At Notre Dame du Rosaire Catholic Primary we know that regular attendance is directly linked to raising achievement and develops skills for life and work. We work closely with the States of Guernsey’s Schools Attendance Service, who monitor and follow up lateness and absences.

Lateness and Punctuality
Arriving at school on time and ready to learn is the best start to the day for our children. Even being 5 minutes late per day can add up to 3.4 school days missed a year.

Attendance Matters!
Notre Dame’s pupil attendance was around 96% pre COVID. It is currently running at around 91%, which means that an average of approximately 9 days has been missed by every child since September – almost 2 weeks of learning. We are making it a key target for our school to improve attendance.

Obviously we have been through some challenging times, with children advised to stay at home if they are unwell, but poor attendance may be due to other reasons that we can help you with. If you are struggling to get your child into school, or feel they are worried about something – please get in touch immediately so that we can help you.

Children with persistent lateness and low attendances are discussed with the School’s Attendance Service every month and are monitored weekly in school. Letters will be sent out every month if attendance or lateness is on the decline. I will also call parents to follow up the letters and to see if support is needed and will request a meeting.

If your child is genuinely unwell and unable to attend school, please telephone the school and leave a message on the pupil absence line (option 3). We must have a reason for every time a child is absent from school.

If we have not been able to make contact with you we may make a home visit, inform the Schools’ Attendance Service or possibly inform the police or social services. Some of these measures may seem extreme but it is our duty to ensure the safeguarding of every pupil at Notre Dame.

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

• making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality
• taking an interest in their education – ask about school work and encourage them to get involved in school activities
• discussing any problems they may have at school and letting their teacher or me know about anything serious
• not letting them take time off school for minor ailments – particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work
• arrange appointments after school hours, at weekends and during holidays

You should not expect Notre Dame du Rosaire Primary School to agree to your child going on holiday during term time – this will be marked as an unauthorised absence as per the States of Guernsey Attendance Policy. We appreciate the challenges that some parents face when booking holidays, particularly during the school holidays. However, regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.

We are working really hard to encourage children to come to school every single day so that they can achieve their full potential. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or worries about your child’s attendance.

Times Tables

Dear parents and carers,

We are having a whole school push on children learning and knowing their times tables. Children who are secure and confident in their times tables become far more fluent and successful mathematicians, and those that lack confidence can really start to struggle by Year 5 and 6.

We teach times tables at school, but we would be grateful if you could support your children in learning and practising their times tables at home, as much as possible as this is proven to help embed their learning.

Here are the times tables and calculations your child should know by the end of the year:

Year 1 To know and understand the 2 times table, 5 times table, 10 times table
Children should also know all doubles and halves to 10

Year 2 To know and understand the 2, 5 and 10 times tables and all corresponding division facts.
Children should also be able to recognise odd and even numbers to 10

Year 3 To know and understand the 3 times table, 6 times table, 4 times table, 8 times table and all corresponding division facts

Year 4 To know all times tables and corresponding division facts
Teach explicitly 7, 9, 11 and 12 times tables
Times Table Assessment in the Summer Term

Year 5 Regular practise and revision of all times tables and corresponding division facts
To know and understand square numbers, cube numbers and prime numbers

Year 6 Regular practise and revision of all times tables and corresponding division facts
To know and understand multiplication and division facts, involving decimals, fractions and percentages.

A letter is coming home with every child explaining ways you can support your child with their times tables. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get into contact with your child's class teacher or Miss Murray, our Maths lead.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Best wishes

Mrs R

As you know, we take reading very seriously at Notre Dame and want to get everyone reading as much as possible.

To encourage more reading at home, teachers will be giving every child a raffle ticket on Fridays, if they have read at least 4 times in the week. This has to be written into Reading/Homework Diaries.

The raffle ticket will be entered into a draw and at the end of this term, we will be awarding a Kindle to the child whose raffle ticket is pulled out! It will come with a warranty, cover and access to 1000s of books!

We have one Kindle for every half-term kindly donated by Carey Olsen- so 5 to be won this academic year!

Please hear your child read and write in their record book so that they get a chance at winning this amazing prize.

Education is re-introducing its package of enhanced measures from tomorrow (Thursday 17th March 2022) to help alleviate pressures in settings because of the current wave of COVID-19 infections.
These measures have been developed in consultation with Public Health and are designed to support the priority objective of keeping educational schools and settings fully operational and therefore minimising any disruption to young people’s education.
While there might be slight variations at each setting depending on their specific circumstances and operational needs, the suite of measures includes:
• All staff (primary, secondary and post-16) are expected to wear a face covering when inside school buildings, including in classrooms.
• All secondary and post-16 students are expected to wear a face covering on school transport and when inside school buildings, including in classrooms. Additional outside breaks will be worked into the school day.
• Primary school-aged students should be supported to wear a face covering if they want to do so.
• Schools may implement changes to drop-off and pick-up times to stagger the number of people on-site at any one time.
• Classroom bubbles will be re-introduced for primary schools where possible.
• Classroom bubbles will be introduced for KS3 (secondary school years 7-9) where possible.
• No school-run extra-curricular clubs or activities will take place for the time being.
• No whole-school assemblies or in-person events such a parents evenings (these will be held online where possible).
Schools will contact parents and carers to provide further information relevant to the implementation of these measures at their child’s school.
Nick Hynes, Director of Education, said:
‘This is undoubtedly a challenging time for education settings, which is also being experienced by other essential services and private companies, due to the number of
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positive cases at the moment. A number of our schools and settings currently have staffing concerns and we all remain focused on managing disruption as a result of absences while maintaining our absolute focus of keeping settings open and delivering education.
‘This package of enhanced measures will be familiar to our staff, students and parents and carers as we are not introducing anything now that hasn’t been in place before. When we have had to revert to these enhanced measures previously, it has served us well so I’m hopeful that they can do so again as long as we continue to have the support of all involved in the delivery of education. I am sure that will be the case so I again take this opportunity to thank all staff and the community in advance for working with us to ensure these measures have the desired impact.’

Education has announced a planned relaxation of measures in schools, removing classroom bubbles and re-introducing extra-curricular activities among other changes, effective from Monday 17th January.
Following the CCA’s announcement on Wednesday (12th January 2022) of its intention to relax testing requirements at the borders, as long as the recent positive trend around case numbers is maintained, Education, following dialogue with Public Health, has decided the time is right to relax measures in settings.
The easing of measures will enable students and staff to return to a more ‘normal’ educational experience which has been affected by working in bubbles. However, in moving to a better-quality learning environment an enhanced lateral flow testing regime will be put in place as an additional mitigation which all students, staff, parents and carers are asked to support.
From Monday, the management of the implications of COVID-19 in education settings will include:
• Secondary and post-16 students asked to take daily LFTs before attending
• Primary students asked to take an LFT on Monday, Wednesday and Friday before attending school
• Staff in all settings asked to take daily LFTs before attending • As an additional mitigation following the removal of the package of enhanced measures, face coverings will now be expected in classrooms and teaching spaces in secondary and post-16 settings. They remain compulsory in communal areas for all staff and for secondary and post-16 students and for staff in communal areas within primary schools.
Measures in place since the start of term that are being removed include:
• Classroom bubbles
• School-run extra-curricular clubs and activities can resume
• On-island trips from one school to another (so to take part in swimming at another school, for example) can resume
Additionally, external organisations will again be able to use education settings facilities this weekend (Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th January), however sites will remain unavailable to
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external organisations between Monday and Friday next week. Education facilities will then fully re-open to external use from Saturday 22nd January. Access to sites was restricted for external users primarily to ensure there was enough resilience in the facilities team to maintain sites being open during core school opening times, should staff have needed to isolate, however this can now begin to be relaxed.
Nick Hynes, Director of Education, said:
‘I would like to thank all those involved in the delivery of education – staff, students, parents and carers – for helping us with the package of measures we put in place for the new term. They were designed to get us through the first couple of weeks of term and the current signs are positive, which is why we’ve taken the decision to try and move back to what we hope and think will feel like a more normal educational experience. Removing the classroom bubbles is key to that, but as ever we need to ensure that appropriate measures are in place which is why we’re enhancing the current position around face coverings in class within a secondary or post-16 environment and asking everyone to support an enhanced lateral flow testing regime.
‘The start of term has been successful in terms of our core priority of minimising disruption to young people’s education, but we’re happy that the positive signs seen across the community with case numbers falling means these relaxations can come into effect on Monday.’
Separately, the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture yesterday agreed to delay the introduction of external inspections until after the February half term. The new inspection framework, carried out by Ofsted, was due to come into operation at the beginning of the Spring Term.
In taking the decision to delay the start of school and further education inspections until slightly later in the Spring Term, the Committee acknowledged that the current priority for staff in education settings is maintaining provision while managing challenges presented by the current wave of infections. It is important to note that the new inspection framework already includes a mechanism under which any settings that receive a notification of external inspection are able to request a delay to their inspection based on their individual circumstances at the time. This mechanism will be available for use if required after half-term.
The Committee has confirmed that, after the half-term break, save for any significant and unexpected change in circumstances across the islands, there will not be any further whole-system delay to external inspections in Guernsey and Alderney. From this point any deferrals of Ofsted inspection will be handled on an individual basis depending upon the specific circumstances of each setting at the time of their notification.

Education introduces package of enhanced measures before start of new term Education has announced a package of enhanced measures that will be in place when the new term begins next week. These measures have been developed in consultation with Public Health and are designed to support the priority objective of keeping educational settings fully operational and therefore minimising any disruption to young people’s education. While there might be slight variations at each setting depending on their specific circumstances and operational needs, the suite of measures includes: • All students and staff are asked to ensure they have negative LFTs on the day before they return to their setting and on the morning of each of the first three days of term. • Schools may implement changes to drop-off and pick-up times to stagger the number of people on-site at any one time. • Classroom bubbles will be re-introduced for primary schools (last in place earlier this year. • Classroom bubbles will be introduced for KS3 (secondary school years 7-9). • Face coverings are strongly recommended in classrooms for secondary and post-16 students, with additional outside breaks worked into the school schedule. • No off-island trips will take place this term • No on-island trips from one school to another • No school-run extra-curricular clubs or activities for the time being Schools will contact parents and carers to provide further information relevant to the implementation of these measures at their child’s school. Parents and carers are also asked to continue wearing face coverings when on school grounds, and we thank everyone for the excellent take-up of this last term. Routine surveillance testing 2 Staff and all students from primary school age upwards are asked to continue taking LFTs twice a week (on Tuesdays and Thursday) before attending in the morning. Consideration had been given to increasing the frequency of this but it was felt twice a week would guard against testing fatigue while also helping to manage the island’s stock of LFTs. Attending education settings while in enhanced passive follow-up Students who have been diagnosed as a positive case are able to return to school on day 7 following a negative LFT on day 6 and day 7 and as long as they are symptom-free; however they are only permitted to attend core educational provision until they are out of enhanced passive follow-up. This means that they should not attend any club, group or activity during this period of enhanced passive follow-up. Staff are also able to attend if they are in enhanced passive follow-up provided a risk assessment has been undertaken and appropriate mitigations are in place, including the wearing of a face covering and ensuring teaching spaces are well ventilated. Nick Hynes, Director of Education, said: ‘Towards the end of last term we tried to be upfront with the community and staff that things would look different in January. We need everyone involved in the delivery of education, which includes parents and carers as well as staff, to support us by adapting to what is likely to be a new norm – for the time-being at least - of managing disruption as a result of absences while maintaining our absolute focus of keeping settings open and delivering education. ‘This package of measures is designed to help us achieve that as much as possible. There will be disruption, it is unavoidable, but by introducing further measures specific to education we are trying to minimise that disruption, slow or halt the spread wherever we can so that our young people can maintain their studies. That is our priority while the island as a whole manages the implications of this Omicron wave.’

Early End of Term Arrangements

Please find attached a media release explaining that the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture has agreed that term will finish for States-run primary and secondary schools at the end of the school day on Friday 17th December 2021. This decision has been taken following careful consideration of the pressures of keeping schools operational due to on-going staff and student absence and, importantly, the upcoming Christmas holidays where the risk of families having their special time severely impacted by Covid-19 should be limited as far as possible.

However, all schools will remain open on Monday 20th, Tuesday 21st and the morning of Wednesday 22nd December 2021 for the children of any parent/carer who must continue going to work on those days and for those students invited to attend by head teachers. While schools will be open for some students, formal learning will not take place on these days, however some activities will be provided for all students to undertake either at home or while in school if they are attending over the two and a half days.

In order for us to make necessary operational plans, I would be grateful if you could confirm whether you will require a place for your child/children on each of the two and a half days by no later than the end of the day on Thursday 16th December 2021. You can do this by completing this online booking form:

https://forms.gle/AKospPRRVRGi4dB37

Information about school arrangements for next week will be shared when we have final numbers on Thursday.

Some of our festive arrangements will have to change, and we will move Year 3-6 ice skating to tomorrow (Wednesday 15th). Christmas parties will be held later this week, but I will need to chat to the PTFA and caterers to organise this. More information on this will follow later today.

The arrangements for the return to education following the Christmas period have been discussed with Public Health and they have requested that all students undertake a lateral flow test on the first three days back in school after the holiday on 6th, 7th and 10th January 2022. We would be very grateful if you could make sure that your child/children do the tests with appropriate supervision if required.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In September, you will have had a letter from Social Security about the changes to family allowance which are taking place next year.

As requested, please complete and return the declaration to Wheadon House or by email to pensionsallowances@gov.gg by 31 October 2021. If the declaration is not returned, family allowance will stop from January 2022.

If you need further information or have any questions, please visit gov.gg/familyallowance email pensionsallowances@gov.gg or call 222506

The Civil Contingencies Authority has agreed that from 4th October, when travel rules will see a further relaxing of restrictions, it will no longer be necessary for children to take a PCR test in order to return to an education setting after travelling into the Bailiwick.
However, children of Reception age or older will still be asked to take a lateral flow test at home before coming back to school if they have travelled in the previous 10 days.
All children have a supply of lateral flow tests as packs of 25 were provided at the beginning of the school year. If parents do require additional lateral flow tests, they are available from their child’s school or Beau Sejour.

Dear parent/carer,

I am writing to update you on work between Public Health and the Education Office to ensure appropriate measures are in place to help mitigate the risk of COVID-19 cases in education settings, and explain how we will manage cases when they do arise in our school.

When a student or member of staff tests positive for COVID-19 having been in school, we will identify those who have come into contact with them during what is a called the ‘period of interest’ for Public Health. In most cases, this will be limited to those who have shared a classroom with the positive case during lessons.

If your child is identified as a contact of a positive case, you will receive a letter from Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink MBE. This letter will be sent to you from the school and it will contain information and guidance on the steps we would ask you to take.

The intention of Public Health is to keep students in school who have been identified as contacts of a positive case, to avoid disruption to their education, as long as they do not have COVID-19 symptoms and carry out lateral flow tests every morning before attending school for a 10-day period.

Your child will also be asked not to attend any in-school or outside school activities/sports/clubs (including those that take place in the evenings or at weekends) during the 10 days in which they are taking daily lateral flow tests. This is extra risk mitigation and is based on the priority being to keep your child in education so their learning is not disrupted. However, this will be reviewed in the first week of October once the impact of the opening of schools has been assessed.

Please note that the advice outlined in this letter is specifically in relation to children being identified as a contact through an education setting. If you or your child is identified as a contact via a social or household setting, you should follow the specific advice that the Public Health contact tracing team will provide based on your individual circumstances.

As you know, our community is working hard to manage COVID-19 and live responsibly with the virus. We have prepared for the likelihood of cases across the islands and in our schools, however we are committed to limiting the impact of the virus on the education of the Bailiwick’s children and young people. 

Thank you for working with us to help to manage COVID-19 in education.  It is very appreciated. Please do not send your child to school if they have any symptoms linked to COVID-19, no matter how mild. With your support we hope to minimise disruption to the education of your child and their peers. 

Yours sincerely

Mrs Robertshaw