This is a copy of the email message sent this morning to our parents and carers.
Dear Parents/Carers,
On Monday you will receive your child's report via e mail from their class teacher. The last 13 weeks have been the most challenging of times for our whole school community but I hope the report will describe for you achievements and attainments worthy of celebration with your child. Contained within the email on Monday will be information about you child's class teacher for next year. Next week we will be hosting Zoom meetings for the children to meet their new teacher. Perhaps you might take the weekend to ensure you are familiar with this platform and the details of the meeting will be contained within the report email.
As you are aware, there have been many maternities with the school and that will bring staff changes for the year ahead. However I wanted to share with you that Miss N Kerr leaves us in June for a career break. She is pursuing a pathway in church ministry with her fiancé which sees a relocation outside of Northern Ireland. Miss Kerr has taught in Strandtown for the last 12 years (4 years in Year 6 and 8 years in Year 4) and has been exceptional in the care and talents she has shared with the children. Most of our pupils will know Miss Kerr through her outstanding contribution to music in school and she will be greatly missed. We wish Miss Kerr every happiness and blessing next year.
Next week sees a round up of our home learning for the year. I am fully aware of the many and diverse challenges this has presented for families. I have watched the photos on Dojo of all the activities your families have engaged in and the diversity of opportunities, experiences and learning has amazed me. I cannot extend enough thanks for your support, engagement and co-operation during this time. The staff have been so appreciative of the positivity and connection you have brought to these exceptional circumstances.
I want to share with you a Dojo summary for the lockdown period below. Our staff shared 41, 688 stories/videos/posts and our amazing pupils shared 38,458 posts about school and daily activities. This figure is incredible and a statement of the wonderful level of interaction that existed between home and virtual school every day! Thank you.
We hosted a drive thru this week for our pupils starting school in Year 4. It was lovely to see so many happy faces of children excited to consider a return to school. The staff of Strandtown want nothing more than to welcome our pupils back to their school building. From meeting parents throughout this week, I know so many of you are thinking about the next academic year and what it means for our children and families. Firstly, I will say that on the return to school your children's health, as well as their emotional well-being are the main priorities. We are fully aware of the impact of lockdown on our young people and we will support them with the compassion and nurture that I hope you have come to expect from Strandtown.
At this time we are impatiently awaiting guidance from the Department of Education. I recognise that parents are anxious for details about how the pupils will be returning. At this point we envisage a combination of class teaching and remote learning tasks. Therefore not all pupils will return to school as normal at the beginning of the next academic year. To give you an example of the updated advice we require for planning: The current guidance of 2 metre social distancing would see children return with 5 - 6 pupils in a class, therefore attending 1 day in 6. A half class attendance would place pupils into classrooms where there would potentially be less than 1 metre social distancing, but this arrangement could see pupils attend 2 full days a week. Within our planning I am also working on staggered start and finish times and co-ordination with the 3 infant schools to ensure siblings could attend on the same day.
When we receive guidance from the Minister we will make you aware of our plans. I recognise that this is an extremely stressful time for parents and please be assured that we will keep you informed as soon as we are given the clarity we need.
The term we bring to a close has been an exceptional one, however I am mindful that the term ahead will carry many challenges of its own. I hope you will trust our honesty and transparency of communication and always believe that the children and their safety and wellbeing are central to all that we do.
Kind Regards,
Victoria Hutchinson
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