Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Friday check in
Fri 29 Jan 2021Good afternoon all,
I hope you are all well.
I realise that many of you will have heard Boris Johnson's announcement that schools will remain closed till at least the 8th March. Although this is frustrating, as we are starting to see a little downward movement in National cases I guess it would be foolhardy to wish to open any sooner.
We are seeing cases in some bubbles in school, amongst children not staff and all our lateral flow tests for all our 60 staff were negative this week so that is reassuring. We do however continue to close bubbles for positive child cases and will monitor the lateral flow tests throughout the week.
Miss Martin has placed more THRIVE support materials under the Parent's tab in the THRIVE section. These activities are designed to support children and parents emotionally and with how this may exhibit behaviourally. As we know this is a time of emotional turmoil you may find these activities useful even if your child does not usually attend our THRIVE sessions.
Don't forget to get your children to watch the weekly assemblies in the offsite learning section. I have also placed one on the Mrs Houseman's updates specifically for our offsite children who we are all missing and thinking about daily.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend, keep safe and take care.
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Update
Wed 27 Jan 2021Good morning all,
I hope you are keeping well.
Today we see the start of lateral flow testing for staff.
This testing allows us to see if any staff are positive without symptoms. The test time is 30 minutes.
Although this is a great thing with regard to helping to prevent the spread of the virus we need to make you aware that this may have some impact on in school provision.
As it is being suggested that 1 in 3 people may be positive but showing no symptoms (asymptomatic) I cannot rule out that we will see some positive cases.
If this is the case it may mean we have to suspend a bubble whilst we arrange cover or the positive case gets a confirmation test. If the positive case has been in school then it will result in bubble closure and isolation.
We will inform you of this if necessary.
School will be closed as planned on the INSET day February 22nd and over half term as usual. WRAP club will be available over these periods. Please contact Bernie directly if you require a place. Details can be found under the parent's tab.
I am having several requests for school places as I know many people are finding it increasingly hard to home school their children.
Places were initially allocated after the first cut off date and we have attempted to offer places after this date based on need and criteria. If a parent is at home and able to have their child then this is still the right place for them to be but we will continue to review our places and allocate any spaces becoming available appropriately.
Take care
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Update
Wed 20 Jan 2021Good Morning,
I hope you are all keeping well.
I realise it is continuing to be a difficult time for everyone but am being made aware of some really positive things happening out in our community as well.
We are closely watching all updates for any indication of when we will be able to open fully. At the present time we are working with the after half term timescale. However we will keep you informed if there are any changes to this or further information received.
Communicate
Please remember that as a school we are here to support you and that if you need to speak with someone confidentially do not hesitate to contact us. Our children are our utmost concern and we know that families may be in crisis financially or/and emotionally. We are therefore here to support you as much as possible so that you can continue to support them.
Food boxes
I have seen some comments on social media with regard to food boxes. As an Academy Trust food boxes were decided upon as this was recommended if possible over vouchers.
The reasoning behind this was so that parity and consistency of provision could be ensured for all the children receiving a free school meal box. I am however aware that some families not just in our community but across the UK have found the boxes lacking.
The food provided is for 5 lunches a week and each child receives 1 box of lunch supplies. A child's meal is costed at £2.20 a day.
Recipe suggestions for the food provided can be found under the school meal section on the parents' tab.
At the moment the boxes contain:
1 loaf of bread, 6 eggs, 3 yogurts, 1 cheese spread, 1 large tin Heinz beans, 1 large tin tuna, 1 cucumber, 500g carrots, 2 baking potatoes and 5 pieces of fruit.
I only list these for clarity as I am not sure that the posts on social media were representative of our provision.
As of Monday 25th they will also contain: 1 pack sliced ham, 1 tin tomatoes and a bag of pasta.
We will of course continue to monitor the quality and content and update our position as necessary.
Leaving
Miss Aldis has secured herself an exciting new role and will be leaving us at February half term.
Miss Aldis has worked at the school for 20 years and has been an integral part of the Team. She will definitely be missed by staff and children alike.
We wish her all the very best with her new professional adventure.
We are happy to say that Miss Muir will continue as the class teacher in this class until the end of the year.
Covid updates
We are seeing transmission among children and must remind you to be vigilant to any potential symptoms whether your child is in school or at home to keep everyone safe.
Some media outlets seem to suggest that children either don't contract it or transmit it but we are seeing evidence to the contrary. Tummy aches and headaches are symptoms we have seen in addition or instead of the usual
cough, temperature and loss of taste and smell.
Please stay safe.
Take care
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Update
Thu 07 Jan 2021Good afternoon all,
I am writing this after we have all been catapulted into another 6 weeks of lock down with very little warning and preparation.
I am hoping that you are all coping and managing as best you can.
I am fully aware that those of you who are home schooling yet again, many whilst trying to work from home or manage shifts/work must already feel exhausted at the prospect. We will as always do our best to support you.
As before remember these are exceptional times; yes we want our children to make academic progress but not at the expense of anyone's sanity or well-being-and I do not say that lightly. Parent's should not feel guilty if they have to prioritise what they can do and just do the best you can. We know that we will be catching up with learning after all of this, and we know we can do it, but in the mean time do your best and be kind to yourself.
Teachers are uploading home learning work on a daily basis. One teacher per year group has been allocated to specifically communicate with both year group classes via dojo and zoom and provide the work for the offsite learning page. You may therefore be communicating with the teacher from the other class. This is because the other teacher is in school supervising the key worker children for their year group. We believed it essential to have a dedicated teacher for this as the children at home deserve this focus and dedication.
On Fridays teachers coordinating home learning will be taking their planning and preparation hours and will not be responding to dojos (work will still be provided). If you have an urgent question please contact the headteacher email.
Likewise I have instructed teachers that they need to mute their notifications
after working hours and at weekends. I know many continue to respond however I think they need time to reflect and relax if we are to keep the positive staff morale that we always have.
Teachers are humans too with family lives and obligations and all the stresses that you feel at home, so I would ask you to be as considerate as always during this time.
With one teacher dedicated to home learning our provision in school is reduced. We have doubled our capacity since the last lock down through careful planning and are operating within government guidelines. Our figures are based on our risk assessments and this has been confirmed as an accurate process by the DFE.
The key worker list is however full but a changing entity and I would again ask that if you do not need your place because you are at home then please inform us so that we can support others who need it.
I must thank all the parents who have taken a pragmatic approach to this and released their place where possible.
I must however also thank all of those key workers who are continuing to keep us safe and enable systems to work successfully. It is difficult to be a front line worker at this time.
Coffee mornings
Mrs Tomlinson and I thought it would be a good idea to hold some zoom coffee mornings with parents. A little like our parent's forum but a space for parents to share the ups and downs of lockdown. Share any ideas and be a space for contact and communication. We want this to be a positive space to keep in touch and may even throw in a game or 2!
We will set 3, at varying times and organise how to set this up. Bring your beverage of choice, bring some ideas and share the silliness of all of this!
Watch this space.
I will be restarting my off site updates page -under the children's tab on the website. If any children have news to share please do so via the blog email address we used last time.
Assemblies will be uploaded to the assemblies balloon.
Thank you for you cooperation, lovely messages of support and patience.
Please take care of yourselves and stay safe,
Sarah Houseman