Tuesday 23rd February 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you all for your support for the school through this difficult time. We know how hard it must be for so many of you having to home-school and for those who are having to juggle this with working from home too. You are doing a great job!

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement last night, we are preparing for a full return to school on Monday 8^th March. We are reviewing our risk assessment and working with transport to ensure routes can run given the current shortage of guides. We will keep you updated as to progress.

The government has said it is mandatory for all students to return. However, if your child has received a shielding letter or it is not deemed safe for them to return at this time for other reasons, please contact us in school to make us aware of this.

All special school staff in Birmingham have recently been offered the vaccine and most staff within school have now had the first dose. We are also continuing to test staff on a twice weekly basis using the lateral flow tests. We hope this means we will be able to pick up quickly on any cases in school and isolate groups swiftly, but we are aware that these tests are not 100% effective and as we are unable to test our students it is vitally important that if you suspect your child has symptoms, you do not send them in to school and ensure you have them tested.

Staff wear masks around the corridors and communal areas in school and there is no mixing with other bubbles. If your child will tolerate a mask and can wear one responsibly then they are encouraged to wear one, but we recognise that this isn’t appropriate for most of our students. We continue to be vigilant around hygiene, hand-washing and maintaining social distance in school where possible.

Students will continue to be transported to school in their wider bubbles. Where we identify any cases of co-vid in school, we will still have to close to that bubble for a period of self-isolation.

Some things to look forward to over the coming weeks…

Spring is in the air and we are looking forward to getting our students outside and developing our outdoor space. Work begins on our play areas during the Easter holidays and we look forward to sharing photos with you when this is completed. We are also improving our horticulture area to make it more accessible for our students.

Thursday 4^th March- World Book Day

We will be incorporating this in to our school and home learning offer- so look forward to extra stories and activities related to your favourite books. Whether you are at home or school, please feel free to dress up as your favourite book character or an animal as part of your current work.

Friday 19^th March- Red Nose Day for Comic relief

Come to school dressed as a superhero and make a donation.

Think creatively- make an outfit from old clothes at home- don’t feel you need to go out and buy a ready-made outfit. Individuality is better!

In the afternoon we will hold a ‘Super Talent Show’. Either virtually or face to face in bubbles depending on where we are with co-vid restrictions; so please get practising your super talent if you want to perform.

We will be selling the official plastic-free red noses in school; so please buy yours from us! 

Friday 26th March – Purple Day for Epilepsy Action

Many members of our school community live with epilepsy and so we feel it is important to mark this day and do our bit to raise awareness and hopefully a bit of money for Epilepsy Action.

On this day wear something purple to school and make a donation– it doesn’t need to be head to toe. It can be a pair of socks, a hairband, T-Shirt, wrist band or the full works if you want!

We appreciate that many families have faced financial challenges during the pandemic so please don’t feel pressured to give to the above events and only give what you can afford.

We hope the above events will give us something to smile about and we look forward to welcoming all of our students back over the coming weeks.

Sinead Davies

(Head teacher)