Author: Mr Roundtree

We hope you had a good weekend. Hopefully, lockdown easing a little has meant you can catch up with more people. Like most Mondays, we’ve our Living and Learning ideas. Before that…

It’s the 14th week of home learning (that’s not counting Easter and the summer half-term holiday), and it’s the last week. Well done for getting this far – it’s been tough for so many people.

On Friday, we updated you with our plans for a staggered start and end to the school day. Tomorrow, we’ll update you with more plans for September in school.

Leeds City Council has produced a new checklist of things for us to consider as we prepare for Autumn for all children. The checklist has 36 sections and 282 items for us to consider, so you can be confident that by the time we’ve worked our way through it, our plans will be sensible and comprehensive.

Living and learning

Each week in school, we have a Living and Learning statement. I can reflect and look ahead is our statement this week. One of the Sphere Federation Health Leaders writes:

We’re nearing the end of the school year. Being able to reflect is one of our eight Rs for learning – we looked at these way back in the first half-term of the school year. Reflecting means to think carefully about something and in this statement refers to looking back and thinking about what has happened this year.

Whether you’re at home or at school, in this, the last week of the school year, we can reflect on the year’s successes, changes and challenges. Reflect together: use these prompts to discuss with your child.

• I feel I improved the most in…
• Something important that I learned this year was…
• My favourite subject this year has been…
• What I enjoyed learning the most this year was…
• Something I’m proud of accomplishing is…
• Something I’ve learned about myself is…
• Something I will miss is…
• I will never forget this year because…

Encourage your child to include a reason: My favourite subject this year has been… because…

We thought about changes and transition last week. The following prompts can be used to support your child to look ahead to their next school year.

• I’m excited about…
• I want to learn about…
• I’m nervous about…
• I think the hardest thing will be…
• I can’t wait for…
• I think I’ll be surprised about…

This activity allows children to reflect and look ahead by writing a letter to their future self.

A total of 27 drivers were caught speeding outside our school on Thursday night, as reported in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

At the start and end of the school day, if you do drive, then please drive slowly and carefully near our school.

At other times, respect our neighbours and all the other road users by doing the same: drive slowly and carefully.

Our final daily message this week comes from Mrs Weekes…

We’re really excited to finally be able to welcome back all our pupils to school – and to welcome some new faces, too! 

Autumn is for all children – we’re welcoming back all children on Monday 07 September 2020.

The new school year will have lots of things in place to keep making sure school is a happy and healthy and safe place to learn.

We’ve closely considered lots of different aspects to make sure the new school year goes smoothly. Of course, lots of things are subject to change – the government might update guidance and we’ll be evaluating how things go, ready to iron out any glitches as we go along.

Today, we want to let you know some important news about the start and end of the school day.

We need a way to make sure our 210 children can get in and out of school safely. As we ease out of lockdown, it’s still important to reduce ‘people traffic’ around school at these busy times.

We’re continuing to have staggered start and end times.

Doing this allows us to maximise learning time – something which the guidance from the Department for Education prioritises.

It’s important to note this is not a window of time in which to drop-off or pick-up so please be punctual. This will help us to keep our community safe by reducing congestion.

Where you have children in different classes, please bring all children at the earliest time and pick up at the earliest time.

For example, a family with a child in Y3, Y4 and Y6 would bring all children at 8.40am and pick all children up at 3.10pm. Siblings will be in the playground with an adult ready to be collected.

Entering and leaving school

The entrance will be the main gate. The exit will be the small pedestrian gate. This creates a one-way system.

Other things you can do to help

• If you’re waiting in the playground, please ensure your child stands with you and doesn’t mix with other children who may be in a different bubble. Children mixing across bubbles undermines our risk assessment.
• Where possible, just one adult should drop-off and pick-up. This reduces the number of adults on site.
• Whilst our playground has always had a community feel about it with people enjoying chatting in groups and catching up with others, during this time, we ask that adults swiftly enter and leave the school grounds.

We’ll keep updating you about school in September – Autumn is for all children back again!

Our daily message today includes a word from the Chair of Governors for Sphere Federation. Before that…

Sadly, during lockdown, incidents of domestic violence and other domestic abuse have increased quite significantly. Get support if this is happening to you or to someone you know.

We’re a few days into July, but it’s not too late to benefit from this Jump Back July calendar from Action for Happiness. This month, their focus is on how we can be more resilient in challenging times. Even taking just one thing on board each week might make a difference. Today’s suggestion is ‘Help someone in need and notice how that gives you a boost, too’. (My favourite so far this month has been the tip for Sunday 05 July – and, for me, that related to mowing the lawn!)

Finally, some words from Rachel Greenhalgh, our Chair of Governors…

As the academic year draws to a close, the governing body reflects on its work throughout 2019/20 and looks ahead to the coming year. This annual governance statement will shortly be published on our Governance page (in the Join In section).

Without exception, this past year has been the most challenging the education sector has experienced. As a governing body, we have responded by adapting our governance to cover essential business only and to ensure our school leaders have been supported.

At the end of last week, the Government published guidance for full opening of schools from September. School leaders are working hard to digest this new information, discussing numerous options in detail, creating plans, and managing risks for the safest possible return for all pupils and staff next term. Mr Roundtree has also initiated a working party with other school leaders and people from the Local Authority to develop well thought through plans for September. The governing body will ensure these plans and risk assessments are robust, and communicated to you as soon as possible.

Next year, the governing body will continue to ensure that all our statutory duties are met and focus on essential areas of governance whilst supporting school leaders as the Covid-19 situation evolves in the new academic year. Our immediate areas of priority remain the safety and wellbeing of all pupils and school staff, and we will continue to challenge school leaders on our vision that all the schools are a happy and healthy place to learn, and that all our children feel safe.

These past few months have been a very difficult time for most people and we are extremely proud of how all our school community has pulled together throughout the pandemic, and we thank you for all your support over the year. The Government has confirmed they are not asking schools to open over the summer holiday. We fully support this and agree ‘teachers, support staff and school leaders deserve a break, to recharge and rest’ (Department for Education daily email, 30.06.20).

We hope that you and your children have a happy and healthy school summer holiday and we look forward to seeing you all in September.

Tomorrow’s message is from the Head of School and provides the first key information about school in Autumn for all children.