Newsletter: 3rd April 2020
Posted on April 3, 2020 | By Mr Cole | 1 response
Keep happy; Keep healthy
We’re very aware that even though we’re only two weeks into the national shutdown of schools, which could well last several months, some of our children are suffering from anxiety and worry, missing friends and the routine of school. The uncertainty of the time is difficult for all of us, but particularly for children.
Mrs Phelps has kindly put together a collection of materials to help you support your child if they are having emotional difficulties or general low mood. We’ve decided to put these out via class Facebook groups and through the Newsletter rather than Google Classroom as it’s really a collection of parent resources rather than things you can just give to your children to “get on with”.
- Cosmic kids yoga you tube
- Calm.com Resources
- Dreamy kid meditation app
- Save the children has details of how to talk to your children about the coronavirus
- Young Minds
- Mentally Healthy Schools
If you need advice on any wellbeing issues for your child, you can of course email your child’s class teacher. Alternatively, Mrs Phelps has a huge amount of experience in the Mental Wellbeing sector of education and she can also be contacted via nphelps@woolsery.devon.sch.uk
Free School Meals
All families who are registered with us as in receipt of Free School Meals should now be receiving their weekly payment voucher via email. I contacted you earlier in the week to advise you the system is up and running and that voucher codes would be arriving soon. Please contact either me or Tina (tbryant@woolsery.devon.sch.uk) if you haven’t yet received your code for Wednesday 1st April and we will chase it for you. This is a massive national scheme which has been rolled out very quickly, so there may well be a few glitches. Vouchers should arrive every Wednesday and can be redeemed in all major supermarkets.
Please note that this is for families who claim Free School Meals entitlement, not the Universal Infant Free School Meals Scheme.
If, due to the national shutdown, you now qualify for Universal Credit, please email Tina (tbryant@woolsery.devon.sch.uk) for advice on how to register for Free School Meals or go directly to https://www.devon.gov.uk/supportforschools/services-and-contacts/free-school-meals . Once on the system, you will receive weekly shopping vouchers to the value of £15 per eleigible child in your household, so it’s well worth registering even if your situation is only temporary. Please let Tina know immediately if you have been accepted as qualifying for free school meals so we can set you up straight away – at the present time, the usual routes from DCC to inform us are understandably overwhelmed.
Preschool Fees
We have been contacted by several families in Preschool asking about charging and place retention for the coming term.
We are aware that due to the national shutdown in March some families will be eleigible for refunds for missed sessions and we will work these out for you once we have a longer-term view of likely summer term provision.
No families have yet been billed for sessions you’ve requested for the summer term, and of course as we can’t deliver those sessions, we won’t be billing you for them. We will maintain our lists, though, so no-one with current places and allocations at the preschool will miss out once sessions resume.
If you have funded sessions from the government (e.g. the 30 hours funding) we have been told by the DfE to continue to claim those hours as if your child were attending – this is to preserve staff wages during the shutdown period and prevent a massive national loss of Early Years expertise. Therefore, if your personal circumstances change before Preschool resumes, you must tell us as we will have been claiming for those hours during the shutdown period.
As this should have been the first week of the Easter Holidays, teachers have not been setting regular Remote Learning. However, that hasn’t stopped you from sending in lots of pictures of what you HAVE been getting up to… (Click on each picture to find out what the children have been getting up to!)
If you have photos of your child’s time at home, please send them to me via mcole@woolsery.devon.sch.uk and I will include them in the next Newsletter.
1st Woolsery Scout Troop is continuing to run through the Coronoavirus Pandemic. We are using Zoom to “Virtually” meet up each week and Scouts can also access their badge work from home. If you have a Young Person aged between 10.5 and 14 who is at a loose end and would like to take this opportunity to join Scouts, please email woolseryscouts@outlook.com with your child’s name, date of birth and your email address. We can then set you up on our online portal. Once that’s done, your Young Person can then access virtual meetings. Although it won’t give them a true feeling of what regular meetings are like, it will give them social access to many people of their own age who they already know and access to a wide range of local and national virtual events which are taking place at the moment.
Kennerland Club continues to run throughout the school holidays to support vulnerable children and children of Key Workers. Next week, Mrs Phillips and Mrs Appleton are on duty in the mornings, and Mrs Oyarzabal and Mrs Phelps are on duty in the afternoons. Mrs Van Santen will be MTA for the week.
From Tuesday 14th April, Mr Davies and Mrs Walter are on duty in the mornings and Mrs Farmer and Mrs Nicholls will run afternoon sessions. MTA for the week will be Mrs Harding.
Happy Easter
As next Friday is Good Friday, there won’t be a Newsletter. The next issue will be on Friday 17th April. Remote Learning re-opens on Tuesday 14th April so please make sure your child is logged in and ready to learn from that day. Stay safe, and do let us know if there is anything we can do to help in these difficult times.
Lovely photos. Everyone looks they are having lots of fun. Stay safe