☀️ Summer 2 Update
All Saints C of E
Dear Parents / Carers,
We hope that you and the children had a safe, restful and enjoyable, as best as is possible under the present circumstances, two week half term break. I think everyone is demonstrating incredible levels of effort and stamina, but it is important to remember to pace ourselves and take breaks when we can. That is certainly the message we have shared between ourselves as a staff even with the huge amount of work that has gone into preparing the school for reopening, continuing to look after the children of critical workers during half term as well as writing reports to parents.
Annual Reports to Parents
The annual reports to parents for the academic year 2019 - 2020 have been adapted to reflect the fact that pupils stopped attending school on Friday 20th March 2020, and for a significant amount of time due to the measures taken by the government to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Therefore we are producing a shorter report for each child for the following reasons:
We have not been able to cover the whole curriculum for each year group.
Any assessments of the children's attainment are now out of date and we cannot reliably assess remotely.
Any learning that has taken place at home is extremely hard to measure, as is trying to account for how much support the child has received.
We are in the middle of a great deal of work adjusting to remote learning, opening for the children of critical workers and planning for a reopening of the school in the near future.
We do not fully know which children will be returning before the end of the year and therefore do not feel there is enough time to assess the children and then produce a report in such circumstances.
Any learning that did take place before the end of the year is unlikely to be firmly retained and therefore will very likely need reteaching next year anyway.
For these reasons we are providing you with a summary of the child’s learning up to Friday 20th March and this will cover:
Behaviour and relationships with others.
Attitudes to learning.
Summary of strengths and areas for development at the end of the first two terms.
Overall attainment and progress summary for each subject up until Friday 20th March (where possible).
Please bear in mind that these judgements are not accurate now, nor will they be at the beginning of the next academic year. We know that in normal circumstances that this would be far from satisfactory but we believe that we are providing you with a snapshot of your child in March and that hopefully we will see the children safely back in school soon and be able to provide you with more detailed information about your child in the next academic year.
Arbor Parent Portal
We will need to share reports digitally this year (as far as possible) and we believe the best way for us to do this will be by using the Arbor Parent Portal. We already have 40% of the children with a parent logged in to the system which is fantastic. Please see my previous post on how to access Parent Portal to ensure you all have the information you need about your child. The aim is to get all families signed up to the Parent Portal so that you have even better access to your child’s details as well as easier communication with school. We are in the process of setting up payments which will help you to pay for meals etc without the need to come into school. Click the link below.
Home Learning
For the final half term of the academic year we will be continuing to use Google Classroom, the other online platforms (Spelling Shed, Mathletics etc) as well as the resources available in the Learning Zone, Hobby Zone and Relaxation Zone. We do not want to make any further changes unless we absolutely have to so that everyone has the time to develop their understanding of how to get the best out of these resources. The teaching staff have completed another training webinar about Google Classroom and fed back many of the issues raised by families including how best to edit and submit work. Please email us if you experience any difficulties with any of these resources. We are very conscious that the children have not attended lessons with their teacher for approaching 3 months and some are not scheduled to return yet, so there is a real need for all children to be able to access and complete home learning. As we have more staff returning to school from today, there are more opportunities for us to provide other forms of resources if online learning really isn’t possible. We would like to keep as much of the learning in Google Classroom for Years 1-6 so that there isn’t a duplication of work for staff which stops them from doing very important work in school. Again, please let us know if you need any assistance.
Learning in School
We are very aware that Google Classroom is a fantastic solution to a challenging problem but it is far from ideal. This is especially true for children in EYFS. When Nursery and Reception return to school, the teachers will be planning and using more appropriate resources for these younger children. Therefore, the use of Google Classroom for these classes will be significantly reduced and more learning packs will be available to be completed at home which will be a close match to what is provided in school. The teachers would not be able to plan and prepare for two different types of teaching, so for EYFS the home learning resources will closely match the classroom provision, and for the other classes, what the children complete in school will be similar to that provided on Google Classroom for children at home. They will however be able to receive more instruction and feedback from the member of staff leading the ‘bubble’ in school.
Website
The website continues to be developed and there is now the dedicated page for COVID-19 which contains:
Reopening plans and risk assessments
Photographs of the school as we prepare for reopening
Frequently Asked Questions - please submit any question you may have and we will share our answers
Information for parents and children
Links to official sources of information
Support links
Please check the page regularly for the most recent information and updates.
Please email the school if you have any worries, questions and queries as it is very likely that someone else has the same feelings as you and we want to do our best for the welfare of everyone, but particularly the children at this difficult and unprecedented time.
Thank you for your continued support.
