Latest Update-Please Read
Dear Parents and Carers
I hope you managed to have some fun in the snow on the weekend-we had nothing in Bursledon, and I was very jealous of everyone's snowy pictures. I don't think we have been forecast any more, but am hopeful!
We have updated our Remote Learning Plan on our Parent Info page, to better reflect what is happening during this Lockdown. We have no news on when we are starting back and headteachers find out the same time as it is announced to everyone. Teachers and school staff are not on the priority list for the vaccine either. We are obviously hoping this may change at some time.
Change for Life have produced some shopping and meal ideas for families who may be budgeting more during this lockdown and the resources for this can be found here:
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/recipes/lunch/cheap-lockdown-lunch-ideas
There are some good ideas in there, with a costing plan to help. We are now using the Edenred voucher scheme for parents whose children qualify for Free School Meals. if you find your circumstances change during these few months and think you now qualify for the vouchers, please ring the school office and Mrs Palmer/Mrs Greenwood will talk you through how to apply for them from the government. We can then issue the weekly voucher which is worth £15, and the code is sent directly to your telephone.
Active 360, who run from Swanmore College, have secured holiday funding for children to provide activities, breakfast and lunch through the week of February half term. The eligibility for this is as follows:
- FSM.
- Vulnerable children (at schools discretion who they class as vulnerable and in need of funded provision).
- Young Carers.
- Children under help, i.e. with a social worker.
The funding will cover their place on our provision, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm each day, and include both breakfast and lunch.
The purpose of this funding is to provide access and opportunity to registered holiday activity programmes for low income families (FSM children), this includes provision of food and will be funded by the £220million national funding provided to local authorities to administer. In partnership with Swanmore College we will be applying for this funding when applications open this week, and will be in touch with you along the way to ensure your children can access our provision.
If you are eligible, please let us know if you are interested in this provision as soon as possible by Friday this week, so that we can inform Active 360.
They will be providing information on possibly providing care for critical worker children during this period too. I will let you know the details, when they let us know.
It was lovely to see nearly everybody accessing our assembly on Friday and I hear there are lots of excited children receiving their certificates in the post! Whenever a child demonstrates great learning, it can be in a skill or knowledge, they are awarded a learning star on their class chart. When it gets to 5 learning stars, they earn a certificate. Once a week, one child is picked for 'Star of the Week' and their super learning is also celebrated. Using Tapestry has been a great way of linking remote learning with school and we have even been receiving some videos! Keep them coming- we are really impressed with what many of you are achieving when juggling working at home and siblings.
If your children require more challenge, sum dog and TT Rockstars are designed to work at your child's ability and progress with them. There are also links on the Year Group Learning grid to extra lessons that are relevant to the topic and theme. We suggest, sticking to the timetable and sessions provided to ensure the breadth and consolidation are there. That way, when children return, there will hopefully be no 'gaps' in their learning.
Our 'Lateral Flow' Covid-19 self testing kits for school staff arrived today and all staff who work in our school will be testing themselves twice a week.. There are no plans to test children in primary schools, these are for adults only.
Keep up the fantastic learning-remember to let us know on Friday if a learning pack is required for the next week. Packs can be picked up after 9.10 am on Monday.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
