7^th June 2021

Dear Parents/Carers,

In line with government advice during the COVID pandemic, school swimming lessons were suspended early in 2020, although some leisure swimming pool facilities have since reopened under certain restrictions.

Durham County Council are keen to restart swimming lessons as early and as safely possible. With this in mind they are working to restart the county school swimming programme from Monday 14^th June 2021.

Whilst they are able to restart the delivery of school swimming lessons, there will be a number of differences which we have had to implement in line with advice from national bodies (such as Swim England, ‘Returning to the Pool’ – 2020). There will be some differences to entrance and exit routes, changing room allocation and capacity, transport logistics, hygiene and cleaning regimes.

To ensure they are able to deliver a Covid-19 secure school swimming programme to schools they are also having to operate an alternating two-week timetable for the foreseeable future.

Schools have been allocated new lesson times to ensure capacity to deliver lessons to all schools throughout the county. These will enable schools to provide lessons and assessment to year 6 pupils only over the Summer term 2021. This will be reviewed for the start of the new academic year 2021/22

Nettlesworth Primary has been allotted School Swimming Time as follows:

They will continue to review guidance and respond to changes in guidance as it occurs. As updated information emerges, this will be provided to schools.

Covid-19 School Swimming Timetable: (Freemans Quay Leisure Centre)

Further supportive information:

• Schools should only bring pupils from one bubble- No mixing of bubbles
• Pupils that are not swimming should stay at school.
• Showers and vanity areas are closed.

• Outdoor shoes must be removed before entering onto the poolside
• Teachers will teach from the poolside only – there is no ‘in water’ teaching
• Swimming teachers will be unable to support with the application of swimming hats or application of teaching aids.
• Education Swimming Teachers that are external to a school bubble should adhere to government guidance on social distancing
• Where it is not possible to stay 2m apart, everyone should keep a distance of 1m plus precautions.
• School teachers and teaching assistants that are internal to the bubble can replicate the same procedures through swimming lessons as they do in the classroom.
• Swimming pools have been adapted to use amended entry and exit system throughout the swimming pool, please follow these upon entering the building
• Swimming Teachers and leisure centre staff will be on hand to support the moving around of classes during lessons.
• Each swimming pool facility has accessible sanitisation in place
• School staff will be required to wear face coverings whilst attending all swimming pool facilities across County Durham

• School staff will support the lesson delivery with the following:

• Group management on poolside to help maintain social distancing
• Manage pupil behaviour
• Support from within the pool if required
• Assist with putting on and removing teaching aids
• Assist with putting on swim hats and goggles
• Allocated changing areas will be provided for lessons
• Toilets can be used but managed as one in/one out.

Freemans Quay Leisure Centre:

Entry to the building

• The school will wait outside until a member of staff/swimming teacher will welcome them into the building.
• All pupils and teachers will be asked to sanitize their hands on entering the building.  Teachers and any other adults attending will need to wear face masks at all times.
• The swim teacher will lead the group, following the directional arrows, to a seated area where the children and teachers will take off their outdoor footwear.  Shoes etc will be left in the boxes provided.

Walk through to the changing rooms

• The swimming teacher will show the children to the designated changing area.  They will enter via the blue door which leads onto the small pool.

Use and allocation of changing rooms

• Schools will use the two group changing rooms; one for male and one for female
• There are no lockers available within these group changing rooms, however, the rooms will be locked when the children go to their lesson

Entry onto the poolside

• The swimming teacher will lead the class to the poolside for their lesson in the small pool

Exit from the poolside and exit from the changing village

• The swimming teacher will lead the class back to the group changing rooms in the changing village and, once dressed, lead them back out.
• Footwear will be replaced.  This need to be done as quickly as possible to avoid congestion.

Exit from the building

• Children and teachers will then exit through the main door following the directional arrows.

For the two allocated lessons: Thursday 24^th June 2021 and Thursday 8^th July 2021, children will need a swimming costume/swimming trunks, a towel and a swimming hat.

No jewellery, tattoos or nail varnish are allowed on in the pool and girls will need to have their hair tied back.

Children are allowed to bring swimming goggles but floatation aids and everything else are provided by the centre.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Kind Regards

Donna Lee

Head Teacher

School Organisation

Thursday 10^th June 2021

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are currently looking to the school organisation for the next academic year. The number of parents choosing to send their children to our school is continually rising and we are currently at full capacity. In the Autumn Term, we had a storage room converted into a classroom in preparation for the growing numbers of children and delighted to inform you that we are now going to have 5 classrooms. We have recently recruited a new class teacher for this classroom and would like to welcome Miss Amelia Grimes to our teaching staff.

We are hoping that this will be the classes for the new academic year starting in September.

Next year we will be operating as follows:

Class 1   – EYFS children taught by Mrs Laura Morton (Grant) supported by Mrs Lisa Hill and Mrs Hindmarch

Class 2 – Year 1 taught by Mrs Aspinall supported by Mrs Hindmarch

Class 3 – Year 2 taught by Miss Grimes and supported by Mrs Moore

Class 4–  Year 3 and Year 4 children taught by Miss Milburn

Class 5-  Year 5 and Year 6 children taught by Mr Graham

Mrs Gallacher will be timetabled to support all classes. Miss Liddle will be timetabled to support class 3 and 4.

Please note the year groups referred to here are for the next academic year from September not the current ones for this year.

Class Swap/Transition Day will take place Wednesday 30^th June 2021 for the children to meet their new class teachers and experience their new classrooms. Miss Grimes will be working alongside Mrs Aspinall before the Summer holidays so that she can get to know the children, parents and carers before September.

If you have any queries about this please feel free to get in touch.

Yours Sincerely

Donna Lee

Head Teacher

UNCRC Article 31 – All children have a right to relax and play and join in with a wide range of activities. 

Class 3 really enjoyed their first football session with the coaches. Everyone worked super hard but we had lots of refreshment breaks to cool down from the sun!

In June, we are celebrating the work of our school artist of the month Connie from Class 2! She has created a beautiful Monet inspired painting. Well done Connie!

We’re also looking at the work of Banksy. Banksy has painted on walls all over the country. He is the most controversial street artist in the World.

https://www.northeastjobs.org.uk/job/School_Crossing_Patrols/208647

Family Focus_School_Nettlesworth Primary

Family Focus is our new project to support the family unit. Our Family Wellbeing Coordinator will provide holistic
family-centred support to parents and children to overcome barriers in their lives.

The Family Wellbeing Co-ordinator will be on-hand and available each week throughout term-time We want to work with you to ensure that your child is happy and healthy, and to support you to find solutions to things that might affect their learning and development.

It is an extension to the support Sacriston Youth and community provide to Sacriston and the surrounding villages.

Please make an appointment via

Email: gemma@sacristonyouthproject.co.uk
Tel: 07377374474

Our Year 2’s are working with Kathryn every Monday to help prepare us for our transition to year 3 in September. They are so grown up and showing us their fantastic determination within these sessions. Well done Year 2!

Monday 7th June 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

 Parent Governor Vacancy 

I am writing to let you know that we have one vacancy for parents on the Governing Body of Nettlesworth Primary School and to explain in a little more detail about what the role involves.

The Role of Governors 

Everyone says that the role of governors is increasingly important, especially with the increasing independence of schools as well as the increased scrutiny and accountability of schools and school leaders.

As Governors we are not there to manage the day-to-day running of the school – that is the job of the Principal. We are there to do three main things:

(1) To help set the vision and strategic direction of school;

(2) To hold the Principal to account for the school’s performance;

(3) To monitor the curriculum provision and teaching and learning in school .

Another common way of putting the role of governors is to say that our job is to provide a healthy mix of support and challenge.

The skills and qualities needed by Governors 

Recent Government guidance on appointing and electing governors says:

‘All governors need a strong commitment to their role and to improving outcomes for children; the inquisitiveness to question and analyse; and the willingness to learn. They need good inter-personal skills, appropriate levels of literacy in English and sufficient numeracy skills to understand basic data.’ 

 We have a range of backgrounds including: school and higher education, civil service, finance, and human resources.

Time Commitment 

We meet as a full governing body once a term, ie three times per year. The meetings run at school.  In addition to the meetings, we require governors to come in to school, usually in the school day over the course of the year. These visits usually focus on an aspect of school development. We try to attend various school events and may be called upon for other tasks such as: sitting on senior appointments panels or giving particular attention to a specific issue or policy. As well as these activities there is quite a bit to read and most importantly there is an expectation that Governors will attend training sessions in order to ensure that they are up to date on such things as: school performance data; finance; special educational needs; keeping children safe at schools etc. A comprehensive induction programme is provided.

A term of office is for four years.

Eligibility 

Anyone who has a child on the roll of the school at the time of the election is eligible to stand (and you do not have to resign if your child leaves during your term of office).

If you are still interested after reading all the above, I would encourage you to consider putting yourself forward as a candidate. If you would like to speak with me about the role I can also be contacted via the school office.   .

If you do wish to put yourself forward then you need to complete a nomination form, which can be collected from school or delivered.

Election Process 

If there are more than two candidates an election will be held and this will take place.  More details will follow on this.

I hope this is helpful in helping you decide whether or not you wish to stand as a Parent Governor in order to play your part in helping Nettlesworth Primary not only to retain its very high standards but to be part of the school’s development.

If you are interested in this vacancy, please can you let us know by Friday 11th June 2021.

Yours sincerely,

Donna Lee

Head Teacher