This is more like the weather we like…just remember your suncream!
There are a few things I’d like to update you on and a few things I’d like to share with you. There’s quite a lot so I apologise in advance if it takes a while to read through! Maybe sit in the sunshine with a cool drink and get comfortable first…
Firstly, Please Please Don’t Worry
If your children are anything like mine, they’ve completely had enough of all this ‘home learning stuff’. Many of you will have found that your child, or children, have switched off from home learning, or you are finding it increasingly difficult to motivate them. If this sounds like your situation, please don’t worry. I’ll say that again: please don’t worry. To put things into a little perspective: if your child has not been in school since lockdown began, and they don’t come back before the summer holidays, then they will have only missed around 5% of their total time in primary school. It doesn’t help when the Education Secretary makes comments like “we have a hugely ambitious catch-up plan to get children back to where they should be.” And “We will not allow an entire generation to lose out on their education or accept lower expectations for them.” I certainly don’t think ‘an entire generation’ will ‘lose out on their education’ because they’ve missed 5% of school time.
As a school, we are working on plans for how the curriculum will look from September and what our expectations will be of all of the children. First and foremost, we will be focusing on their mental health wellbeing and doing everything we can to make the return to school as anxious-free as possible. Once children are comfortable in school, learning will happen. Please be assured that each child will be treated as an individual as they will all have had different experiences whilst being away from school. They will, over time, be assessed as to where they are and learning will continue from that point. That’s what schools do – that’s what we’re good at. No child will be expected to be at a pre-determined point in their learning as soon as they return.
Thank you for all of the work you’ve put in, and continue to put in, with your children at home. If that has diminished, or stopped, then please don’t feel guilty or worried. Remember, it’s only 5%.
Update on Current Situation in School
Virtually all our groups in school are full, keeping to the 2m social distancing guidelines. Our Key Worker group has grown significantly, and we are full to capacity in this group also. After yesterday’s announcement, where certain aspects of the leisure and hospitality industries can open again, and the social distancing guidelines are being reduced to 1m from 4th July, we are still awaiting guidance from the government as to what that means for schools. As soon as we have any further details, we will share them with you. This includes any information about what will be happening with schools over the summer holidays, if anything at all!
We are trying to ensure that every child has the opportunity to return to school, for 1 day, before the summer holidays. We will send out more details on this over the next week once we have finalised plans. Below is the message we have sent out today to the parents of children in Year 6, Reception and Year 1. Please be aware that none of this affects the Key Worker group – the situation remains the same for those children.
“Dear Parents/Guardians
As the government no longer intend to bring back further year groups by the end of the Summer Term, we are now very conscious of the impact of this for our children and the transition that they face moving into their next year group. Therefore, we have decided to cease the current provision for Year 6, Year 1 and Reception a week earlier than previously anticipated. This will mean that their last day in school will be Friday 10thJuly 2020. This then allows us to invite all Year groups (including Year 1 and Reception) to visit school at some point during the last week of the Summer 2020 term in order for them to have some transition with their new teacher. We have not finalised any plans as yet to how this will look as we are continuing to await further guidance from the government with regards to plans for schools, including social distancing plans. We will continue to send further information as soon as any decisions have been made.”
Video guide for live streaming from ThinkuKnow
This will help parents and carers to understand why children and young people enjoy live streaming platforms and what they can do to help keep them safe whilst using them. Here is a the new video guide from Thinkuknow: thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
Also, this new Parent Info article explores how Tik Tok works, the parental controls available, and how they can help their child to stay safer on the platform: tiktok-what-parents-need-to-know
We Have Been Asked to Share This Study With You
“As part of our unified response to Covid, we developed an eSurvey to capture perspectives from parents & legal guardians of school children who are receiving distance learning. Specifically, we wanted to know how the lockdown is affecting the mental health of parents & their school children- with a focus on feelings of social isolation & loneliness.
The short (10 min) survey can be accessed via PC or mobile: https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4IA3e7Kqj2GUWUd
We have ethics clearance for the study here, and all responses are anonymised – though we give respondents the opportunity to declare if they are interested to be contacted for brief telephone/video interview at end. It would be splendid if you would disseminate to your network (parents & legal guardians of children attending your school) as we hope this survey would give parents an opportunity to reflect on a contemporary issue that will be in the headlines for some time to come.”
Some Further Resources To Help You At Home
Some further links here which you may find useful to share with your child(ren), all online guides:
14 Ways To Be Kind Online
Link
What Parents Need To Know About PS4
Link
What Parents Need To Know About Zoom
Link
How To Maintain Good Mental Health During Isolation
Link
As always, Take Care and Stay Safe
Mr Dunn