Letter from Mrs Andrews 15/02/21

15^th February 2021

Dear Parents/Guardians,

It’s hard to believe that we’re already five weeks into this term.  When the school closure was announced in January I certainly didn’t think we would still be on online learning heading into the midterm. Online teaching and learning has been challenging for everyone so I would like to thank all the school community for the tremendous efforts put in over the past weeks. The engagement from our wonderful pupils has been excellent in general with regular submissions to teachers via ClassDoJo. I commend all parents for your wonderful work in supporting your children especially as I’m sure many of you are also juggling working from home with childcare and home responsibilities. I thank all staff members for the great work being done on a daily basis in preparing work, recording videos, correcting submitted work, hosting live zoom calls and keeping contact with pupils and parents. We would much rather be in the classroom teaching the children and interacting with them but we can but do our best to support them and you in these challenging times.

This week is half term and as school was scheduled to be closed for two days there will be no online classes on Thursday and Friday. In a change from the routine work of the past five weeks teachers have designed a different programme of work for the first three days of the week. Monday is Monday Madness, Tuesday is Pancake Day and Wednesday is No Pencil/Pen Day. We hope that the children will enjoy the activities and engage as best they can in the variety of assignments planned. I encourage everyone, children and parents alike, to take a well- earned break on Thursday and Friday. Staff too need to take a break and so will be unavailable for communication online from Wednesday afternoon until the following Monday. We will return to the normal schedule of work on that Monday, 22^nd February.

As of the moment, there is still no clear indication of when schools will reopen. We will continue to use our online platform, ClassDoJo, to engage with the children until such time as we return to the classroom. It is my fervent wish and that of all the staff that our return be as soon as possible. In the meantime please continue to do the best you can to support the children. Remember we can all only do our best on any given day. You can continue to communicate with staff through ClassDoJo or on individual email accounts all of which are on school website. 

As always I thank you all for your continued support. Keep safe.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Andrews

(Principal)