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Handy Tips for Home Learning

Mon 23 Mar 2020 Mr Chadwick

The National Online Safety Group have provided some great help sheets to help Parents and children stay safe when home learning.

10 Top Tips:
Remote Learning for Parents and Children

Remote learning can be a great way to continue learning outside the classroom, particularly in difficult circumstances. However the idea of remote learning isn’t always straightforward and there can be a number of factors that need to be considered. That’s why we’ve created these guides to help parents and carers and children in getting the most out of their remote learning experience.

School Closure

Fri 20 Mar 2020 Mrs Brown

Dear Parents,

You should by now have had notification on the school app and received an email with the following information:

Dear Parent / Carer

Important information regarding student attendance – from Monday 23 March 2020

Firstly, thank you for the very supportive approach that you have taken during these exceptionally challenging times. We all need to do what we can to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. That is why the government has given clear guidance on self-isolation, household isolation and social distancing. The most recent scientific advice on how to further limit the spread of COVID-19 is clear. If children can now stay safely at home, they should, to limit the chance of the virus spreading.

It is important to underline that schools and colleges remain safe places for children. But the fewer children making the journey to school, and the fewer children in educational settings, the lower the risk that the virus can spread and infect vulnerable individuals in our society.

Whilst we are formally closed from Monday 23 March onwards, we will continue to support your child, both academically and pastorally and our school remains at the heart of our community. We value their education and we will be emailing work packs and many resources for your child/children to access at home. They will also be taking home today an exercise book and reading book.

Special opening from Monday 23 March for the children of key workers and those entitled to specialist support

Key workers

At midnight, the government published a list of those parent / carers who are entitled to send their child to school. The link below provides specific details.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

The list includes the following; Health and Social care, education and childcare, key public services, local and national government, food and other necessary goods, public safety and security, transport, utilities, communication and financial services.

We are grateful to all of these key workers who are looking after us all and keeping our essential services going. In return, our superb staff team are also going to ‘step up to the plate’ and provide provision for your child / children. It is critical to note, however, that this provision should only be taken up if there are no other alternatives (see guidance).

The government has asked parents/carers to keep their children at home, wherever possible, and for schools to remain open only for children who absolutely need to attend:

Should you need to take up this provision, please reply to the email with details of how you meet the critical criteria as soon as possible (no later than 2pm) If you have already contacted us, the guidance has now changed so we will make contact with you shorty.

Specialist Support Provision

Those children with safeguarding and welfare needs, including those children on child in need plans, on child protection plans, ‘looked after’ children, young carers, disabled children and those with Education Health and Care plans are also able to attend school. However the same rules apply, if you can keep your child/children cared for at home then please do so.

The Secretary of State has made it clear that this is an entirely different role for schools and school staff. It is primarily about care, not education. Staff are having to distance themselves from their own families because they are following these guidelines in order to provide this service. Please do all you can to protect our school community.

As always we will keep St Mary’s community in our prayers and we pray that we will have us all back together soon.

Kind regards

Mrs Raynor

Headteacher

Yr4 enrichment homeworks

Wed 18 Mar 2020 L Johnson

Children have been working very hard at home with their enrichment homework tasks. Here are fantastic examples of:

• writing a set of directions in french

• Ancient Greece mythical creature research

• modern day Greece travel advertisement

• place value maths game

Well done and thank you so much for handing in some quality pieces.

Yr3/4 Afterschool Multi-skills club

Wed 18 Mar 2020 L Johnson

During this week’s session, we focussed on Tri-Golf. We demonstrated how to hold a golf club before using the technique to hit a golf ball over different distances. We finished with finding our own golf handicap score ready for the next session.

Tree Planting At Wardley Hall

Tue 17 Mar 2020 Mr Chadwick

Some members of the Eco Council joined forces with Steve Burrows, Trees for Life and other schools at the Laudato Si project at the home of Bishop John in Wardley Hall.

The project is part of a wider scheme to plant new trees from the Lancashire Coast all the way across the North to the East Coast near Hull. The improtant part for us was to help start the Memorial Forest and Fruit Orchard down at the hall.

Luckily the weather was great with not a spot of rain and the team had a quick lesson on how to dig, mulch and plant properly before covering the roots with protection from the frost and pesky squirrels.

Hockey Stars

Tue 17 Mar 2020 Mr Chadwick

Year 3 enjoyed a brilliant PE lesson with Mr Worrall. They showed great teamwork, movement, handling skills and most of all it looked like loads of fun. Have a look at the video on twitter or in the Video Resource Centre of the website.

2020 Big Battery Hunt

Tue 17 Mar 2020 Mr Chadwick

The 2020 Big Battery Hunt Starts Here!

Our Eco champions launched our Big Battery hunt in school last week and we have been amazed by how many batteries we have already collected! Our big bin was so we had a collection today and we have more and more batteries coming in every day!

We are so proud of our Eco champions promoting and being fantastic role models, encouraging others to bring their batteries in! Well done!

This year there are prizes on offer for the schools that collect the most batteries. On average a person uses 11 batteries per year but surely in this day and age that figure should be higher!

Start and keep collecting St Mary's...

Year 2 Computing - Creating Pictures

Fri 13 Mar 2020 Mrs Murphy

Year 2 have been using Purple Mash to create pictures and illustrations. They have explored different backgrounds and tools, created symmetrical images and added text to describe their pictures.

Year 2 Class Assembly - Our Journey Through Late

Fri 13 Mar 2020 Mrs Murphy

This morning our Year 2 class turned the assembly hall in to a plane to demonstrate their Journey through Lent. They explained how Lent is a time when we are on a journey with Jesus; trying to be more like Him by being kind, helpful, charitable and praying for others more. They inspired the whole school with the story of The Good Samaritan and reminded us that even when the journey gets tough, and hits turbulence, we can turn to God for strength.