A very warm welcome back to Upton. After the difficult end to the last academic year, we are all extremely excited to start this year and have our Upton family together again, under one roof.

A special welcome to new pupils, parents and staff to our school; I hope you will be very happy and successful here. I would like to say how pleased I am to be your Head of School. This is a very special school and one which I feel extremely privileged to lead. I will always make time to talk with parents, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss any issues or ask questions. I will be on the school gates at the beginning and the end of the day. As I stated back in my correspondence at the end of July, we will be working hard to ensure the ‘recovery curriculum’ we have in place will be designed with our children’s wellbeing at the centre – their emotional, social, physical and academic needs, wants and desires. If there is anything you think we should be aware of, please let myself or your class teacher know as soon as possible. We want to make the transition back to school life as smooth as possible for every child and we can only do this if we work together.

As you may, or may not be aware the Government launched its campaign to get children ‘back to school safely’ on Monday 17th August. I have copied the link below. Please take some time to read through this because it will reassure you that all schools are ready to return for the beginning of Term 1.

DfE ‘Back to School Safely’

If you have been fortunate enough to holiday abroad during the summer, please ensure you are following government advice in regards to self-isolation if you have returned from certain countries. If this does have an impact on you and your family, please notify us at your earliest convenience. Please click here to read Government information.

A few ‘Back to Upton’ reminders:
• To help alleviate the possibility of groups mixing we will be having a drop off window in the mornings between 8:30 am and 9:00 am.
• We will also have a window to collect the children between 2:45 pm and 3:15 pm.
• We would like to request that only 1 parent per family carries out the drop off and pick up to reduce congestion.
• When on the school site (outside) we ask that you all follow a strict one-way system.
• Children to be collected from their classroom doors, apart from Mr White’s class, who will be collected from the hall door.
• Parents/carers will not be allowed into the school building at any time. Any contact with staff will need to be made via email or telephone in the first instance.
• Children will be expected to wear their school uniform. On PE days children will be required to wear their PE kit to school (for the whole day). Information from Heads of Year will follow with specific days for each class.

I am looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday 3rd September. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or require any support.

Kind regards,
Miss Arthur
Head of School