travelled overseas recently, and it is essential that you follow the latest Guidance on self-isolating when they return to the UK.

The link below explains which countries are on the RED LIST because of infection rates. If you are returning to the UK from a RED LIST country it is a legal requirement to must book accommodation in a “Quarantine Hotel” for you and your family for 10 days from your arrival in the UK. If you are arriving from any country NOT on the Red List, you are still legally requires to self-isolate in your home for 10 days from your arrival back in the UK if you have travelled from any country in the Yellow List.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): red list travel ban countries - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Coronavirus (COVID-19): red list travel ban countries - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Uniform Reminders

School uniform will need to be worn but the children can wear trainers. This is to stop the need for children to continually change shoes in corridors, with the potential to mix with other year group bubbles, or have pupils’ belongings lying around in the classroom.

There will be no changing on site, so pupils will wear PE kit to school on the days they have PE, wearing their white t-shirt and black shorts. Please ensure that your child wears a school sweatshirt and black or grey jogging bottoms over the t-shirt and shorts as they will be outside.

Ordering Hot School Lunches

We are no longer taking bookings for hot lunches ion school. 

Please order your child's hot meals for next week via the ParentPay website - www.parentpay.com.  This is for ALL pupils including Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils. 

All meals will need to be ordered in advance and the menu can be found on the website. 

If you need any help, please contact the school office on 0208 427 0903.

Home Rapid Testing For Families

COVID -19 infection rates are increasing, particularly in Harrow and other parts of North West London. In order to keep schools safe and open the NHS is now rolling out rapid testing to all families with school age children. This is intended to pick up asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 so that outbreaks can be managed and contained quickly. If any member of your household normally leaves home to go to work, your family should be taking rapid (Lateral Flow) tests twice a week.

School staff are already doing rapid home testing so ensure any infection is picked up quickly. We will be sending out a separate letter from Harrow’s Public Health Team explaining where and how families can get tested, and this will include arrangements for attending local rapid Test Centres as well and how to order home test kits.

Health & Safety and general reminders

To ensure that we are all following the Government guidance and safety measures, I would like to ask you all to review the following to ensure that we are all doing our best in breaking the transmission of the virus.

We ask you to continue to help us by:

  • Only ONE parent to drop off and collect pupils to the teachers at the allocated times. If you have children in other year groups, you will only be allowed in school at the correct times – Please note - No parents will be allowed to wait on the school site.
  • Ensuring that you spread out and maintain a safe social distance from others when waiting to come on site – Keep your distance.
  • Do not gather in groups outside of the school gates and leave site as soon as possible – Keep your distance.
  • Wear a face covering when dropping off and collecting pupils and do let us know if you are exempt.
  • Wash your hands regularly.

No parents may come into building without an appointment.  All communication must be by email, website or telephone.  We must maintain social distancing and strict timings

Remote Learning Expectations

We continue to set online weekly home learning online via 'Microsoft My Teams'. Staff will review what has been completed and leave feedback on the pupil’s page.

We are digitising the way the school operates, this means you will have access to all of the pupils daily learning so that pupils can review what they have learnt during the school day at home.

If your child's bubble has to self-isolate due to NHS Test and Trace, we will notify immediately and your child will be able to access learning online as they have done during school closure.

Safeguarding remains ‘EVERYONE’S BUSINESS AT BELMONT SCHOOL.’

Harrow Children Services’ Golden Number is available to everyone, and gives people one number to call for information or advice on services for children, young people and their families.

Golden Number: 020 8901 2690.

A person points to themselves within a circle of black dots.

UNCRC Article 19
I have the right to be protected from being hurt or badly treated

19 May 2021
Changes to COVID-19 Restrictions from 17th May 2021
Please read the reviewed risk assessment that can be found in the COVID-19 Parent updates page. 
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