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.