Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Remember to keep a check on your child’s online activities.
As many children are spending more time online, it is vital for parents to check and talk to their children about keeping safe online. Recent county figures show an increase in cases where children have been put at risk.
Take a moment to ask about who they are talking to, what the chats are about - are any of them unkind or trying to persuade them to do something they are uncomfortable with or that break the boundaries of your home? Do they know who they are speaking to?
Scan some of the history - it is good safeguarding to keep up-to-date with what your child is accessing. Make sure they know they can tell you if anything occurs they are worried about.
Encourage them to take regular breaks from screens and engage in other activities - chatting, playing games or going outside. Avoid being online/ using screens too late as this can ruin the amount of quality sleep experienced (impact of blue light).
Please refer to the website to access support for parents and children regarding keeping safe or how to report concerns. Look for the Parents tab, Useful Links.
Keep safe, keep healthy.
Due to Coronavirus, many of our children have missed significant parts of their learning, as well as the important social experiences they participate in at school. We will be taking all this into consideration when we are planning for pupil return in September.
To help pupils and parents, we are offering a pack of published materials in English and Maths to use during the summer holidays. These will be purchased and distributed to families who wish to receive them.
You can order your resources by sending a request to your teacher via Class Dojo. I will be placing the order on 3rd July so all responses must be pledged by this date. If we do not hear from you, we will assume you do not require this offer.
This offer is open from Year 2 to Year 5 pupils but is not compulsory as we do not wish to create any further stress or pressure for families. Year 2 families should email Mrs Wilmot directly at headteacher@harrington.derbyshire.sch.uk to request resources for their child.
Year 6 pupils will receive different materials to help them prepare for secondary school.
It is with regret that I am unable provide any real details as these are not finalised but I can share with you my overall plan.
The progress regarding the premises feels slow but there are plans in place to have all pupils on site for September. At present, the local authority is working with various companies and the Department for Education to research some options for September. I have asked that all pupils (our new Year 3 and our current pupils) will remain together and that this will be located on our campus.
Harrington is temporarily sited at the Family Centre in Long Eaton where we are providing care for the children of key workers and those who are eligible. However, it is still my plan to offer Year 6 to return for a few weeks to refresh skills and to focus on their transition to secondary school. This plan was all ready to commence on 1st June (before we got conflicting advice from the government) and then further put back due to the loss of our school. As we will require larger premises, the location for this return is currently being finalised. The short term plan is to focus on providing for the key worker and eligible children, Year 6 transition and Year 2 as they transfer to us into Year 3.
In the medium term, we hope for all pupils to return to school in September. This will, however, need to be in temporary accommodation. Work will need to be done with all year groups to help bridge the gaps regarding the lost learning that has impacted upon our children and this may well include learning objectives from their current year group. Work will also need to focus around safe social mixing with attention to address the mental well-being of all; adults and children alike. This will all be considered in line with government recommendations relating to the COVID-19 situation.
In the long term, Harrington will be re-built and we will have a new school. There is no no time scale for this at present as we are just in the early stages of planning.
I am hopeful that I will be able to share further details next week.
A big welcome to Harrington Junior School - even if this is under such unusual and difficult circumstances. I am so sorry that we will not get the chance to meet face to face as would be the usual procedure for new parents. Despite this, every effort will be made to include and inform parents and children over the next four weeks as we can now turn to focus on the transfer of Year 2 into Year 3.
Even though the progress regarding the premises feels slow, there are plans are in place to have all pupils on site for September. I feel very upset for the Year 2 children who will not be able to visit and have been missing school for so long. We will help pupils by having a very gradual introduction to life at junior school and we will need to spend some time completing some of the objectives from Year 2 that they have missed.
I intend to place an introductory presentation to parents on the Harrington website in the next week – this is a shortened version of what I would have presented to parents in our meeting.
Please keep checking back on our website for updates.
Today I will be posting the home learning for this week onto the class pages (located under the Children’s tab) and this system will continue for the rest of the term. At present, we are unable to create any physical packs as we do not have access to a photocopier.
If you wish to submit any work, please send it to Mrs D via the dojo. We love to see what you have been up to and the photographs and work samples really do make our day. All work sent in is looked at by Mrs D and myself, and shared with your teachers.
Parents can keep in touch by either
* using the dojo- please send your dojo to Mrs D
* send an email to headteacher@harrington.derbyshire.sch.uk
* we have a new temporary phone number. Please note this is a mobile number (you will be charged accordingly). The number is 07395 161190 and will be available from 8:30-4:30 daily during the working week.
If any families have concerns about their child or family situation, please get in touch and we will do our best to support you.
I would like to thank you for your patience during this difficult time in the life of Harrington School. It is hard to believe that it is over a week since the school fire. Since then much work, discussions and meetings have occurred, of which I have been a part.
The local authority have taken over the proceedings as is the norm in such circumstances. As I am sure you can imagine, there are many health and safety issues that need to be completed and this will take some time. Due to the complexity of the situation we need to take small steps. Any plans will need to include the immediate, medium and long term issues.
As a result, we have needed to find some temporary accommodation to address the immediate need. This has not been helped due to the restrictions surrounding Coronavirus and the need to stay local for our families. However I am happy to say that we have now completed 2 days of our childcare provision for key worker and eligible children at the Long Eaton Family Centre. All children attending have been marvellous and have settled in well to our new classrooms. The staff have worked hard to ensure that the children continue with their activity days and achieve some sense of normality and continuity.
The aim is for this provision to continue next week and I hope to be able to confirm the next stage of plan soon.
Everyone connected with Harrington would like to say a big thank you for all the kindness we have been shown over the last week since the fire at our school. From the fundraising page, to pupils doing their own sponsored events, to families bringing supplies and people pledging resources - we cannot say just how grateful we are. Thank you, you have been wonderful!
Well done to our lovely Mollie who completed her fitness fund raising run for our school!
Mollie decided to put her despair from hearing about the fire into new determination. Tonight she ran 'the Mollie mile' around West Park and has managed to get a fantastic £868 pledged.
It was lovely to see you Mollie- you were brilliant (and so was your sister and mum's friend!) Thank you to everyone to turned out to support Mollie.