Charlton School

9^th September 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome back!  I hope you managed to have a good summer, I know many of our plans had to change due to the restrictions still in place and we have heard of many of our families who either had covid or had to isolate, including my own, during the holiday.

As with all new school years we welcome several new staff to Charlton, I am sure you will all make them feel very welcome:

• Mr Triggs - DT Technician
• Mr MaGrath - Behaviour for Learning Mentor
• Mr Fletcher - Cover Officer
• Mr Titley - Teaching Assistant
• Miss Montgomery - Teaching Assistant
• Mrs Cunningham - Family Liaison Officer
• Mr Dupree - Teacher of Humanities
• Mr Stokes - Teacher of Maths
• Miss Pound - Teacher of Science
• Mrs Savage - Teacher of Science

The following colleagues are supporting our year groups this year:

I had hoped that I would not need to write about Coronavirus at the start of this academic year, but I am sure you are all aware it is still very much with us, especially in Telford and Wrekin where we have seen positive cases rise in the last five consecutive weeks, and the number of cases is above National and Midlands averages.

It is imperative that anyone displaying the three main symptoms isolate immediately and seeks a PCR test at a test centre by calling 119 or visiting the following website,  https://www.nhs.uk/ask-for-a-coronavirus-test.  Any students displaying these symptoms in school will be sent home and required to isolate until the outcome of the test is known.  The symptoms are:

• high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

By the end of this week, we will have finished our second round of tests in school and all students who have tested have been issued with a pack of seven home lateral flow tests to continue to test twice weekly, until the end of September.  If a student tests positive on a lateral flow device, they are required to isolate immediately and seek a confirmatory PCR test.  Please inform school of any positive tests from lateral flow devices at your earliest convenience.  We have not been informed if we will need to continue home testing from October onwards.

Should we have any positive cases in school, it is now up to NHS Track and Trace to identify and inform close contacts and advise them of the actions to take. It is likely that close contacts who are under 18 or adults who are double vaccinated will be advised to take a precautionary PCR test but will not have to isolate under the current government guidance.  The school will support NHS Track and Trace with this process as required.

The school has been required to update our risk assessment and write an outbreak contingency plan should we see an increase in cases in school.  These can be found on our website: http://charlton.uk.com/parent-student-information/covid-19-information.

If we see an increase in cases, we may have to reintroduce some of the measures used last year, such as the wearing of face coverings, either in communal areas or the whole school, additional cleaning, a return to bubbles and non-mixing of year groups and ultimately, if advised, as a last resort, restricting attendance to some or all year groups.  This is all documented in the contingency plan.

At this time, we continue to encourage the regular use of hand sanitiser and promote good hand hygiene care by all.  Students and staff may wish to wear a face covering, we are happy to support this anywhere in the building.  However, face coverings are still recommended when using the dedicated school transport or on public transport to and from school.

As advised before the holiday, all students are required to attend school in full school uniform every day and will change for PE as we did prior to the pandemic starting. There are areas available in the PE department where students can change if they feel uncomfortable about this.  We have also removed the staggered start and ends to the school day, with all students required on the school site by 8.40am ready to enter the school building and school finishes at 3.00pm for all students.  We will be reintroducing late detentions for the minority of students who do not manage to attend on time.

The vast majority of students have returned looking incredibly smart, thank you. Please do check our uniform policy that was again shared prior to the holiday. This confirms our expectations on uniform, shoes, make-up, jewellery and hair colours, details can be found here: http://charlton.uk.com/parent-student-information/uniform. 

We still have a small stock of available uniform from our uniform bank in reception.  Please come and see us if you need assistance and we are happy to still take donations of good quality uniform and PE kit, should you find your little ones are not so little anymore and you have had to buy bigger sizes!

There have been some changes made to the menus being offered by our catering contractor, Shires, and these can be found on our website: http://charlton.uk.com/parent-student-information/canteen-provision.  One of the changes is that the meal deal no longer contains a bottled drink, this has allowed them to put on a wider range of main meals and puddings, all of which are included in the deal. 

Due to this we are advising students to bring a refillable bottle to school every day and to make use of the filtered water dispensers we have located in several locations on the ground floor.  Alternatively, if students wish to purchase a drink, they will need additional money on their Parent Pay accounts.  In addition to the benefits of wider menu choices, this change will potentially significantly reduce our usage of single use plastic bottles in school.

With the relaxing of the restrictions the government has placed on schools, I am extremely excited and optimistic about this school year, amongst other things I hope we will be able to reintroduce the wide range of extra-curricular opportunities that students have missed out on over the last 18 months.  Preparations for this year’s school show, Matilda, are well under way and we have already restarted school sports fixtures at the end of last term.  Plans are also in place to get our Year 7 students away on their residential during this half-term.  Please do all you can to follow the guidance and keep Coronavirus out of Charlton and allow our students to really experience all we have to offer.

I look forward to working with you and thank you for your ongoing support.

Yours faithfully

Mr A McNaughton

Principal