We Made It!

Goodness me! What an unusual half term, but we have made it and now we have a chance to catch our breath for a week! This term wasn’t quite without incident, but we have been very pleased with how the whole school community has worked together to support one another and although we have had a slight hiccup at the last hurdle, the school has remained safe and COVID secure. Thank you.

If your child develops any symptoms during half term and returns a positive test result, please inform me immediately on head@wransom.herts.sch.uk I will then liaise with public health, as instructed, to identify contacts and advise them to self-isolate.

Remember as soon as your child or any member of your household develops symptoms, they must start self-isolating immediately and book a test.

Do you have a nursery child or know of someone who is due to start school in September 2021? We are currently making a film with some of our Y6 pupils, all about our school. This will be available on the school website for any prospective parents who want to know a bit more about us, to watch. I don’t think we will win any Oscars for it, but I hope it will provide a flavour of the school!

Have you got a Year 6 child? Don’t forget to apply for Secondary School places by Thursday 31st October 2020.

Some of you will have seen that we have had our Schools Liaison Police Officers outside school at the end of the day. They have been monitoring the traffic and the parking in all the roads surrounding the school. My prime concern is keeping your children safe. Please think about where you leave your car, think about where your children are walking and if possible park further away and walk the last few metres into school. The Police Officers will try to keep an eye on our parking difficulties.

I am receiving an increasing number of complaints about inconsiderate parking in the roads leading up to the school. This includes Halsey Drive.  Please do not block pavements and pathways, don’t park across driveways and near the corners of junctions. According to the RAC site, you cannot park opposite or within 32 feet of a junction.

It also states you should not park near a school entrance. Please think about parking further away and walking the final part of your journey to school. Our children should NEVER be forced to walk in the road because of parents’ parking.

Finally please don’t turn round in Stuart Drive, drive through the school grounds. Both gates are open at the start and end of the day.

Our Year 5 pupils will be participating in their Bikeability for the week after half term. If your child is bringing their bicycle to school for that week please remind them not to cycle within the school grounds and their bicycles can be stored round by the green tins. These are left at your own risk and should be removed from the school site each evening.

We are trying to keep to our normal school practices during these difficult times so during the first 2 weeks after half term we will be selling poppies in a COVID secure way for a silver donation. Please send any donation you wish to make into school with your child.

We also hope to take part in Children in Need and have some kind of Christmas celebration following the latest guidance. Please note that if we put any kind of performance together these will be put on the school website so if you have elected for your child not to be on the website you will not see them in their Christmas performance.

I am delighted to share some fantastic work that is currently going on in the Year 5/6 Classes. They have been working with one of our parents, Jessica Meserve, who is a writer and an illustrator, and they are all producing their own picture books, where they have written the story and are illustrating it themselves. The results so far have been amazing. They are hoping to be able to send them to Oak and Ash after half term who will be able to enjoy them, all in a Covid secure way. We would like to say a big thank you to Jessica for coming in, to Mrs Hall for arranging this and to the Year 5/6 classes for producing such great work.

It is so lovely to be able to share such a great achievement.

There are some exciting activities in the pipeline from our wonderful School and Parents Association (SPA).

You are all members of the SPA and as such can choose to get as involved in as much or as little as you want to.

Over half term you have been invited to take part in the Pumpkin Trail. Thank you to those of you displaying pumpkins in your windows. We have extended the deadline for the returned sheets so that Year 4 children can take part once they come out of isolation.

The secret present room elves are also hard at work preparing gifts for your children to be able to come and buy. This is always such a popular event at the Winter Wonderland that it would be a shame for the children to miss it. We are ensuring the event will follow Coronavirus guidelines and all bubbles will remain seprate with all adults following social distancing guidelines. Thank you to everyone who is making this possible.

Let’s hope that even Santa might be able to put in an appearance before the end of term, socially distanced, of course!

Please remember if you have any concerns about your child at school, do not hesitate to make contact.

Yours sincerely

Mary Driver