Dear Parents and Carers
You will, I’m sure, have heard the news that the government hopes schools will return to full opening on 8th March. We are all hoping it will be safe to do so and can welcome all the children back in then to re-establish the school routines and their friendships.
We have two more weeks until half term, at which stage I hope the children, and you, will be able to take a well-earned rest from school work.
Please note – change of date:
I have been looking at the calendar leading on from 8th March and note that there are potentially four disrupted weeks before the end of June due to Good Friday, our INSET days on 19th April and 25th June, and the Bank Holiday Monday on May 3rd.
In order to minimise the disruption when the children are all back, the governors have agreed to us moving the INSET Days to Monday 22nd February and Tuesday 23rd February, so affecting only those few children due to be in school on those days – to you I apologise for the change of plan but hope the three weeks’-plus notice is sufficient for you to make alternative arrangements if necessary.
PE Bags
We have at long last received some of the PE equipment order for the children working remotely to have on loan at home. Depending on the Year Group, and due to stock shortages at our suppliers, the children’s bags contain a range of equipment for them to practice their gross motor skills and, above all, have fun! We are still waiting for footballs, cones and some tennis racquets and balls, so the contents of some of the bags seem somewhat underwhelming… In order for the children to have the next five weeks to use it, we are sending them home a bag with everything we have so far. I emphasise that this is on loan to your children while they cannot come to school; we will collect the equipment back in when school re-opens (hopefully on 8th March). While we understand that sometimes, inevitably, equipment can be lost or broken, I would be grateful if you would encourage your children to keep this bag of equipment dry and clean so that, if we need to close the school again for any reason, we can just give the bags out again. If you have any comments on this approach, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please come to the school office during the day to collect your child’s bag.
Important safety note: As the bags are of the drawstring type, and contain skipping ropes and plastic bags, please make sure they are used only under close supervision
Submitting work on Teams Years 2 – 6
For children in Chestnut and Oak Classes, we are trying to make it easier for you to get work to the class teacher and for them to give your child feedback. For instructions as to how your children can submit work using Teams, please go to the Files section and read the document – the instructions are slightly different for each class. From now on we will be using this method, rather than e-mails to the class e-mail accounts, to help keep the work in an ordered fashion. If you cannot access the instructions please do not hesitate to contact me.
With best wishes
James Stanford