Dear Parents, Carers and Children,

It was lovely to welcome so many of you back to school on Monday but for 120 children, I have not been able to say hello because we had a significant flood that started in our Nursery.  A hot water pipe burst over the half term holiday and this flooded not only that room but 4 other classrooms, their toilets, the upper corridor and our pod spaces.  We walked into school on Monday to nearly 3cm of water across these spaces and as some of you may know, water damage is considerable and over the last two days whilst the Local Authority and our Insurers have been supporting us, the extent of the damage is still being pieced together.  May I take this opportunity to thank the many, many offers of help and support from our community in wanting to help us all - it is very much appreciated.

Our key priority is to get all of our 120 children affected by the room closures back into school quickly and from speaking to so many of you who have had to facilitate last minute childcare arrangements, we recognise this is your priority too.

With considerable help and support from a large team behind the scenes, I am pleased to announce that on Monday 11^th November, we are able to welcome back Chipmunks (Nursery), Lemmings (Reception), Bobcats (Reception), Penguins (Year 2) and also reinstate a learning space for Chameleons too.  In order for this to happen quickly, we have had to plan carefully how we use every available space in school to accommodate this and as with any emergency plan, there have to be compromises.  Our large school hall is going to be transformed into 3 Reception classrooms for Lemmings, Bobcats and Meerkats and our team are currently working on putting this plan into place.  Our Nursery children will be making use of the only Reception classroom not affected by the flood.  This classroom is the current Meerkats’ classroom.  More information will be shared later on in the week about drop-off and collections.

A further change of rooms will be for Penguins (Year 2) who will take over the existing classroom space used by Pandas within the infant block.  Pandas class will move over to the small hall for their classroom.  Ironically, during the initial build, the small hall was a Year 3 classroom.  Chameleons new temporary class base will be the IT suite.

A further impact of creating 4 learning spaces in the school halls will mean that we will not be able to provide a hot meal from the canteen after Thursday, until further notice.  A cold sandwich/wrap menu will operate from Friday 8^th November, for those children who currently have a school meal.  Friday’s usual menu has been moved to tomorrow and so the menu for tomorrow will be Fish Fingers or Cheese and Tomato Pizza both with Chips and Baked Beans.  Chocolate Ice Cream or Fresh Fruit or Yoghurt.  We appreciate that menu options being limited for a period of time will be disappointing, however, we are working with all of our partners to look at further solutions for this.

In addition, we have had to temporarily cancel our extra-curricular clubs that run after school which normally utilise the hall spaces.  Cookery, Martial Arts, Rocksteady are cancelled until further notice.  Gym is on tonight (6^th) and then cancelled thereafter.  Dance Club will run on Monday 11^th and Monday 18^th November (in a classroom) as the children are rehearsing for a show and then cancelled until further notice.  Song Squad will continue in a classroom as again, children have external performances which they are rehearsing for. 

Homework club will continue to run.  Clubs which use the outdoor space will also continue to run.  Orchards and Fielders will continue to operate as normal during this time

I am sure you will all want to know how long this arrangement will go on for.  I am hoping that by the start of next week, we will have a clearer picture of what needs to happen and timescales in relation to getting the school back to normal.  We will keep you informed regarding progress and any other adjustments that we may need to make.

Thank you once again for your overwhelming understanding, care and compassion towards getting our whole school community back together despite the unprecedented circumstances that we encountered on Monday morning.  As ever, if you have any questions, please do speak to a member of our team.

Yours sincerely

Mr L Chamberlain          Mrs E Gray

Head Teacher                  Deputy Head Teacher