I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s been a long week this week! Even without the snow day on Monday. This weekend marks the end of January…which has been about 67 days long I think! It’s hard sometimes to keep going with the home learning; just remember that we are here to help in any way we can. We will never be able to provide exactly what everyone wants, but we hope that there is a balance provided so you can do as much as you are able, when you are able. I’ve said it many times before, and will repeat it again now, please don’t worry – do what you can, when you can, if you can. We have a responsibility in school to ensure each child is engaging with home learning, but also fully understand that ‘engaging’ for one family can look very different from another. There is a big difference between ‘not being able to do much’ and ‘can’t be bothered to do anything’. And we know there are very, very few people who fall into that second group. If you have a call from us, we are checking up that everything is OK – maybe your child hasn’t accessed the live catch-ups or hasn’t sent anything in. That doesn’t mean we think it is a problem, but, as I said previously, we have a duty to ensure each child is engaging with home learning in some way.

There’s a lot (again) to share with you this week, including some clarity about loading work into TEAMS and about lightning the load for you a little at home too.

Pedmore Thrive 4

Here’s the latest version of Mrs Robbins’ newsletter, focusing this week on ‘Be Curious’. It’s well worth a read with some simple ideas to help you at home and focus on wellbeing.

TEAMS Information

I just wanted to clarify what we are using TEAMS for in relation to home learning.

At the moment, TEAMS is being used for daily catch-up meetings and to upload specific pieces of work each week. THERE IS NO EXTRA WORK BEING SET THROUGH TEAMS. All the work that is set is being provided in the usual way, through the class pages on the website. TEAMS is being used to upload some pieces of that work (or to attempt a quiz in place of work set), instead of trying to send things in by email. At the moment, we are only asking you to upload the work set as an assignment or a quiz – nothing else. By doing it this way it makes it much easier for us to see who has submitted work and to have all the work in one place, making it easier for staff also. Again, if you are struggling don’t worry.

I know some people have had difficulty either logging in or forgetting log in details. Please let us know through hscontact if you are. Bear with us, we are working through the password changes/log in details daily but it does take a while and this week we have had nearly a hundred requests meaning we can’t respond as quickly as we’d like. If you are struggling with logging into RMUnify through the documentation we sent, try this link instead pedmoredudley.rmunify.com. This normally cures any issues. Again, a reminder that Safari web browser doesn’t like TEAMS and won’t let you access TEAMS through it. All other web browsers will, but it’s probably easier to download the TEAMS app (which you can get for free on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets).

Screen-Free Wednesdays

From next week, staff won’t be setting any work for Wednesday afternoons – we are calling this Screen-Free Wednesday. We would urge you to have a complete break from screens of any sort for the whole of Wednesday afternoon – just do something, anything else instead! Maybe some of the ideas from Mrs Robbins’ Thrive newsletters would be a good place to start!

February Half Term and 8th March Date

You are probably already aware that all schools will be closed to all children during February half term, as they would be normally. Obviously, this doesn’t affect many of you as you’re not in school anyway, but it does mean that school will be closed to children of critical workers also. There will be no home learning provided, or expected, during half term week. Half term begins on Monday 15th February.

As mentioned this week, schools will not be open to all children until at least the 8th March and only then if certain conditions are met around vaccinations. We have no more details than you do at the moment but we have been told we will all get at least two weeks’ notice of any changes. This would mean we should have more details just after half term. Whilst not ideal, it does give us a date to work towards, although, we have no idea if that would be full opening, or part opening, or phased opening etc.

Peace and Prayer Garden

Through a lot of support from the PTA, we have been making plans to redevelop our Peace and Prayer/reflecion area. Children had lots of ideas of what it should include/look like before lockdown, and we have started work on developing this area this week. Here is a starting plan of what it will look like when it’s finished. We would like to send a big thanks to everyone involved with the PTA for their support in this project – it will be an amazing resource for everyone to use when it’s finished.

Assemblies

From next week, the Amin weekly assembly that I do will be longer than usual – oh no I hear you cry! The reason for doing this, mainly, is to give you some extra video content for your child to engage with should you need a few ‘extra minutes’ at any point. There will be lots of content so it can be stopped/started whenever you like. The link will be in your child’s class documents each Monday.

Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Take Care & Stay Safe

Mr Dunn