Latest News
All the latest information relating to school.
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Free School Meals October Half Term
Mon 26 Oct 2020Dear Families
Wigan council have decided to supply our families with vouchers for meals if they are entitled to free school meals. The council will contact eligible families directly with information on where to collect the vouchers.
There are also several cafes and businesses offering free meals for children over the half term holiday. Please see the list below for places you can visit for support.
Venue
Contact
Information
Spinners Arms
70-72 Firs Ln
Leigh WN7 4SB
01942 708 587
Offering lunch boxes for collection between 11am & 2pm
Children must be accompanied by an adult
(Can deliver locally if necessary)
Church Street Chippy
Golborne
Golborne
Children accompanied by an adult will receive chips, gravy, juice and a cupcake.
The Courtyard
5-7 Jaxons Court
Wigan
01942 323 744
Tuesday – Saturday children who are accompanied by adults will be fed even if you don’t buy anything for yourself. Just discretely mention that you’ve come for a school meal.
Whitesmiths Arms
88 Standishgate
Wigan WN1 1XA
01942 231 919
No further information.
Power Kitchen
7 Tower Enterprise Park,
Great George Street
Wigan WN3 4DP
01942 820567
Monday – Friday children who are accompanied by adults can pick up a prepacked hot meal if you mention that you’ve come for a school meal.
The Old Courts
Gerrard Winstanley House, Crawford St
Wigan WN1 1NA
01942 834 747
Request a FREE packed lunch for your child https://www.theoldcourts.com/halftermmeals
Willow grove would like to thank all the small businesses across Wigan that are continuing to support our families.
Stay safe.
Joanna Murphy
Headteacher
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Letter to Families 23.10.20
Fri 23 Oct 202023rd October 2020
Dear Families
I thought I would have a quick catch up with you as we finish our first half term in the new school year.
The children and staff have worked really hard and they have produced some lovely work – have a look on the school website in their class pages and you might just see a picture of your little one. It has been lovely to see everyone back in school with their friends and getting used to the new routines and taking part in education again.
I also wanted to say a big thank you to all of our families for all your support over the last 8 weeks. It has been an extremely challenging time for everyone and it has helped that you have all been so supportive as we have worked to keep your children and our staff safe in school.
As you are aware, the school will be closed for October half term from today for 1 week. We will return to school on Monday 2nd November. However, if your child is currently waiting to take a test or to receive the results of a test, I would be very grateful if you could continue to follow the process of informing the school if there is a positive result. This is so I can work with Contact Tracing Services to ensure our families are kept up to date if they need to self-isolate over the holiday period. To facilitate this process, over the half term we are asking you to email: enquiries@admin.willowgrove.wigan.sch.uk if you do have a positive result at any point through the holidays. Alternatively, you can call 01942 727717 and leave a message. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
By continuing to let us know if your child tests positive, we can notify and advise you and any close contacts with regards to the length of isolation and the date that your child/close contacts can return to school, to safely ensure that risk of transmission is reduced.
Should your child receive a positive result you should inform us as outlined above and follow the Stay at home: guidance for households with possible or confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.
It is very important that you and your child follow the above guidance should your child test positive and isolate for the required period, to help reduce the spread of infection. This includes not attending any play schemes, youth provision, leisure centres or sports activities etc. which may have been planned for the school holidays.
Should your child be identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive within the school, you will be contacted by the school and informed about the required isolation period and date your child can return to school. It is important that you follow the advice and guidance in relation to the isolation period to help reduce the spread of infection. Further information on the relevant guidance can be found on our school website.
Once again, thank you for your support, and please have a very safe and peaceful half term break.
Mrs Murphy
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Letter to Families
Wed 07 Oct 2020Hello to all families.
We have been back at school now for 5 weeks and I wanted to take the time to check in with you all. I hope you and your families are okay and that you are adjusting to the new rules that we have to live by at the moment. I thought I would bring you up to date on how school is doing.
The Classes
We still have 3 class bubbles across the school and the classes are still working and playing within their bubbles as much as possible. The staff do cross bubbles when they need to and some of the children cross bubbles when they need individual support or particular members of staff but, at these times, we really try to maintain social distancing. The staff and children are still regularly washing their hands and we continue to provide anti-bacterial gel to all staff and children. There are anti-bacterial surface wipes and baby wipes available to all classes and every class has detergent spray to clean as they go. As ever our children do not all understand the concept of social distancing and although we do remind them it is really hard for them.
Risk Assessments
We continue to update our risk assessments as needed and we risk assess each new event as it occurs. For instance, we will be training 4 of our staff to drive the school mini bus in the next few weeks and an individual risk assessment will be written for this activity.
Latest Information Updates
Willow Grove receives daily updates from the Local Authority, the DFE and from Government. This is then implemented where needed. At the end of this letter I have posted some useful links for parents/ carers to use if you want any further support.
Testing and Covid-19 Guidance.
We have had quite a few families, children and staff who have been for testing. So far we have not had any positive results. We continue to be vigilant over the symptoms in school and we ask that you do the same at home. Do not send your child to school if they present with any of the following symptoms:
- a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
- a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.
Most people with coronavirus have at least 1 of these symptoms. If you are at all worried or confused about the symptoms being presented, then just give school a call and we will help you all we can.
Please remember the Rule of 6 and do not allow your children to play in larger groups. If you are self-isolating then please remember to follow the Stay at Home Guidance from Government. The link is at the end of this letter.
It continues to be a very challenging time for everyone and school is no different. We are striving to continue to provide a full education for your child and school is settling well considering the disruption it is facing on a daily basis. If you feel you need anything else from school, please call and speak to Mrs O’Neill and Mrs Nicholls or ask for your child’s class teacher who will be happy to speak with you at the end of the day.
Thank you for your continued support and please take care.
Mrs Murphy
Here are some useful links to the latest guidance for you and your families:
Flow Chart for Covid-19 Symptoms
