Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
As you will be aware, the Prime Minister announced that the earliest date for schools to re-open will be Monday 8th March. We do not know what this re-opening will look like and it may be in a phased or staggered approach.
Our aim will be to get as many children back in as safe a way as possible whilst remaining under these guidelines.
This means that home learning will need to continue for the next 4 weeks. As ever, we have plans to keep the learning fresh, with new ideas listed on our website in the 'class page' section.
Your child has access to all the daily lessons, in all the subjects - just as is being taught in school. There are many additional websites for you to access too. Anyone struggling with device access /sharing can request a hard copy of work - this is available weekly to be collected from school on Wednesdays. Please contact your class teacher if this would help you.
Whilst we appreciate that this current situation is very, very difficult we would ask that all children are supported to work at home, doing some element of the work daily. This is really important to make sure that they keep a routine and structure and are reinforcing learning skills. This will be vital for when schools re-open.
To help you in persuading pupils to complete work, teachers will be ringing pupils at home - please check your dojo to find the times for your class. This is to talk to every child, feedback about work sent in, supporting them with any work in progress and to perform a welfare check. Therefore it is very important that the children are available to take this call.
We are working very hard to make sure we can support as many people as possible.
Take care, keep safe, stay healthy.
On Wednesday we will be uploading some work for the afternoon that focuses on mental health - so important for us all at this difficult time. This will also support Child Mental Health Week.
There will be plenty of slides and activities that can be worked through - either independently or as a family, helping children to understand that emotions felt/experienced need to be recognised and to provide some strategies to help us to feel better about ourselves, keeping in control our thoughts and leading to a more positive outlook.
This weekend is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - they are asking you to count and record how many birds you see in a one-hour period that are in the garden or park (not flying over). You need to record the different species and how many birds you see in total at one time. In my garden I often have 3 pigeons that visit together and 2 blue tits. But my favourite is 1 very cute robin.
Go to the class pages to see the RSPB powerpoint and bird identification poster. You may need to be quiet and still....but you'll be amazed at what you can see. Good luck!
For further information go to www.rspb.org.uk
With the need for most pupils to be at home, there is an increased amount of time being spent online and with this comes the additional need for close supervision. With parents being asked to do more at home, a quick sit-down with your child might be the best way to achieve this. Take some time to talk through how their time online is going - has there been anything good to report and what have they enjoyed doing? Which websites/ chatrooms have they been using? Who are they talking to and how do they know them?
Has anyone been unkind to them - how and why do they think this has happened? Is it more than a spat/fallout with a class mate? Who can they talk to if they see or hear something upsetting?
A short chat can often provide that reassurance and reinforce safe online access at home.
Also, this can allow you to talk through how long is healthy for your child to be online - there is lots of evidence to state that children need to come off a device long before bedtime to ensure a good sleep is achieved. How else are they balancing their time? - doing some school work, helping in the home, exercise and reading are all good alternatives!
Children and their families can always report concerns via CEOP - this is the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, or CEOP Command (www.ceop.police.uk).
It is a command of the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and is tasked to work both nationally and internationally to bring online offenders, including those involved in the production, distribution and viewing of abusive materials.
Keep safe - always report concerns to an adult, do not keep online secrets.
Despite the snow, it is our intention to be open tomorrow for pupils who are eligible. We will, however, need to assess the conditions first thing tomorrow.
Please be careful when travelling to school - whether on foot or in the car. Do not drive up the campus driveway - we need to keep pupils and their families safe.
If your child is due to attend but is not able to, please dojo your teacher so we know they are safe.
We have had a number of queries as to when pupils will be returning to school.
Unfortunately, we have no further information to share on this.
We will be keeping an eye on government responses and the input/advice from the local authority. As soon as we have any news or updates, we will share them with you.
I hope you are all managing to keep safe and well.
Please visit our 2 extra class pages entitled
1.Outdoor Learning, exercise and PE
2. Independent learning for all ages
to see the latest additions of ideas to keep you busy and active.
Stay safe, have fun!
We wish to send a very BIG thank you to Mr Robert Jenkins, an ex-parent, who has very generously donated a tablet and phone to the school for pupils to use during lock-down. What a very generous offer! We have created a list of pupils who would benefit from this device on loan through nominations from the teachers and we will draw a lucky name this week.
Thank you very, very much for thinking of us and for your continued support - we cannot wait to make someone's day as they will now be able to access their home learning. Your donation will make a massive difference.
As we enter Week 3 of this lock-down, I am aware that some families are struggling to keep up and to keep positive.
PLEASE DO NOT STRESS OVER THE HOME LEARNING.
Some of you may be putting undue pressure on yourselves and your health and sanity is much more important. Whilst it is great that some families are working through the home learning on a daily basis, for others it is just not possible for many, many reasons.
To keep it simple and manageable, here are some options for you:
If you need to take a day off, do so.
If you need to do just some of the activities, then pick the ones you feel your child can do/ will enjoy.
If you cannot sit with your child, use some of the independent learning as listed on the class page entitled 'Independent learning for all ages'.
Never underestimate reading time, Times Tables Rock Stars, handwriting, working on spellings
If you are struggling to share devices, order a home pack from school.
If you not know how to structure the whole day, just spend one hour a day supervising some work with your child.
Other activities are allowed - cookery, jigsaws, BBC bitesize, music, PE tasks, nature, languages
Don't forget things like shopping games, making lists, keeping a diary, wordsearches, spelling games, project work to research something you are interested in such as football, lions or cars.
Be kind to yourself - stay safe, stay healthy