25 March 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are nearly at the end of the Spring Term and it has been wonderful to welcome back most of our pupils into school over the last three weeks. I am writing with some updates and information.

Firstly, we have heard the enabling works that will prepare our site for the new modular build will be taking place during the Easter Holidays. The groundwork is planned for half term with the building work taking place at the beginning of the summer holidays. It will be very exciting to have our reception class and nursery class with us on our main school site in September.

We are changing our Catering Contract when we return to school in April. Chartwells will be our new catering company. They have sent parents and carers a questionnaire to be completed asking about food allergies. If your child does not have allergies and / or does not have school dinners, it would be very helpful if you could complete the form and send it back to school. The information will not be passed to Chartwells, but will be helpful for our own records.

I have been asked to pass on some information from NHS England, the National Deaf Children’s Society, SeeAbility, and Contact. They have produced a series of three guides for families on hearing checks, eye checks and dental checks for children with a learning disability, autism or both. The guides are written for families to help explain why these health checks are important, how they are done, how to access them and how they can prepare their child for the checks.

Download A Parents’ Guide to hearing care for children with a learning disability, autism or both/https://www.ndcs.org.uk/media/6763/ndcs_a-parents-guide_2021.pdf

Download A Parents’ Guide to eye care for children with a learning disability, autism or both/https://www.ndcs.org.uk/media/6764/seeability_a-parents-guide_2021.pdf

Download A Parents’ Guide to oral health and dental care for children with a learning disability, autism or both/https://www.ndcs.org.uk/media/6762/contact_a-parents-guide_2021.pdf

You can also visit the SeeAbility (https://www.seeability.org/special-schools) website. They provide specialist support, accommodation and eye care help for people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss. Contact (https://contact.org.uk/) is a website for families with disabled children.

Our staff have been provided with lateral flow testing kits to use over the Easter Holidays and the second vaccination for our staff is due to take place at the end of April. We plan to continue with our tighter bubbles for the first part of the term. This will mean that we will continue to have PE and music lessons provided by the class team with remote support from our music and PE teachers.

We are sorry to be saying goodbye to Sylvia Wild this Easter. Sylvia has worked at St Giles in our personal care team for nearly 20 years. We all wish her well in her retirement and thank her for her hard work and dedication to the school.

Finally, many thanks again to you for the incredible support and resilience over the last year. We are very much looking forward to welcoming back all pupils as shielding restrictions are lifted next term.

Wishing you a happy Easter holiday,