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Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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29th January 2021
Fri 29 Jan 2021Dear parents & guardians
We have reached the end of another busy week. The combination of snow/ice, remote learning, in school provision and Lateral Flow testing was quite the challenge on Monday morning but one we have met with a smile.
We are pleased with how the children are engaging and how hard they are working and I hope that our Wellbeing Wednesday provided a break from routine at the right time. Whether the children had a quiet day or one full of adventure, it is an important reminder that we need to look after ourselves.
I have said many times that given the situation we are in, our family health and wellbeing is the most important thing and what you and your children achieve on top of that will vary. This situation was not expected or imagined and as parents I think we need to think 'how do we want our children to remember this time?' Our children will treasure many small moments that may on the surface feel less important. Amongst the busyness of work, learning and all our jobs as parents, I hope you find time to enjoy those little but special moments over the weekend.
1st February is National Children's Mental Health Week and there will be learning activities linked to this. I have also added a wellbeing booklet to the parent support page of the website. Mrs Combe has put the booklet together for parents and it is full of wonderful ideas and activities.
I wish you all a restful weekend and would like to say thank you to you all for the support you are giving; it is wonderful to see the learning across the whole school. I was also so impressed that between us we ran/walked 178.5 miles last week! We are very proud of the children.
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone
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22nd January 2021
Fri 22 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Guardians
By seeing the children in ‘meets’, seeing their learning and the chat following my daily videos, I still feel in touch with the children. I wanted to take the opportunity to be in touch with you.
The staff are working incredibly hard and I hope you feel supported with the home learning. We understand that this time is difficult for so many of us, juggling work, learning and everything else that family life brings. Do keep in touch with us via Google Classrooms and/or Tapestry and the finchparents email account. Hopefully the staff phone calls are helpful too.
There is so much to celebrate with learning that is going on everyday whether that is on or off the curriculum. It is on those hard days that we must step back and reflect on the situation we are in. We would never have imagined this and we are all trying our best which is all we can do. What is important is our health and with the national figures as awful as they are, I urge you to treasure your family and know that your best effort with home learning is good enough.
We have some key worker and vulnerable children at school and they are completing the work from Google Classrooms as well. I wish to thank our key worker parents for the wonderful job they are doing. The safest place for our children and therefore families, is at home. I know that many Key worker families are able to keep their children at home with them which is for the best and will help towards keeping everyone safe. We have, over the past 3 weeks, had 3 members of our in-school community access tests for Covid-19 but thankfully they have been negative.
From Monday 25th January staff will begin Lateral Flow Testing twice a week, this will hopefully detect asymptomatic staff and is a positive step forward. Whilst it is a lot to initiate, I know staff feel reassured by the opportunity to test and I hope feel safer as a result.
This Monday I challenged the children to run as many miles as they could before next Monday and I am so proud to see how many children have joined in. On Monday, I will post my morning video and the children can comment with their mile totals. We will then see if any of the children have run more miles than Mr O’Reilly.
Our physical and mental health need to be a priority and to emphasise that and to give the children a change from the daily learning routine (and parents), we are planning a special day of wellbeing learning for Wednesday this coming week. I hope the children look forward to it. I will share the learning for the whole school on Google classrooms and Tapestry at 3.30pm on Tuesday.
In the meantime I wish you all a safe and relaxing weekend
With kind regards
Jacquie Vanstone