Nursery & Reception Full Day Resumption Details

Dear Nursery and Reception Parents

 

Update for Nursery and Reception Full Day Resumption from Monday 24th May 2021

As you will be aware from Stuart Bridge’s communication earlier this week, whilst restrictions remain, we are delighted to be able to welcome our Nursery and Reception children back into school for full day, face to face learning from Monday 24th May. As I know you are acutely aware, this will be the first time our Early Years campus has been open for full days since the end of 2019 so we are simply over the moon to know the children will finish this academic year being able to maximise their learning time in school. 

Over the course of this week I have been planning the children’s return with the Early Years Leadership Team, full details of your child’s timetable and information pertinent to their class will be available on the Parent Hub by the end of today. 

The purpose of this letter is to provide you with an overview of the arrangements for the children’s return.

 

Start and Finish Times

 

Nursery:
Start of the day:	8:45am
End of the day:	2:30pm
Reception:
Start of the day:	8:55am
End of the day:	2:40pm

 

We are required to have separate start and finish times for the children in Nursery and Reception. The gates will open 5 minutes before the allocated start and finish times, and the classroom doors will open at the times stated above. We are required to ensure crowds do not gather in front of the school outside of the start and end times, therefore kindly ask you to support us in complying with regulations by not arriving too early. Throughout this period of partial opening, we have noticed a number of carers arriving up to 30 minutes prior to our gates opening. We kindly ask that anyone arriving early waits in the plaza or an area that is not directly outside the school. Please note, the playground will not be accessible to the children before or after school hours. 

The children will continue to have their temperature cards checked at the gate, please ensure this is completed in the morning before they arrive at school. We kindly ask all those entering the campus to have their temperature checked, wear a mask and maintain social distancing wherever possible whilst on campus. The children will continue to be required to wear a mask throughout the school day. 

 

Snack and Lunch Arrangements

As the children are now with us for full days, we will return to providing your child with their morning snack, therefore you will only need to provide your child with a packed lunch which can be placed in the box outside your child’s classroom each morning and will be stored in an air-conditioned room until lunch time. Please note, we cannot accept lunch deliveries for the children throughout the morning.

The timings for lunch will be communicated in your child’s year group letter. To comply with EdB regulations, we will be utilising our dining hall and upstairs hall for the children to eat. Each year group will eat at the same time with 2 classes in the dining hall and 2 classes in the upstairs hall. Children will be socially distanced and we will be using perspex screens to separate the children whilst eating. The children will always be supervised by adults from our setting when eating lunch.  

 

Specialist Lessons

I am pleased to let you know that we will now be running a full specialist timetable in school. Each week your child will experience 1 lesson of Music, 1 lesson of PE, and 2 Mandarin lessons. Learning Technologies will continue to be brought to the children within the environments and they will work with our Head of Learning Technologies, Mrs Angela Moriarty as well as their class teacher. 

The children will continue to visit the Library, Forest and Carpenters’ Cabin as part of our experiential learning programme. In addition, we have been introducing the children to the Atelier which is a space where the children are taught new skills relating to creative arts and design which they will have the opportunity to independently apply and explore with the vast array of resources in the Atelier. Most recently, our Nursery children have loved exploring clay, light and shadow in this area. 

 

Class Timetables and Information

Further information relating to your child’s class timetable and information pertinent to their year group will be communicated by Year Group Leaders via the Parent Hub. Please do keep an eye on the Hub for updates throughout the remainder of the term and if you do not already receive the Sunday ‘round up’ email reminding you of all the bulletins that have been posted, please do contact our helpdesk at [email protected] to ensure your are kept up to date. A copy of this letter will also be posted on the hub. 

 

Transition Opportunities and Classes for Next Academic Year

Nursery 

As has always been the case at DBIS, in order to facilitate a smooth transition, we will be keeping our Nursery children in the same classes as they move into Reception next year. Throughout the remainder of this term we will be providing our Nursery children with the opportunity to visit the Reception learning environments and get to know some of the adults they will be learning with next year. Your child’s new class teacher and allocated class will be communicated to you on Thursday 17th June 2021. 

Reception

We are delighted to now be opening 4 classes in EY1 next year. This has been an exceptional year for the children in which they have experienced a great deal of change. Transitioning to EY1 is going to present another layer of change for the children and with this in mind, we will be keeping all the children in the same classes as they move into EY1 next year. 

We will be hosting an online parent information session later this term to provide you with further information about life in EY1 and you and your child will be invited to a Stay and Play in our EY1 classrooms after school on Tuesday 15th June (the allocated time for your child will be communicated closer to the time). You will be notified of your child’s class teacher on Thursday 17th June and on Friday 18th June the children will go as a class with their current teacher and education assistant to visit their new learning environment, class teacher and education assistant. If your child’s class teacher is new to the school and not yet in Hong Kong, your child will still visit their learning environment and information about their new teacher will be shared. 

 

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank you for your ongoing support and patience throughout this exceptional year. I understand the many challenges you have had to face with regards to school closure and the restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19 and can’t thank you enough for working in partnership with myself and the Early Years Team to ensure the children’s learning and development has continued in spite of these challenges. 

Your children have simply amazed us each and every day with their resilience, enthusiasm and energy; they have demonstrated true kindness towards each other, developing positive relationships and making each day full of awe and wonder – they really are a credit to you and we have loved having the privilege of learning with them. We couldn’t be more delighted to be welcoming the children back to full days on Monday and can’t wait to enjoy all that these last 5 weeks have to offer with the children in school. 

 

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or concerns. 

 

Best wishes

Hannah Cole

 

Head of Early Years