Key Worker parents – if you ever use Wraparound Club at all, Mr Langford is asking if you could book for the whole of this half term in advance as soon as possible, preferably in the next day or so please.
Any sessions that have no children booked in, will be cancelled. There will be no staff onsite to run the club at late notice for those sessions.
Dear parents
Today we have opened for our Key Worker and Vulnerable children. We have striven to provide a place for all Key Worker families who informed us of a required place by 3.30pm yesterday afternoon.
I realise that there are still families with at least one key worker parent or carer who may require a place for their children. If this is the case, I ask that you contact me directly using:
head@pontesbury.shropshire.sch.uk
Since the country was upgraded to Alert Level 5, as a result of daily infections surpassing 60,00 cases, and we entered full national lockdown again, Government advice now states that society must work from home if at all reasonably possible. Guidance also states that there need only be one family member who is a key worker for that family to be eligible for a school place during lockdown. This has resulted in a significant rise in pupils in school compared to the first lockdown and we are now extremely close to the maximum number of pupils we are able to take whilst ensuring the health and safety of all staff.
I therefore ask all key workers to please look at your situation at home and consider whether it is essential to send you child to school, especially during these few weeks when infection rates are so high and a family member is working from home. I can assure you that children at home undertake the same work as those in school and that at home they are, quite frankly, in a safer environment.
Can I also request that children coming to school only bring a coat, water bottle and snack / lunch box. Reading books will not be going home and school will provide all necessary writing materials so no pencil cases please. This is to minimise the amount of items being transferred between school and home.
Finally, please ensure you DO NOT arrive at school before 8.40am in the morning when doors will open. This morning, several children arrived at 8.30am!
Home learning started today for all children, whether in school or at home and, as I am sure you can imagine, teachers are now incredibly busy juggling the preparation and uploading of work, looking after keyworker children and assessing completed work. Teachers will respond to emails and communications from children and parents as soon as possible but I ask for your understanding and patience if there is a small delay. I also ask that teachers are not contacted via email in the evening; if you need to email, please contact me using the above link.
Thank you to all key worker families for your consideration as to whether you feel a place for your child is absolutely essential, especially if you are using our key worker provision 5 days a week. Please rest assured that, as a key worker, you will not lose your place if you feel you are able to keep your child at home: it will be available for the whole of lockdown.
As always, if any wish to discuss your situation with me, please do not hesitate to contact and to all parents, please do contact if you wish to discuss anything. This is a tremendously difficult and stressful time for all of us so please do contact if you feel you need to, especially with difficulties accessing home learning due lack of usable devices in the home. We will always do our best to help.
Stay safe
Mr Langford
Dear Parents
Further to my post yesterday, unfortunately I have had to take the decision to open on Wednesday for Key Worker Children and Vulnerable Children Only.
This will continue until January 18th 2021 when the situation will be reviewed.
All Key Worker and vulnerable families will be contacted tomorrow and informed of arrangements for their children to attend school on Wednesday.
If you are not contacted tomorrow, please do not send your child to school on Wednesday. If you are a Key Worker and have not be contacted by 3.00pm tomorrow, please email or phone the school office.
Home learning will therefore start again on Wednesday 6th and class teachers will be contacting children in their class tomorrow to ensure everything is prepared.
This decision has been very difficult to make and I fully understand the implications this will have for many of you; I sincerely wish we were moving to more normal times.
Mr Langford
Dear parents and Carers
Please let me wish everybody a very happy New Year.
Our plan is for all children to return to school on Wednesday, the 6th of January 2021.
However, you may be aware that yesterday the National Education Union and Unison have advised its members not to attend school due to the risk of contracting the new strain of coronavirus and spreading it to others. The unions are advising teachers to take this action to protect themselves, their family, their pupils and their families, colleagues and members of the public.
It will not be possible to assess the impact of this advice until tomorrow, 4th January 2021. I have a meeting with the school’s senior management team tomorrow to discuss this, any further developments and their impact on us. I will confirm via email tomorrow whether the school will be open to all children on Wednesday or whether alternative arrangements need to be made. I will do this as soon as I possibly can.
As always, I thank again for your continued support and will update again as soon as possible.
Mr Langford
Sorry to mention the horrid Covid word on the last day of term but I have been asked a hypothetical question and I have sought advice from the Department of Health and thought it best to share this with you all.
If your child develops any of the coronavirus symptoms within two days of being in school and then has a positive test we would ask that you email me at school and we will then be able to provide track and trace with the details of all those in the same bubble in order for them to isolate. If a child develops symptoms later in the holidays you would just advise us on return to school. I very much hope this is not the case for any of you, we want you to be able to enjoy Christmas with your families and then want you all back happy, healthy and rested on Wednesday 6 January 2021.
On a happier note I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and very happy Christmas and hope 2021 sees us all being able to return to normal life albeit not immediately – the end is in sight!
Despite the recent announcements in the news Pontesbury CE Primary School will be open as usual on Friday 18 December (COVID-19 permitting!)
Dear parents/carers,
For those of you who drive your children to either of our local schools, or who walk your child to Pontesbury CE Primary School in the morning, you will know that both our school communities and local residents have been concerned about the congestion in the mornings for many years. Our primary concern in relation to this congestion is the safety of pedestrians, mostly children, during this busy time in the morning. The long-term solution to this problem is for Shropshire Council to create a bus park at the end of the Mary Webb school field, with plans for this and the necessary consultation currently being worked on. However, these plans will not solve the problem in the short-term.
Yesterday evening (Tuesday 1st December), Nick Hignett and Mr Lowe-Werrell (Headteacher of Mary Webb School & Science College) were contacted by Shropshire Council’s Highways team to inform them parking restriction lines (single and double yellow lines) are to be painted today (Wednesday 2nd December), with the accompanying signs due to be installed by Monday 14th December.
As we understand it, this will restrict parking on Bogey Lane (from the schools to Chapel Street), between 8:30am and 9:00am, Monday to Friday, during term time. The aim of this restriction is to stop cars parking during this crucial period of time, in order to allow the buses to travel along Bogey Lane unimpeded by parked cars. It is hoped this will reduce the risks posed to pedestrians by the buses having to perform challenging manoeuvres in areas with limited space.
We are grateful to Shropshire Council for their support in this matter and hope this temporary set of parking restrictions will make the journey to both schools safer. When we have further news relating to the plans for the proposed bus park, we will let you know.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Langford (our Headteacher) and
Mr Lowe-Werrell (Headteacher of Mary Webb School & Science College)
Dear Parents,
With Covid cases on the rise locally as well as nationally, this is a serious reminder that if a parent or child has symptoms, that person must get a Covid test and their entire household should self-isolate. If you are unsure about the symptoms you or your child has, please ring NHS 111 for advice or go to https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
A parent must not send their child/ren to school, even if it is the parent with symptoms and not the child. When you receive the results of the test, please inform the school immediately (whether positive or negative).
We have collated the essential information below from the NHS and the Gov.uk websites.
The most common symptoms of Covid are:
If the test comes back negative, the children can return to school immediately (but, as already stated, please ring school to let us know first), assuming they are well enough to return.
If you test positive for Covid 19 you must self-isolate for 10 days from the day the test was taken, and (as of 14th December) the rest of your household must also self-isolate for 10 days from the day the test was taken.
You could be fined if you do not stay at home and self-isolate following a positive test result for COVID-19, or if you are a contact of someone who has tested positive, and you are notified by NHS Test and Trace that you need to self-isolate. It is also an offence to knowingly provide false information about your close contacts to NHS Test and Trace. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in a fine of up to £10,000.
A reminder too, that parents must wear face masks while on the school premises at any time. Thankyou, as always, for your co-operation and understanding.
Mr Langford
The FOPPS “Lockdown Recipe Book” is here!
Join us to celebrate this unique keepsake of the delicious recipes that have sustained us through the 2020 lockdown.
We have been working hard to get the recipe book ready in time for Christmas and we are delighted to announce it is ready to pre-order!
EARLY BIRD OFFER!
Copies ordered by Thursday the 26th of November are just £6
and you will be entered into a raffle to win a hamper of delights!
From Friday 27th of November each recipe book will cost £8 or three for £18.
Payments can be made via School money (in the shop) or via cash or cheque through the school office.
Thank you so much for supporting our school!
FOPPS 🙂
Disclaimer: Please be aware not all recipes submitted will feature in the recipe book due to the page limit.
Dear Parents and Carers
Firstly, thank you once again for your continued support at the beginning and end of the day, especially for wearing masks and continuing to remain as much as possible socially distanced, when collecting and dropping off children.
The Covid-19 virus is now all around us and the number of schools having to close ‘bubbles’, or shut completely, is growing daily. So far, Pontesbury CE Primary School has not being affected – touch wood – but if we are, action will be swiftly taken. If we have a confirmed case, our initial action will be to phone Public Health England. They will tell us what action to take which we will then immediately communicate to parents via the website, text message and email. Please ensure that the school office has your latest contact information.
Could I please ask you to complete this short survey? To help us ascertain what technologies our families have at home to cope with online teaching if and when the need arises.
Over the last few weeks, several parents have spoken to me to ask for advice about how to limit access to social media sites at home and how to ensure children have some ‘downtime’ from mobile devices. There are several applications both for Android and Apple devices to do this but ‘Screen Time’ is excellent and can be found in ‘settings’ on Apple devices. Also, Disney + is excellent and works across any device. There is a free lite version and a subscription version for the full App. Both can be found in the App store.
As you are all aware, from January, Mrs Pittaway will be on maternity leave and Mrs Rowe is leaving to take up the position of Headteacher at Long Mountain CE Primary School. I am pleased to tell you that, in room 8, Mrs Smout will continue to teach the year 5 class for 4 days a week and Mrs Pope will continue to teach the year 2 class, again for 4 days. For the remaining day of the week we will appointing a new teacher to join our ranks and teach in both classes.
With Mrs Rowe leaving, we are also losing our Deputy Head. We will be advertising for a new Deputy headteacher in February to start with us in September. I am therefore also very pleased to announce that Miss Roberts and Mrs Hilditch will be joining the senior management team as Assistant Headteachers until the new deputy headteacher is appointed.
If there are any questions about staffing, or anything else at all, please do contact.
Mr Langford
Pontesbury C.E. Primary School
Bogey Lane,
Pontesbury,
Shropshire.
SY5 0TF
Tel: 01743 790226
Headteacher: Mr Tom Lowrie-Herz
School Business Manager: Mrs Sara Andrew
