6^th January 2021

Dear parents

It is with deep regret that we enter the second period of lockdown and acknowledge that this is a stressful time for everyone especially those trying to balance work and caring responsibilities with home-schooling. The guidelines from DE are changing daily but we will provide updates as the circumstances change. We aim to support your children through this period by building on the many positive aspects of the previous period of remote learning. To that end, we will:

• Provide fortnightly printed packs with clearly labelled Literacy and Numeracy work for each day and Nursery children will receive weekly activity suggestions from Miss McElduff;
• Share Reading books to specific year groups which will be exchanged each fortnight;
• Post weekly schedules of work and daily instructions on Seesaw;
• Support children through new concepts using tutorials and video messages, as appropriate;
• Be available each day from 9.00am to 3.30pm via Seesaw for online support.
• Respond to children’s work with praise and ideas for further learning.
• Support keyworker children who have no alternative provision and vulnerable children. These children should bring their learning packs and packed lunches to school every day. School transport for key workers’ children is available at present but this may change.
• Provide additional learning opportunities for children with Specific Literacy difficulties through the ‘Engage’ programme.

 We ask that parents:

• Collect the first set of learning packs from the school on Friday 8th January from the covered area in the playground. To facilitate social-distancing, we have allocated times for collection:

• Share your child’s progress at home via photos and videos;
• Return worksheets and reading books to the school at the end of the two-weekly block when collecting the next work pack;

• Don’t stress or worry if your child isn’t engaging well with the work sent home or if you feel we are bombarding you with work that you don’t have time to look at.
• Look after yourselves and minimize stress as much as possible.

In the interim, keep safe and thank you for your continued support in these most challenging times. If you would like further clarification on any aspect of the school’s provision, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Peter Cush

Principal