11 December 2020

Dear Parents

Today was 'Christmas Jumper Day' and there were some lovely and very imaginative jumpers on display. Thank you to all those parents who made such very generous donations to our local foodbank. We will take your donations to the Kidderminster Food Bank next week and I know they will be very gratefully received. Thank you for your generosity and kindness.

We have a very busy but enjoyable week ahead of us in school next week!

Wednesday 16 December we are all attending a virtual pantomime of 'Cinderella'.  The whole school will be able to watch in their Bubbles on their class interactive whiteboards. To make it even more of an event we will also have the day as a Pyjama day . The children can come in PJs or their Onesie and slippers. We would ask they remember to bring shoes and coats for playtime. We would be grateful for a donation of £1 a child which would cover the cost of the pantomime licence. We have been hit hard by our inability to have PTA fundraising events this term which  normally pays for such treats and our party day. Thank you.

Thursday 17 December is our Christmas Party Day- a major highlight in the life of St Wulstan's children (and staff!) Children come in their party clothes and an exciting day of festivities ends with a gift from a very special person! Please remember lunch is sausage and chips all provided by school so your child will not require a packed lunch or hot meal order on that day.

Friday 18  December  We will be joining our parish community for the live streaming of 10am Mass at St Wulstan's. We have missed our whole school and class Masses this year so this is a lovely opportunity to celebrate Christmas through the wonders of the internet.

After Mass will be our customary Toy Day when the children can bring a toy from home to play with their friends.  Again, in order to maintain cleanliness we ask that your child brings their game or toy into school on Tuesday 15 December in a labelled carrier bag. These can be kept safely isolated in school for 48 hours so the children can enjoy playing together on the Friday. We are unable to have fabric or cuddly toys but dolls, games and any plastic or metal toys are fine. The children will bring their toy home on the Friday evening so you can clean and isolate it at home as well.

Many of you will aware the Department of Education sent out a bulletin late on Tuesday afternoon advising schools that they could make Friday 18 December an INSET day. This would mean the school would be closed to children for staff training. We will not be closing and will continue with our published dates. It is extremely short notice for parents to arrange childcare and all our INSET days are planned well in advance to ensure they are of value to teaching and learning. End of term therefore remains 3.30pm on Friday 18 December.

We have been contacted by one of our parents, Mireya’s mum, with a lovely and generous donation of a ‘Christmas Eve Piñata’ which she thought would raise some money for school and bring some joy!  Raffle tickets can be bought for £1 and we will draw the name out of the hat next Friday. If you would like to buy one or more tickets please send in £1 any day next week and we will announce the winner to the children on Friday afternoon.

Sadly, we have had to pause our traditional children’s Christmas card post box this year. To limit risk of cross Bubble and contact we feel it would be lovely this year if the children just send in one card to the whole class which will be read out and pinned up around their class Christmas tree. Hopefully, our normal St Wulstan's postal service will resume next year. Thank you for your understanding, we want to do everything we can to keep all families as protected as we can do for the Christmas holidays. The children will soon be busy making their cards, calendars and little Christmas gifts to bring home and we will keep these in labelled pouches before sending home.

Thank you to parents who inform us immediately of absence due to symptoms of, or a positive COVID 19 test result.  This will obviously need to continue for the week after we break up. Please read carefully the parental guidance from Worcestershire Children First.

• Parents of pupils who are symptomatic at any time should arrange for immediate testing here: https://self-referral.test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/antigen/condition
• Pupils who have COVID-19 symptoms starting on either of the 2 days after their last day in school will need to inform their school immediately if they subsequently test positive during the 6 day window up until 24 December.
• Pupils who develop COVID-19 symptoms and test positive on or after 00.01hrs on Mon 21st December will not need to inform the school but will be required to self-isolate for 10 days and their close contacts will be identified through the national Contact Tracing Service (CTS).
• Pupils who need to continue their self-isolation into the new term should inform the school of their absence in the usual way.
• Parents should be reminded that under no circumstances should any pupil return to school if they are exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms (however minor) or are unwell in any other way. They should arrange for a test and inform the school.

The school office email will continue to be monitored. If at any time you need to inform us of a pupil’s positive result please email us at secretary@wulsev.worcs.sch.uk It is so important we are notified so we can contact other children and staff members of the Bubble.

It has been a very busy term and we think the children are all ready for a well -deserved break. We look forward to a lovely last week of term enjoying the children’s excitement. School closes on Friday 18 December for the Christmas holiday and re-opens on Tuesday 5 January.

We hope you have a lovely weekend with your family

KE Savage