If you have a child who will be of age to take up a place in September 2020, for our 2year old provision or 3year old provision, we will be offering places in May 2020.

If your child’s name is on the waiting list we will send you an offer letter, if you have not yet placed your child’s name on the waiting list please telephone 0191 527 1168 or email rosemary.lane@durhamlearning.net

For parents who are eligible for a free play and learn 2year old place, please access the online parent portal for confirmation and your eligibility code.

If you are isolating and need help during this difficult time, please refer to the attached flyer with information on how to gain support.

Support in County Durham during Coronavirus

View our latest newsletter for Home Learning Ideas including fun activities for your children to support their learning at home. There is no pressure to complete the activities. To support with different ideas we have created pages for each of the colour groups.

Staff are keen to be back in touch with families so please do send us some photos of what you are up to using our Twitter handle – @RosemaryLaneNS

Stay safe everyone!

The nursery staff have all been busy thinking of some fun ideas for our lovely families and children to keep you busy at home during lockdown. This is a weekly newsletter so please look again next week for some more new activities.

We miss you all and hope you are all keeping safe and well at home.

For those children who will transfer to Reception Class in September, we hope you all received your allocated place last Thursday.

Dear Parents,

As the situation with coronavirus continues to develop we are asking you to carefully consider whether or not your child needs to be in school.

We appreciate that the central government guidance around what constitutes a key worker is quite broad, however we would like to remind you that the reason schools are remaining open is primarily to ensure that those frontline workers who are key to helping this country get through this situation, can get to work.

Each school will have different levels of demand for these places and may handle this situation differently in order to ensure the welfare of all staff and children.  We ask you to respect any restrictions your school may put in place to help them cope during these challenging times.

Finally can we remind you that in line with Public Health England guidance, the best place for your child, wherever possible is at home with you, helping to maintain good social distancing for our wider community.

Many thanks

OPENING HOURS – We have amended the usual day and will be open 8.30-3PM this week (23^rd March-27^th March).

If there are any changes to agreed hours, please email rosemary.lane@durhamlearning.net or telephone school to discuss. Do not turn up for additional hours without the agreement of the Head Teacher.

We have a skeleton staff working shifts and your child may not know them all very well. We will do our best to support the children through this. If your child is upset, you must still observe the request to wait outside and distance yourself from the staff. These are different circumstances and the school staff will not be put at any unnecessary risk.

If your child does not settle, we will telephone you as normal to discuss this. The children are our main priority and we cannot have them developing a negative view of going to school. If your child develops any symptoms of COVID 19 they must not attend but isolate following Public Health England advice.

We will try to distance the children from one another wherever we can e.g. at snack time and lunch time children will not sit next to one another as they normally would.

PLEASE PROVIDE:

• A packed lunch (if your child is staying past 11.30am)

• Two snacks, one for the morning and one for the afternoon

• A bottle filled with drinking water

THIS SERVICE WILL BE REVIEWED ON A WEEKLY BASIS TO ASSESS RISK FOR THE STAFF IN CONTINUING TO CARRY OUT THIS ROLE.

If any further staff go into isolation with symptoms, we will have to review the offer to ensure the safety of the children.

Dear Parent/Carer,

Following the communication sent out yesterday we now have a definitive list of Keyworkers from the DFE.

In the first instance, if it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be. (i.e situations where one parents is working from home, self-employed in a non-critical role, alternative family members/childcare who are not in the stringent social distancing categories of over 70 years etc) Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.

This is not the normal nursery service and children should not use this service for continuity of coming, because they enjoy coming or because parents are concerned they will be having a long break from nursery.

THIS IS EMERGENCY CHILDCARE.

It may not be staffed by Rosemary Lane Nursery School staff and at present we are not sure if the childcare will be located in our nursery building or in another nursery nearby.

If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision (in a nearby location):

Please consult the below link for more clarity around the Keyworker definition:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

If you think that you fall within the critical categories on the link you should confirm with your employer that, based on their business continuity arrangements, your specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service,

AND if you have no alternative arrangements for childcare as detailed above.

THEN you should contact us to discuss how your childcare may be met within the Local Authority.

I understand this is a challenging time for everyone and we must all work together.

Kind Regards

Jill Jones

Head Teacher

I am writing to update you about the school’s current position regarding Coronavirus.

We take the health and safety and wellbeing of our pupils and staff very seriously, and, as such, we want to reassure you that we are following the guidance from Public Health England and the Department for Education (DfE).

Please view or download our letter below:

16th March letter Coronavirus

We have taken the decision to cancel next weeks ‘Cuddle up with a book’ morning. We do not want any parent with a new baby or grandparents put at risk by holding a large gathering in the Nursery.

We apologise for the cancellation and hope you understand our reasons for this.

We are holding a wonderful workshop in nursery on Wednesday 4th March creating storyboxes. Please sign up with your child’s key person for a place on the workshop.