COVID-19

At the moment, and taking into account the most recent government guidance, we have not planned to run an after school club. There are a number of factors that have informed this decision: a need to allow sufficient time to thoroughly clean the school at the end of the day; to prevent cross contamination across wider areas in the school (including wider use of equipment); to allow staff time to plan and prepare for future learning as they will not be receiving their normal release time.

Teachers will be mindful to take into account multiple factors when deciding which children will be allocated to which group. In order to ease anxiety, one of the top criteria in the decision making process will be children's friendship groups. We are fortunate to be working with a high ratio of teacher to pupil, with at worst 8 children to each adult; this will offer us a rare opportunity to provide personalised learning with quick intervention. This will be finessed as we begin to establish a baseline of children's strengths and areas for development against their year group's curriculum.

At this stage we are unable to confirm specific groups. However, this is something our class teachers will be carefully considering next week in order to ensure children are placed alongside those who we know they get along well with.

We appreciate that every family will have a different set of circumstances and factors that will be considered in making the decision whether or not to sent their child in. We respect your decision, whatever this may be, and therefore will continue to run the Virtual Classroom which will still be available to all year groups. Mrs Dyer will lead the EYFS / Key Stage 1 area, and Mrs Clark the Key Stage 2 area.

First and foremost, we want children to be happy when they return back to school. We WILL NOT be insisting that children in Year R sit at a desk or stay within an isolated, confined space without free access to the outdoors. We will need to carefully assess the equipment they have access to in order to maintain high levels of hygiene. Equally, we do not want the group that has been allocated to the computer suite to be at a disadvantage. Therefore, this group will also have sole access to the heated cabin and garden area which will be resourced similarly to the EYFS outdoor area.

First and foremost, the timetable is not something that is set in stone and will adjusted to meet the needs of the children - mental health and children's wellbeing will be the core focus of our teaching whilst children acclimatise back into school life. We have been working closely with the Specialist Teaching Service for Kent on a new transition project, and this will form the structure of a number of activities children will be completing. Whilst the timetable allocates 20 minutes for this activity, we fully anticipate this may take longer and will readjust the timetable accordingly.

Key worker children that are in Year R, 1 or 6 will be allocated a place with their friends in one of the class groups and not in the key worker group. We appreciate that staggered drop off times may make it difficult for those who work to collect any earlier. In this instance, we would encourage those key workers to email admin@east-farleigh.kent.sch.uk to agree alternative arrangements. As always, we will endeavour to support you all as best we can.

For those children with siblings attending school, we would ask that you adhere to the drop off and collection time slots as outlined in the school's plan. Where pre-school children or those in other year groups not attending, we would strongly urge that you exercise caution and maintain social distancing from other parents and children. We will be posting videos later next week to provide a virtual run through of what drop off and collection will look like in practice, as well as a guided tour of the different learning areas.

We have planned to have full attendance from 1st June 2020. Whilst we would appreciate you keep us updated with your preferences, this is not essential. We appreciate that many of you will want to wait to see what the latest government advice alongside the latest scientific data . It is important to reiterate that 1st June is subject to the conditions of the five stage plan and is subject to change.

The government guidance states:

"When settings open to the wider cohort of children and young people, all those children and young people eligible to attend, and members of their households, will have access to testing if they display symptoms of coronavirus. This will enable them to get back into childcare or education, and their parents or carers to get back to work, if the test proves to be negative. To access testing parents will be able to use the 111 online coronavirus service if their child is 5 or over. Parents will be able to call 111 if their child is aged under 5."

The government guidance states:

"When a child, young person or staff member develops symptoms compatible with coronavirus, they should be sent home and advised to self-isolate for 7 days. Their fellow household members should self-isolate for 14 days. All staff and students who are attending an education or childcare setting will have access to a test if they display symptoms of coronavirus, and are encouraged to get tested in this scenario.

Where the child, young person or staff member tests negative, they can return to their setting and the fellow household members can end their self-isolation.

Where the child, young person or staff member tests positive, the rest of their class or group within their childcare or education setting should be sent home and advised to self-isolate for 14 days. The other household members of that wider class or group do not need to self-isolate unless the child, young person or staff member they live with in that group subsequently develops symptoms.

As part of the national test and trace programme, if other cases are detected within the cohort or in the wider setting, Public Health England’s local health protection teams will conduct a rapid investigation and will advise schools and other settings on the most appropriate action to take. In some cases a larger number of other children, young people may be asked to self-isolate at home as a precautionary measure – perhaps the whole class, site or year group. Where settings are observing guidance on infection prevention and control, which will reduce risk of transmission, closure of the whole setting will not generally be necessary."