Dear Parents and Carers,
And so we reached the end of term 3 in Nursery School, and it feels already nearly over our 1 week break. Our under 3s team have enjoyed having the building to themselves again for a few days!
What a year it has been so far, with SO many challenges:
- Staff with Covid, long term illness, isolating and most recently experiencing an awful lot of unexpected personal traumas in their life
- Being unable to recruit or secure supply staff, nor appoint to our SEND funded support worker roles
- More staff than usual taking maternity leave or stepping down from permanent posts here
- The above resulting in temporary closures, shortened days and request for you to keep your child home if you can
- Many more families being tipped into poverty or experiencing family trauma or breakdown
- The ‘covid effect’, which has undoubtedly changed our own resilience, and the relationships and interactions in our families and local communities
- Children experiencing no other world apart from the one with masks and social distancing
- Reduced funding and increased costs
It continues to be the perfect storm, and despite the government stepping back on Covid restrictions, our staff team are still going to get ill, and there will still be no available cover.
Despite all of this I would say that trust, kindness, and sense of community are things that our fabulous team have not lost sight of. They are SO committed, and work harder than I could ever dream of to keep the wheels of St Pauls and Central Bristol Children’s Centre in motion.
Please join me in thanking every member of staff for their brilliance.
And please can I also thank YOU for your tolerance and understanding, as and when we have had to respond to these challenges with sudden temporary changes to our service, and induction processes.
We really understand the inconvenience it caused and the extra pressure these changes may put on your family.
New Entry and Exit Procedures
It is fantastic to have parents coming back into our Nursery School, and seeing the rooms set up for the start of the day, and evidence of all the things that the children have been learning at nursery school. As you know we a have been trailing entry and exit systems, but from Monday 28th February this is set to change again.
- IN NURSERY SCHOOL
- Entry will be returned to the FRONT DOOR
- Exit will also be from the FRONT DOOR
- Please bring your children INTO the nursery room to hang up their coats, and then take then to their key person and group for welcome time
Please can I ask you to try and arrive on time, as late arrivals interrupt learning and take adults away from the children
- IN EARLY YEARS 2
- For drop offs between 8.30 – 9.00am please now bring your child into the Room
- You will be welcomed by a staff member at the door and asked to support your child to hang up their coat and bag before encouraging your child to join in play with a member of staff or make a plan of what they would like to do.
- If you arrive after 9.00am your child will be collected at the front door by a key person
- Collections of children between 2pm and 4pm will still happen at the front door, with children being brought out to you
- Collections for children on an extended day will return to being in the room, can I please remind you that the children need to be collected BY 5.30pm, as this is the end time of the staff shift.
Please can I ask you to be mindful of the age and needs of our children at drop off and collection times. Lots of ‘comings and goings’ in the rooms is quite unsettling for young children, and they need the full attention of their key workers.
- IN BABY ROOM
- Please continue to drop off and collect at the baby room doors as you are currently.
For All Drop Off/Collections
- Please continue to wear masks – to keep our staff well!
- Please leave your buggies outside Nursery
- Please make sure that you take phone calls and have conversation amongst yourself outside the nursery please
- Please always be on time! (In Nursery School the start of the day is when the adult directed activities happen)
Unwell Children and Families
As you aware there is no longer a legal requirement for people with Covid to self-isolate. The Public Health advice remains the same to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days. This applies to people with the main symptoms of Covid, who have tested positive either with Lateral Flow Test or PCR test or if you live in the same household with someone who has Covid. We ask that if you, your family or child test positive that you keep your child home for 5 days from start of symptoms or test result.
We also ask if your child is unwell that you keep them home – this is to keep the community safe.
If the staff become unwell we will have to continue to have to make difficult decisions about whether we can stay open with reduced staff.
Please remember that Covid has not gone away, we are now having to learn to live with it and keeping each other safe.
Curriculum Meetings
Robin and I had planned to hold online curriculum meetings for parents – to explain aspects of the Early Years curriculum and explain how we support children’s learning in nursery and how we can work together on strategies between home and school.
It has been hard to get the timings right to these meetings, and they have been very poorly attended. With this in mind we will now be recording information session for you to put on our YOUTUBE site.
We hope to then hold a Q and A session in person in the spring.
You will be sent links as these sessions are uploaded for your information.
Sad News
Some of you will have been involved with St Pauls for many years, if so you will remember Anne Chambers – our fantastic deputy of 20 years. Anne started her retirement 5 years ago, and has just become a Granny. Sadly, Anne has had the devastating news that she has aggressive terminal cancer, with very little time left. Some of us are finding this very hard to hear, as Anne has been instrumental in developing the ethos at St Pauls, but most importantly because she is a very, very beloved dear friend.
We extend love to her family and friends, and have such gratitude for all the years of service she dedicated to St Pauls. We will be with her to the end, and hold her in our heart forever.
Recruitment
We are still looking for staff: Nursery Teachers, SEND support workers, Apprentices in our Baby Room. Please keep spreading the word! Let’s hope that with the spring a few more fantastic staff pop their heads up!
As ever, thank you for sharing your remarkable children with us. They are the continuous joy! It is such a privilege to watch them grow and learn.
Many Thanks
Lucy Driver
Headteacher and National Leader of Education.
