Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the Autumn Term at St Leonard’s on behalf of myself and all of the staff. We’re so excited to be in our new building and are looking forward to welcoming the children back to school this week. The staff and building contractors have worked tirelessly over the summer holidays to ensure that the school is ready for the children to return this week and I’m ever so grateful for all of the hard work that has gone into the school move. I’m sure you will all join with me in thanking everyone who has been involved.

I wanted to take this opportunity to remind parents of the start days for each year group:

Wednesday Nursery, Reception and Year 6

Thursday Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5

Friday Year 1 and Year 4

Information and Photos of the School

Attached to this email is a copy of photographs of the school and the different entrances, gates and doors that children will enter and exit from. Once the children are in school, staff will take time to show the children around the building and external grounds to allow them to become familiar with their new setting. We also have plans to invite parents into school over the coming weeks to showcase our new building. I will be on the main gate each morning if you have any questions or need any help finding your way around!

External Ongoing Works

Whilst the contractors have completed all of the work inside the school building, there are still a few ongoing external areas that need to be completed over the next few weeks. The school site is safe for the children to return but you will notice that some areas have been cordoned off with temporary fencing. Please bear with us while this remaining work is completed.

PE Days

There won’t be any PE lessons this week so the children will need to come to school in their school uniform each day. A letter will be sent out on Friday with PE days for the term and PE lessons will start next week, week beginning 11th September. Children will continue to come to school in their PE kit on PE days.

School Lunches

We are able to provide our school lunch service this week with all of the usual options available. A copy of the current school menu is attached. This week only, there won’t be any pre-ordering for school lunches. Instead, class teachers will ask the children each morning what they would like to order for that day. From next week, our usual pre-ordering system will restart (please see email sent this morning).

Drop Off and Pick Up Arrangements

The information pack that we have sent out contains photographs of the different gates and doors where you will need to drop off your children in the mornings. The classroom doors and gates will be opened at 8:45 am and will close promptly at 8:55 am. Children arriving after 8:55 am will need to enter school via the main office.

At home time, Nursery and Reception will be dismissed from their classrooms. The Early Years gate will open at 3:15 pm for Nursery children to be dismissed first and then Reception will be dismissed at 3:25 pm. Reception parents arriving early will be asked to wait until Nursery have been dismissed before being allowed through.

For children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, at the end of the day staff will take the children onto the main playground and line them up ready for their adults to collect. We kindly ask parents not to take their children from the line before the member of staff has called their name and dismissed them.

Temporary Drop Off and Pick Up Points for Year 1 and Year 2

While we wait for the external work to be completed from the main playground to the Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms, we have put some temporary arrangements in place. Year 1 will be dropped off and picked up from the door by the hall, please refer to the information pack for photos of where this can be located. Year 2 will be dropped off at the same door as Year 1 in the mornings and picked up from the playground at home time. We are expecting the path to be completed next week and ready for use by Monday 18th September. We will notify parents when this path is ready to use and parents will then be able to drop off and pick up their Year 1 and Year 2 children from the classroom doors. We thank you for your ongoing support whilst this work is finished.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you all more over the coming weeks and I’m excited to be taking up my new post of Headteacher at St Leonard’s. If you have any questions or worries in the coming days, please feel free to contact the school office or to speak to me on the gate.

Kind regards

Karen Roberts

Headteacher