Letter to Parents from Ninian Park Primary School                                                 

15^th July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Now that the Minister for Education has told us that we are able to return to school in larger numbers after the holidays, I wanted to take this opportunity to write to you with more details.  We are still waiting for further guidance from the Local Authority so some things may change, but I felt it was important to give you as much information as I could, as soon as I could so that you can make arrangements.

• The school year will officially start on Tuesday 1^st September 2020.  Tuesday 1^st September and Wednesday 2^nd September will be Planning and Preparation days for staff so that I can make sure everyone is clear on current guidelines and curriculum development. No children will be in school on these days.

• On Thursday 3rd September we will welcome back ALL pupils in Years 1-6.  We do all we can to ensure that your children stay safe in school by making sure we do the following things as much as we possibly can:

• Promote handwashing and good hand hygiene
• Promote ‘Catch it, kill it, bin it’ health awareness.
• Keep your children solely in their class ‘contact group’ of 30 children as much as possible.
• Continue to have ‘pods’ of children (as we are doing now) in different parts of the school to keep children in set areas of the building.
• Continue to have slightly staggered start times to allow children to be dropped off in the mornings at their set gates:

• Ensuring that school is cleaned appropriately at regular intervals in accordance with Health and Safety guidelines.

As we still need to maintain social distancing guidelines for parents and staff unfortunately we cannot allow parents onto site, as we would physically not have enough space. Staff will be at the gates to greet you.

There will be NO provision for hot dinners at school until 14^th September.  All pupils will need to bring a packed lunch, a drink in a water bottle and a piece of fruit for snack.  Those families who are entitled to Free School Meals will continue to receive funding via ParentPay during the first few weeks of term.

• On the first day of term we will give your child a water bottle which they will take home for washing each evening.  Please can they bring this to school, filled, every day.

• Those children who are joining us in Nursery and Reception from September will have admissions meetings  before starting.  We will send you a separate letter with your admission times and dates.

• All children across the school from Nursery to Year 6 will be back in school by Thursday 10^th September.

Many of you have been asking who your child’s class teacher is over the last few weeks.  Children will be moving into the following classes:

Reception teachers for September will be Miss Pugsley, Mrs Bah, Miss Fitzsimmons, Mrs Jones, Mrs Bagguley and Mrs Black.

At the end of this school year we are also saying a fond farewell to Miss Rees who has made the decision to retire at the end of this term.  Miss Rees has been a highly valued member of our school community at Ninian Park for a number of years and we are sad that we have not had the opportunity to celebrate her time with us in the way we would like, due to the current restrictions.  We are hopeful that she will come and visit us at school next term so that we can thank her properly.

In September we are welcoming four new teachers to our team at Ninian Park.  Mrs Bah, Mrs Pankhurst, Miss Hussain and Miss Richards.  I know you will make them feel very welcome.

It has been a testing few months for everyone in our school community, but we have got through it, and are looking forward to our ‘new normal’ school in September.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our pupils, parents, families and staff for their hard work, support and engagement during this difficult time. 

Should any further updates be published  over the summer holidays I will make sure that these are passed on to you via Twitter @nppschool, the school website: www.ninianparkprm.cardiff.sch.uk and via text (so please ensure we have your current mobile number).

I hope you all have a restful summer holiday and I look forward to welcoming you all back to school in September.   Should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

Take care and stay safe,

Miss Scott