Dear Parents,
Our Commitment to you:
The health and safety of our children, families and staff team at St Pauls Nursery School is our absolute priority.
In further opening our nursery provision for a limited number of children on site, we have put stringent procedures in place to ensure this, and have followed all local and government guidance to help us to do this.
We have completed a comprehensive Risk Assessment approved by the Local Authority, which has been informed by parent Governor support and shared with all staff members.
This is our detailed setting Risk Assessment (now available on our Policies page). Behind this sits ‘bubble’ procedures to minimise risk. If you would like more information or to discuss any of this further please contact the nursery directly.
If your child is to re-join nursery it is important that we share these key actions and procedures with you, and that we are clear about our expectations for the families that access our site.
This will inform your judgement as to whether you wish your child to attend nursery, and also form an agreement between us.
We recognise that social distancing in the Early Years is impossible to enforce and also not supportive to the needs of young children.
Children will be helped to:
- frequently wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and dry thoroughly.
- clean their hands on arrival at the setting, before and after eating, and after sneezing or coughing
- avoid touching their mouth, eyes and nose
- use a tissue or elbow to cough or sneeze and use bins for tissue waste (‘catch it, bin it, kill)
We will ensure that help is available for children who have trouble washing their hands independently, and we will encourage the children to learn and practise these habits through visual routines, games, songs and repetition.
Staff will follow through a stringent daily routine for roles and responsibilities which will ensure our environment is safe, clean and all preventative measure are followed through consistently.
Our Nursery experience will now be offered in self-contained ‘bubbles of children’, that will never mix.
Each ‘ Bubble’ will have:
- Separate rooms
- Staggered start and finish times
- Separate entry and exits into nursery, at which children will be dropped off to a staff member, PARENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED ON SITE, unless in exceptional circumstances
- Separate staff teams – who remain solely in this team bubble for the everything, including breaks
- Separated areas of the garden that they can access at all times
- Lunch provided in their ‘Bubble’ room, which will be delivered to the door by our cooks
The Nursery Environment has been adapted and will be monitored to ensure:
- Children are outside as much as possible, or in very well ventilated spaces
- Resources and soft furnishings are limited within the rooms
- Playdough and inside sand pits are not available
- Children can be engaged in washing down equipment them selves
The Nursery Experience:
We will continue to:
- Plan to provide outstanding, creative and dynamic learning experiences for our ‘bubbles of children’ – following their interests and engaging them in the world around them
- Support the children’s emotional wellbeing, exploring feelings at the very uncertain time
- Provide unconditional professional love to the children
Hygiene and Cleaning:
An extensive cleaning schedule has been established will be completed each day to include:
- An hourly cleaning rota for key touch points and toilet areas.
- Daily hose down of outside, including bike hoops, handles and bars
- All resources will be washed in an ongoing way by children, and also by the staff team at the end of the day
- All bedding is personalised for children and this will be washed on a daily basis, as will any soft furnishings
- Deep clean at the end of every day
PPE equipment:
This will be used by staff for nappy changing or dealing with first aid procedures.
Full PPE will be used to support a child if they start to display Covid19 symptoms and need to be isolated in a separate place before they are collected by a parent.
When a case of Covid 19 is suspected we will:
- Isolate the child and contact parents immediately, send them home and request they get their child tested
- Deep clean the bubble space
- Inform the LA and follow government and local procedures
- Inform other ‘bubble’ families if the case is confirmed as positive through testing, and close the ‘bubble’ for 14 days
The full Risk Assessment shared in the link above will provide more details of EVERY measure we are putting in place to ensure the health and safety. Please contact the nursery if you would like more explained.
Parents and Carers Commitment to Nursery
To help us to keep St Pauls safe we ask, with the greatest of respect, that you to commit to the following actions please – as it requires everyone to make this model of provision work.
We ask parents and carers to:
- Wash you and your child’s hands thoroughly before you come to nursery
- Use the allocated entry and exit into nursery
- Follow the social distancing guidance and markings whilst waiting to enter or collect from nursery
- Chat to the children about what to expect at nursery whilst you are waiting, and the importance of handwashing
- Drop off and collect on time please – as staff will be waiting at the gates/doors at the allocated time and it could be difficult to get their attention once in nursery with the children, and could compromise staff ratios
- Make a decision about your child’s lunch – either packed lunch or cooked dinner for the duration, as we cannot accommodate changes at this point in time
- Do not try to enter the site
- Notify us if your child is ill, or any members of your family or household are displaying Covid 19 symptoms and KEEP THEM HOME
- Call 111 to book in a test for the child within 24 hours
- Notify us if your child or any member of your household has a positive test or is isolating due to COVID 19
- Phone to inform us if your child is not attending for any other reason, as it will help to inform our staffing ratios
- Discourage your child to bring in toys, unnecessary clothing etc
- Name your child’s clothes, shoes, lunchboxes
- Dress your child appropriately for lots of outdoor learning – including applying sun hat and applying sun cream
- Collect your child immediately if we contact you to say they are unwell
- Ensure we have up to date contact information for you and an alternative emergency contact, should be we unable to contact you directly
Thankyou for your help during this challenging time. We are delighted to welcome more children back on site – we have missed everyone so much.
We still feel really frustrated though, that right now we have to just ‘greet you and leave you’ at the gate. Please rest assured, our staff team will be in touch with you to share how the children are resettling, and please also let us know how it’s going for you at home.
What we ask now is that you complete and sign the form below to say that you agree to this commitment.
It is important to restate that we will be continually reviewing our risk assessments and our provision, we will be informed by local and government data to ensure we do all we can to keep our community well.
I know it might feel like the country has suddenly been ‘switched back on’ but please still stay home as much as you can, and STAY SAFE, we are definitely still all vulnerable to this virus.
Lucy Driver
Headteacher & National Leader of Education
