Dear Parents,
Last night the Executive confirmed that school closures would most likely extend until after half term, seeing a potential return to school on Monday 22 February.
I know the return to an extended period of home schooling will be concerning for most of our parents. However we hope to have a format which responds to all the parent feedback we received from the summer term.
We will continue to communicate through this main Dojo platform. A work pack for each group will be posted on a Friday afternoon on the school website’s home learning section (password SPSathome). This document will be in PDF format allowing ease of access for every device. Teachers will be engaging with pupils throughout the day, Monday - Thursday, in virtual face to face lessons. Thank you so much for all the messages of support and encouragement on how positive an experience this was yesterday. Every Friday, including this Friday, learning activities will be posted in the morning but there will be no Zoom or Collaborate lessons scheduled, as teachers will be meeting in yeargroup teams to prepare the group learning materials for the week ahead. These will then be published on the website on the Friday afternoon.
As I have said before, we want to be as flexible as possible and support parents as much as we can. Children should be engaging every day in some learning, however with two parents working from home, your capacity to follow a daily school timetable is significantly impacted. Please don’t put yourself under significant stress within your families. We do what we can, and I give that mantra to you as a parent whose home learning for her girls occurred between 6-7 pm last night!
Our greatest learning from the first closure was on how well the children adapted and returned to school life and learning in September, and that was after over 5 months absence from school. On their return in February, we can and we will recover any lost learning. Please proceed through the next couple of weeks holding onto that.
Re: Keyworker provision
Over the last number of days I have had many, many requests for pupils to attend school. It has been put to me that this is an opportunity for children and if you are eligible you should take the place. I urge all our parents to only use this provision as a last resort, when no other option is available. For the children’s safety and reduction of transmission in our community, I don’t feel it is a safe option to have nearly 100 pupils here next week. Attendance at school will be 9-3pm Monday- Thursday, and 9-2 pm on a Friday. The children will be in yeargroup bubbles and supervised by a rota of teachers and classroom assistants. If your child is in school their bubble will be able to follow a yeargroup teacher’s postings but it may not be their own teacher. It is not possible for us to coordinate logging children individually in to 9 different classes. Children are asked to bring their learning activities from home to school with them, as will be posted on the school website. They are to bring the designated activity for the day they are attending. Work completed in school can be taken home and posted on Dojo to be shared with the class teacher. Children do not wear school uniform and are to bring their own pencil cases and the resources required from home. There will be no school dinners and all children attending school must bring a packed lunch and snack.
If you have no other option available and require supervision in school, please message your child’s teacher on Dojo today. We will confirm your child’s place on Friday morning at the latest.
I need to ensure I have adequate staffing so please do not send your child unless you have a confirmed place, and if circumstances change and you withdraw your child, please let us know. When class teachers are supervising keyworker pupils they will not be able to engage in the virtual face to face lessons for that day.
If your child is attending school would you please reiterate messages of social distancing and the importance of our enhanced hygiene. We noted yesterday how relaxed the children had become within these measures in school.
On behalf of all the staff I would like to thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement. It means a great deal and propels us all through these challenging times.
I hope the weeks ahead bring continued safety and well-being to all our families.
Kindest Regards, Mrs H
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