Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Friday 27th 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 (30th) 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:
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.
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)
Dear Parents and Carers,
We hope you have had a restful and enjoyable summer.
As you get ready for your children to return to school, we want to let you know about some of the changes being made so that school can get back to being more normal for the children.
During last school year many children were sent home just in case they had been a contact of someone who later tested positive for COVID-19. Schools worked hard to reduce the spread of the virus and the majority of those sent home to self-isolate did not develop COVID-19. We know that this was very difficult for children and parents and carers.
From this term children will not have to self-isolate if they have been a close contact of a positive case. Close contacts will be identified by Test and Trace rather than the school and will be advised to go for a PCR test. If your child is identified, please do take them for the PCR test.
If your child has any symptoms or has had a positive test they should not go to school and should follow instructions about self-isolating. Please tell your child’s school why your child is off school. If your child displays any symptoms at school the school will contact you and ask you to take your child for a PCR test.
All schools will be revising their risk assessments so that they can continue to run safely and reduce the risk of spreading the virus. They will publish their risk assessment on their website. Many schools will go back to the normal start and end of the school day but may ask your child to use a particular entrance and exit to reduce mixing. They may also continue to have breaktimes at different times for different year groups. Adults in the school and visitors may be asked to wear face-coverings when in more crowded spaces or where there is poorer ventilation. Please do follow the school’s rules when on the school site.
Schools, Public Health and Test & Trace will work together to monitor the number of cases in schools. During the autumn term Public Health may ask individual or groups of schools to change their arrangements if they have a lot of positive cases. Please do follow any new arrangements that the school tells you about.
Previously, schools identified the close contacts in the school of someone with COVID-19. This will now be done by NHS Test and Trace (and in Leicester, our local Track and Trace team). Schools must still be told why your child is off school.
If you are fully vaccinated or aged under 18 years and 6 months, you will not need to self-isolate if you live in the same household as someone with COVID-19 or are a close contact as someone with COVID-19. Fully vaccinated means it has been 14 days from your final dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
These changes mean that it is important for children, young people and families to make sure they take some actions to support schools and their community. These include:
Thank you for all the support you have given to the work to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in Leicester.
Kind regards,
Martin Samuels, Strategic Director, Social Care and Education
Ivan Browne, Director of Public Health
We are looking forward to welcoming all our pupils back to school on Wednesday. Please feel free to share the video with your child in preparation for returning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNoCVEpQU_Y