The School Day

Since September 2020, our school day has changed slightly with the Covid-19 restrictions. Please read the details below.

Since September, there have been some really important routines that everyone needs to follow. For parents and carers, this is mainly linked to dropping children off in the morning and picking them up at the end of the day. These changes allow us to help keep everyone safe and reduce the risk of needing to partially close or fully close the school in the future.

The key changes are:

• Entrance/exit gates to the school site
• Staggered start/end times to the day
• No adults permitted entry into the school building

Entrance/exit gates to the school site
After the summer, there will be clear entrances to the school site and clear exits. Most of these will be one-way only.

Entrance Gates

• Top Playground Gate (the gate nearest Space Cadets)
• Hill Side Gate (a new gate, down the lane, near Hillside pre-school)

Exit Gates

• Lower Side Gate (the gate, down the lane, near the ball court)
• Upper Side Gate (the gate, down the lane, by the climbing frame)

The Main Gate (leading to the school office) will continue to be an entrance and exit gate

Parents and carers will need to use their allocated entrance gate when arriving on-site and use the nearest and most convenient exit gate to leave. In the mornings, parents and carers are asked to drop-off their children in the playground and leave the site immediately. Most children will go straight into class rather than line up outside. Older children are encouraged to walk to school on their own, or at least the last part of the journey as they approach the school site. At the end of the day, when picking-up, parents and carers will be able to come onto the site as they wait to collect their children but they must leave the site as quickly as possible. Teachers will not be available first thing in the mornings but will be available at the end of the day.
Staggered start/end times to the day

So as to avoid too many people arriving at school at the same time, it has been necessary to stagger the drop-off and pick-up times across the school. It is really important that families follow these timings. We have tried to stagger it to enable the older children to be dropped-off first. This is so that they can be dropped off at the gate enabling the parents/carers to continue to the correct entrance for the younger sibling. Where possible, only one adult should come to school to pick up their child(ren). Any adult who is late dropping-off/picking-up their child(ren) must report to the school office.

No adults permitted entry into the school building

In order to keep the number of people on-site to a minimum, and to maintain a one-way flow of traffic, it has been necessary to create routes and routines that avoid adults coming into the building. This means that parents and carers may have to leave the site and return via a different gate if dropping-off/picking-up children from different year groups. We hope that the staggered times will help where this is the case. Adults will still be able to come into the school for appointments and meetings but these will need to be arranged in advance. The office will still be available through the main entrance foyer but the doors leading into the school building will be closed.

Here is a summary of the drop-off/pick-up locations for each year group along with the nearest entrance gate and timings for the start and end of the day. Please refer to the school map to work out the best exit gate to use when leaving the site or making your way to a second drop-off/pick-up location.

*Reception parents will use a one-way exit loop around the building to access their nearest exit gate.
**Year 6 children will be the only year group permitted to walk through the main foyer to reach their classes.
Please note that parents will not be permitted to walk with them to their class and must say goodbye at the office entrance.

Please do take the time to familiarise yourself with these timings and locations as well as the map which shows all of the gates.

Do you need extended hours?

Our breakfast and after school clubs are still running – hours 7.30 am to 6.00pm – To find out more about Space Cadets : Click Here