Dear Parents/Carers,
We hope you are staying well and safe – and are enjoying our ‘keeping in touch posts’ on the website or phone calls from our team.
As you know, things are changing. Our Government has now decided COVID-19 has stabilised enough to try and get the economy going again, with nurseries and schools starting to open their doors from June.
We will all have different feelings about this.
We are mindful that in Bristol we have been fortunate to have had comparatively lower numbers of cases and Covid 19 related deaths. This has been a relief, however it could result in Bristol having low ‘area immunity’ and consequently we may see these numbers rise as people get out and about again.
I know Bristol City Council will be watching for this.
This virus is unprecedented and very scary, our heart goes out to members of our community and staff teams who have lost friends and family members to it – or who have seen loved ones struggle through to recovery.
Staying safe is our absolute priority.
With this in mind, I think it is appropriate to share with you some updates from St Pauls and also some of the things we are considering about any reopening:
Updates:
Furloughed staff:
As you will know St Pauls runs a daycare business, which was already struggling.
Since lockdown we have been losing approximately £35k per month income. To start to recover some of this lost income in a bid to ensure we have a future, we have had to furlough some of our staff team.
I think it’s fair to say that none of team wanted to be furloughed, but we have some very generous spirited and wonderful team members, who volunteered – as they just want to be part of ensuring we have a service in the future! I’m sure you will join me in thanking them for this.
This could mean that your usual key person will not be at work, so your calls home may come from another member of the nursery team.
Re- Opening:
I’m sure you have all been wondering about this since the announcement on Sunday!
The team and Governors are now looking at the safest way in opening up St Pauls to include more of our children.
Every nursery across Bristol will have to respond to the challenge of reopening in an individual way, as our circumstances are so very different. It’s safe to say that we aren’t going to jump into things without considering what it may mean for all of us!
Clearly with all the guidance around social distancing, and children staying within a ‘small bubble; that doesn’t mix with other bubbles’ it means we will not be returning quickly to having all our children on site.
Again, I’m sure that you will all have your own personal and family views about this and that some of you may not even want to bring your child to nursery!
Our priorities for opening St Pauls will be:
- To provide an opportunity for Nursery School children who are leaving to come together with their key person and key group, to say good bye, celebrate what they achieved at nursery and think about transition to school
- To maintain contact with our vulnerable children and families
- To facilitate parents being able to go back to work (if numbers permit)
- To begin to generate some income again to ensure we are here for the future!
Because we will be needing to minimise contact, movement, consider entry/access etc the number we limit on site will be critical. And due to the strict health and safety requirements our usual session time are most likely to change.
We expect to be in touch again next week with our NEXT STEPS.
Please help us with the plans
You will be contacted by a member of staff over the coming weeks and asked a few questions to help inform our decision, these are:
- If your child is in Nursery School, would you bring them to join in some time with their key group?
- If you have a place in our baby room, would you bring them in if we re opened?
- If you are trying to get back to work what place or hours do you still need?
You can email the nursery or phone in at any time if you want to talk things through a bit more.
Charging
As stated, we have a growing deficit, so we do now need to re start our usual charges for those of you who have been accessing charged daycare provision whilst continuing to work in key roles.
Fees will need to be paid from next week 18/5/20.
Bristol Central Children’s Centre:
The team of the Bristol Central Childrens Centre are based and led here at St Pauls, but work right across Central Bristol and support at other Childrens Centres sites (The Limes Nursery School, Rosemary Nursery School, St Phillips Marsh Nursery School, Barton Hill Settlement)
Our Childrens Centre remains OPEN (lots is virtual of course) and the team is here to support you.
They do amazing things!! Offering 1:1 support, virtual groups, signposting, food clubs, emergency supplies etc. amongst many other things.
Rather than over populate our Facebook page we now have a NEW SEPARATE Childrens Centre one.
Please like and follow the Central Bristol Children’s Centres Facebook page to access support and find out about many wonderful things! Please share it with all your friends too!
Home learning
Hope you are all loving our home learning posts on our website and our YouTube channel.
It’s a way of staying in touch with you and also sharing some of the things we do at nursery. Please keep watching, and please leave comments!!
They make me smile so much, I just think our team are fabulous!! The drumming video even got me drumming on a pan in the garden!
Some parents are also wanting to send messages to key people or photos of children being busy at home. We’d love to hear from you or see what you are up to!
Just send messages in to our main email address and they will get passed on to key workers.
Thankyou
St Pauls Nursery School & Childrens Centre is a wonderful learning community.
It’s funny, despite so many of us being separated and working at home, there seems to be even more love and commitment to the place!
I’m so proud to be part of it!
Thank you for staying at home, staying connected and staying safe.
We can’t wait to see you all again soon!
Kind Regards
Lucy Driver
Headteacher
