Home Learning and Return to School
Dear Parents and Children,
Possible Return to School for Some Pupils
I’m sure you will have heard that our government has plans for some children to return to school, possibly on the 1st June. The return date is still provisional and applies only to pupils who are in Year 6, Year 1, Reception and Nursery.
There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding this plan – I will keep you updated as and when we receive more information from the Department of Education.
In the meantime, I can tell you that:
Children of key workers who currently come to school will still be able to attend.
All children who attend will be taught in small groups of between 10 and 15 pupils. Children from one group will not be able to mix with children from another, even at break times, and will be taught by the same one or two members of staff.
We will adjust start and finish times to avoid any potential congestion at the school gates.
We will introduce clear routines for hygiene and movement around the school that reduce unnecessary contact and minimize any risk of contamination.
During this time, we understand that most pupils will still be at home and teachers will continue their current excellent work supporting home learning.
Home Learning
I know some of you have been worried about the amount of work being done at home and whether you’re getting it right. Our teachers provide a certain amount of work each day that all children should do. We are also providing additional opportunities for those children who are able to do more. It is not always easy to know how much is enough and when it’s OK to stop. Seesaw counts tasks that have been set but not completed – but please don’t be intimidated by this, no-one is expecting everyone to do everything!
Parents must never feel guilty if children have been unable to complete some tasks because of other constraints on your time. I know that some of you are working from home, some are struggling with sharing screen time with several children and some have developed your own home routines for getting through lockdown. This is fine. Cooking, gardening, going on walks, exercising, playing board games together are all excellent ways to spend your time – so is just doing stuff and chatting together.
I don’t think it’s a good idea for school to set a minimum time. If I told you that children should work for 90 minutes a day for example, then as soon as they were in the 92nd minute, they’d be complaining and telling you it was time to stop! Just remember, we should expect our children to do what they do as well as they can – but that doesn’t mean they have to do everything -nor should they do it all at once.
Every class teacher is available to answer any questions from children and adults and please, any uncertainty about workload and timings is exactly the sort of thing they can help you with. My advice, for what it’s worth, on a normal day with no other distractions, would be to read, to do the daily maths and English task to the best of your child’s ability (don’t expect them to work for too long without a break) and then to choose one or two other pieces of learning a day – these extra pieces might be finished that day or might stretch over several days. It would also help to make absolutely sure that junior children know all of their times tables and younger children all their number bonds to twenty.
I wish you all continuing good fortune over the next few weeks of lockdown and send you all my best wishes.
M Hanks
Headteacher