Newsletter: 20th November 2020

Posted on November 20, 2020 | By Mr Cole | 1 response

Photos

We managed to successfully get all children in school photographed on Tuesday, both individually and with siblings. It was a mammoth undetaking to get it done without bursting any of our bubbles and keeping everything Covid-secure. Huge thanks to Tina who organised this to ensure everyone’s safety. The provess took around two hours longer than normal which gives you an idea of the scale of the operation!

Photo proofs were sent home on the day with your child. Please note that we were only able to send proofs out via your child so if parents live apart, please could you ensure your child’s other parent has the opportunity to also order photos? Thank you.

Orders should be made online, please, by visiting www.tempest-orders.co.uk and using the Web Access Code which is printed just below the proof photo on your child’s sheet. If orders are made by next Monday, packs will be delivered free of charge to school and distributed from there. We will quarantine all packs for 72 hours before sending on to you. Otherwise there is a £5 fee from Tempest to deliver straight to your home address.

Christmas Cards, Wrapping and Mugs

Your orders of FOWS’ Christmas Cards, wrapping paper and mugs with your child’s design on are now in school. They are currently in quarantine and will be sent home either today (Friday) or on Monday. We recommend keeping the mugs quarantined for 72 hours once you receive them and the cards packs should be wiped down with an antibacterial solution.

Children In Need

Fantastic news from our Children In Need Day last week. Total collections from all six classes came to £101.11, which is an amazing amount given the restrictions around what we could do on the day. Thank you to everyone for supporting the day so strongly!

Preschool Sessions for Next Term

Booking for Spring Term 2021 Preschool sessions is now open. As with last term, booking is all online via a Google Form. All bookings need to be completed by 7th December so we can arrange staffing. Please use this link to access the form: https://forms.gle/CaFtTZZpC8sdbwj46

Covid Update

Over the last week we have seen a massive increase in the number of children away from school awaiting test results for either themselves or a household member. Please remember this is exactly what should be happening and -at the moment at least- tests are coming back extremely quickly. We are very fortunate that so far we have had no positive test results in either children or household members but it’s quite possible this will unfortunately change over the coming weeks. Therefore, here is a reminder of what you should do in various circumstances:

This information is taken from the Devon County Council Advice To Parents sheet which can be read in full HERE

Should a child or a member of staff in any of our six school Bubbles receive a positive test result, we will close that Bubble and move to online Remote Learning. The DfE expectations of what the remote learning will look like are much more stringent than when schools were closed in March – for example, the expectation is that four hours of school work will be set per day and teachers will undertake direct, video based teaching for at least some of those lessons. For clarity, the school has produced guidance for you so you know what form the online learning will take if we have to use it – the document may be found HERE.

All of our Remote Learning for children in Years 1 to 6 will be delivered via Google Classroom so it is very important that your child knows how to log into their school system from home. Please practice this over the weekend so you can alert your child’s teacher to any issues as soon as possible. From our experience in March/April/May, we know that logging in to your child’s Google account is much more successful if you log in through an Ingognito Tab (Chrome) or In Private Tab (Microsoft Edge). This allows your device to stay signed in with your account whilst allowing your child to access their Google account without the two coming in to conflict. Instructions for logging in to Classroom from home can be found HERE

For Early Years, we will continue to use a mixture of Tapestry and social media to deliver our online offer.

Over the next few days I will create a new page on the website to hold all our Covid information in one place – please look out for this on the website Menu.

Finally, please can you remind your child that they must stick to their allocated drop off time for their Class Bubble? This is particularly becoming an issue for the older children who are coming to school unaccompanied and are congregating near the gates well before their designated time. This is placing the security of our bubbles at risk whilst children from other classes are queuing to be let in. Many thanks.

Christmas Cards

Before you persuade your child to sit down to write their huge pile of Christmas Cards for their friends, please note that due to our Covid security, we will be unable to run our usual card delivery service in school  this year. Please do not send your child in with Christmas Cards for their friends as we will not be able to allow them to be given out. I know this seems truly awful and is yet another aspect of our usual Christmas celebrations that will be going by the wayside this year. It is, however, unavoidable I’m afraid.

Parking

Hopefully the parking situation around school will now be significantly better for you. The Farmers Arms have kindly given our staff access to their new staff car park off Copper Close whilst our own car park is being used as a second playground. This is really generous of them and we’re very grateful as this should make dropping off and picking up times a little easier for you.

Staffing Update

I am delighted to say that Miss Butler will be back with Ashmansworthy Class from Monday. To ensure a smooth transition back to Miss Butler’s care, I will also be with the class at the beginning of the week. This should enable all of the children to get used to having their teacher back, and will give Miss Butler time to see how the children have come on whilst she has been away. We owe a very big thank you to Mrs Ferris and Mrs Appleton for their commitment over the last four school weeks, working tirelessly to get to know the children and their academic levels very quickly, and to keep the class stable during Miss Butler’s absence.

In another staff change, a familiar face will be re-joining the staff team from Monday. Mr Pennington will be returning to us once again on a temporary contract as an SEND Teaching Assistant. I know Mr Pennington will be very familiar to many of the children, although this time he will be working with the older children not Reception.

• Cranford: Juniper – making an amazing bridge and recording the results; Kaleb – drawing an amazing troll, carefully adding lots of detail
• Burscott: Logan A – being kind and helpful during Forest School; Logan I –  a great explanation during our geography map work
• Stroxworthy: Alfie – consistent hard work in all lessons; Henry – always being helpful and kind
• Alminstone: Jackie – trying really hard in his learning this week; Mary-Jane – always being kind and caring to everyone
• Ashmansworthy: Chloe – being helpful towards other children in the class; Connor – sustained improvement with all class work

 

 

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