Newsletter - w/c - 30/11/20
Dear Parent/Carer,
Please find below some important notices about school life:
Return to School - Self-isolation
We look forward to welcoming Year 1, Year 2, Apple Class, and the children from Pine Room, Birch Room and Breakfast Club back to school tomorrow on Friday 27 November 2020.
We also look forward to welcoming Year 3 back to school on Wednesday 2 December 2020.
Thank you to those parents and carers who have worked hard with home learning; we know it is not always easy and we are grateful for your efforts to avoid your child falling behind with their learning.
May we remind you that if your child is showing the symptoms associated with COVID-19, they must remain off school and you must organise for them to have a test. When you get the test results, be they positive or negative, you must forward them to admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk so we may continue to act swiftly in response to any positive test.
It may be reassuring for parents and carers to keep their eye on this website which tracks the number of positive cases in Hertfordshire. As you will see, the number of cases is falling.
Furthermore, it may be reassuring for parents and carers to know that we have had just 8 positive cases (and these do not form separate cases requiring separate letters to inform you as they include individuals going on to test positive during self-isolation after contact with an individual who themselves already tested positive) and to keep in mind that those are 8 individuals are out of 392 children and 65 staff; therefore, a small number of cases will still have a big effect on the running of our school as we have to follow the current guidance regarding self-isolation.
We are pleased that many of our parents and carers keep track of their child's class on Facebook, and we are pleased too that many of the parents/carers with children self-isolating have made sure their child/ren complete extra learning activities posted by their teacher/s.
We know some parents/carers use Facebook Messenger to contact their child's class teacher directly. This is perfectly acceptable; however, parents/carers must keep the following in mind:
1) A teacher only need respond to messages between 8:30am - 3:30pm, Monday-Friday, during term time.
2) A teacher does not organise the policies and procedures in school. If you have a question or concern about school life, for example, relating to COVID-19, you should e-mail admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk FAO Mr Short (Headteacher) so he may direct your question or concern to an appropriate member of school staff.
3) All communication from parents/carers, including in-person, telephone, e-mail and Facebook messenger, must be professional and polite, otherwise we will use our Managing Abusive Parents, Carers and Visitors Policy. The Governors of Hurst Drive Primary School will not tolerate staff being treated unkindly. We have already sent out three warning letters to parents/carers since 1 September 2020 for shouting and/or swearing at staff members in person or on the telephone. If needs be, we have the power to ban a parent/carer from our school premises - we have done this in previous years so we would consider doing it again to keep our staff safe. As always, thank you to the very many parents/carers who always treat school staff politely - it does not go unnoticed.
Telephoning the School
As a reminder, the School Office is currently closed to visitors. We check the school voicemail at 8:30am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm. Quite often we are having voicemails where a caller has not left a message, only to then find a voicemail in the afternoon saying they have called several times today and require an answer to a question. If you need to leave a voicemail to share a message or to ask a question, please clearly state your name, your child's name, and provide a contact telephone number if you suspect we may not have your latest contact information on our system. Of course, we will only return your call if your voicemail states or suggests a call back is required.
We still recommend a parent/carer e-mail any questions or messages to admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk as we can reply to these more efficiently.
Year 6 - Lancaster Model Survey
Parents/carers of Year 6 children should note that the children will complete this survey in school on Monday 30 November 2020 and Tuesday 1 December 2020.
As we wrote previously, this is a survey where the children share their personal views about their physical and mental health, and, depending on how your child completes the survey, you may be contacted by someone working in the NHS in the coming weeks.
Christmas Jumper Day - Friday 11 December 2020
This is advance notice that on Friday 11 December 2020, the children are invited to wear a Christmas-themed jumper to school as part of a non-school uniform day. Parents/carers are invited to donate £1 (or whatever you can spare) to the charity Save the Children.
The Friends of Hurst Drive are currently in talks with Mrs Bye (Family Support Worker) and Mrs Lloyd (Safeguarding Coordinator) to run our annual Christmas Sale on this date too so the children may buy Christmas-themed gifts for friends and family. We will share more details about this in next week's e-mailed newsletter.
Kind regards,
The School Office Team
Hurst Drive Primary School
admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk
01992 624099