Newsletter 12.06.2020
12th June 2020
Dear Parents and Carers
We have reached the end of another week. Time is moving very strangely at the moment – both quickly and slowly at the same time, and I still never know what day it is! Whilst it isn’t “normal” at school, the children are doing really well with their new routines and making the most of this strange situation. As one of the children said to me, “It is a bit weird!”
Wider Opening of Schools
I know that those of you whose children are still at home will have listened to the government’s announcements this week with mixed emotions, and probably some disappointment. As you know, we needed to commit all of our available staff to the three “bubbles” that we are currently running, and it has only been possible to have three bubbles because our fantastic TAs have all agreed to work additional hours. Even though we want to welcome more children back to BGPS as soon as we can, until government rules around social distancing and numbers of children in each bubble changes, it looks unlikely that we will be able to do so. However, we will continue to work with the local authority, who are in close contact with the DfE, to explore our options. Please read the attached letter from Jonathan Lewis (Director of Education) which explains the LA’s position.
Home Learning
Many thanks to all of you who have been engaging with the home learning tasks being set. Mrs Harris has been amazed at many of the pieces of work that have been uploaded onto ClassDojo and would like to say thank you to both the children and adults. We have been listening to the feedback from parents and children and have decided to make a few changes to the home learning. As of next week there will be essential learning and optional challenges. We would like you to encourage your child to upload one piece each day onto ClassDojo. Perhaps they could choose the piece they have enjoyed completing the most or a piece that they have found challenging and would like some support with.
Essential Learning: The Maths and English remains unchanged. White Rose Maths activities will continued to be uploaded onto the school website and extra maths will be uploaded onto ClassDojo for additional challenge/reinforcement. The English will be attached to the weekly timetable as a booklet, as in previous weeks. The learning projects will now be set on a theme (this week is The Rainforest) and are there are different suggestions for children of different ages. There are five tasks which can be completed in any order over the week.
Optional challenges: These are linked to the theme of the week and consist of: STEM opportunities, additional reading & additional writing.
Collective Worship: we will also be adding some links for collective worship videos. You can choose when you would like to watch these.
As part of our home learning resources, we have been using Pie Corbett's Talk for Writing English packs. These have very kindly been made available for free, providing Covid-19 support to schools. Talk for Writing have suggested that if you are able to, you might make a donation to Talk for Writing's just giving page, where they are raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the NSPCC. Please follow the link below if you feel you are able to contribute. Thank you!
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/home-school-booklets
Getting Back to School – the LA’s campaign to support parents in getting their children ‘back to school ready’.
Colleagues across the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Education & Social Care teams, and Partners, have been working on a campaign to help parents feel supported in preparing their children for the return to school (whenever that may be). It is aimed at primary and secondary aged children, and offers advice around seven key themes (listed below) There will be graphics, animations and links to supporting resources. They are uploading the content to the Learn Together website. The aim is to roll out one theme per week - theme 1 is now live here. The 7 themes are: general introduction, emotional health, anxiety and wellbeing, use of IT, sleep support, routines and boundaries, healthy eating and sustainable travel.
Anna Hayesmore