Good 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