Friday 27^th August

Welcome Back

Dear Parents/Carers,

 It has been a fantastic first week back at Oaklands. Our children have returned with smiles on their faces, ready to learn together and enjoy being in routine again. Yet again, they have surprised us with their resilience; many children moving to new classes and getting to know new members of staff. However, they seem to have taken this in their stride! I am sure, like the staff, they will be very tired at the end of this week. But with the Bank Holiday Monday (30^th) next week, it means the four day week will again help them to steadily build up to a full week of school the following week.

It has been lovely to welcome our new children as well this week. They too have settled extremely well and staff are enjoying getting to know them. Well done as well to our new parents/carers, who I completely understand have felt some anxiety this week about bringing your child to a new school! I am sure you have been immensely proud of your children.

This term we have also welcomed a number of new staff to the Oaklands team; Fiona Littlehales (Dormice Class teacher), Jaya Keshwala (Hares Class teacher) and Ruqia Mohammed is now a class teacher in Robins class. We also have a number of new teaching assistants; James Gill, Kylie Grimsley, Michaela Colk-Thornton, Mina Nowrouzpour, Terese Husell, Miriam Janar, Baljit Dhillon, Taslima Shaikh, Nilufur Nathani, Debra White.

It was a little more of a shaky start for transport. We have been informed that the time of children being collected in the mornings and dropped off by buses in the evenings this week has been difficult for many children/families. Unfortunately, we do not organise the transport. We have been working hard to try and liaise with LCC Transport services to determine what the issues are. I am hoping that the problems will be rectified soon so that children get into a familiar routine, that is consistent and does not impact on their well being.

As you will be aware, there have been changes to the Covid-19 advice Nationally and this is also reflected in the Government Guidance for schools. We continue to work hard to ensure that we keep our children and staff team safe. We have shared our Risk Assessment on the school website if you would like to read it.

We ask that you continue to support our school community by:

• Ensuring that your child does not come to school if they are unwell

You MUST not send them in to school if they have a high temperature, a persistent cough or a loss of taste or smell

We have been informed that the new Delta variant also presents much as a cold; runny nose and headache.

If your child has sickness or diarrhoea they must not come in to school for 48 hrs after the last bout.

• Calling the school by 8.45am if your child is absent to let us know why they will not be in
• Only sending your child in to school with the essential items they will need for the day
• Sending your child in to school in clean clothes
• Reminding your child to wash their hands regularly at home so that it is part of their routine

The majority of our staff team have now been fully vaccinated and we continue to do twice weekly LFD tests as part of our school safety measures. Children are being reminded how to wash their hands properly and we have decided to keep the one-way system in school as we found that this worked well for us.

The school will no longer be doing contact tracing so it is imperative that if your child has a positive case of Covid-19 you talk to NHS Test and Trace when they call you and you pass on details about the school.

If a member of your household gets the virus, children under the age of 18 are no longer expected to self-isolate. Advice now states that contacts under 18yrs, or those adults who are fully vaccinated, should book a PCR test.

Please do continue to check Weduc and the school website for any updates. If you have not yet joined us on Weduc, this is the key way in which we send out information, so please contact the office to help set that up; office@oaklands.leicester.sch.uk.

You can also find us on Twitter and we have our own You Tube channel & a Facebook page

Twitter: @Oaklands_

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoBZ9amxpU6NJ3OM9_dPioA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OaklandsSchoolLeicester/

This term, the children are all learning about The World Around Us! For some children this will be about starting with them and their immediate environment, and for others it may mean exploring wider curriculum themes as well ie science, geography.

We look forward to getting to know your children again this term. They are all a joy to work with!

If you have any questions, queries or comments, please do not hesitate to get in touch through the school office.

Regards

Sarah Osborne

(Headteacher)