Latest News | Cherry Oak School

Reading Workshops For parents At Cherry Oak

Fri 29 Jan 2021 Jacqui Hanna-Jones & Harriet Walker

Reading Workshop for parents of children who have sensory needs

Jacqui Hanna-Jones will be providing a reading workshop for parents of children who benefit from a more sensory approach on Wednesday 10th February at 12.00 pm via zoom.

Details for how to access the meeting have been sent out via the app messaging service but you can also email

j.hanna-jones@cherryoak.bham.sch.uk

Reading with your child workshop for parents

Harriet Walker will be providing a reading workshop for parents whose children are able to engage in a more traditional approach on Thursday 11th February at 12.00 pm via zoom

Details for how to access the meeting have been sent out via the app messaging service but you can also email

h.walker@cherryoak.bham.sch.uk

NHS Test and Trace: COVID-19 testing for Staff in Primary and First Schools

Wed 27 Jan 2021 Ross Ashcroft - Headteacher

Dear Parent and Carers,

You may have heard that testing for those without coronavirus symptoms is beginning across the country using new, quicker COVID-19 tests known as ‘lateral flow devices’. This letter is to help give you more information about the testing programme at Cherry Oak School.

Up to one third of people who have coronavirus are asymptomatic. By testing we will help to reduce the spread in school through asymptomatic transmission.

Plan for testing

We will be offering all staff and regular school visitors twice weekly testing at home starting from the week commencing 25th January 2021.

What if my child’s teacher or other staff member tests positive?

If a teacher or other staff member tests positive on a lateral flow device, they will inform the school immediately and they will need to start 10 days of self-isolation as per government Stay at Home guidelines.

What if staff or pupils have been in close contact with the individual who tests positive?

All individuals will be notified by the school that they are a close contact. This is likely to be before school or as school starts and so may impact on your morning if you are required to collect your child from school. All contacts of a confirmed case must follow the national guidance, stay at home and self-isolate for 10 days. This is because it can take several days following contact with an infected person before an individual develops symptoms or the virus can be detected. Close contacts can return to school on day 11 if they are well and have no symptoms.

Other members of your household will be able to continue normal activities provided your child does not develop symptoms within the 10-day self-isolation period.

What to do if your child develops symptoms of COVID-19?

If your child develops any symptoms of COVID-19:

They should remain at home for at least 10 full days from the date when their symptoms started.
Arrange for a test via https://www.nhs.uk/ask-for-a-coronavirus-test or by calling 119. Anyone with symptoms will be eligible for testing.
Please inform the school if your child develops symptoms of COVID-19 and/or tests positive for COVID19.
All other household members, even if well, must stay at home and not leave the house for 10 days.

The 10-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill.

Household members staying at home for 10 days will greatly reduce the amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community.

If your child has symptoms, try and keep them as far away from other members of your household as possible. It is especially important that they stay away from anyone who is clinically vulnerable or clinically extremely vulnerable with whom you share a household.

Symptoms of COVID-19:

The most common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are recent onset of:

new continuous cough and/or
high temperature and/or
a loss of, or change in, normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)

For most people, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild illness.

If your child does develop symptoms, you can seek advice from NHS 111 at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/check-if-you-have-coronavirus-symptoms/ or by phoning 111.

How to stop COVID-19 spreading

There are things you can do to help reduce the risk of you and anyone you live with getting ill with COVID-19:

Do

HANDS wash your hands with soap and water often – do this for at least 20 seconds ∙
use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available
wash your hands as soon as you get home
FACE cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze
put used tissues in the bin immediately and wash your hands afterwards
FACE wear a face covering when in indoor public spaces
SPACE apply the 2m social distancing rule when outside your home

Yours sincerely

Ross Ashcroft

Head Teacher

Closure Due To Snow & Unsafe Conditions

Sun 24 Jan 2021 Ross Ashcroft - Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers

Cherry Oak will be closed to pupils and staff on the 25th January 2021 due to adverse weather conditions.

Any decisions to close the school are only taken after consultation with the Federation Leadership Team, Governors, the Site Manager and the Headteachers of our neighbouring schools. As always, in any decision, the safety of our children, parents and staff are paramount. We also have to take into account driving conditions and the condition of pavements and roads around the school.

As a parent myself, I know how difficult and frustrating it can be when arrangements have to be altered at short notice. However, I am sure that you will appreciate that the current snow and icy conditions would put pupils, parents, carers and staff at risk.

A further update will follow tomorrow.

Regards

Ross Ashcroft

Headteacher

Letter To Parents 22nd January 2021

Fri 22 Jan 2021 Ross Ashcroft - Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers

I just wanted to start off by thanking each and every one of you for your amazing support through this exceptionally difficult time. Lots of staff at Cherry Oak are juggling working with the children on site, delivering zoom sessions, and creating home learning packs simultaneously. This is to try and support our children and parents as much as possible. As a parent myself I understand the unenviable situation that all parents find themselves in trying to home school.

Home Learning:

We have already started to action some of the feedback which we have received from parents/carers and we will continue to work through the rest once we are in a position to do so. Unfortunately, we are not able to meet everyone’s requirements as we have a large number of children who are working at home and everyone’s needs are slightly different.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my ‘Headteacher Challenge’ for all parents, carers and pupils. Here, I and members of staff will be setting up a range of challenges for pupils to complete at home. Pupils can try them on their own or with your help! I would love to see you all take part and upload your photos or videos to evidence for learning or emailed to your class teachers. With your permission we would like to upload them onto the webpage so everyone can see how well you have done. Some pupils may even win a prize!

You can access these weekly challenges here:

https://www.cherryoak.bham.sch.uk/headteacher-challenges/

Video:

It’s been a strange start to my headship of Cherry Oak, coming into post just as another national lockdown began. But we have all pulled together throughout this period and have produced a video for you all:

https://www.cherryoak.bham.sch.uk/home-learning/

We hope you enjoy!

COVID-19:

I have spoken to several parents and carers and have received emails about many individual circumstances. I have taken all these conversations into consideration when writing this. For the safety of our staff, of our community and for the sake of keeping as many critical workers in society as possible, please consider if you can reduce the amount of time your child is in school.

We are currently being told that the Coronavirus is at its most dangerous, with a variant that is 50% more contagious, with a large number of cases in Birmingham being the new variant. This is not a time for complacency or relaxation. I am asking you to only bring your child into school if there is no way they can be home schooled because you are out at work, rather than working from home. If there is a way of keeping your child safe at home and minimising our numbers in school, then please keep them at home.

I repeat the guidance from the DfE, if you can keep your child at home, then you should.

If you can reduce your child’s hours, please do so by emailing the school office so we can adjust the registers and I can assign staff accordingly.

I know this is a difficult and trying time for everyone, but please stay safe and look after each other.

Yours sincerely

Ross Ashcroft

Headteacher

Letter To Parents 14th January 2021

Thu 14 Jan 2021 Ross Ashcroft - Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers

Firstly, thank you so much for your support over the past week. We have been overwhelmed by the number of appreciative messages in what is a very challenging time for everyone.

We wanted to write to remind you of a few key messages for this lockdown situation with regards to children attending school.

Vulnerable children

If your child is deemed extremely vulnerable by the school, you will have been contacted and asked to send your child into school. As a special school we see vulnerable children slightly differently to how mainstream school would. As such we relate the ‘vulnerable’ category as children who may have a number of social care needs. This group is our priority and will continue to be so. Please remember, the national advice is to stay at home as much as possible.

Children of critical workers

As you may have seen in the press, the number of children in this category who are attending school is much higher than during the last lockdown, in part due to some changes in the guidance.

As well as referring to the guidance, we also have to work in line with our risk assessments for health and safety purposes, limiting the number of children in each bubble. Although we are trying to accommodate children of critical workers, please be aware that we are rapidly reaching the maximum number of children that we can safely accommodate in our school and would ask you to consider this.

The guidance has changed slightly over the weekend:

Children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can.

Please consider whether your child needs a place in school if:

You are a critical worker but working from home.
One person in the household is a critical worker but there is another adult in the household who can look after your child
You need to send your child into school on some days but can organise childcare on others.

We fully appreciate that it is extremely hard to work from home whilst helping your child to access their remote learning and we will do all we can to support this. However, we would like to emphasise, that to stop the spread of this virus, which is highly transmissible, children should be kept at home as much as possible.

Free School Meal Vouchers

The school has now been informed that the food voucher scheme will begin from Monday 18th January. However, we are disappointed that the scheme does not cover the period from the 4th – 15th January. As a federation of schools we will look into how we can resolve this issue over the coming days. In the meantime, as soon as vouchers are released, we will make sure they are given out as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely

Ross Ashcroft

Headteacher

Update Tuesday 5th January 2021

Tue 05 Jan 2021 Ross Ashcroft - Headteacher

Dear Parents / Carers,

Following on from yesterday’s letter, I want to update you following the Government’s announcement yesterday evening. In line with new government guidance and level 5 restrictions, Cherry Oak will be closed to the majority of pupils. All pupils should remain at home wherever possible to lower and contain the spread of COVID-19. The school will now operate a rota system focusing on children of critical workers and those we define as extremely vulnerable. It’s important to note that not every pupil will receive a place. Pupils who do receive a place may only be offered limited days. The school can only run this way to make sure we only have small numbers of pupils on site due to risk management. Transport have also informed us that they can only transport a maximum of 2 children per bus which creates further logistical issues. If you feel you fall under the critical worker or vulnerable category and have not been contacted please get in touch with the school.

As I know you will appreciate, all schools are navigating last minute changes and all of our staff are working extremely hard to ensure all arrangements are being made in the best interest of our children. I also appreciate that our families are also dealing with very tricky and varying situations and with very short notice.

I want to reassure you that your child’s teacher will be in touch tomorrow with clear guidance regarding arrangements for remote / home learning provision which the school will be offering. Cherry Oak is committed to providing home learning to all of our pupils that will be remaining at home which includes:

A weekly timetable of online activities that have been tailored to suit the learning needs of different groups of pupils.
Cross Federation online sessions - Singing & Signing
A wide range of activities and opportunities that are fun and engaging for our home learners.
Where possible we will provide parents with a list of resources that should be easily found in the home, prior to each online session.
Each family will be provided with relevant resources for practical and creative activities relating to their individual learning packs. These packs will either be a more sensory approach or a more task based approach, depending on the needs of each individual.

We will be contacting parents regularly to offer support and to obtain feedback on the learning materials provided.

I understand that for some pupils and families’ home learning may not be a priority. It may be that you want to complete alternative activities to make sure children remain calm and lower any anxieties they may have. Our priority is our pupils’ well-being throughout this period and hence why home learning is not an expectation in which you are forced to complete, but rather an offer to parents to support their children’s learning. Our highest priority is that our families are happy, healthy and safe and we will work with parents to ensure this is maintained. We still desperately want our pupils to feel like they are part of the school community so please continue to at least engage with your class teacher throughout.

The leadership team and I, will continue to react to any further guidance issued by the Government during this period of level 5 lockdown. As and when I receive updates or amendments, I will inform you all of any relevant changes and I will continue to do this throughout January and February.

Thank you again for your support.

Yours sincerely

Ross Ashcroft

Headteacher

COVID-19:

If your child shows any of the symptoms; new persistent cough, high temperature or loss of taste/smell please ensure they get tested straight away. From the first sign of symptoms the whole household needs to self-isolate until a negative test has been received.

Update Monday 4th January 2021

Mon 04 Jan 2021 Ross Ashcroft - Headteacher

Dear Parents / Carers,

As you are aware, Amy Findlay - Head of School, left the school over the christmas break. I would like to take this opportunity to wish her well in her future endeavours.

I would normally be welcoming pupils back into school after enjoying a lovely festive break with friends and families but we have all experienced something a little different this year! I still hope, however, that you were able to keep in touch with loved ones via social media, or over the phone.

Cherry Oak has remained open throughout most of this pandemic resulting in impressively high attendance rates from our pupils and I thank parents / carers for your support in making this possible. Staff have been working tirelessly, both in school and behind the scenes, to ensure the school continues to run smoothly. However, over the festive period the UK has had an unprecedented rise in covid cases with Birmingham being plunged into tier 4 restrictions. This has mainly been down to a new variant which is more transmissible than the original. Most concerning for me is that COVID rates in the 5-9 age group have increased from 93/100k on the 7th December to 125/1000k on the 27th December. We are now seeing rises in this age group in a pattern we did not see in November.

You may have seen on the news several teaching and support staff unions pushing for primary school closures nationwide. Over the weekend unions advised their members that it is currently unsafe to attend work in person under the same conditions before tier 4. This leaves Cherry Oak in a difficult position where we do not have the staffing ratio required to run the school safely.

After many lengthy discussions, the leadership team and I have unanimously agreed a partial reopening is the only viable option for the safety of our staff and pupils. It will also help to ensure that we remain open and provide support for our critical workers and extremely vulnerable pupils throughout this period. This means the school will only be open to children of key workers and selected pupils based on risk. By now, you should have already been contacted by your class teacher to discuss these arrangements. Please get in touch if this has not been the case. Please note: if you choose to keep your child at home throughout this period it will be authorised by the school meaning you will not be penalised.

The partial reopening of school will be assessed on a daily basis although we have initially planned for two weeks. If union advice changes, the infection rate lowers dramatically or we increase our staffing ratio to a suitable level we will of course open up more of the school. On a practical level, children coming into school throughout this period will be grouped into small ‘protective bubbles’ called Pods, of no more than 6 children, areas will be cleaned regularly, children and staff will wash their hands regularly throughout the day and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be provided for staff. Pupils who are not attending school will be provided with home learning materials. These will be discussed with your child's class teacher.

I have got to admit, this is not the welcome letter I would have wished to send out to parents / carers on my first day. However, it is important to note that even though I'm new to the school I have your child’s safety at the forefront of everything I do. I really hope my next correspondence to you all is something that we can all celebrate together.

I appreciate this may be a worrying time for you and your children, especially as it may mean a delayed start to school. We are here to listen and support the best we can, please keep us updated with how you are doing and engage with your class teacher over learning resources. Please note, there is a list of services available on the school website under parents; Family Support.

I will be in touch again with updates in the coming days. Until then, please take care and please be safe.

Yours sincerely

Ross Ashcroft

Headteacher

Update on returning to school in week commencing 4 January 2021

Sun 03 Jan 2021 Julie Fardell

Dear Parents and Carers,
The Unison union has recommended to its members that they should not attend their workplace tomorrow because of health and safety concerns (the rapid rise in COVID infections, especially the new variant strain). The NEU has also reminded members of their statutory right not to attend work if they feel the workplace in unsafe.
GMB, NAHT.and ASCL have NOT told members to stay away from work but rather encouraged them to attend to provide schooling for vulnerable pupils and children of Keyworkers.
The Department for Education continues to instruct Special Schools to open tomorrow for all pupils.

CHERRY OAK SCHOOL IS closed to pupils on Monday 4 January 2021, as planned, for a Professional Development Day. It is probable that there will be substantial staff absence on Tuesday 5 January 2021 which may result in the school being closed for face-to-face learning, with remote learning enabled. Ross Ashcroft, Head Teacher, will keep you updated about this.