Good roots run deep

Posted by Mr Wright on 15/07/22 at 02:32 PM

This week we have already experienced significantly high temperatures and made a number of adjustments to enable school to run safely. The Met Office released an amber weather warning covering Sunday to end of day Tuesday next week. This weather warning has since been upgraded to a red weather warning. Currently, DfE and local authority advice is that schools should function in line with their hot weather risk assessments, rather than closing. I attach our risk assessment and share below key details for you. The forecast is being kept under continual review and may evolve further in the coming days. Should official guidance or advice change, or should the local situation in school change, I will update parents as swiftly as possible. Please check our website, emails and texts over the coming days for any changes to the running of the school. As ever, we will endeavour to keep the school running, but will balance this against any risk to the school population.

Responding to the heatwave:

· All children should wear the school’s summer uniform. Jumpers and cardigans are not needed. The summer uniform options – short sleeved polo shirts, shorts, summer dresses etc provide a light, loose fitting alternative to the winter uniform.

· All children should have a water bottle with them, with drinking water in it. This is normal practice, but even more necessary during a heatwave. Water bottles can be refilled in school during the day.

· Staff will actively encourage children to drink throughout the school day.

· Children should bring a sun hat and sunglasses to school.

· Children should wear suncream to school.

· At school we shall open windows and doors to increase ventilation. We have portable fans which we have already deployed across the school. We will use our blinds to block out direct sunlight.

· We have some air-conditioned areas of the school which we can use to cool down.

· We have put up gazebos and sunshades in our playgrounds.

· We will not be doing strenuous PE lessons or any PE lessons outdoors during the heatwave.

· We will not send children out to play during the lunchtime break.

· The Early Years team will closely monitor and limit the time our youngest children spend in the EY garden area.

· We may have a short, less strenuous outdoor break at playtimes to allow some fresh air and gentle exercise.

· Information about keeping cool, heat stress and dehydration has been shared with staff.

· Curriculum activities have been modified to reduce risk to participants.

· Staff will keep the weather conditions under continual review and introduce/modify changes to respond to it.

As I have set out above, we do not anticipate closing the school as we are conscious of the disruption that this can cause to families. There are, however, some events that may force us to close the school. These include:

· Sustained disruption to core utility services: water, electricity, gas, communications

· Closure/disruption to the transport infrastructure

· Heat damage to the school buildings or property

· Change of advice from DfE or LA

Do keep your eye out for emails, texts and/or updates on our school website.