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Returning on 5th January

Firstly, I hope you have all had a safe, healthy and enjoyable Christmas, even if it was a little different!  Secondly, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. My fingers are firmly crossed for a better 2021!

I do, however, think that the first few weeks of this year and term could be a ‘bumpy ride’. Things have certainly moved on a pace since we broke up and have now culminated in Northamptonshire being moved to Tier 4. As you will have seen in the press, some primary schools in Tier 4 have been asked to switch to remote teaching. This mainly applies to the South East but does include Milton Keynes. It does not apply to us at this stage. Yardley will be open to all children from Tuesday January 5th. (Monday is a staff training day).

I am very pleased and relieved that this is the case and want to reassure you that we will do everything we can to remain open, unless we are told by the government to do otherwise. I think full staffing may be tricky at times and we already now have staff who need to shield at Yardley. We are fortunate to have the most amazingly flexible teams at both schools so I am sure we will cope!

We will start the term with all the existing safety measure and protocols in place and will obviously be maintaining our class bubbles. As such, a positive case should only result in a specific bubble being sent home, at which point, we will switch to remote teaching.

I will obviously keep you updated with any new developments; as soon as I hear anything you will! In the meantime, if you have any queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me on: .

Enjoy the remainder of the holidays and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.

Louise

Update 10/12/2020

Our Theme Day yesterday was lovely and the children looked great in their festive jumpers! The day was definitely a little different this year and we missed not having you all in to help (and eat lunch!) but the children really enjoyed it and there was a lovely festive atmosphere around the school.

Thank you for your generous donations to FOYS. Due to quarantining the money, we are unable to give an exact total but will let you know as soon as we have one. The FOYS teams have been amazing this year, as always, raising an amazing amount for the school in very restrictive circumstances. Thank you to them for their incredible organisation and creativity and to you for your support.

You may have seen in the press over the last few days that the Department for Education have given schools the option to close a day earlier for Christmas. Contrary to reports in the media, this is not an additional day and we would need to lose a future training day. As such, I can confirm that we will not be doing this. I feel that this is incredibly short notice for many families, especially those who work, and we really value our training days as opportunities for professional development. I do not want to loose one of these days in the future. We will be open on Friday December 18th . The return date for children will be Tuesday January 5th. (We will have a staff training day as planned on Monday January 4th.)

I get fewer opportunities to chat to you all in person nowadays with staggered drops offs and no social events in school. Hopefully I will see many of you over the next few days but if I don’t get the chance, I hope you all have a very happy and healthy Christmas break.