Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Wednesday 10 June Reception and Year 1 Parents

  Wed 10 Jun 2020

  Good Afternoon Parents and Carers

  I hope you are having a good day.

  Here is some additional information regarding re-opening the school to more children. 

  For Y1 and Reception children,  if your child is also attending as a KW child. From the date that the year group returns, parents need to choose which bubble they will be in. So for example, if your child is in a Year 1 bubble on Monday to Thursday, then they cannot attend as a KW child on Friday. This is  Government guidance to prevent cross contamination. This is the case even if their brother/sister is in the KW group. (Sounds silly I know!)

  Mrs. Perry

• Tuesday 9th June

  Tue 09 Jun 2020

  Good evening to Parents and Carers

  I hope you have all had a good day??

  I have been in school today. I took in all the spider plants that I potted for you at the beginning of lockdown. They are coming along quite nicely! :)

  The Government is giving new guidance today about re-opening for more pupils. Bury Council is meeting tomorrow after having gathered further evidence from the other Greater Manchester councils. When I have more information I will be consulting with Governors on how to proceed at our school. Please be patient in the knowledge that whatever we do is in the best interest of the children, you as parents and for the staff. The R number remains high in the North West - it is the highest in the country. This will to be taken into account when the Governors meet.

  I will keep you posted as soon as I can.

  Have a lovely evening.

  Mrs Perry

• Monday 8th June

  Mon 08 Jun 2020

  Dear Parents and Carers

  I have just come out of the Schools Advisory Group and I thought you might find an update useful. The Local Authority is awaiting further advice from Public Health England and is gathering more evidence about the R rate. This evidence will be put before Cabinet on Wednesday and schools will then be informed of their advice.

  The current advice is for schools to keep planning as they are. If there is not a Directive from Public Health England then decisions are likely to remain in the  hands of the schools and their Governing Bodies. I predict that the latter is what is likely to happen. All schools are very different and will be planning in their own way. FOR NOW the aim is still to re-open for Year 6 next Monday and for Reception and Year 1 children from the 22nd. Please be advised that following LA/ PHE advice this may change. 

  Miss Glover and I are currently putting together a letter for Reception and Year 1 parents and I will send this out soon. 

  I can imagine that it is frustrating to not really know exactly what is going to happen. Believe me.... I understand. the constantly changing scenarios, and I feel the same.

  What I do know is that staff are keen to welcome your children back to school, but that it must be done safely. With the high R rate and high infection rate in Bury, then plans must be made carefully.

  Take very good care.

  Mrs. Perry

  x

• Monday 8th June

  Mon 08 Jun 2020
   

   

  New Spanish classes are now ready to book!

   

  Thanks to everyone who has contacted me about upcoming classes; it has been wonderful to stay in touch with so many children and parents. I have been in touch with all of my nurseries and schools and I hope to be able to start physical classes as soon as the Government says I can. This might not be until September so will continue to do online classes for as long as you want me to!

   

  My classes are open to any children so it really doesn't matter if your child hasn't done Spanish with me before; I promise that everyone will be able to follow what's happening and will begin learning from their very first session.

   

  These classes are advertised nationally on www.lingotot.co.uk or you can follow the direct links below for each class.

   

   

  The topics we'll be doing for the next three weeks are

  ??????

   

  Weather ????????

  Monday 8th https://www.lingotot.com/classes/4250

  Friday 12th June https://www.lingotot.com/classes/4251

   

  Transport ????????

  Monday 15th June https://www.lingotot.com/classes/4252

  Friday 19th June https://www.lingotot.com/classes/4253

   

  Clothes????????

  Monday 22nd June https://www.lingotot.com/classes/4254

  Friday 26th June https://www.lingotot.com/classes/4255

   

  Don't forget I am giving a 20% discount off our annual website subscription website so it's £20 for a whole year!! You just need to email me with your name, date of birth, email address and phone number and I'll set up your account and e-mail you out the details. You can get it directly from Lingotot HQ but it's cheaper if you do it through me!

  Have a look here for a sneaky peak!

  https://youtu.be/aX8JyyU9v5A

   

  Take care and I hope to see you soon, Catharine xx

   

   

   

   

   

  [Facebook]< https://facebook.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=03022bca41a909841fe1e957a&id=5b29d13d9e&e=99df5146e6>

   

   

  [Website]<www.lingotot.com>

   

• Friday 5th June

  Fri 05 Jun 2020

  Good Afternoon Parents and Carers

  I hope you are having a good day.

  Here is some additional information regarding re-opening the school to more children. 

  For Year 6, Y1 and Reception children,  if your child is also attending as a KW child. From the date that the year group returns, parents need to choose which bubble they will be in. So for example, if your child is in a Year 6 bubble on Monday to Thursday, then they cannot attend as a KW child on Friday. This is  Government guidance to prevent cross contamination. This is the case even if their brother/sister is in the KW group. (Sounds silly I know!)

  Parents of Reception children and Y1. Please can you inform school by the end of today (the deadline was 12 noon) whether you want a place for your child. Because of the numbers of children we are re-opening for, our classrooms are very rapidly filling up.

  So at the time of writing this (although as you know things are changing daily) it is unlikely that other year groups will be able to return this term. I feel that my correspondence is pretty negative this week and this saddens me.

  Keep safe and well.

  Mrs. Perry

• Thursday 4th June

  Thu 04 Jun 2020
  Hi to you all - Parents, Carers and Staff

   

  Big apologies for the late email. :(

  I have been trying my very best today to put all the Health and Safety items in place. Mrs. Barnes has been working tirelessly!

  The fact is that that  school has not been able to secure all the PPE equipment needed for Monday.  Parents have been hugely supportive in offering sanitiser, gloves etc. The fact is that school must not accept equipment from outside the agreed agencies. School does not have the H and S equipment in place for school to open safely from Monday 8th June as planned

  I have met with the Governors this evening. The decision is that the school cannot re-open for year 6 now, until the week beginning the 15th June at the earliest. 

  I did state that this was a possibility. But it is with great regret that I now say this to you. I recognise that this will create a problem for some of you needing to return to work. School cannot re-open safely for Year 6 children until the week beginning 15.6.2020

  I will be in touch again in the morning.

  A very sad Mrs. Perry

• Tuesday 2nd June

  Tue 02 Jun 2020

  Good afternoon all

  I hope you are having a lovely day??

  I am sitting in my office on my own feeling rather lonely :(

  The school is getting ready to re-open for some of the Year 6 children next week. (Can't wait to see them).

  Once they have returned, I will be looking to see how the Reception and Year 1 children can return safely. This is a far more uncertain and complicated prospect because of social distancing with such young children.

  I will be discussing with the Governing Body next week, whether they are happy that bringing the children back to school in the current climate is safe enough. I will explain in detail, what systems we intend to put in place. They were very divided on this issue the last time we spoke.

  The intention is to re-open to Reception and Year 1 children from 22nd June. It is very unlikely that if all the children return that they will come in to school every day. We will only be able to accommodate return on a rota basis because of lack of space.

  School will send further details early next week. You will have plenty of time to plan. What would be helpful is if parents could give a 'first intention' of whether or not you will send your child back to school. Please could you send your Yes/No to the school email address stmargarets@bury.gov.uk, by Friday.

   

  A FURTHER NOTE FOR YEAR 6 PARENTS.

  The school intends to open for your children next Monday as you know. Mrs. Barnes has been constantly chasing up our PPE order. It has become apparent that the supply firm has lost our order. They are trying to rectify this asap. However, as it stands at the moment the school has no sanitiser, no aprons, gloves or masks (for First Aid). We are trying our very best to sort this out but if we cannot then the school will not be able to open for your children on Monday.

  Let's see what happens later in the week.

  Keep safe and well.

  Mrs. Perry

• Monday 1st June

  Mon 01 Jun 2020
  Good afternoon Parents and Carers

  School opened today for staff. I trained staff in how the school would look, procedures for the children and then we looked at the school's Risk Assessment. This currently runs to seventeen pages long and is not yet complete. A copy will be put on the website when it is finished although, by necessity it will be an ever changing working document.

  I am aware that many of you have questions that you want answering and I genuinely understand your reasoning. A growing number of you are requesting meetings with me personally to discuss your concerns. I am unable to facilitate this at the moment. This is not because I do not want to answer your concerns it is because the school's focus must be on re-opening for more children.

  Staff are currently working very hard to re-open the school  safely and well. In the last few days there have been over forty updates and amendments made to the guidance that I have had to read, assimilate and act upon. The situation is constantly changing. 

  I know that you want your questions/concerns answered, but can I please ask for your patience.

  Some of your questions can be answered by your child's class teachers. If your questions can only be answered by me then please email them in to school. I am sure that your questions will be the same as many other parents and I can collate a response to you all.

  The fact is that the situation is changing so quickly that my answer may be .... 'I simply don't know at this point'.

  Thank you for your support and patience.

  Keep safe and well.

  Mrs. Perry

• Sunday 31 May

  Sun 31 May 2020

  Good afternoon everyone, on another extremely hot day!!

  I hope you are all well? I am getting a lot of emails from parents with concerns and questions about re-opening the school to more children. I understand and share all your fears. There has been a massive amount of coverage in the media this weekend.  I have spoken to our Governing Body very frequently in the past few days and they share concerns. Media coverage and the latest advice from the Governments own 'Science Advisory Group' shows a very mixed view on the safety of re-opening the school for more children.  In the North West the number of people with C-19 remains high compared with in the South. 

  At St. Margaret's we will use a very cautious approach. It will not be the same as other schools in the Prestwich area nor in Bury overall. The decisions made are based on what I/the Governors feel is safe for our children, staff and community as a whole. Please be patient and support the decisions made. I know that I cannot please everyone.

  WB June 1st -The school will re-open for staff training tomorrow. Staff will work on an extremely detailed Risk Assessment and implement what comes out of this. Key worker children will be in school from June 2nd. Parents please note that at the time of writing this our PPE supplies are running very low. There is little sanitiser left, although we have plenty of soap for hand washing. We do have gloves for First Aid, but the aprons have not arrived yet.

  WB June 8th -The aim is to open to Year 6 children on June 8th. Year 6 parents, please can you email school and let us know if you intend to send your child in to school. Thank you to those who have already responded. If you do not respond, then I will have to assume that your response is 'No'. Please do not just arrive with your child on the 8th. They will not have been planned for and I need to be clear with you - they will not be admitted on that day. The cut off point to tell us if you want a place is 12 noon tomorrow. This has already been explained in you in previous emails.

  Key worker children -As well as the Year 6 returning, school is having an increasing number of KW and vulnerable children in school, as a result of parents needing to return to work. This increased demand will need planning and possible overspill in to another room.

  WB June 22nd - the intention is to re-open the school to the youngest children. My feeling is that bringing in the youngest children in, is reckless. They cannot reliably self isolate and therefore, to re-admit them is unsafe for them and for staff. I predict that I will have my wrist firmly slapped for being honest with you.The environment they will return to will be alien to them. However, from June 22nd, following the Government Guidelines, this is our aim. By then the school will have had time to assess the impact of re-opening for Year 6 children.

  I predict that the numbers of children needing a place will be small. That is your choice as a parent and  will be respected by school. Staff have  decisions to make about their own children as well.

  Other year groups will be considered once Year 6, Reception and Year 1 have been re-admitted. 

  Any child attending school will need to wear their own clothes. These clothes need to be washed at the end of each day. This will be the same for staff. Children should not bring anything from home. The equipment they use in school will be provided by school and cleaned at the end of each day. It is yet unclear whether this will be enough time to clean the school well enough, so school day times will be under constant review.

  School will be closed each Friday for a deep clean. On this, day staff will also need to plan work for their own year groups,especially  if they are already teaching in school.

  Currently, there is a quarter of school staff that will be unable to attend from 1st June and at least until 31st June, because of their own underlying health conditions or the health conditions of someone in their household.

  The fact of it is, that there is so much that needs arranging: Pods, PPE (The PPE equipment has NOT YET ARRIVED, even though Mrs. Barnes ordered it some time ago. Every school in the country is ordering the same thing at the same time); lunches; toilet arrangements;outdoor play,the curriculum!!

  Need I go on. Sorry for the lengthy email. However, you need to be aware what 'the new normal' looks like for now. There is a deep desire to meet with your children, and you as soon as possible. We will do it safely and well. In the meantime if you need to contact school please do so using the school email  stmargarets@bury.gov.uk 

  Mrs. Perry

• Friday 29th May

  Fri 29 May 2020

  Hi everyone

  I hope that you have enjoyed the sun today. I have been out in the garden a little and tied up the honeysuckle that the wind blew down last week. I have asked Mrs. Barnes to send a letter to Year 6 parents about re-opening school for more children. 

  School will be opening to staff on Monday to plan for the future. Our Governors are very very divided on opening school to more children on safety grounds. 

  Following Year 6 returning, if that is what happens, then I will contact each year group parents regarding future plans. 

  Enjoy your weekend

  Mrs. Perry