This letter was emailed to parents of children in Reception to Year 6 on Tuesday 12th  January and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents / Carers

PUPILS’ ATTENDANCE AND THE COMPLETION OF TASKS WHILST LEARNING REMOTELY

I am writing to you regarding pupils’ attendance and the completion of learning material during lockdown.

I would firstly like to thank you for your continued cooperation and for working with the school to support your child’s education.  It is important that pupils who need to learn from home continue to complete educational tasks set by their teacher.

The school understands that each family’s circumstances and their access to learning material for their children differs, and the responsibility to provide educational support at home can be difficult for families.  It is, however, important that pupils remain engaged in education, even when they are not attending the school site.

The school has arranged for pupils to access learning material remotely via the MS Teams online learning portal.  To ensure pupils continue to receive a high-quality education outside of school, the school monitors pupils’ attendance and their engagement with remote learning in line with our Attendance Policy and the Pupil Remote Learning Policy.

Following a Governors meeting on Tuesday 12^th January where we shall be ratifying the new remote learning and live lessons policies, we shall make them available on the school‘s website for you to see.

In order to be able to proceed with the introduction of live lessons as part of our remote learning offer, we require pupil and parent acceptable use agreements to be electronically signed and returned to school via the MS Teams portal.  These agreements are being uploaded to MS Teams today.  Please ensure you and your child(ren) electronically sign and return these by Friday 15^th January.

From tomorrow we will be launching with a live pastoral session for pupils which will be led by Teaching staff.  Please see your child’s class session time/date below.

We shall be publishing timetables which indicate when live lessons will be taking place and these will be issued by the end of this week.  The intention is to have a timetabled programme of live and recorded lessons for core subjects, and this will be published by Year Group, so parents and pupils are aware of timings.

Where the school is providing online teaching to pupils who need to learn at home, we encourage pupils to attend these sessions to ensure they are not missing out on vital education.

These remote learning arrangements are in place to ensure that all pupils have access to education.  We are, therefore, concerned that pupils who do not attend remote learning sessions or complete tasks adequately will fall behind their peers and struggle with lesson content when they return to school.

We advise all parents to make every effort to ensure that their child has access to and completes any learning material provided.  Should your child be unable to access the learning material, please contact your child’s teacher via the class email address as soon as possible.  If your child is unwell and is unable to attend remote learning sessions, please inform the school Attendance Officer on telephone number 020 8427 7222 (option 1) by no later than 9.00 am or as soon as possible should your child become unwell during the school day.  You can also email attendance@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk.  

Live sessions will be recorded wherever possible so pupils have the opportunity to access content if they are unwell or unable to attend in person.

Thank you once again for your ongoing support where we are providing remote education for your child.  

If, for any reason, you or your child experience difficulties with any remote learning arrangements, please do not hesitate to contact the class teacher via the class teacher email address to discuss any alternative arrangements.  Class email addresses can be found here on the website.

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher

This letter was emailed to parents of children in Reception to Year 6 on Wednesday 6th January and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents/Carers

REMOTE LEARNING INFORMATION – SPRING TERM 2021

Welcome back to the start of a very unusual term  Due to staffing capacity the registration for key worker children is now closed.  Please see the following information below related to remote learning.

Work for your child’s year group will be posted daily on Microsoft Teams (MS Teams).  The chat function within MS Teams is for pupils use only.  Staff will not be replying to individual parental questions on this public forum.

If you have any technical issues in terms of access or password difficulties, those queries should be directed to the homelearning@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk mailbox. 

If parents have particular questions about the learning set then those questions should be addressed to the individual class mailboxes which follow the format classname@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk e.g, - 1B@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk.  

If you are in doubt as to what the class email address is you can refer to the following webpage which has a full list Vaughan Primary School - Home Learning.

Queries relating to either of the above should not be addressed to the school office email as this will result in delays in response.

The school is currently working on finalising a number of policies and supporting documents to be able to progress its remote learning offer, whilst adhering to safeguarding and data protection requirements.  We will be communicating further on this in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your continued patience and support in what the school recognises as a very challenging time for our parent community.

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

SCHOOL CLOSURE

Following the Local Authority correspondence and subsequent Government announcement today, Vaughan Primary School will be closed from Tuesday 5^th January 2021 until further notice.

https://www.harrow.gov.uk/news/article/10870/harrow-primary-schools-advised-to-move-to-online-learning-from-monday

What this means for most of our school population is that your child will not have face to face learning with their class teacher and will be set learning via MS Teams.

The school will be open for the children of critical workers and pupils that are deemed ‘‘vulnerable’. The link below goes to the page on gov.uk where parents can determine whether their child may be eligible to be in school during this time.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

If you believe that your child is eligible to attend after reading this information, then you will need to provide current formal identification so that the school can verify this (e.g. Photo Identification). This will need to be presented to the school between 11.00am and 12.30pm on Monday 4^th January 2021. Staff will be available at the front entrance to the school building from 11.00am. There will be designated desks to register potential pupils.

It is important to stress that this is a parental choice and if your child is eligible to be in school because you are a key worker or your child has been deemed ‘vulnerable’ according to the criteria and you do not wish for your child to be in school, then you do not have to send them in to school.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

The criteria of pupils who have difficulty accessing remote learning should not be abused – if your child has accessed and viewed work during self- isolation since September return, they will not be eligible to be in school. Year Group Leaders have advised the Senior Leadership Team of pupils who have been monitored on MS Teams.

The government has not been taken lightly in view of the current national situation and parents need to realise that the transmission rates of the new COVID variant is extremely high and as a school, we need to minimise the number of individuals on site during this time in order to avoid the unprecedented situation we saw at this school before Christmas.

The safest place for our parent and pupil community is NOT at school at this moment – with hundreds of other individuals. As a Leadership Collective, we also have a responsibility to safeguard the staff of the school – many who were severely unwell before Christmas.

If your child is attending school from Tuesday 5^th January 2021 because they meet the critical worker/vulnerable pupil criteria, the medical guidance on COVID protocols are still in operation. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle or body aches
• Headache
• New loss of taste or smell
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhoea

This list does not include all possible symptoms but it is imperative that if your child is unwell, they must NOT come to school and potentially risk the health of other individuals. If your child is unwell, they will be sent home – in line with COVID protocols and parents will need to seek a COVID test for them regardless of whether they are the children of key workers or on the vulnerable pupil list. I need to safeguard remaining pupils and staff.

It is important to note that the school will remain open to children of critical workers and vulnerable pupils as long as I can safely staff the school site. In the event of overwhelming staff absence, I will have no option but to inform the Governing Body and the Local Authority of a part/whole school closure.

During these continued challenging times, I would like to thank the entire parent community for all your support and patience. This is not the way that we wanted to welcome in the New Year at Vaughan.

Staff will have work posted for your children from Tuesday 5^th January 2021. There will be no online teaching sessions at this point, as we are expecting pupils from all Year Groups to meet the criteria of pupils of critical workers or vulnerable pupils.

Again, take care of yourselves and each other. I will try to update you with information as and when it is received via the school’s usual methods of communication.

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher

This letter was emailed to Year 2 parents on Wednesday 16th December and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents

YEAR 2 SATs TESTS INFORMATION UPDATE

As you may be aware, the Government released the news recently that there will be NO formal tests for Year 2 children next May.

Teacher Assessment will be used to make a summative judgement for pupils at the end of the academic year.

This is the predominant method of judgements made for Year 2 pupils anyway, as explained at the recent meeting held for Year 2 parents, and this will mean that the focus for all judgements will be on the work pupils produce across the academic year.

The school is still subject to external moderation, which mean representatives of the Local Authority on behalf of the DFE, may come into school and discuss judgements made by the Year 2 staff.

We will continue to provide the pupils with all the necessary support in order to achieve their end of year expectations.

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher

This letter was emailed to Year 6 parents on Wednesday 16th December and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents

YEAR 6 SATs TESTS INFORMATION UPDATE

As you may be aware, the Government released the news recently that there will be some changes for formal tests for Year 6 children next May.

Schools have been informed that normal testing will go ahead with the exception of the English Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar papers – which schools will not have to deliver.

The testing period will also be extended to two weeks rather than one week in May of next year.

The school is still subject to external moderation, which mean representatives of the Local Authority on behalf of the DFE, may come into school and discuss judgements made by the Year 6 staff.

We will continue to provide the pupils with all the necessary support in order to achieve their end of year expectations.

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher

This letter was emailed to parents on Tuesday 8th December and a paper copy given to children with login details.  This part of the letter is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents / Carers

TIMES TABLES ROCK STARS – YEAR 2

The school subscribes to an online internet program called ‘Times Tables Rock Stars’ which can be accessed using the link on the back of this letter.  It is an interactive resource that supports the fluency and recall of times tables up to 12 x 12.

Your child has become familiar with this site in school and we would now like to invite your child to use this site at home to regularly practice their times tables in line with the Year 2 National Curriculum for Maths.  Your child’s class teacher has set weekly times tables to be practiced and has planned for progression over the remainder of this academic year.

Your child has been given a username and password to enable them to access Times Tables Rock Stars at home.  These can also be found on the back this letter.

We hope that by working together we can succeed in making Times Tables Rock Stars a fun and exciting learning tool that is beneficial to your child’s recall and fluency of times tables which will, in turn, have a positive impact on your child’s Maths progress during their years at the school.

Yours sincerely

Mrs C.Tobin
Deputy Head

This letter was emailed out to all parents on Thursday 3rd December and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents/Carers

COVID UPDATE TO PARENTS

It has been an extremely challenging two weeks for the school.  There have been a few confirmed positive cases in the school community due to a number of factors and I appreciate the concern and anxiety that this has caused many parents.

As Headteacher, I have sought prompt guidance from Public Health and the Local Authority on receiving information regarding a positive result.

I can assure parents that as a school, we are taking every possible step within our powers to stop this virus in its tracks.  Although it can sound distressing sending a class or year group bubble home, it is the necessary step in terms of breaking transmission rates.

We have been informed by the Department for Education that attendance at school is now compulsory, except in the case of children who are self-isolating due to either having symptoms of Covid-19 or being asked to isolate due to being in close contact with a person who has tested positive for Covid-19, and of course, the usual instances of illness such as cold, stomach ache etc.  It is therefore a statutory expectation that all children attend school.

We are in constant contact with Public Health, London Coronavirus Response Team and the Local Authority and they believe we have taken sensible precautions to prevent further spread.  They do not believe that it is necessary to consider closing the setting as it is not seen as an imminent risk to public health.  They have not given me the authority to close the school at this point.

This week we have taken the following decisions to mitigate against further transmission within the school community:

• We have implemented the end of set teaching to limit children within the year group bubble crossing between classrooms
• We have stopped children in different classes from the same year group mixing at break and lunchtimes
• We have sent parental communications regarding a new symptom – i.e., severe headaches and body aches which has presented in the vast majority of recent cases
• Contracted for specialist fogging to take place to sterilise the school and kill any remnants of virus present in the setting.

There is also an element of personal responsibility and we hope that parents will take heed of the advice given and that we need to pull together to keep ourselves and each other as safe as possible.  Pupils who are part of isolating bubbles should not be out at the local park or mixing between households.  The school cannot control outside factors such as these.

Additional cleaning staff continue to undertake additional cleaning of high touch points and communal areas, such as the lunch hall, toilets etc.  This continues to operate during each school day and is heavily written into the school’s risk assessment.

We have been advised that the only reason for closure would be if too many staff were affected which meant that we could not safely open the school, or if we had been unable to mobilise certain cleaning protocols or regimes, and we have not yet met either of those thresholds.  Schools which have had to close is normally down to the inability to safely staff the school, which makes it a different sort of health and safety risk, or they have reached the threshold of Public Health COVID cases.

We will continue to be advised by Public Health, the Local Authority and the Department for Education, and act accordingly based on their advice.  Again, I hope this explains some of what the school community is facing but appreciate fully that it remains an anxious and uncertain time until we have a vaccine available.

The school has been fortunate to this point, unlike many schools around us, who have been dealing with such instances since reopening in September.  However, it was always going to be a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ when dealing with such numbers as ours.  Thankfully, any reported cases have not required anything further than staying at home and adhering to the self-isolation period.

We all need to remain vigilant and adhere to Public Health guidance and directives so that we can all remain well for the upcoming break.

Thank you for your continued support of the school and staff.

Take care of yourselves and each other

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES                                                Ms Lisa Young
Headteacher                                                Chair of Governors

This letter was emailed to parents on Tuesday 1st December and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents / Carers

ADDITIONAL COVID-19 SYMPTOMS TO BE AWARE OF

Subsequent to individuals within the school community testing positive for COVID-19, we wanted to make you aware of some of the symptoms which these individuals have displayed as they are not the regular COVID-19 symptoms (i.e. high temperature, a new continuous cough or a loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste).

The symptoms reported by individuals who have tested positive are as follows:

• Aches and pains in the body
• Severe headache

We would urge everyone to be extra vigilant and if anyone displays these symptoms, we would encourage you to get tested.  

Once you have got your child’s test results, or the test results of anyone else in your household, you must phone the school and inform them of the results.  Even if the results are negative, you must still tell your child’s school.  This is to protect the rest of the school community.​

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher

This letter was emailed to parents of children in Years 5 & 6 on Friday 9th October and is also attached in a link below.

Dear Parents

YEAR 5 & 6 REMINDER ABOUT THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

We ask that parents remind their children about the responsibilities of using social media, and that any abuse that is serious could be referred to the authorities. Parents need to be aware of what platforms their children have access to and take responsibility for these.

Staff will continue to teach a range of PSHE and ICT lessons concentrating on
e-safety and personal relationships.

We advise parents to check the recommended age for using specific apps.  The following website provides information regarding this:

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/what-age-can-my-child-start-social-networking/

However, I do need to stress that the use of applications outside of school does not fall under the school’s remit.  Whilst I can have general conversations with Year Groups around educating themselves to prevent harm, and issues pertaining to acts of potential cyberbullying, it is beyond the school’s remit to supervise or be responsible with regard to what pupils are viewing, what platforms parents allow their children access to on their own devices, or what they themselves are saying on these applications or platforms.

The school is not allowed to view pupils’ devices for a range of safeguarding reasons.

Please speak to your child and reiterate the need to be safe and respect the sensitivities of others when utilising these platforms.

Yours sincerely

MRS KAREN JONES
Headteacher