Newsletter: 12th June 2020
Posted on June 12, 2020 | By Mr Cole
Preschool Sessions
Booking is now open for Autumn Term sessions for Sunflowers Preschool. Usually this exercise is undertaken by our Preschool staff but that’s obviously not possible under the present retrictions. We have therefore put a form together to allow you to let us know which sessions you need from us assuming everything returns to normal in September.The form can be completed on any computer or mobile device, including smartphones.
The link to the booking form is here: https://forms.gle/2vjvEJGKV9v9yfFfA
Uniform Ordering
Speaking of things maybe returning to normal in September, if you need to order any items of uniform for your child ahead of the new school year, we have also transferred that process onto a Google Form as well. This will mean you are able to order the items you need via Google, but not be required to pay for it until the stock arrives (payment would be required immediately if you ordered directly on ScoPay). Either ordering method is possible. The link for the uniform ordering form is here: https://forms.gle/Ko3VVPgWnP9Kc2VR9
As we are now having to do so much communication with you all via Google Forms, I have added a specific Google Forms Links page to the Website so you can quickly find the one you need without having to dig through old Newsletters.
Bubble Updates
The demand for places at school continues to grow strongly. As I described a few weeks back, we have designed our systems here at school to be able to expand and contract as demand allows. We have now reached the point where a further re-organisation is needed. I think it’s likely that this will be the organisational stucture that takes us up to the end of the year as we will be close to capacity under the new arrangements. By our calculation, there are around 87 children who are currently eligible to attend in any of the categories currently permitted by the Government. Our new structure will give as maximum capacity of around 76 places. (4 lots of 15-place bubbles, plus two Early Years groups of 8)
Ashmansworthy Bubble
From next week (15th June), we will continue with the plans I described last Friday to open a new bubble for Years 5 and 6 in Ashmansworthy Class. This means that all Y6 children who are returning, and the Year 5s currently in Kennerland Bubble will be taught in Ashmansworthy Classroom by Miss Butler and Mrs Appleton. This will enable us to offer more places to Year 6 children and also respond to growing need for Critical Workers. However, please bear in mind that these places are limited and by no means do we have capacity to offer a place to all Year 6 children if they wished to return before the end of term. Places will be allocated strictly by time of the receipt of booking forms, which are time stamped on submission.
Ashmansworthy Bubble children should come onto the site via the Old Market Drive entrance between 8:55am and 9:15am. Children in Ashmansworthy Bubble should not normally need to be accompanied to the school gate by an adult. The children in Ashmansworthy Bubble will be released at 3:00pm in order to miss the pick-up times of other bubbles using the same entrance. Please make sure your child knows they should not hang around the school gate waiting for friends. If they need to wait for you, they can either do so in school, or out on Old Market Drive where there is more room.
If Year 6 children would like to wear their Leavers’ Hoodies to school, they’re very welcome to do so.
(If your child is in Year 6 and hasn’t yet done a Google Meet with Mr Cole about their Year Book page, the final one is on Monday at 11am – please see Google Classroom for more information)
Burscott Bubble
We have very high demand for places in Year 1. This means that over the course of next week we will have a very soft split of the Burscott Bubble to create more capacity. Year 1 children who are normally in Cranford Class will stay with Mrs Kersey in Burscott Classroom; there will be no change in that arrangement. However, children in Year 1 who are normally in Burscott Class (before Lockdown) will gradually do more and more away from Burscott over the course of next week, with Mr Davies in the Library. We will do this very gently and slowly, for example the children will continue to play and do some activites in the same Bubble they have been in this week. From 22nd June, however, we will be welcoming more children back into Year 1 and so from that point, the group in the Library will form a new Bubble which we will call Stroxworthy Bubble.
So, from 22nd June, our new structure will be:
- Sunflowers Bubble: Reception and Preschool (Mrs Phillips, Mrs Oyarzabal, Mrs Monk, Mrs Harding)
- Burscott Bubble: Year 1 (Mrs Kersey, Mrs Eavis)
- Stroxworthy Bubble: Year 1 (Mr Davies/Mrs Dobson, Mrs Nicholls)
- Kennerland Bubble: Years 2, 3 and 4 critical worker provision (Mrs Farmer, Mrs Newell)
- Ashmansworthy Bubble: Year 5 critical worker provision and Year 6 (Miss Butler, Mrs Appleton, Mrs Phelps)
Once capacity in any bubble reaches its maximum, we will remove it from the online booking form and refuse places from that point forward. However, we are very hopeful that the structure described above will meet the needs of families up to the end of the term.
Remote Learning
For those children who are not returning to school at the moment, we are still offering a full Remote Learning package and will continue to do so up until the end of term. Our guidance from the Department for Education is clear: that children who should be in school should be continuing with daily learning at home. We know that by now -12 weeks in- stamina and enthusiasm for remote learning is flagging for some children and we are very sensitive to this, I promise. However, we do still expect all children to engage in some way with their teachers every week so please continue to do what you can. If you need additional support to assist you with getting your child to engage in remote learning please speak to your child’s teacher so we can help, rather than allowing your child to disengage completely. Thanks.
Devon Family Advice Line
Exeter Community Initiatives have launched a new phone advice line for parents and carers across Devon. The number for the new service is 01392 949059 and it will be manned from 10 – 2pm Monday to Friday. People will be able to leave a message outside of these hours, or when the operators are all busy.
It will offer advice on a specific issue around their children and their family relationships, including any communication issues or conflict they are having with their partners or co-parents of their children. It is not meant to be a replacement for more targeted work, but just a way to offer people a place to be heard and a few tips on how to deal with a particular situation or to signpost them to an organisation which may be able to help them.
Adventure International
Today, our Year 6 children should have been heading home from a long and exciting week at Adventure International in Bude. Of course, that’s not been possible this year. I know many of you will be anxious about a refund for the cost of the residential. At the present time, Mrs Miles is in contact with our insurers and DCC legal team to secure a refund from Adventure international which will then enable us to pass a full refund on to you. This is a very complex situation with a feelings running high on both sides of the negotiations. However, once we have more news about recovering your money, either from AI or from our insurance company, we will let you know.
Annual Reports
Schools have been directed by the Department for Education to continue to issue an End of Year Report to parents. This has presented us with several challenges, mainly because for most teachers, the last point of contact with your child was just a few weeks after our Spring Term Parents’ Meetings which were really well attended. Therefore you already know how your child was doing at that point. We also have no end of year data to report, nor any attendance data to share. Any report we issue could therefore be extremely out of date or based on our understanding of how your child has managed with Remote Learning, when of course you are probably better placed than we are to make that judgement!
Teachers will be producing a brief document for you to fulfill the Reporting requirements, however we all feel that a virtual meeting to discuss how your child is emotionally and academically would be much more beneficial. Once we have made arrangements for these meetings, we will offer you booking slots via another Google Form (sorry!) and a choice of platforms for the discussion – either phone, Google Meet or Zoom (for some classes). I will update you in the next couple of weeks when final arrangements have been made.
Alfie has made a wind sock this week!
Molly has built a tower which was taller than her!
Well done to everyone who was chosen for a Headteacher’s Award today! These were “presented” in our online Assembly.
- Cranford Class: Alfie – for making a wind sock; Molly – for making a tower taller than her.
- Burscott Class: Georgia – trying so hard with her handwriting; Emily Br – creating a beautiful costume for the Rio De Janeiro carnival
- Stroxworthy Class: Paddy – working so hard on his maths with clear working out; Nate – consistently working hard on his Remote Learning.
- Alminstone Class: Ralph – brilliant explanations in his maths fraction problems this week; Emily – working really hard on all her home learning and apologising for writing too much!
- Ashmansworthy Class: Joseph – an excellent Hogwarts Newspaper report using good detail and effective language; Alexander – consistent good effort, commitment and enthusiasm with his remote learning.