Latest News

Safer Internet Day 2022

Tue 08 Feb 2022 Mr Morgan

At Deykin Avenue Primary School we are proud to support 'Safer Internet Day 2022'. Safer Internet Day 2022 is on Tuesday 8th February and will be celebrated with the theme ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’.

The aim of Safer Internet Day is to teach everyone how to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the day sees thousands of organisations get involved to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

Click on the following link to see all about why it is important to be safe online.

https://vimeo.com/642677917/a76090b9f7

Parental Information

Wed 26 Jan 2022 Mr Morgan

Wednesday 26^th January 2022

Dear Parents/Carers,

Face Coverings and PCR Tests

As you are probably aware, from tomorrow, face coverings are no longer compulsory in indoor or public places. However, it is still advised that people wear face coverings in enclosed or crowded spaces and when meeting strangers. We know in our school community that Covid is still circulating. We still have staff absent who are suffering from the after effects of Covid, as well as staff, children and parents still testing positive. Due to this, we are still going to ask staff/visitors to wear a face covering in communal areas, or when meeting together in school. Therefore, if you are invited in for a meeting with a member of staff, or to speak to someone in the office, we will still ask you to wear a face covering to help keep everyone safe. Some people are still testing positive on a lateral flow test and are showing no symptoms at all. Wearing a face covering helps to protect all of us from this virus.

We are also still asking you to please book your child for a PCR test if they have any symptoms: a new, continuous cough, a temperature or a loss of smell or taste. Many children, and staff, have suffered with a temperature, headaches, a runny nose, sneezing, sickness and pains before testing positive. If children come in to school with any of these symptoms, we will contact you to collect them and take them home. If they have a negative result from a PCR, and feel well, they can then return to school.

Following on from Public Health advice, if someone in your household tests positive, please get a PCR test for everyone else in the house and isolate until a negative result is returned. Children can then come to school if they take a lateral flow test result each morning for 7 days so long as each day, the test is negative. If one of these tests shows positive, please contact the school and isolate your child in the home.

Lunch Time Clubs and After School Clubs

We have taken the decision to not introduce any clubs for the rest of this half term. Mixing different children together, and the uncertainty of staff shortages, could potentially cause difficulties and increase the spread of Covid-19. We will let you know before we break up for half term (18/02/22) whether the clubs will start after the holiday, week beginning 28/02/22.

Parents of children who had secured a place for the clubs for this half term, will be telephoned and asked if they would like their children to still take part in these clubs. Assuming the clubs will start after the half-term holiday, these children will know that they still have their place.

Parent/Carer Consultations

We were expecting to hold parent/carer consultation meetings face-to-face at the end of this half term. We have decided to stay with the option of either a telephone consultation or Zoom meeting as we did previously. Details of these meetings, eg, dates and times, will be sent to you next week so that we can book you in if you would like to have a meeting with your children’s class teachers.

Thank You

Thank you for your ongoing support. It has been a very difficult half term so far and we have seen the negative effects of Covid in our school community. Many children, parents and staff have contracted this virus and it does have a massive impact on the children’s education. Thank you to those parents/carers who have had children isolating and encouraged them to complete the work on Dojo that their teachers have set for them. This was especially evident during our day’s closure for the deep clean: many children joined their teachers during the Zoom lessons and brought their completed work into school with them the next day. They could not have done this without your support so thank you.

Please stay safe.

Yours faithfully

Mrs Janet Edwards Mrs Sharon Brewer

Head Teacher Deputy Head Teacher

Day Closure - Wednesday 19th January 2022

Wed 19 Jan 2022 Mr Morgan

Good morning everyone.

Due to the high number of Covid cases we currently have in school, Public Health have recommended we undertake a deep clean of the school. Therefore, we are unfortunately going to have to close school tomorrow, Wednesday 19th January, so that this can go ahead. School will reopen on Thursday 20th January.

Please read the attached letter with further details included. We are very sorry for the inconvenience but I am sure you understand the need for these additional measures to take place.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Mrs Edwards Mrs Brewer
Head Teacher Deputy Head Teacher

Updated Coronavirus Isolation Period Flow Chart - Effective from 17.01.22

Mon 17 Jan 2022 Mr Morgan

Dear Parents,

Please find attached information in respect of changes to the isolation periods for Covid 19 positive cases.

Updated Coronavirus Isolation Period Flow Chart - Effective from 17.01.22

Thank you

Mrs Edwards

Head Teacher

January 2022 Opening Arrangements

Tue 04 Jan 2022 Mr Morgan

Tuesday 4^th January 2022

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you have had a lovely, relaxing holiday and look forward to seeing you all return to school tomorrow.

There has been no further guidance for primary schools from the Department for Education (DfE). Therefore, due to the current situation of Covid-19 around the country, we have decided to implement some safety measures which we are sure you will agree with. Covid-19 has already impacted on our school community and we are trying to minimise the risk of further infections.

We are going to limit the mixing together of classes.
- Start times (arrive between 8:45am and 8:55am) and home times (3:15pm for Rec to Y2 and 3:20pm for Y3 to Y6) will remain the same, but we will separate the children as much as we can.
  - Reception children will enter and leave school via the little playground and go through their entrance as normal.
  - Year 1 children will enter and leave school via their classroom as normal.
  - Year 2 children will enter school via the little playground and go through to their classroom. They will leave this way at home time as well.
  - Year 3 children will enter through the ramp entrance and leave via the office exit.
  - Year 4 children will enter and leave school via the ramp entrance.
  - Year 5 and Year 6 children will enter and leave via the Year 6 entrance.
- Phonics will still take place each day where children from Reception to Year 4 are taught together in groups at their appropriate phonics stage. Numbers in each group are much smaller than class numbers and they work with 1 adult.
- Assemblies will return to Zoom so that we do not have all the children and staff in the hall at the same time. During Merit Assembly on Fridays, children awarded a certificate will go to the hall to collect it from the teacher leading the assembly and will be seen by all the classes virtually. Any singing will be done within the children’s own classrooms.
- We will not be inviting parents in for any assemblies/workshops at this moment in time.
- Clubs will be postponed for the first 3 weeks. We will then be able to see the impact of returning to school as well as the national picture. If things are looking more positive, clubs could return week beginning 31^st January 2022. We will let you know prior to this date.
- Lunchtimes will be staggered to limit the mixing in the hall. Reception and Year 1 will eat their lunch in the hall between 12:00 and 12:25pm. Years 2 to 4 will eat their lunch in the hall between 12:25 and 12:50pm. Years 5 and 6 will eat their lunch in the hall between 12:50 and 1:15pm. These are approximate times – timings may change.
- Playtimes will remain the same as the children are outside.
Primary school children do not need to wear masks. Staff will be wearing masks when in communal areas and when meeting with parents. Please ensure that if you go to the school office, or meet with a member of staff in school, you wear a mask as well.
Please send your child to school with their own water bottle, labelled with their name on it. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to provide disposable cups to children who forget their bottles as we used many of these before Christmas and obviously cannot wash them out and re-use them.
Windows will still be open so please ensure that your children bring a jumper or cardigan with them to wear as it can get very cold during the day. Coats can be worn if children or staff are particularly cold during the day.
Children and staff are still expected to wash/sanitise their hands regularly throughout the day. Please keep this routine at home; some children are still having to be reminded to wash their hands after going to the toilet.
If someone in the household tests positive, please let the school know as soon as possible. We are asking, children and staff, to take a daily lateral flow test at the very least if someone in the home tests positive. If a child, or a member of staff, has symptoms but will not book a PCR test, we will say that they will not be able to return to school until 10 days of isolation has passed. This is to protect the school community.
If your child shows signs of Covid-19, please do not send them to school. Likewise, if you have symptoms, please do not come to school. Children and adults must isolate until they either receive a negative PCR result or if they have tested positive, their isolation period is over.

We really hope you understand our reasons for these changes. This is not how we want to run a school but we feel that implementing these changes will help to protect our school community. We will reassess the situation later this half term and may drop some or all of these strategies depending on the local and national picture.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Yours faithfully

Mrs Janet Edwards (Head Teacher)

Mrs Sharon Brewer (Deputy Head Teacher)

Letter to Parents and Carers from Dr Justin Varney (Director of Public Health) Birmingham City Council - 21.10.21

Mon 01 Nov 2021 Mr Morgan

21st October 2021

Dear Parent / Carer,

I am writing to update you on our local COVID-19 offer to schools across Birmingham following the Press briefing by the Secretary of State for Health on 20th October 2021.

You may be aware of the extra control measures that your child’s school would have introduced since the start of the Autumn term in response to increased infections. These include encouraging good handwashing, twice-weekly LFD tests, staying at home if unwell or tested positive, and taking the COVID-19 vaccines. They have also been reminding children to practice good hygiene by sneezing or coughing into their elbows or using and disposing of tissues properly, as the weather gets cooler.

The Council has worked with headteachers to produce local bespoke school resources to raise awareness within our schools

What to expect if there are COVID-19 infections at your child’s school

Schools are no longer required to identify close contacts of any cases of COVID-19 in their setting. If there is a confirmed case at school, they will send a “warn and inform” letter to let you know about it and provide general updates.

Pupils who have mixed closely with the confirmed case (in the same class or group of friends) or are contacts of a case due to contact outside school will be advised to have a PCR test. It is helpful if children who are close contacts remain at home until they receive a negative result as this helps to further reduce the risk.

If the school has a large outbreak, the public health advice will be based on a risk assessment and may include some or all of the following measures:

Reducing mixing between year groups or classes.
Introducing the use of face coverings in classrooms and communal areas for anyone age 11 and over.
Cancelling large school gatherings such as assemblies, open evenings, scheduled sports events, residential school trips and school staff meetings.
Moving to online learning.

These measures will be discussed and jointly agreed with the school, UKHSA, Department for Education, the Council’s Education and Skills and Public Health teams using the Department for Education’s contingency framework.

I would encourage you to continue to work closely with your child’s school and support them by following the advice given.

COVID-19 vaccinations

COVID-19 vaccinations are now available to everyone in Birmingham aged 12 years and over. It is very reassuring to see that the vaccines have helped to reduce the risk of serious illness or death, spreading infection, and give protection from known variants.

I encourage you, if your child is aged 12-15 years, to consent to them receiving the vaccination at school as soon as it is offered.

The NHS is writing to parents to advise them about how their children will receive vaccines including when they miss a school appointment.

Please speak with a trusted professional or read the information available on the NHS website to support you in making Your decision. You may also wish to speak to your GP. For any young people aged 16-18 years, there are several locations across the city where they can walk-in and ‘grab a jab’

Our school community has been amazing and continue to work incredibly hard to keep children, families, staff and visitors safe.

Thank you to everyone for your sacrifices and contributions to improving Birmingham’s pandemic response.

Yours sincerely

Dr Justin Varney
Director of Public Health

Introducing some of our Anti-Knife Crime Ambassadors

Wed 20 Oct 2021 Mr Morgan

We would like to introduce some of our Anti-Knife Crime Ambassadors!

These children represent our school and have already delivered an assembly. We have got quite a few things planned for them during the year and they are very keen to work with us, the other children, and outside visitors on delivering the message why carrying a knife, or any weapon, is definitely not a good thing to do. When they have undertaken a task in school, they will put an update on the website so it becomes a talking point for you and your children. We are very proud of them.

Friday 3rd September 2021 - Opening Information

Thu 02 Sep 2021 Mr Morgan

Thursday 2^nd September 2021

Dear Parents/Carers

We hope you have all had a lovely summer holiday and that your children are looking forward to returning to school tomorrow (Friday 3^rd September).

We sent out information before the summer break stating changes that we were expecting to happen when we returned in the autumn term. The government have stated that these changes are still happening so we thought we would remind you all of them.

There are no more ‘bubbles’ in school. This means that all children and staff can mix and play together.
Whole school assemblies can take place in the hall again. This includes whole school singing as well. (This is something we have really missed hearing in school since the first lockdown in March 2020.)
- Although we will still be holding Merit Assembly every Friday morning, we will not be inviting parents in for at least the first half term. We will wait to see what happens in relation to Covid, eg, if cases rise in school/across the country or not.
The children will no longer be sitting in rows in classrooms. Tables will be back in groups and children will be facing each other rather than all facing the front of the classroom.
No staggered start times. Doors will open at 8:45am until 8:55am so that children can come into school and straight into their classrooms. Any child who arrives after 8:55am will be classed as late. Their parent/carer must take them to the school office and provide a reason why they are late.
We will go back to the original home times: Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will leave at 3:15pm. Years 3 to 6 will leave at 3:20pm.
- Reception will enter and leave school through the Reception door and through the little playground.
- Year 1 will enter and leave school through the Year 1 entrance. (Next door to the ramp entrance.)
- Year 2 will enter and leave school through the ramp entrance.
- Year 3 will enter school through the ramp entrance and leave through the office entrance.
- Year 4 will enter and leave school through the ramp entrance.
- Years 5 and 6 will enter and leave school through the Year 6 entrance.
Children and staff are still expected to wash/sanitise their hands regularly.
We still have to open windows in the school. Please ensure your child has a jumper or cardigan to wear as it will be cold now that we are in the autumn term and heading towards the winter. Although the heating will be on, it will still feel cold as all of the windows are open.
After School Clubs will return from week beginning 13^th September. Letters will go out week beginning 6^th September. Children will be mixing from different classes.
When it is PE day, children can still come to school in their PE kit and will have PE for the whole afternoon. (Your child’s class teacher will inform you through Dojo which day PE is on.) One hour will be with our coach from Aston Villa, and the other hour will be with their teacher/teaching assistant. Please ensure that your child does not come to school wearing jewellery, particularly earrings – children sometimes find these very difficult to take out and can lose them. School is not responsible for any losses.
NHS track and trace will contact you and tell you if your child has been a close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. They will then advise you what to do.
- Public Health have advised schools that if we get 5 cases or more in school (staff or children), that we inform you so that you are aware that the number of cases are rising. We will not tell you who has tested positive, but you may wish to test everyone in your household using lateral flow tests.
Classes will not be told to isolate as they were before the summer holiday. If anyone, staff or child, is informed by the NHS that they are a close contact, they will be asked to carry out a PCR test to show they are negative and given further instructions on what to do.
- In order to protect everyone (staff, children and families), we are asking that if anyone in your household (families and staff) tests positive, please inform school immediately and have all of your household booked in for a PCR test. We are also requesting that you do not send your child into school until they have had a negative PCR test result – these seem to be returned quite quickly now. This is so that we can reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading in school.
- The reasoning behind this is Public Health have informed us that unvaccinated people are more likely to catch Covid-19 if they are in close contact with a positive case, especially if that contact is someone in their household. Children are not vaccinated. Therefore, there is a higher probability that they would catch Covid-19 and spread it, possibly being asymptomatic (having no symptoms) themselves.
Masks are no longer expected to be worn in school. However, if anyone (parent, older sibling or staff member) prefers to wear them as they feel safer, this is absolutely fine. There may be times we ask you to wear one, for example, if we have a meeting with you in school in a confined area or with several people present, but we will inform you beforehand.
- If you need to visit the School Office, please be aware that we are still only going to allow 1 family in at a time. This is because the waiting area is a very small, confined space. If a member of staff speaks to you in this area, we will ask you and the staff member to please wear a mask as you will be in very close contact with each other.
If you, your child or any member of your family (this applies to staff as well) feel unwell, whether you are double vaccinated or not, please inform school immediately, take a PCR test and do not come to school until you have a negative result. This will limit the spread of Covid-19 and help to keep each other safe.

Thank you for all of your support during the last 18 months. It will be lovely to get back to school and have some sense of normality return! On behalf of the staff and governors at Deykin Avenue JI School, we can’t wait to see you all on Friday 3^rd September. Children, we have missed you!!

Yours faithfully

Mrs. Janet Edwards Mrs. Sharon Brewer

(Head Teacher) (Deputy Head Teacher)

IMPORTANT PARENT NOTICE - SCHOOL CLOSURE

Mon 19 Jul 2021 Mr Morgan

Dear Parents,

We have taken the decision to close the school for the summer holidays at hometime today (Monday 19th July 2021).

Over the weekend we have been informed of positive cases for both children and parents. This has also impacted on the availability of staff.

We look forward to welcoming children back on Friday 3rd September 2021.

In the meantime, if you are celebrating Eid, we hope you enjoy this special time.

Wishing you all a happy holiday,

Mrs. J. Edwards

(Head Teacher)

Letter from the Director of Public Health (Birmingham) Dr Justin Varney

Fri 09 Jul 2021 Mr Morgan

5th July 2021

Dear parents/guardians and staff,

Schools continue to work closely with Public Health England and Birmingham City Council to follow national guidance and promote a COVID-secure environment within their school. Your school is in an area of enhanced support at the moment, this means that there is lower uptake of testing, rising case rates and low levels of vaccination, which puts us all at risk of ongoing outbreaks.

We must all take individual responsibility to do everything we can to enjoy the extra freedoms we have, while remaining cautious and following the ‘Hands, Face Space and Fresh Air’ guidance when mixing with loved ones and socialising.

This is most important as the city of Birmingham is now under government enhanced support due to increasing numbers of people getting infected with the Delta variant which is more infectious.

It is important for all staff, pupils and families to continue to follow all coronavirus safety measures and guidance to minimise the risk of spreading infections across the staff and pupils in the school. The safety measures include testing, isolation, vaccination, good hand hygiene, wearing face coverings, social distancing, good ventilation for all person regardless of whether they have had their coronavirus vaccines.

Testing

We are aware that some parents are sending children to school without carrying out their twice weekly Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests. Please remember that all secondary school aged children, staff and their households should be testing twice a week using the rapid Lateral Flow home testing kits. Even if you have had both doses of the vaccine or have mild symptoms, it is important to keep testing to help identify anyone who is infected with coronavirus as the vaccines reduce the risks of becoming seriously ill or dying from the virus.

Ordering a test is simple. Please follow the 3 options below:

Individuals can order 1 pack of Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests (contains 7 kits) per household per day or by calling 119 (open 7am-11pm). Delivery is within two days.
Find a pharmacy where you can collect Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests
Find a local site where you can collect Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests

Your school is also happy to help to support you with getting tested, please do speak to the staff.

Isolation

There are some children who continue to come to schools when they should have been isolating. Sometimes, we know that people are unaware of the reasons to isolate which are due to displaying COVID-19 symptoms or if you are a contact (e.g. part of a household or school bubble) of someone with symptoms or confirmed coronavirus infection. It is also important that if you test positive for COVID-19 after taking an LFD test, you self-isolate immediately and request a PCR test, which gives a more accurate result to confirm if someone has COVID-19. There is an isolation support pack to help households access the correct information to enable them to choose rightly and remain at home to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Please use the isolation pack here:

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads/download/4207/self_isolation_support_pack

Vaccination

It is also important that people take up the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you are invited to do so. Please use our local vaccine toolkit to inform yourselves about the COVID-19 vaccines facts and also use trusted NHS websites here:

Parents and guardians should continue to remind their children to follow the guidance provided in school even when they are outside school, to help everyone remain safe and enjoy the end of the school term.

Your school can offer ongoing support to any pupils and staff and local public health and education partners will continue to liaise with the school and provide advice when needed.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation throughout this difficult period.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Justin Varney
Director of Public Health (Birmingham)

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