Dear Families
I hope, like us, you have been enjoying the beautiful weather this week. It has been wonderful to see the 'bubble' playgrounds and pupils out playing with their classmates. An unexpected positive side effect of having the bubble playgrounds is that more pupils are engaged in active play and social communication which is fantastic. We will ensure that this becomes our new normal!
Bubbles
We are extending the current bubbles for a further two weeks whilst we continue to help pupils work through their feelings about lockdown and their fears about Covid, we re-socialise pupils and help re-establish positive behaviour and routines, we educate on new behaviours and habits that pupils need to acquire to be safe at this time and we support all pupils to engage with structured education. We will make another evaluation before the end of the two weeks to decide whether we feel it is safe to return to our normal timetable and I will of course keep you informed about this.
School timing
Now that everyone is more familiar with the arrival and departure at school we need to try to move towards more normal arrival and departure times. If your child travels on school's transport these are dictated to you and at present remain the same.
For all other pupils who arrive independently or are transported by a family member the timings are as follows:
Arrival at school: Between 8.30 and 9am
Departure from school: between 3.05 and 3.30pm
I am aware that there are some families who have challenging circumstances at the moment due to the Covid arrangements and restrictions. If this is the case for you please contact the appropriate Assistant Head to discuss this with them. We can only make individual arrangements in exceptional circumstances.
Pathways 1 - Miss Willis, awillis@meadowhighschool.org
Year 7 and 8 - Mr Rainsbury, mrainsbury@meadowhighschool.org
Years 9,10,11 - Mrs Richards, jrichards@meadowhighschool.org
Years 12,13,14 - Miss Taylor, mtaylor@meadowhighschool.org
New Assistant Headteacher
As you may have noticed above, we are delighted to welcome Miss Taylor to Meadow as the new Assistant Headteacher for KS5 (6th Form). Miss Taylor is a highly experienced SEND teacher who has moved to us from a large Secondary Special School, not dissimilar to Meadow.
Cars on site
Thank you for not bringing your car on site. For safety purposes, we cannot have additional vehicles on site whilst we are moving pupils and staff about the car park. There is absolutely no entry or waiting on the site before 9.30am in the morning and after 2.15pm in the afternoon.
Safe crossing
Thank you to families who are using our school crossing. Please can we ask that you use this whether your child is with you or not. This helps pupils understand that this is always the safest place to cross. Otherwise, the message is 'when I'm older, its OK to nip across the road anywhere'.
I am in the process of registering for a petition to get the area at the front of school made a 20mile an hour zone during arrival and departure times and will be seeking lots of signatures to try and get this in place. I am registering for a community speed camera that staff can use to monitor the speed of vehicles at the front of school. We really want to have as many pupils travelling independently but we also need to make this area as safe as possible.
If your child is quite road aware we would encourage families to start the process of independent travel by not escorting your child right up to the school gate. Letting them walk alone from a small distance away, whilst observing them, and gradually increasing this as their (your!) confidence grows is a great way to do this. You can always talk to your child's Form Tutor about how to do this.
Regarding pupil illness and suspected cases of Covid at Meadow.
We have a tiny amount of pupils who have remained at home after returning from overseas and a few others who remained at home whilst awaiting their test results, all of which were negative. We also have another exceptionally small group of pupils who are currently at home and awaiting test results.
At this time of year pupils with Asthma often cough more and we are aware of this. We are checking for any other symptoms but if they are not present we are not sending these pupils home.
Where a pupil is ill and displaying at least one symptom of Covid-19, we are sending these pupils home with the expectation that the family will book / arrange a Covid test. The pupil will need to remain at home until the test result is received and the school MUST be notified and have evidence of the result (you can forward the email or text). If the result is negative the pupil can return once the school have received this confirmation / notification.
At present we have had no confirmed cases of Covid-19 and we highly suspect that even those who at home awaiting results have a seasonal cold. To reassure parents, we have no clusters of ill pupils within the school and all cases are individuals in bubbles. This would suggest that pupils are becoming ill outside the school and not via cross infection. I will keep you updated on our situation.
Face coverings
I am aware that many pupils are not wearing face coverings whilst being transported on LBH transport. Please can families consider helping their child to become comfortable wearing a face covering and encourage them to wear one on the transport. This will keep them and others safer.
At present, pupils are not required to wear a mask at any time in school, however, this may change at some time in the future. Should this happen, the most likely scenario would be that pupils would be required to wear a face covering when in a communal area. There will of course be some appropriate exceptions to this rule, but most pupils can and will wear a face covering if they gradually become familiar with it. I hope you can support us by helping your child to learn to wear a face covering. My thinking is, plan for the worst, hope for the best!
Assemblies
All our assemblies are being run virtually at the moment, but I trialled running a whole school assembly 'live' with one class which was then streamed to the whole school. Thank you so much to class 7NC who were fantastic and really helped me. I think it made the experience far more interesting for all involved!
Virtual meeting re: the new school build
I hope that you will be able to join me next Tuesday at 12.30pm or 6.00pm to look at the plans and artist impression of our new school. Invitations were sent out this week. Please can I ask in advance that you join and mute yourself, so that everyone is able to hear clearly. There will be an opportunity to ask questions, either verbally, or by typing in the 'chat'.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Best wishes
Mrs Rigby
Headteacher
