Press release
UK Chief Medical Officers’ statement on the self-isolation period: 11 December 2020

“Self-isolation is essential to reducing the spread of COVID as it breaks the chains of transmission. After reviewing the evidence, we are now confident that we can reduce the number of days that contacts self-isolate from 14 days to 10 days.

People who return from countries which are not on the travel corridor list should also self-isolate for 10 days instead of 14 days.

People who test positive should continue to self-isolate for 10 days from onset of symptoms or 10 days from point of taking a positive test if asymptomatic.

We urge everyone to self-isolate when appropriate, it will save lives.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-chief-medical-officers-statement-on-the-self-isolation-period-11-december-2020?utm_source=e6b281ca-e9fd-40ac-bb56-56af2d5194ab&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

As reported in the recent news, the DfE have stated that Schools in England are allowed to close a day early for Christmas to give teachers “a proper break” from identifying potential Covid-19 cases.

This is to confirm our families that WE WILL NOT be closing a day early. Whilst we understand this is primarily to support the ‘Track and Trace’ process, we feel that with your help, we can do this in good time before Christmas Eve. This will mean that some school staff must stay on hand to support families until Christmas Eve. We also wish to give our children the wonderful time that the last day of school brings…

In order to help us, please can we ask all families to do the following:

If your child develops symptoms of Covid-19 within 48 hours from the last day they attended school you MUST contact us by emailing consettjunior@durhamlearning.net ASAP. We strongly advise you book their test at a test centre as the results from the test are returned quicker than postal tests i.e. they are in school on Friday and have symptoms BEFORE 3.30 p.m. on the Sunday.

If your child develops symptoms of Covid-19 after the 48 hours from the last day they attended school then you do not need to inform us. However, if their results show they are positive we would need to know as this may impact on their attendance when returning to school in Tuesday 5th January 2021, i.e. they develop symptoms AFTER 3.30 p.m. on the Sunday.

Please help us to act quickly, as we too would like to enjoy a break from work to be with our families.

CJS Team

Councils have received funding from the government through the COVID-19 Winter Grant Scheme to help as many families as we can this winter. It has been agreed that the family of every pupil who receives free school meals will be provided with vouchers that they can spend at Asda, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s or Tesco.

Schools will be responsible for allocating the winter food vouchers to eligible pupils.

From Monday 7th December schools will be receiving instructions and emails to forward to families which contain ecodes for the parents/carers to redeem at one of the four participating stores.  Along with your ecode you will receive a help sheet in order to redeem your code successfully. There is some administration work involved in this process, if you know you are eligible and do not receive your ecode, please wait until Friday 11th December before contacting us.

Points to note:

Tesco and Sainsbury’s generate ecodes almost immediately. Asda and Morrison’s can take up to 3 days.

Tesco has no exclusions for use whereas the other three do not allow kiosk items or fuel.

All codes can be printed or shown on a mobile device.

There is one voucher for £20 allocated per eligible child, per week (£40 maximum). The full value does not have to be spent in one go BUT recipients must allocate the full value when nominating their supermarket(s) to create their e-codes.

Mrs Raine

Please find attached a list of local flu immunisation catch up clinics in the event parents haven’t consented or will miss their appointment and would like their child vaccinated.

Confirmed Catch Up Clinics

Dear families

This afternoon Miss Waters and Mrs Raine visited the Salvation Army to collect gifts for our families in need to give their children for Christmas. It is very clear that this years donations have not been as substantial as they usually are due to families not being able to donate gifts to schools. Whilst we were lucky to be able to choose from a range of gifts for our children, we are now really concerned at the number of gifts remaining. We were told that they have received 70 children’s referrals just today.

Gifts that were quite sparse were both genders from 9 to 16, and selection boxes and books were minimal.

We feel that we need to do more to help, therefore, we will place black bags in each year group bubble for children to put gifts into when they enter their classroom. This will mean that adults are not coming down to the main entrance and we continue to follow social distance guidelines. If you would feel more comfortable donating to school we will ensure the 72 hour isolation period is followed and then we will take the gifts to the Salvation Army. Who are also further isolating the gifts prior to collections.

Please can all donations be made to school before Wednesday 9th December.

Thank you so much, we really want to help all our local children have a lovely Christmas.

CJS Team

Please click on the link below to access our Christmas 2020 Newsletter.

This is an online only Newsletter.

School Newsletters

The whole school attendance for November is 95.89% which is slightly below our floor target of 96%, but higher than October. Thank you again to families who are keeping us informed of any Covid symptoms and test results, this communication is key to protecting everyone in our school. So far we have been lucky to have no positive cases and symptoms are just that of general viruses expected at this time of the year.

The November attendance by year group is as follows:

Year 3 – 96.28%
Year 4 – 96.98% – Best year group – cake and cookie time!
Year 5 – 95.40%
Year 6 – 94.88%

As year 4 have achieved the best attendance for November each child in year 4 will be given a cake/giant cookie on Friday (4th December) as their reward.

Class 3 (Mr Meadows) have achieved the reward for the best class attendance at an amazing 97.06%, well done! The Class 3 reward for this is a FREE non-uniform day which will also be on Friday 4th December.

CJS Team

Dear families,

Due to the restrictions of Covid, we are asking families not to send Christmas cards into school as some families may not want cards from other homes in theirs and it also prevents additional ways for Covid to be transmitted into school. We created a ‘forms’ page to see how families felt about donating online to the local food bank rather than sending cards to school this year. Out of 66 respondants, 60 people said they would prefer this option.

To make this very special for our families and children, and to keep in theme with the reason for sending Christmas cards, please can you accompany your donation with a Merry Christmas message on this gofundme page, this could be a message from your child directly to others.

gf.me/u/y9v4x7

Food 4 U supports local families, at this time of year, it is a reliable source of food for struggling families. Having additional funds they can buy items they need to donate to local families to ensure they too have a lovely Christmas time together.

As always, thank you very much for your kindness and generosity in advance

CJS Team

Dear Families

We are now well into the last and certainly, most busy term of the year. Since returning in September we have spent time ensuring our children are well and coping with the school routine after such a long time off school. Most children have taken the return to school well and it is amazing to see their friendships flourish once again. Children are resilient, but this is not a blanket approach for all. There are children that are finding the current pandemic and lock down hard, being unable to understand why they cannot see their friends and family outside of school but can be in class with them Monday to Friday.

In school we are using a programme called JIGSAW which educates the children about mindfulness, positive relationships, building resilience and nurturing their mental and physical health. As a school we feel that this is paramount to the children, particularly in the world that we are trying to live in today. Miss Waters and Mrs Raine have also signed up to the county-wide ‘Covid Well-being & Recovery Programme’, it has been developed to support schools and colleges to promote children and young people’s wellbeing, resilience, and recovery in response to Covid-19. It aims to prevent the onset of mental health problems and ensure those with pre-existing or emerging difficulties access the right support. I am sure you will agree, children’s education will only excel if they are of sound mind to learn.

Therefore, on Friday 27th November we will be having a well-being day in school. The children will take part in a variety of planned activities on this day which will help to promote well-being and develop emotional and social skills. The children will discuss a range of activities with their class teacher and come up with their own timetable for the day. As this is central to the children, they can also come to school wearing something that makes them happy on this day.

Take care

CJS Team

Dear Families

We have now been informed about how families can donate new/unused toys for local children for Christmas gifts this year. Usually we would request that donations are sent into school, but due to current restrictions we are unable to do so this year.

The Salvation Army, Sherburn Terrace, Consett are open Monday to Friday from 10.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m. for families to drop off any donations of new/unused gifts. Christmas this year is undoubtedly going to be one of the most challenging times many families will ever have. Many families who may not usually struggle, will this year due to the impact Covid has had on jobs and their finances. The Salvation Army are a service that is here to help local families, it is non-judgmental and completely confidential.

If you need help with a few extra gifts for your children this year, please contact Mrs Raine, we are here to support all our families.

You do not need an appointment to donate gifts to the Salvation Army, but please help if you can

Kind regards
CJS Team