Dear Parents / Carers

 

You may have noticed that we have had some building work completed on the back playground over the last few weeks, and this is now in fact a car park.

 

Since taking over the post of Headteacher it has been my mission to eliminate traffic from the front of the school. Cars coming up and down the driveway are far from ideal – especially so close to our Year 3 and 4 classrooms and our front playground.

 

My long-term aim is that there will be no traffic at the front of the school at all. Cars will all be parked at the back of the school and deliveries will be timetabled around the school day to ensure no vehicles have access via the front gate (apart from the emergency services if needed). The front of the school will become one large purpose-built playground area for all the children across the school.

 

Projects such as this take time and money. Phase one of this plan is now complete and we are hoping in the new year that the car park will be ready and the current car park at the front of the school will be transformed into an additional playground space.

 

With this in mind, we are making changes to the access arrangements before and after school.

 

After the October half-term there will be no access before or after school via the back gate. All children must enter and leave the school via the front gate.

 

For children in Nursery and Years 1 – 6 this will make no difference and their pick-up and drop-off points will remain the same, including the arrangements for Nursery on a Wednesday.

 

For children in Reception, there will be some changes to the morning drop-off, as stated below:

 

In the mornings, Reception children will enter the school building via the main school office, on a rolling drop-off basis. Parents can line up outside the main school office and bring their children to the main office door to drop them off. Children will then walk across the school foyer and down the Reception corridor to their classrooms. A rolling drop-off will not only minimise waiting times for our children to enter school but also develop independence and increase learning time from the moment they arrive in classrooms. Members of the EYFS Team and SLT will be on hand to support this and ensure children have the same warm welcome upon entering school. To prevent congestion, please could we ask that you leave the main school office area as soon as you have dropped off your child. If you need to speak to your class teacher, please contact them via email using the school’s admin address, or, speak to them directly at the end of the day. Reception children will still be collected from the back playground for now until the car park is fully operational. Parents/Carers will still need to enter and exit from the front gate. We will open the main gates just before 8.50 a.m. and close them at 9.00 am which gives you 10 minutes if you need to complete multiple drop-offs. May we suggest that you watch your older children go to school first and then take children in Reception or Nursery to their drop-off points. I appreciate this will mean significant changes for some families who currently use the back gate each day. However, it is imperative that we make these changes to safeguard the children in the long term and ensure that there is no traffic at the front of the school.

 

Kind regards

Miss Bolton

Headteacher