* North Primary School headteacher Alan Garnett reflects on another busy week.

Monday, January 18

WEEK three of lockdown. The weekend was spent in communication with the LA – we will have no choice but to offer to open the nursery. What has made the situation worse is the feeling the LA has not been lobbying on behalf of settings only open to their critical worker and vulnerable children. The only help the LA has given settings is, in recognition of the late notice from Government, an extension to the census date from the 21st to the 25th January. That will give us a couple of extra working days to sort this.

At the 11am meeting with Clare Kershaw (director for education at Essex County Council), we discuss our email correspondence. She is fully aware of the strength of my feelings and other headteachers in a similar situation. Some LAs have instructed their nurseries not to open and will be funding them in full. Scotland’s nurseries remain closed.

At 12pm I send an email to nursery parents –

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your understanding of why the nursery places have only been made available to ‘vulnerable’ children and children of critical workers, in line with how the rest of the school is operating. However, I have now been instructed by the local authority that I must offer to open the nursery in full. If I do not do this we will not get funding for this term and the future of the nursery will be in jeopardy. The local authority – under the direction of the Government – has said that we can only claim funding for children with completed free early education parent/carer agreement forms, as long as the children are either in nursery on headcount day, or their parents have decided that they do not think it is safe for their child to attend during lockdown. Headcount day will be Monday, January 25. I would like your help please in doing the following:

1. The school office will phone any family whose FEEE forms have not yet been returned. These will need to be returned by Friday, January 22.

2. Please email the school by Thursday, January 21 to let us know whether you would like your child to return to nursery from Monday, January 25 or whether, for safety reasons, you would prefer to keep them at home. The staff will continue to post work on Tapestry and keep in contact with you.

Over the next couple of days nursery staff will phone you to discuss this situation with you.

The IT technician has started work configuring the laptops for loan. We have received from the Government 26 laptops for “disadvantaged children who do not have access to a device and whose face-to-face education is disrupted.” In the first instance these laptops will be offered to our oldest pupils. Parents have been invited to email to request a device.

The afternoon is a lovely distraction spent chatting with the home learners of the week and their proud parents. It was lovely to listen to them talking about their work. Maths activities seem to be the most popular. These children have stood out to their teachers not just because of the amount of work they are doing but how hard they are trying to do the tasks they are finding trickier. The older children are also posting their own comments and questions about their work. The children tell me they are finding ways to keep busy and get fresh air when they are not doing their home learning. What they all miss about not being in school is seeing their friends, of course, but some are able to keep in touch through online games and/or social media.

I attend the first of two Government webinars explaining the procedures for primary schools to manage the lateral flow testing of staff.

At 3.15pm I hold a Zoom meeting with nursery staff agreeing the plan for the week.

Tuesday, January 19

WE can now use the gas ovens in the kitchen. The new extractor hood and all the associated works are complete. Happy cook.

Hopefully the last food hampers have been put together and collected. The voucher system is being set up to start next week.

Nursery teachers spend the day on the phone to the parents. We have 36 children registered to attend morning, afternoon or all day sessions. Currently three critical workers’ children attend all-day. They are having a lovely time in the Reception bubble.

North Primary School head teacher Alan Garnett

North Primary School head teacher Alan Garnett

Wednesday, January 20

IN my governors’ meetings this morning I reassure them that we are able to re-open the nursery safely and not be penalised financially.

Spoke to the nursery teachers. It is pretty clear now how many parents are wishing to send their children back on Monday. A few are still thinking about it but very few feel comfortable doing this and are writing to confirm that. So, to meet demand and open with due regard to the safety of the children and staff from Monday, the nursery will open a morning bubble of eight and an afternoon bubble of eight. Children who have all day places will be in the Reception bubble.

In the newsletter I keep all the parent body informed of the situation –

At the beginning of lockdown the decision was taken to treat the nursery the same as the school and open along the same lines. This was within the rules before they were changed. Now the Government is also insisting that nurseries will only get funding for children who are in attendance or who would but parents have made the decision that it is safer for the children to stay at home and comply with the national effort to suppress the transmission of the virus. Obviously, if we thought it was safe to open the nursery in full we would have done that already. Over the weekend of the 16th/17th, it was confirmed that if we do not offer to open the nursery in full we would not get full funding for this term for the children registered. Apparently the hours the staff spend providing remote learning, interacting with parents on Tapestry and keeping in touch over the phone do not count. That ruling could mean a loss of funding of up to £30,000, putting the future of the nursery in jeopardy. This has put all early year providers across the country in a terrible position. We have no choice but to offer to open. Meetings have been held with nursery staff. The teachers spent the 19th and 20th speaking to every family. The School Risk Assessment will be updated.

I pass on a letter to parents from Clare Kershaw and Mike Gogarty, Head of Public Health Essex, explaining the Essex policy on lateral flow tests. In essence, they write, these tests produce too many false negatives. Schools should continue to send bubbles home to isolate if somebody tests positive rather than keep them in school and test them every day as per Government policy. Primary schools will get the kits to test staff twice a week from the January 25.

Obviously these tests will be given to our nursery staff as well. But the Government will not be issuing kits to maintained nursery schools until February. So the sector that should have been open all the time through lockdown gets their staff test kits last. Shocking.

The kits have been delivered. We have enough tests to last us three months.

Thursday, January 21

TODAY is census day for schools and early years settings across the country. This information determines the calculations upon which our budget is set. Obviously we will complete our census on Monday when the nursery reopens.

Is it a coincidence that all over the national TV stations today there are reports of the very high number of early years staff who have contracted Covid since December? Very worrying.

Friday, January 22

THE final headcount is in for nursery. Of the 36, five will be attending all day and there are only six more whose parents would like to return next week so we only need to open the morning bubble. This number may grow and, if needed, we can open the afternoon bubble. The remaining parents have sent letters to explain their concerns about sending their children into nursery during lockdown.

Seven parents of Year Six pupils are informed their requests to borrow a laptop have been granted. They will be available to collect on Tuesday, subject to the signing of a loan agreement. I email Year Five parents inviting them to request a laptop.

The week finished with a Zoom meeting with all staff to go through the procedures for the self-administering of the lateral flow tests. The recommendation is for all staff working in school to take the test twice every week– before the start and midway. As always, the most useful part of these kinds of briefings is the questions and comments colleagues make. The Government recommendations do not seem best fit when most of our staff are on a fortnightly rota during lockdown: one week in school and one week working from home. So, it is agreed that staff will take an “exit” test at the end of their week in school. That way staff will know if they are positive and we can take swifter action to notify parents and public health and help suppress the spread of the virus.

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