Welcome to the new school year. As we begin the 21/22 academic year, I am very hopeful that we not see the school closures that have impacted us during 2020 and 2021. We look forward to welcoming our pupils back on Thursday, 26th August. We will start the year with three short induction days (12pm finish) that will help us to ease the children into the school year. Year one pupils will follow a slightly different pattern and parents have been informed of when their children are to come to school. School buses and lunch service will commence on 1st September.
In this newsletter I want to keep you up to date on how we continue to manage the effects of Covid-19 on our school. Over the summer months there has been some change in the requirements for self-isolation and school bubbles. These changes will impact on us and it is important that, as parents, you help us by playing your role in managing any potential cases of the virus in our school community.
I am looking forward to continuing to get to know the children and school community throughout this year. I am sure that you will continue to support our school and our staff in 21/22 and that you will make our new members of staff feel very welcome in our school
Mr Young
School times 21/22
Thursday, 26th August, Friday, 27th August & Tuesday, 31st August- Year 1 times as advised by class teacher. Years 2-7 pupils arrive between 8.50 am and 9.05am. School finishes at 12pm. No buses or lunch provided.
From Wednesday, 1st September 2021 - Year 1 times as advised by class teacher. Years 2-7 pupils arrive at school between 8.50am -9.05 am. School finishes each day at 2pm for children in Year 2 & Year 3. Pupils in Years 4-7 finish at 3pm every day except Friday when all pupils finish at 2pm.
School buses and lunches will start on Wednesday, 1st September.
School Bubbles
We have been advised that it is no longer a requirement that school maintains strict bubbles as part of our Covid mitigations. Many schools have chosen to continue to use bubbles, given the continuing difficulties posed by the virus.
At CRUMLIN IPS we will slightly relax our use of bubbles. We will continue to use bubbles when inside the school building and when inside we will avoid mixing classes at this stage. This means we will continue to pause school assembly.
When using our outdoor spaces we will not be using bubbles. The children will be able to mix in outdoor settings. This means that children will play together at break and lunchtime.
SELF-ISOLATION RULES
If your child has any of the recognised Covid symptoms, you should book a test for them and ensure that you keep school informed! For the sake of our whole school community, DO NOT send a child to school if they have any symptoms.
Previously a positive case meant that a whole class could potentially be out of school for ten days. While details remain unclear, we believe that identified close contacts will only need to isolate until they receive a negative PCR test. Following a negative result a pupil/staff member will be able to return to school. We hope that this will mean we will not need to isolate full classes for such long periods of time.
UNIFORM REMINDER
Over the summer we changed our uniform supplier. We now use Signature Works for uniform supplies and everything is available to purchase online and is delivered directly to your home. The online store is already up and running and the link was emailed to parents in July and can be accessed from our school website. Signature Works also have a physical store in Belfast where you can purchase uniform. (We hope to get some samples that you can try on in school).
Our sweatshirts and cardigans will remain the same and children should also be wearing a white polo shirt, appropriate grey school trousers/skirt and black school shoes. Trainers are NOT part of our regular school uniform and in the new term we would ask that you use school shoes. We hope that children will all be in the correct uniform when we return at the end of August.
In the photo (right) you can see one new addition that will be available from signature works. This new PE uniform will be on the web store and can be worn, along with a white polo shirt on days when the children have PE lessons. This will be warmer than wearing PE shorts to school and means that pupils do not need to get changed in school. Trainers can be worn on PE days for children wearing their tracksuit to school. Children not in our school tracksuit should come to school in normal uniform and bring a change of clothes.