Newsletter: 5th February 2021
Posted on February 5, 2021 | By Mr Cole
Free School Meals during Half Term
Voucher codes for children eligible for Free School Meals will be sent out tomorrow (Saturday). This will be an email sent from the school’s admin email address, so please look out for it. In the email you will receive a unique code which you can use at a range of supermarkets, as was the case over the Christmas holidays. Please note that school holiday vouchers are different to the ones you receive for term-time use as they are funded from the Local Authority, not from the DfE. If you don’t receive an email and think you should have done, please email Mrs Miles via smiles@woolsery.devon.sch.uk on Monday and she will look into it for you.
Laptops for Remote Learning
We have now had eleven laptops donated from our local community to support your children with their home learning during this difficult time. This is a very humbling and generous offer from the village and we’re very grateful to our donors, and to Baz Meeson who is kindly wiping them for us and preparing them for use. Together with the five Chromebooks supplied by the DfE we have been able to support all families who we’re aware need additional connectivity. We are now in the very fortunate position of having a couple of “spare” laptops to be allocated. If you would be able to make use of them, please email us as soon as possible, briefly outlining why you need the device. Examples of need could be things like several siblings sharing the same device (even if at different schools), reliance on tablet computers or phones rather than keyboarded devices and so on. Please do not assume that someone else’s needs will be greater than yours – I would much rather they are sitting in children’s homes than on a shelf in my office! Thank you.
Mr Davies has now assigned the Climb A Tower Challenge to all Key Stage 1 and 2 Classes via Google Classroom. Even if your child is attending school at the moment, please have a look at the materials he’s included to support an extra whole-school PE Challenge. We’re hoping lots of families will take part in this and raise vital funds for FOWS at this time when the staples of School Discos, Movie Nights and Coffee Mornings are obviously not possible. The Challenge will run for the two weeks beginning on Monday (including Half Term week).
Snow Warnings…possibly…maybe
At the time of writing, the MET office is forecasting snow for our area in the middle of next week. Although it may well turn out to be nothing, we know that “a little bit” of snow from the East can often fall as “quite a lot” here in northwest Devon!
With this in mind, I wanted to just raise your awareness that if there is significant snowfall here, there may well be a different response from school compared with previous winters. As you know, we have always had an excellent record of keeping school running for those who can get in on snowy days because we have enough village-based staff to pool resources and keep children supervised and purposeful.
However, with our Covid Bubbles, such an approach would not be possible this time around. This raises the likelihood that if your child’s class-based staff can’t get in to school safely, we would have to switch to online learning only for their class. I obviously hope that this won’t be the case and the forecast is only showing an outside chance of anything significant, but wanted you to be aware of this change in circumstances should the need arise. On the positive, with school running 50% of learning remotely at the moment, learning is likely to be less disrupted for those who can’t come on to site than in previous winters!
Should we have significant snowfall, please check (and keep checking) the school website’s front page where I will post emergency announcements, in addition to sending out SMS’s as soon as we can. This can be found at either woolsery.devon.sch.uk or woolseryprimaryschool.edublogs.org
FOWS will be collecting for Bag 2 School again in March. Please keep any old clothes, shoes (in pairs) and so on and we will let you know collection arrangements once we know them. Last year’s July collection raised a great sum for our PTA and we hope you will be able to support it again! Thank you.
Just as a reminder,
They accept the following ‘good quality’ items for RE-USE*:
- Men’s, Ladies’ and Children’s clothing
- Paired shoes (tied together or elastic band around)
- Handbags
- Hats
- Bags
- Scarves and ties
- Jewellery
- Lingerie
- Socks
- Belts
- Soft toys
- Household linen
- Household curtains
- Household towels
- Household bedding (bed sheets, pillow cases and duvet covers)
* Bag2School reserve the right to refuse any unsuitable items
We DO NOT accept:
- Duvets and blankets
- Pillows and cushions
- Carpets, rugs and mats (including bath, shower and toilet mats)
- Soiled, painted, ripped or wet clothing
- School uniforms with and without logo
- Corporate clothing and workwear
- Textile off cuts, yarns or threaded material
Safer Internet Day
Next Tuesday is national Safer Internet Day. I know classes will be doing specific work around e-safety throughout the week but with the present very high level of children online for a significant part of the day, I just wanted to take a moment to direct you to some resources to support you as parents in helping make your child’s online experience as safe as it can be.
| Age Range | Resources | Link |
| Under 5s (Parents/ Carers) | ThinkUKnow: keeping your child uunder 5 safe online | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/keeping-your-under-five-safe-online/ |
| 4-7 years | ThinkUKnow: animations to help young children stay safe online | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/jessie-and-friends/ |
| 8-10 years | ThinkUKnow: resources to help children recognise pressuring and manipulation online | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/playlikeshare/ |
| Parents/ Carers | ThinkUKnow: Advice on what to do if you think something has happened online | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/are-you-worried-about-something-that-has-happened-online/ |
| Parents/ Carers | ThinkUKnow: Parents’ advice on Personal Information online | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/parents-guide-to-personal-information2/ |
| Carers | ThinkUKnow: Advice on keeping children in care safe online | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/Looked-after-children-Specific-risks/ |
| Parents/Carers | ThinkUKnow: Explaining in-game chat for parents | https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/in-game-chat/ |
| Parents/Carers | NSPCC: Advice on children sexting and sending nudes | https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/sexting-sending-nudes/ |
| Parents/Carers | NSPCC: How to set Parental Controls | https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/ |
Goodbye, Mrs Fisher!
Becky Fisher, who has been Dave’s assistant in the school kitchen for the past year, is moving on to new things after half term. I know Becky has been very much liked by the children when collecting their lunches and they will miss her very much. Good luck in your new exciting career, Becky, and thank you for your hard work over this very difficult time!
Thank you to Oliver and Harrison for sharing their Remote Learning this week…
This week I had the pleasure of sitting in on a couple of class’ Live Meets. It was just wonderful to see how well engaged all of the children were, and that almost all classes have full attendance at these important points in the day.
Teachers have chosen these children to receive a Headteacher Award this week for their particular efforts…
Cranford Class: William – letters and sounds. He chose all the right sounds for the words he was writing; Poppy – always trying her best with letters and sounds remote learning
Burscott Class: Ariah – being brave after her dental operation; Scarlett – excelling in her reading this week
Stroxworthy Class: Ella-Mai – consistent hard work in all subjects and for great contributions to class discussions; Emily-Rose – consistently working really hard with all her online learning and a great story summary of Romulus and Remus.
Alminstone Class: Santino and Allan – perseverence in mastering the art of skipping with a rope
Ashmansworthy Class: Bobby – making good progress with algebra in maths this week; Alfie – writing a lovely diary entry based in the Second World War
Well done everyone!
Have a great weekend,
Matt Cole, Headteacher