The end of term is finally upon us –although a little earlier than I anticipated just a couple of days ago. As you will know we are now finishing the term today and not on Tuesday, 21^st December. With the huge rise of the number of Covid cases caused by the exponential spread of the Omicron variant and the increase in the number of cases of Covid infection in school the Governing Body and I thought it was the best decision to make in the interests of the health of all members of the school community so that we could minimise the spread of virus and allow as many people as possible to have a happy and healthy Christmas. I know the majority of parents were in agreement with us.

We have also been disappointed this week because we could not put on the live performances of our Christmas shows due to the advice given to us by Public Health because of the spread of Covid cases in our school. However, you are going to get to see the shows thanks to Mrs. Robinson’s son Jake and Mr McDermott who is the dad of one of our Year 2 children. Between them they videoed the shows and took lots of photographs for us to put on our website. We really appreciate all they have done so that all our children’s hard work has not been wasted and you will be able to enjoy watching your children perform over the Christmas holidays with all your relatives. We will hopefully have the link for the infant shows and the KS2 Carol Concert early next week and we will send it to you as soon as we receive it.

As it is Christmas time I have been very fortunate in receiving some lovely gift and cards. I would like to thank everyone who sent them to me. They were not necessary but very much appreciated.

All that is left for me to do now is wish you all a happy and healthy Christmas. It has been a long and challenging year for everyone and I think at times everyone has felt disheartened or felt like giving up. However, as a community you have all been very supportive to the school and even though we do not know what the new year has in store for us I do feel that with all your support we will be able to manage anything that is put before us. I look forward to greeting you all in 2022 on Thursday, 6^th January.

 There has been a sea of colour in school today as it has been ‘Christmas Jumper Day.’ It is amazing since this day took off all the amazing and creative jumpers that people can wear – when I was younger it was considered very uncool to be wearing a ‘Christmas jumper’ but now you are considered uncool if you do not wear one. I would like to thank you all for your generous donations towards this cause - at the minute we have raised £266.10 but I will give the final amount next week just in case we get some late donations from people who have not had time to do it yet. Remember you can either give us cash or make a donation to the link that was in our last newsletter - I have included it below.

https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/cjd21001426

Next week in school we are having our younger children perform their Christmas productions to parents. As you will know from my newsletter we have had confirmed cases of Covid in school but at the moment the performances are still going ahead. They are not being held as they normally would be (because of Covid) but we are hoping that we are still able to put them on. I would like to remind all parents who attend that they need to wear a mask when they watch a show and take an LFD test before they attend. We would also ask that if anyone is not feeling well that they do not attend the performance.

Next week I have to attend some training on Thursday and Friday so will not be in school. If you have any concerns that you feel cannot be addressed by the class teacher Mr Gradwell will be in charge in my absence or you can make an appointment to see me on my return on December 20^th.

I hope you have a great weekend. I know it can be very busy at this time of year so I do hope you find some time to relax. We only have one full week to go before the end of term so a break is on the horizon. And I think after the year we have had it is certainly well deserved.

 Christmas has certainly arrived in Little Heath. Our Christmas trees have been delivered and decorated and the corridor and halls have all been decorated as well. We have also had lots of Christmas produce in school today as it was a PTA Mufti Day and the children have all had to bring in items to make up Christmas hampers which are going to be raffled to help to raise money for the school. I have managed to resist pinching the chocolate items and leaving them all for the hampers. I will be purchasing some tickets when they become available though in the hopes that I can be lucky again and win one of the hampers.

 I do love this time of year (as do the children) but it can also be a challenging time for us in school because the children are very excited for Christmas (as they should be). However, it is also drawing towards the end of the longest term and the children are starting to feel tired. This means that we start to get a few more ‘falling outs’ and arguments than we normally do so to help to address this can you please make sure that your children are going to bed at their usual time so they do not get too tired during the day. Tired children become irritable children and we do want them to enjoy all the fun of the Christmas end of term.

Getting back on a more positive note we have lots of exciting things to look forward to next week. On Wednesday it is Christmas Dinner Day when all the teachers serve the meals to the children who have a school dinner and then the children watch a film in the afternoon. Then on Friday it is Christmas Jumper Day which is always loved by the children (and the staff). Remember you can make donations to this cause by bringing money into school or by making a donation on our ‘Just Giving ‘ page. The link for this is listed below.

https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/cjd210014268

That is all for now. I do hope you manage to get some rest this weekend with all your Christmas preparations. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

 I think we can all certainly agree that winter has arrived this week –the drop in temperature has been very noticeable and I am now having to wear all my winter layers. There has been talk of snow but on my weather app all it is showing is a little sleet for the weekend but it has let me down many times recently so it cannot be relied on totally. I know the children would love it if we did have some snow but I always have mixed feelings about it because of the decision about whether to keep the school open or not. Let us hope that if it does come we just get a light smattering so it can help us all get in the Christmas mood whilst not missing any more time off school. As the weather has changed can you please ensure that all your children bring in an outer garment to wear outdoors because some children are playing outside in shirt sleeves and I certainly think it is too cold to be dressed outdoors like that.

Last week I told you about how much we had raised for ‘Children in Need, up until the point I wrote my blog and I am now pleased to tell you that we have exceeded that amount and we raised £642 in total. This is the most we have ever raised for this very worthy cause and I would really like to thank you all for your generosity in supporting it. We have another Mufti day next Friday but this time the event is being run by our own PTA and we do not want money this time but items to put in our annual Christmas Hamper draw such as Christmas puddings, mince pies, chocolates etc. Once all the items have been collected the PTA arrange them into wonderful hampers which you can then buy raffle tickets for to try to win one. My family has been very lucky with this draw and we have managed to win a couple of these hampers over the years. They have helped our Christmas celebrations get off to an early start and they have certainly contributed to our festive fun.

I hope you all have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

 What a week it has been! We started with ‘Odd Sock day’ for Anti-Bullying Week and ended the week with ‘Children in Need’ and a wonderful Year 4 assembly. After all the excitement I am certainly ready for the weekend.

The year 4 assembly covered all the work they have completed so far in the term but did focus on their rain forest work. I was amazed about how much knowledge they have covered and I am now far better informed about the rain forest than I was before and I know that all the parents who watched were amazed at the quality of work that their children produced. I would like to thank all the children for putting on such a great assembly and to Mrs Bidder and Mrs Stevenson for all their hard work in co-ordinating the whole event and all their wonderful teaching throughout the term that has allowed the children to learn so much.

I have been seeing spots in front of my eyes all day because a lot of the children have been wearing their ‘Children in Need’ merchandise. This is a wonderful charity to support as it helps make the lives of children with additional needs so much better. Today the children could have brought in cash or made a contribution to our ‘just giving’ link for this event and so far - combining both amounts  - we have raised £535.06. If you have not made a contribution so far you can go to our ‘Just Giving ‘ page  -I have copied the link below:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cin21-0003229

Last Friday I spent a wonderful evening at Ashridge House in Berkhampsted as it was the Herts Catering Awards and our cookery team were up for an award. Unfortunately, they did not win but I still think we are very fortunate to have a team of wonderful cooks who got down to the last three in their category. Below is a picture of them receiving their award – all glammed up and looking very different to how they normally do in the kitchen. I do wonder if the children would be able to recognise them from this photograph!

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

 It is always at this time of year that I feel the weeks really start to fly by –I cannot believe that a week has gone by since we were preparing for the firework display. I am sure that all of you who attended that will say what a great night it was. We have not had so many attend for a long time and, as I wrote in my newsletter, I think we have raised in the region of £9000 which is just amazing. I would like to thank everyone who helped out for making it such a great night, but especially to Clare Creswell, Laura Boillot and Lindsey Williams who co-ordinated the whole event and have been leading the PTA for the last couple of years. They are now going to stand down so I would like to thank them for all their work in supporting the school for the last couple of years – they certainly went out with a big bang.

Next week in school is also going to be a busy one. We are starting of Monday with ‘Odd Socks Day’ which is part of Anti-Bullying Week and it helps us celebrate how great it is to be unique. The theme this year is ‘One Kind Word’ and we will certainly be putting across the message of how one kind word or act can positively impact a person’s life. On Tuesday we have a Diwali workshop coming into school and they will be carrying out dance sessions for children in Years 1-4 – I know they are all looking forward to that. We are then ending the week with ‘Children in Need’. This is a big national fund raising event and one that the children love taking part in –the little ones in particular take great delight in wearing all their ‘Pudsey’ paraphernalia to school. We also have the ‘Year 4 Assembly’ taking place on Friday so we certainly have lots to look forward to.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. The weather looks quite pleasant this weekend (if my weather app is accurate) so there is plenty of opportunity to get out and about.

 I hope that you all had a great half term. I cannot believe that it is already November and that the ‘C’ word will soon be dominating our thoughts and conversations (not just yet though). At the minute the thing that is dominating our thoughts is our annual firework event which is tomorrow night. If you have not bought your tickets already there is still time to do so but get in quick because tickets are selling out fast. All the money raised is used to buy extra resources for your children and in these challenging times we are going to have to raise more funds so that we can ensure the quality of your child’s education is not affected by a lack of quality resources. I cannot thank the PTA enough for all the effort they have put into organising this event.

I know you have all received my letter informing you of how masks are now compulsory for all adults to wear when they are in the school building (staff will not wear them when they are working with the children). This is a Hertfordshire initiative and has been introduced because we do have high rates of Covid infection in the county and do need to take extra measures to ensure that we curb the spread of the virus. This does mean though that when you come into school (even if it is just to pop into the office) you must wear a mask (unless you are exempt on medical grounds).

You will all also know that we are selling poppy products in school to help support The Royal British Legion Poppy Charity. This is a very worthy cause and one that we support every year. This year they have out down a minimum amount for each item and we will be sticking to this – however you can pay more if you want to. What we cannot do is give change as the donation pot is sealed so if you do send money in with your child can you please ensure that they have the exact amount that you want to donate.

That is all for now. I hope to see many of you at the fireworks for what I know will be an amazing night. There is no rain forecast so that is good news. Next week in school we are having our first Sharing Assembly in almost two years so I will also see some of you there. Have a great weekend

 Welcome back. I was away at the Hertfordshire Head’s Conference last week so did not publish a blog. Although it is good to go to a conference and learn about ways to move the school forward it is good to return to school and be amongst a community that is warm and welcoming. I especially like coming and catching up with all the children – they do make me feel like they have really missed me.

It has been a very busy week in school because of the Parent Consultations. It is good to have parents in school and I hope you all found the consultations very useful and informative – all the parents I spoke to were very happy with their consultations. I do feel that these type of meetings are much better face to face than through a conference call –they feel so much more personal and I feel that far more information is acquired than through a screen.

We now have the half term holiday to look forward to. I cannot believe that the first half term has passed so quickly but I must say that I do think the children are ready for a break. Although, thankfully, we have not had many Covid cases in school we have had a lot of quite severe coughs and colds and I think that everybody will benefit from a week off to rest and recuperate and come back raring to go for the second half of the autumn term This is always a very busy time because of all the Christmas events but it is also a favourite time of year for me – let us hope that we can get to carry out all of our Christmas events this year.

I hope that you all have a great half-term. I will not be in on the first day back which is Monday, 1^st November but I do look forward to seeing you all again on November 2^nd. Remember we have the PTA fireworks to look forward to on Saturday, November 6^th. Details of this event and a link to purchase the tickets can be found on the front page of our website.

 

We have had a very exciting day in Little Heath. We had our Harvest Festival Coffee Morning and it was the first event that we have had with all the parents in school since the first lockdown. It was really great to have a proper social event and I know that the children loved having their parents back in school to watch them perform. I would like to thank everyone who came for their generous donations towards our chosen charity which is Tickled Pink which supports breast cancer and because of your generosity we managed to raise an amazing £564.12. I would also like to thank our wonderful PTA who helped run the event this morning. We have had a number of members of staff who have suffered from this illness so it is very personal to us.

Those of you who attended this morning will have noticed that we have a bit of a bump in our hall floor. Thankfully we are getting this fixed next week but unfortunately it will mean that our hall will be out of action for a week. This means that all PE will have to be outside next week so can you please make sure that your children have their outdoor PE kit in school next week. Although we have had quite a lot of sunshine in recent times the temperature has definitely dropped and we do not want the children to be cold during their PE lessons. Due to the floor being repaired we are also putting the Year 5 assembly back a week so it will now take place on Friday, October 22^nd.

Next week I will not be in school much. On Tuesday I will be going on the Year 4 trip to London Zoo and then from Wednesday onwards I will be at the Hertfordshire Heads’ Conference so I will not be back in school until Monday, 18^th October. In my absence Mr Gradwell will be in charge but if you do feel that you need to see me you can make an appointment through the school office to meet with me on my return.

On my return we will be holding our parent consultations. We are holding these face to face unless our circumstances change due to a Covid outbreak and then we will have to hold them online. May I please remind you all that these sessions are designed to last 10 minutes so may I ask that all parents stick to this. If one person runs over it can affect the timings for all other parents and I do not feel that this is fair. If you do feel that you want to discuss something in more depth you may make another appointment to meet with the teacher at a later date.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend. I will be there to greet you all on Monday morning although you will not see much of me after that.

 

I am publishing my blog a day early this week as I am on a course tomorrow. I will still be looking at my email if you need to contact me but Mr Gradwell will be in school and will be available for you if feel you need to talk to someone in authority about any issues.

I am afraid that I need to have a little moan. As always we have been finding a lots of items of clothing on the playground and field which have been left behind by the children. However, we cannot return many of them back to their rightful owner because they do not have the child’s name in. I do feel that I am like a stuck record but I cannot emphasize how important it is for the children’s uniform to be clearly labelled with their names. I have a lot of parents complaining about how many items of uniform their children have lost but if it does not contain their name, we cannot return it to them. If you have not done so, please label all items of your child’s uniform over the weekend.

Next week we are holding our Harvest Coffee morning. This year, due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic we are providing all the refreshments but we still ask that you give generously to our designated charity which is Breast Cancer. I have chosen this because one of our members of staff has been treated for this during this last year and thankfully they are on the road to recovery. As I explained in my newsletter you come to the Harvest Festival at your allocated time and your child can join you for some refreshments. If you have more than one child, you can come have all your children join you at the best time for you. The children will be entertaining you with some harvest/food songs that they have been learning in music. The allocated times for the different sessions are listed below:

9.30 – 10.00am – Years 1 & 2

10.00 -10.30am – Nursery & Reception

10.30 -11.00am – Years 5 & 6

11.00 – 11.30am – Years 3 & 4

You will all probably have noticed that the weather has definitely turned cooler. I have therefore been surprised that many children are coming to school without a coat. Even if they travel to school by car please make sure that your child starts bringing a coat into school with them so they do not have to freeze outside. Even if they do not use it is better to be safe than sorry.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you at the Harvest Coffee Morning next Friday.

 

The children came into school looking very smart today in preparation for their school photographs. Let us hope that all their/your effort was worth it and you are pleased with the results. We should get the proofs back in about a week and then you can judge for yourself.

There has been a strong European feel in the school today because we have been having a Spanish Day in school. All the classes have been carrying out a number of activities in class so they have a better understanding of the Spanish way of life and the day culminated with the whole school meeting for an assembly and sharing some of their learning with the other classes. The children all appear to have had a great time and I am sure they will share their experiences with you if you ask them. (Please see the picture from our assembly below.)

There is great excitement in Year 6 because they have all been preparing their speeches in readiness for the election of the house captains. These roles are much sought and I know that the other children really look forward to hearing the speeches as they take the whole voting process very seriously. I am sure that if one of your children is involved you will be helping them rehearse this weekend and that you will be there on Monday to either celebrate or commiserate with them at the end of the day.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I think that the weather is going to remain quite warm even if it is not going to be sunny. We all need to make the most of this weather before autumn really starts to set in.

 We have certainly had a mixed bag of weather this week with pouring rain on Tuesday and bright sunshine on Thursday. This is typical weather for this time of year so as the weather is so changeable can I ask that you do send your children into school with a coat. As we have heard many times from all the health officials during the pandemic, fresh air is very important both for our physical and mental well-being so we do try and get the children outside as much as possible to help support this and to make this effective they do need the proper garments to help them manage the elements.

As I highlighted in my blog last week we have had some positive cases of Covid in school and we have also had a lot of cases of the common cold going around too. The problem is that the symptoms are very similar so if your child does develop a cough, has a temperature or loses their sense of taste or smell (the last one is much more common to Covid) you cannot assume that they just have a cold and you need to take them for a PCR test and if the result is negative they can then immediately return to school. If it is positive you have to follow government guidelines regarding isolation.

We have a lot going on in school next week. The Year 6 class are doing their cycling proficiency so those taking part will need to bring their bicycles into school every day. If pupils wish to leave their bicycles in for the duration of the week we do have facilities to store them securely overnight. On Friday it is school photographs so you may want to make sure your children take extra care with their appearance on that day because it will be a year before they have the next one taken. We are also having a ‘Spanish Day’ in school on Friday in celebration of the European Day of Languages. The official day for this is actually September 26^th but as that is a Sunday we are holding our day on the Friday. The European Day of Languages (EDL) is celebrated across Europe on the 26th of September every year. It aims to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe and raise awareness of the importance of lifelong language learning for everyone. It was set up by the Council of Europe and was first celebrated in 2001.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again next week.

 The end of our first full week in school and it feels like everything is back to the way it should be – once clubs start again next week things will truly have returned to how they were. Everybody prefers the school this way - especially the younger children who are taking great delight in being part of whole school assemblies and being able to be near the older children. Let us hope that this lasts.

However, we cannot pretend that Covid is not still with us and like many of the other schools in Potters Bar we have had cases of Covid in the school since our return. Following national guidelines, we do not send classes home anymore and Test and Trace will contact you if your child has been considered a close contact. Even then they will not be sent home but should take a PCR test and only if the test comes back positive will they then need to isolate. If we do get what is considered an outbreak in the school, I will then have to seek guidance on how we proceed. There is further explanation about this in my latest newsletter.

We had our annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings on Wednesday (except for Year 4 who will now have their sessions on Wednesday,15^th September at the same times) and I know that all the parents who attended found them very informative. Many parents were just glad to be allowed back in the school –especially Year 1 parents whose only experience of being in the main school was from their initial visit to the school. I know some of you were unable to attend but the teachers will be putting details of what they discussed on their class blogs.

As I wrote earlier, school clubs start again next week. If you have not signed your children up for any of these, you will need to do so before next week on School Gateway. At ‘Meet the Teacher’ some parents said that they were unsure of how to do this but you can find details of how to access the School Gateway on my last newsletter.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I know that the weather is not going to be as good as it was at the beginning of the week but I think it is still going to remain warm which is one good thing. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

 Welcome back, everyone. I hope you all had a fabulous summer and are all feeling refreshed and looking forward to the new term. I know I say this all the time but within an hour of being back it did feel like we had never been away. It is good that we can now have parents back on site and we can mix the children which enables us to have whole school assemblies and combined lunchtimes. Let us hope that this will be able to continue.

You will have seen from the newsletter that we have our ‘Meet the Teacher' sessions next week. We were meant to hold these last term but we delayed them so you could meet your child’s class teacher in person. As I stated in the letter these sessions are for parents only so please do not bring your children with you. These sessions are for you to ask questions about the upcoming year and not for getting a progress report on your child’s academic achievement – you will get this at the parent consultation sessions in October. If you cannot get someone to look after your child ‘Kids and Clubs’ will provide child care for you on this evening for a one-off payment of £5. If you are unable to make these sessions the information provided will be uploaded onto your child’s class blogs – you will not be able to meet the teacher at a later date to get the information.

That is all for now. I hope you all have a great weekend – we have been promised sunnier weather which always happens when we return to school. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

 

 There has been a lot of excitement in school today because it has been ‘Break the Rules’ day which has meant that the children could replace certain items of their uniform with whatever they like. They have found this most enjoyable and I have seen some amazing hair creations and clothes combinations. I would like to thank the PTA for organising this and raising funds for the school. Hopefully, we will be able to get back to holding more events that the children can take part in next term because days like these are very good for raising everyone’s spirits which is definitely what we all need at the moment.

Year 6 have been very busy this week getting ready for their end of year performance. Fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way to stop them performing it or having their ‘Leaver’s Assembly’ but these are uncertain times that we live in. You will have seen from the letter that I sent out this week that although all restrictions are being lifted on Monday we are maintaining our ‘bubbles’ until next term so unfortunately the rest of the school cannot watch the show live. We were going to have it videoed by an external company but unfortunately the person who was going to do it for us has had to isolate so this is no longer possible. We are still going to video it ourselves so the hopefully the other classes will be able to watch the show which is called ‘Wow! What a Year!’.

Anyhow – we have just a few days to go until the lovely summer holidays. It has certainly been a challenging year for everyone and I would like to thank you for all your support which has helped to make my job easier. Let us hope that the lovely weather we are due to have this weekend lasts and we can have a really enjoyable break. I will not be writing another blog this term so I hope you all have a great holiday and I look forward to seeing you all again on Thursday, 2^nd September.

 

Just over a week to go and we are still standing – but what a week it has been. The main chat on Thursday morning was all about England as I am sure you can imagine. After 55 years England have finally made it to the final of an international football tournament and national expectation is high. You will know by now that we are going to have a very soft start on Monday and children do not have to be in until 10.30am so they can have a little bit of a lie –in to recover after the night before. As we stated in our email we will assume that those children who normally have a school lunch will be doing so unless we hear differently from you.

Another big event that happened in school this week was the Year 6 ‘Apprentice Day’ Just like the programme the children were put into groups and then had to come up with an idea to raise money and the group that raised the most money is the one that wins. Normally, this event is held outside with all the classes mixing but due to Covid restrictions that was not possible this year. The Year 6 did an amazing job though in modifying the activities in line with the guidance, and, like many retail businesses, went online to advertise their wares and then delivered their goods personally to the children in the classrooms. They raised over £400 and all profits raised will be donated to Breast Cancer Research. Thank you to all of you for sending in money to help raise funds for such a worthwhile cause.

On Monday we completed our Sports Day and I am sure that many of you now know that the winners were Thornton House. Some of the younger children appeared to be a little confused about what was going on so I have listed the results with you so you can talk to them about how Sports day finished.

1^st - Thornton (Green) 7766 points

2^nd – Osborne (Blue) 7550 points

3^rd – Frampton (Red) 7253 points

4^th - Grangewood (Yellow) 6021 points

It was lovely to have so many parents back on site (some people were on the school site for the first time) and hopefully next year we will be able to have everyone together for Sports Day.

You will also know that it is likely from the Prime Minister’s broadcast last Monday that we will be moving to Step 4 On Monday, 19^th July and many measures which now are in place will no longer have to exist. However, in the school’s guidance we have been advised to keep the current measures in place until the end of term which is what we are going to do and when we come back in September we will make the adjustments that we need to make. I will send more details out about this in a letter next week.

Hope you all have a great weekend and fingers crossed we all have something to celebrate on Monday morning. Hopefully, England will ‘Bring it Home’.

 

 

 

Due to our Sports Day (which is being held over 3 days because of Covid restrictions) I have seen many of you this week which has been really lovely because it has been a long time since we have had parents on site. I know the children have all enjoyed the event and I hope you all enjoyed being here too. Even though we had to re-organise how we normally run it I think that all the effort was worthwhile because it makes us feel like we are returning to how things used to be. We will be completing the event on Monday (when all our isolating classes will have returned) and holding the presentation in the afternoon. I will announce the winner in my blog next week although I am sure you will know before that because all your children will have told you – especially if they belong to the winning house.

Our consultations are continuing next week as well. From what I hear from my teachers they are all going well and parents are finding them very informative. May I please remind you again to stick to your ten-minute slot - as I said last week if there is something you need to discuss in more detail you can make another appointment to meet with the teacher at a later date.

The Year 6 are also holding their ‘Apprentice’ event next week. Due to Covid restrictions this event is being held virtually (in line with many other retail businesses) but you may have been requested by your children who are in other classes if they can have some money to purchase some goods. If you could give them this, we would be most grateful. All the money raised (once we have covered our costs) is donated to charity so it is all for a worthy cause.

We are getting close to the end of term now. Part of me cannot believe that we are here already but another part of me feels like it has been a very long year because of all the disruptions that we have experienced. I can tell that it is getting to the end because many of the children are becoming tired which can make them all a little more fractious. Can I please ask that you do get them into bed at a reasonable time to ensure that they are getting enough sleep. I know that as the holidays approach it can be a little tempting to let their normal routine slip but regular learning is still taking place and with all the disruption they have experienced this year they do not need to lose a second of their learning time.

I hope you all have a good weekend –it looks like we are going to be getting some rain but we should not be surprised because that is typical for this country. We do have the England football team to watch on Saturday night – I am sure that they will appreciate our support to help them get through to the next round of the European Championships.

 

I do not think that I have to tell you that it has been a ‘bit of a week’ in school. Unfortunately, we have had another positive case of Covid in the school which means that some classes and staff have had to isolate. I would like to thank all the parents who were called for their swift response in coming to pick up their children. I know that it is a situation that none of us enjoy but it is, at the moment, part of the world we live in. May I also apologise for having sent out the incorrect isolation dates to those classes having to isolate. I did follow the guidance given by the DfE, but, after consultation with another party, I realised that I had been given the incorrect dates which is why we sent out the amended letters. Fortunately, it was good news because the isolation period was being shortened rather than extended.

It is a busy week in school next week because we have parent consultations and we have our sports events. Due to the times we live in the parent consultations are being held virtually but at least you will still be able to find out about your child’s progress. May I ask that you do stick to your allocated time of ten minutes. If you need to discuss an issue in greater depth you may make an appointment to discuss it with your teacher at a later date.

You will know that for Sports Day we are having to hold the event across a number of days so that each class competes individually but the children will still be in their house groups and will be competing to collect points so their house can win. We have now had to extend the event to Monday, 5^th July so that the classes who are isolating can also take part and we will have the presentation in school on Monday afternoon (for the children only). Please remember that if you can attend that we are allowing a maximum of 2 parents per child. We also ask that when you are watching the event that you remain in your family group and socially distance from other parents.

That is all for now. I was looking forward to a lovely sunny weekend but unfortunately the weather App has changed as the week has progressed and it looks like we have a few rainy days ahead of us. Let us hope the sun shines for our sporting events.

 

I have not been on the school gate as much as I usually am this week. This is because I have had a lot of meetings to attend and they have all been either at the beginning or end of the school day which is the reason you may not have seen a lot of me. I always feel that I have to explain why I have not been present in case people feel that I have just not been working but I can assure you that is not true.

I know you will all have listened to (or at least heard about) the government’s latest announcement about us not being able to proceed to Step 4 on June 21^st which has meant that we cannot proceed with our end of term arrangements as we would have liked to. Although this is disappointing we have done our best to run all of the events we wanted to in a slightly different format and allow parents to attend the event. You have been very supportive of the school so far and I know that you will continue to support us in the same way. All we can do is hope that if we follow the guidance things will eventually return to how they were and that in the next academic year we will not have the disruptions and changes that we have experienced this year.

After the lovely weather we have experienced, things have changed in recent times and we have seen the return of rain. At least it is warmer than it has been which makes the rain more bearable. If the weather is not good outside though at least we can watch the football on the television. England are playing tonight so it can only help their case if we are all there cheering them on. Who knows – this could be the year when we actually win another football trophy as a nation. Have an enjoyable weekend.

 

 

I hope you all had a good half-term. It was lovely to actually have some sunny weather and to have places to visit rather than just being stuck at home. It also looks like the warmer weather is going to be with us for a while so I think we can officially say that summer has arrived - hurray!

How the rest of the term proceeds depends on what the government decides next Monday (if they stick to that date). I know that everyone would like things to return to how they were but we still have to be careful. As some of you may know we have had another case of Covid in school and we have had some people isolating this week which is boring for the individuals involved and difficult to organise for their families. The person who has contracted Covid has also had both of their vaccines which was rather surprising although medical officials have made it very clear that the vaccine does not stop you getting Covid. The individual who has Covid is now on the mend but we do not want more families being affected by the virus which is why we still need to follow all the guidelines while restrictions are in place. As a community you have been very understanding of the modifications we have had to put in place to ensure that we can continue to run the school and I am sure that you will continue to be patient in the future if we cannot come out of restrictions as quickly as we would like.

Next week we have children going out on trips which is always exciting. Year 5 are going to the Mariners Base and Year 6 are going to be spending 2 days at the Edge Outdoor Activity Centre. We are also expecting the delivery of 2 outdoor table tennis tables for the children to play on so there is definitely lots going on in school despite the restrictions. Enjoy the sunny weather over the weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

 

At last we have had some sunshine! I was beginning to think the sun was lost! I need to be careful what I say though because I was saying this to a member of staff and a reception child quite rightly corrected me by informing me that the sun can never get lost and it is always there. I certainly got put in my place!

I normally fill my blog with all the events that have been taking place in the school but unfortunately, because of Covid, they are not taking place. We do have all the after school clubs running and even though they have been slightly amended to ensure we follow Covid guidance they do make the school feel a much more vibrant place when they are running. We are still hoping that from June 21^st we will be able to allow events such as Sports Day to take place with parents on site to watch but whether or not we will be able to do this depends on the next round of guidance from the government. Somebody has told me that this will happen on June 7^th but as soon as we know how we can proceed I will write to all of you to inform you. This may be a couple of days after the government announcement when I have had it confirmed how the changes will impact schools.

I hope you all have a great half-term. There is more that we can do during this break compared to previous holidays so it should make it a little more exciting for us. Remember we have scheduled our occasional day to be on the end of this half term so the children are not due back in school until Tuesday, 8th June. Let us hope that the sunshine continues – if it does I may even be brave enough to get my summer wardrobe out of the loft.

 

I cannot believe that after next week it is half term – where has May gone? It could be because we have had so much rain that it has felt like March that we have not noticed its passing. I know there is a saying that you should ’Ne’er cast a clout till May is out’ (for those younger people that means you should never put your warm clothing away until May is over) but unless the weather changes dramatically my summer clothing will be staying in the loft until 2022. The good thing about the recent weather is that my car was looking rather dirty but with all the recent rain it is looking quite clean again so at least I have been saved a job.

I know I keep bringing it up but can you remind children to take care and look out for other people when they are on their scooters. We still have children riding their scooters down the middle of the road which is not safe and some children are going so fast that they are riding into other people. Just today we had a child coming into school quite distressed because somebody had ridden their scooter into them. Luckily they were okay but we do not want a serious accident to occur before people take notice.

As we still do not have parents on site many of you will not know that our new secretary has joined us. Her name is Tania Heath and she started at the school on Tuesday. We are very pleased to have her join us and I am sure you will all make her feel welcome when you meet her (eventually).

That is all for now. I am looking forward to going out this weekend and actually sitting inside a restaurant. Just to be in the warmth and not having to eat your food at a breakneck speed so that it does not get cold is going to be such a luxury. As many of you may have picked up I am not a fan of the cold and the last lockdown was difficult for me because of that. I hope you all enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

 

I am looking out from my window at our new climbing wall. The company came to install it yesterday and the children were all very excited to see it.  We did have a wall there before but it had begun to look rather jaded so we decided to replace it. Having a climbing wall in our school is all part of our policy of trying to offer the children as wide a range of activities as possible so we can keep them as active as possible. This is good for both their physical and mental wellbeing.

As I am discussing physical activities may I remind you all that it is ‘Walk to School Week’ next week. We will be covering this in school and whilst we always encourage children to walk (or scoot or cycle) to school it would be good if those who do not normally walk could make an effort to do so. Even those of you who have to drive to school (and I know that some of you have to do this) could make an effort to come to school a little earlier next week and park a little distance from the school so your child and you can walk the last ten minutes to school. The benefits of walking to school have been proven and it does have a significant impact again on both their physical and mental wellbeing so please make an effort to take part.  

You will all know that there are some further changes to the lockdown rules happening on Monday and we can start meeting some of our friends indoors again (hurray) but the changes that are occurring do not really impact how we run the school so everything will be remaining as it is for now. The big date for us (at the moment) is June 21^st and if we keep following the guidelines and there are no further outbreaks then we will be able to go back to allowing the children to mix more freely in school. Hopefully this will happen but we do not want to do anything too early so that we have to go back into a lockdown situation – I do not think that anyone wants that.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Personally I cannot wait for next weekend when I can actually go out and not have to be dressed up like ‘Dora the Explorer’.

 

I hope you all enjoyed your Bank Holiday weekend. The weather was not the greatest but at least we could get out and about more than we have been allowed to during other recent holiday periods – we may be getting cold and wet but at least we are out.

Although restrictions are starting to lift many of them are still in place and one of them is that parents are not allowed on site which means that we have to use the road outside the school to drop off and pick up children from school. We have asked that cars do not come into School Road during this time to keep it as safe as possible for the children. People have been very good but in recent times I have noticed that a few parents are starting to park in School Road. I would ask that you do not do this. We do not want an accident to happen before people start to follow this request.

Can I remind you that if your child has an upset stomach and suffers either sickness or diarrhoea they need to be absent for 48 hours after their last episode of illness. This means that if your child is sick on a Tuesday they must not return to school until Thursday at the earliest and they should only come back to school if they are fully recovered. I know that this can be difficult for parents to manage but children do not learn in school when they are feeling unwell and we do not want to spread illness around the school by children returning to school too quickly.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

 

You can tell that we have been back a few weeks because the weeks are starting to fly by –it does not feel like it has been 3 weeks since we came back after Easter and I cannot believe a week has passed since I was last updating my blog. I am glad that I am feeling this way because it means that things are returning to ‘normal’ as this was how weeks used to feel before lockdown. We will find out again in May if more restrictions are going to be lifted and before long we may be even able to welcome you back onto the premises – fingers crossed that things continue to proceed as they have been which means that we will see an end to social distancing in the not too distant future.

It has been a sad day in school today because it was Mrs Smith’s last day with us.  It has been a pleasure to work with her and we will miss her. I know you will join me in wishing her every success for the future. Her replacement is called Tania Smith and she will hopefully be joining the school on May 18^th.

We all have a Bank Holiday to look forward to this Monday which is always great. I am particularly excited this weekend because I have finally got a hair appointment. It has been nearly six months since I last had my hair cut (and coloured) and I cannot wait until tomorrow which is when my appointment is. I am sick of looking at myself in a virtual meeting and seeing myself with straggly hair. Hopefully, when you next see me I will have lovely, bouncy, hair that shines in the sunlight (I think I have been watching too many hair adverts).

Have a great extended weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday morning.

 

I am writing this blog with lovely, bright sunshine outside. We have not quite reached summer temperatures but I do think that a bit of sunshine does make you feel better. Let us hope that the temperatures start rising soon so that we can actually enjoy sitting out in the sunshine without having to layer up.

It is great that Covid rates have really dropped, the vaccine programme is going really well and that we are starting to get back some sort of normality in our social lives but I do need to remind you all that we are still in a pandemic and we still need to follow the strict guidelines as set out by the government. This includes going for a Covid test if you or any of your family display one of the main symptoms of Covid which are:

·         A high temperature

·         A new continuous cough

·         A change to your sense of smell or taste.

We have had a few people ringing up telling us that they are keeping their children off with one of these symptoms and not getting their child tested. Rates have dramatically dropped and we want them to stay that way and that will not happen if we do not adhere strictly to the guidelines. May I also remind you that the whole household has to isolate until that member has received their test result.

I have some sad news to share with you. After being with the school for nearly six years Mrs Smith, our school business manager, is leaving us. We are very sad to be losing her but I am sure that you will join me in thanking her for everything she has done for the school and wishing her every success in her new position. Hopefully, she will not be a stranger and you may see her again when she drops in to see us.

That is all for now. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

 

I hope you have all had a good Easter and the children are glad to be back. They certainly appear to be happy and with many of the extra-curricular clubs starting up again there is a real buzz in school. The weather is also getting a little better and that makes a difference as well. I know some of you may have started going out to pubs and restaurants again. I have been out a few times as well but I have to admit I do find it quite challenging sitting out in cold weather. It is nice to be meeting up with friends again but I am keeping it to short bursts as I do like to be warm. Roll on May 17^th when we can meet in groups indoors!

I do not like to start the term with a moan but I have had some information that is very worrying to me. Some parents were at traffic lights next to the church waiting and when the light turned red for cars to stop a car turned out of School Road and drove across the zebra crossing – and apparently this is not the first time this has happened. May I please remind all drivers that when you turn left out of School Road that there is a set of traffic lights there so please approach this turn with caution so you can stop if required. It would be terrible if there was an accident before people took notice of this.

You will have seen that I have sent the dates out for the term in the newsletter. I am planning to have some whole school events that we can invite parents to eg. Sports Day but I cannot confirm whether parents can be present until nearer the time.  I have organised the events for after June 21^st when apparently there will be no social distancing but we have not had it confirmed if we can invite additional people onto the school site. I do appreciate your understanding through what has been a challenging time for all of us and hopefully we will all be able to meet up again in the not too distant future.

Have a good weekend –it is starting to get a little warmer so it will make those outdoor meetings a little more pleasant although I am looking forward to the day when I do not have to go out looking like a walking duvet. I will see you all on Monday morning.

 

The end of term is upon us. I know that back in January I did not think that we would get to this point with the children back at school for face to face teaching but we have and I hope they have had a really enjoyable three weeks. We have certainly been glad to have them all back in school and we are all looking forward to having them back for the whole summer term. We will be able to do more with the children during that term and we are starting with having the extra-curricular sports clubs running again when they return – I always think that these really help to improve the atmosphere in school.

 I hope you all have a brilliant holiday. You all deserve it because the children had to work very hard with their remote learning and you had to work very hard supporting them whilst doing your own job as well. It was not an easy situation for anyone but we have all got through it and for that everyone should feel proud of themselves.

Enjoy eating all the chocolate over Easter and I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday, 13^th April.

 

The children have been very excited today because it has been ’Red Nose Day’. They find it really exciting to wear a red nose - even this year when all the noses are a bit harder and a bit more difficult to keep on. The brains behind ‘Red Nose Day’ (or Comic Relief as it used to be known) are very clever because there are now lots of different designs for the children to purchase so they all want more than one. We even had to make a couple of trips to Sainsbury’s because we ran out but at least it is all for a good cause. So far we have raised £434 which is great and I would like to thank you all for your generous donations.

Next week is our last week at school before the Easter break. In one way it is difficult to believe because the children have only been in school for two weeks but, from another perspective, it has been a long time since Christmas and having to educate the children remotely was a lot more work than doing it face to face in the classroom so we are looking forward to the break. After Easter though (hopefully as we always have to think now) we will all return for the summer term, and, if the government plan goes as expected, we will be able to hold events such as Sports Day, which are exciting events that help to bring variety to the school calendar. We will be starting the after school clubs (with Covid restrictions in place) the first week back after the Easter holidays so that will be something for the children to look forward to. Please check the newsletter so that you know what clubs are running and how to sign your children up for them.

Remember that as next Friday is the last day of term we finish early. We normally all finish at 2.00pm but due to Covid restrictions we cannot all leave together so below is the staggered timetable of when the children will leave school:

Nursery - 1.15pm from Double gates at KS2 entrance

Reception - 1.30pm from Double gates at KS2 entrance

Year 1 - 1.30pm from KS1 playground gate

Year 2 - 1.35pm from KS1 playground gate

Year 3 - 1.40pm from Double gates at KS2 entrance

Year 4 - 1.50pm from Double gates at KS2 entrance

Year 5 - 1.40pm from KS1 playground gate

Year 6 - 1.50pm from pedestrian entrance to KS2 playground

Have a good weekend – it is going to be a little warmer than it has been and then the temperatures are going to continue to rise into next week. Hopefully this is a sign that Spring is definitely on its way.

 

Just three sleeps to go and we will all be together again. I cannot believe how quickly these last two weeks have gone – I hope they have gone as quickly for you. We are all really looking forward to everyone being reunited. Having Science Week and World Book Day to look forward to is also a great way for us all to come together again.

I know that your home routines will have been altered during lockdown (they had to be to cope with all the changes) but now is the time to start getting back in to the ‘coming to school’ routine and one thing that I would like you to do is to start getting the children back to their normal bedtime. We found that after the last lockdown the children were very tired so you really need to ensure they are getting enough sleep. Even if the children say they are not tired they can go to bed and read because then they will at least be resting. A doctor once informed me that sleep is a habit so it is something that can be altered and if the children are sent to bed at a regular time they will soon get used to falling asleep at that time.

I do not want to dampen the mood so I will not make any more requests here. We know it will take time to re-establish school routines with the children and we do not expect them to get everything done in a day. Have a great weekend and I really look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

I hope you all enjoyed the half-term break. I know there was not much to do but at least you all got a break from home-schooling. The great news for this week is that we are all coming back. We are all very excited here and will be really pleased to have all of the children in school. The teachers are especially glad because even though home schooling has been challenging for all families it has been a lot of work for the teachers and I know they are really pleased to be returning to face to face teaching.

The whole school is returning on Monday 8^th March but I do ask you all to remember that we are still in a national lockdown and many restrictions are still in place to ensure that we keep down the transmission of COVID19. I mention this because you need to remember that from that Monday you can still only meet one other person outside so I do ask that when you drop off and pick up your children you do not congregate together in groups for a chat. I know that this will be very tempting but we have enough problems with managing social distancing because we are at the end of a cul de sac. We cannot even operate a one-way system because of our location so please do not exacerbate the situation by gathering in groups. We do not want to be responsible for the R rate going up and schools having to be shut again.

You will all have received my letter explaining how things are going to operate when we return. We have lots of exciting things for the children to look forward to as we are holding a Science Week and we are holding our World Book Day on Thursday, March 11^th. This follows a request from a parent which we thought was a good idea so all the children can now come into school on that day wearing their costumes and all their friends can see them.

I hope you all have a good weekend. Enjoy your time as a family before the children return to school. You have all done an amazing job with the home schooling but from Monday 8^th March it is back over to us. I look forward to seeing many of you then.

 

I hope you have all had a good week. Half term is upon us and although I am glad it is a holiday I wonder if you are all like me and are thinking, ‘’What am I going to do?’’ My husband has booked a few days off so we can be together and he is excited because he thinks we can sort through some cupboards. Even with not much to do I cannot get excited at the prospect of early spring cleaning which gets me back to my original question because if any of you can think of things that I can do to get me out of tidying cupboards I would be most appreciative.

I would like to thank parents again for completing our survey on remote learning. You will have seen my response to your suggestions in my newsletter. I have not responded to all of them but I have got them all on record so please do not feel that we have ignored them. Depending on when we all can return to school we may be implementing more of your suggestions after the half term break. I would also like to thank you all for the many positive comments that we did receive about the home –learning. When you are having to work very hard to re-invent the way you do your job it is satisfying to know that your efforts are appreciated.

I hope you all have a great half term – if it is only to get a rest from all the stresses of having to work and support your children with their learning.  I look forward to when we re-connect on Monday, 22^nd February.

 

I hope you enjoyed the ‘Big Bird Watch ‘weekend last week. I admit it was difficult to do much on Saturday because of the rain but I was out and about on Sunday. Where I live there are a lot of Red Kites and I do find it fascinating to watch how they appear to glide across the sky. I also feel quite scared when you get close to them (which you can do near where I live) because although I know they will do me no harm (or so I hope) they are big birds with sharp claws and beaks!

I would like to thank all those people who completed our questionnaire about online learning. We are grateful for all comments because we do want to provide you with the best quality package that we can. As remote learning is a relatively new thing for all of us it is an ever-evolving process and we are constantly reviewing how we can improve what we deliver. Even since we started in January we have added additional parts to our remote learning including reading groups and some social drop-in sessions which will start for KS2 next week. I would like to remind you all though that remote learning is a more time-consuming process than regular teaching which may mean that the school is not able to provide you with all the resources you would like.

Just one more week to go and then it is half term. I cannot believe that it has arrived already although when I think back to Christmas which is less than 6 weeks ago it feels like a lifetime has passed and I am sure that many of you feel the same way. There will of course be no home learning over the half term and it may be a good time to get your children to do activities away from any type of screen. Spending hours at a computer each day is not good for anyone but at the moment that is the only way we can continue with any semblance of our normal life so when we can get away from screens we should take the opportunity.

That is all from me –the weekend is looking quite dull but at least we can still get out. To be honest I will do anything to get away from the constant football matches which seem to be on all the time and which my husband ‘needs’ to watch. I would love to go back to the old days when all football matches were played at 3.00pm on a Saturday. Have a good weekend.

 

I hope the home learning is going as well as it can.  I know many of you will be disappointed to hear that schools will not be re-opening until March 8th at the earliest. Many of our teachers are parents and share your frustration with the current situation but we all need to do what we can to help us take control of this horrible virus. All of the staff here would prefer to have the children in school but we also do not want to be in a situation where the children return to school only to have them sent home because of another national lockdown or an outbreak of the virus in the school. You will all know that even with reduced numbers in school we have had another positive case of COVID in the school and another local school has had to close because of an outbreak there. The ‘R’ number is dropping in this area but it is still a lot higher than it needs to be for us to return to a more ‘normal’ life. Therefore, for now, the majority of you will have to continue with the home learning. Thank you  for all the positive comments we have been receiving from parents about the work set by the teachers – this feedback is welcomed by them all. Remember that if you do have any queries about the home learning all of your teachers are contactable by email between 8.50am - 4.00pm Monday - Friday.

The snow came last weekend and it was lovely to see it and I am sure the children enjoyed playing in it. When real life can feel like we are appearing in the film ‘Groundhog Day’ it is nice when something happens that breaks up the monotony of our current day to day life. The children who are in school loved seeing the snow although it was a shame that we could not let them all enjoy it because they did not have appropriate footwear. I would ask that whenever it snows you do send children in with suitable outdoor clothing. As we have such a large field we do have the facilities to let them play in powdery, fluffy snow before it all goes wet and slushy. This is a great experience for all children and it is a pity if they have to miss out on it because they do not have the appropriate clothing.

There was due to be more snow this weekend but after checking my weather app I see it has changed to rain which is not as exciting.  However, what will be exciting is taking part in the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’ which I told you about last weekend and starts today. In case you have lost the links which tell you all about it I have included them below:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/everything-you-need-to-know-about-big-garden-birdwatch/

https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/biggardenbirdwatch/2021/how-to-resources/Bgbw21_how-to-guide.pdf  - how to guide

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/live-lessons/big-schools-winterwatch-live-lesson/zv8vn9q - live lesson

Next week is ‘Mental Health week’ so in the home learning the teachers will be substituting some of the lessons for activities associated with this. Mental health is a big concern in our society, especially now, and I think it is important that we highlight this and give the children strategies to be able to manage their own mental health and well- being.

I hope you have a good weekend – although rain is forecast you can still enjoy being outdoors even when it is wet.

 

I hope you are all well and that you are all managing to juggle your many responsibilities well. I am sure you are all feeling like you are trying to keep 20 balls in the air and that you are dropping a few but I think everyone feels like that - I know I certainly do. I think it is typical of the time and all I can say is that if you do feel you are dropping a few balls be kind to yourself. Just focus on all the things you are doing well and forget about the rest –we can all just do what we can do and we should not expect more from ourselves.

As you will have seen from my newsletter we do have a few extra appliances in school so if having an additional device in home will help you with the home learning please do contact us to see if we can help you. As I also mentioned in my newsletter we will be getting some more devices sent into school thanks to the generous donation from Albion 4C so even if we do not have laptops in school to support you we can keep your name on a list and contact you when the additional devices come into school. I cannot thank this company enough for their generous donation in helping the school. It came totally out of the blue and it came from a desire to help support the local community during a difficult time. I do think that through these gloomy times we should celebrate acts of good deeds and I certainly think that this was one of them.

A parent has informed me that next weekend the RSPB is running an event called the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’ from January 29^th -31^st. I think that this would be a really good event for the children to take part in as it encourages them to be outside and look at nature which is very important at all times but especially at the moment. I have listed some links below so you can see what it is all about and what it involves.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/everything-you-need-to-know-about-big-garden-birdwatch/

https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/biggardenbirdwatch/2021/how-to-resources/Bgbw21_how-to-guide.pdf  - how to guide

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/live-lessons/big-schools-winterwatch-live-lesson/zv8vn9q - live lesson

That is all for now. I hope you can all manage to have a good weekend. I know the weather is not the best but it is January so I suppose we should not expect anything else. The way I look at is in that in a few weeks it will be spring so that is something to look forward to.

 

I hope you are all well and still managing to get by in these challenging times. I think everyone is feeling slightly on edge and anxious but hopefully as more people get their vaccine and we manage to get the virus under control we will all be able to return to our life as it was.

As you all know school is open for the children of critical workers and vulnerable children. You will have seen in the letter that was sent out from county that because the infection rate is still high they are asking parents of children in this category to only send children in if they really need to. At the moment our numbers are okay but they are rising and they may come a time when I have to review our policy for which children I allow in the school. Other local schools have had to do this and I hope we do not have to resort to this.

The teachers have all been telling me that the majority of children are all engaging with the online learning well and I thank you for your support with this. The teachers have also asked me to thank you all for all the positive comments they have received about the home learning. The teachers are working really hard to produce all of the resources required for home learning and your positive comments make a big difference to them. However, some of you are not engaging as much as we would like with the learning so I do ask that if you are experiencing any problems please contact your class teacher who will try and sort out any issues you may be having. We are pre-recording the lessons so you can support your child with their learning around your work although we do appreciate the challenge that this is for all families.

That is all for now. The weather is not great at the moment but remember that everyone does feel better if they can get outside everyday.

 

I will start by wishing you all a happy new year although I know this is not the start that any of us would have wished for. I did say in my last blog that we had been lucky in that we had nobody in the school community contract COVID but as you all know several members of the school community had COVID over the holidays but with the number of cases that there has been in this part of the world it is hardly a surprise. Most people I know are ‘on the mend’ although we do still have a few suffering from the effects of the virus and I know you will join with me in wishing them a speedy recovery.

The majority of the school is now learning remotely and hopefully you will all be managing this at home. I know that nobody really wants this but you only have to watch the news each day to understand how necessary it is for everyone to stay at home (and stay apart). I have found the current situation quite stressful to manage but my stress is nothing compared to the pressure that hospital staff are under having to deal with the fallout from this horrible virus. When you watch the news you can see that some are starting to crack under the pressure. With this new mutant virus transmitting so much more quickly we all need to do our bit and stay at home and stop the spread until they can get it under control.

Whilst I have every sympathy with the front line workers trying to manage COVID something I do not understand is the government’s attitude towards education. In one breath they are saying they do not want schools closed and yet education staff are not a priority for getting the vaccine. Surely we should be a priority because if we get vaccinated all the children can return to school and their parents can carry out their work without the stress of having to support online learning. The government are trying to turn a lot of pressure onto education establishments by discussing exams and mentioning Ofsted as a threat as to what is considered poor quality education but all they are doing is trying to get parents attention away from the real problem which is teachers not getting vaccinated so they can carry out their jobs safely. If this happened all the issues that many children are suffering from because of the current situation would disappear. I do think that this would be a good point to raise with your local MP.

That is all for now. I hope you can all try and stay positive because at least with a vaccine being available we do know that an end to all of this will come. Look after yourself and do stay safe.