We have good news! We can open up for Crew McLoughlin as normal on Monday.
We have looked again at our staffing for next week and we are able to open for Crew Mcloughlin; Miss McLoughlin will greet the children as normal.
See you all on Monday and thank you for bearing with us whilst we got sorted with staffing for this coming week (it was much quicker than we expected).
Miss Laing
FAO Remote Learners (home learners)
Dear Parent/Carer,
I would just like to update you on our remote learning offer in which we have in place for those learning from home during Lockdown 3.
As you are aware, we have been working with parents to seek their views regarding the offer and in addition we have sought views from the Teaching Staff team too.
We decided upon an approach called a synchronous approach, whereby the Teacher delivers to those in school and those at home via a live stream. We wanted to trial this in order to keep things as consistent as possible for both groups of pupils and hoped it would also support to meet the learning needs of both groups.
Although in the first week this seemed to go pretty well, it’s not felt as successful in the last week or so. Mrs Fox and Mr Longley, both Senior Leaders at the school shared that they were finding the approach difficult to get right for both groups of learners, therefore, I sought views from the rest of the team. Staff feel that they are struggling to provide the correct balance of learning for both those in class and those at home, as we have learned that pupils at home need a different balance to those in school. In particular, we understand that pupils cannot be expected to sit in front of a screen for most of the day, nor can we expect them to engage in the same way as those in school.
Therefore, in light of this, we have made some adaptations to our delivery model for those at home, in order to see if we feel this is a better suited model. We are going to trial this model starting from today and will seek feedback from parents and staff next week in order to gauge with this is a better model and make any changes we feel necessary based on feedback.
All pupils (Year 1- 6- we are working with EYFS slightly differently)
All pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 are expected to continue to sign in at their registration time via Google Classroom (Google Meet) and will take part in a crew session with their crew.
Children across Key Stage 2 will also be asked to check in throughout the morning with their online Teacher and will also be asked to check out with their Crew and Crew Leader at the end of the day. Therefore, they will still have lots of face to face interaction throughout the day.
KS1 (Year 1 and 2)
Year 1 and 2 pupils will access 3 x 30 minute live sessions throughout the day in order to cover their core subjects including RWI, Writing and Maths. These will be delivered by the Year 1/2 team- staff will be in touch regarding timings for your child.
KS2 (Year 3-6)
Pupils in Year 3 to 6 will be placed into a specific online learning classroom. There will be a Year 3 and 4 Classroom and a Year 5 and 6 Classroom. Therefore, after Crew registration (log into their current classroom), they will then be allocated a classroom for their learning. These Classrooms are being led by Mr Longley in Year 3 and 4 and Mr Gerrard in Year 5 and 6. Mr Gerrard will also be supported by Mr McCusker too.
The model may vary across KS2, as we are finding that the age range of the pupils is too wide to deliver a consistent model, however, it is likely that there will be some ‘live’ lessons, as well as the use of ‘modelled slides’ whereby the Teacher uses a pre-recorded voice over for the children to listen back to. In addition, sometimes, if it’s an ongoing activity or fairly independent, as we know many of our children are ‘doers’ and like to get on, there will be a task uploaded with an explanation for them to just get on and do.
Staff will be available throughout the school day to chat on the chat function or on a meet call with pupils to support with independent tasks etc.
We hope that this model is a better blend for our online learners and better meets their individual learning needs too.
As I shared, we are trialling this and in school, we are calling this our ‘Plan B’. However, it may need further tweaks, in which case, we need to know. I will send out a Google Form in the middle of next week, once we have given it a go for a few days running.
We will continually strive to get this right for everyone and thank you for your support during this time, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries or require any support.
Miss Laing
Headteacher
Final post for tonight. I’d just like to praise the following before we finish for today…
🌟I want to praise the amazing work of the CPS staff team today. They have worked so hard to identify pupils that are eligible for a place in school and have worked with parents to ensure that this is communicated quickly.
🌟I want to praise support staff for embracing the world of technology we now live in and getting devices ready for children to loan for the next 6 weeks.
🌟Staff have embraced the challenge of another last minute change and although some have some anxieties regarding their own health during this time, have ensured that that they put these aside and put the children at the forefront of all they do 🙌
🌟Finally I want to praise you at home for your patience in bearing with us today whilst we got our provision turned around after the late announcement last night. Also for persevering with some of the technical glitches this morning… we know it can be frustrating but really do appreciate your patience
Feeling proud 🤩
Thank you all 🙏🏻
Another lovely cake and shake meet up with some amazing pupils 🤩
Dear Parents/Carers,
During this academic year, we are having to look slightly differently at fundraising in order to help us to be able to ‘top up’ our school fund pot. This pot is used to purchase all of the things in which we do to enhance our curriculum such as the rewards including the attendance McDonalds and chocolate bars which children take home. We have also started to reward children for their Reading too and we like to reward children for their impeccable behaviour through the use of the HoWL-Opoly wheel. In addition, we have also been rewarding chidlren for their beautiful work with milkshake and cake each week which we all love.
However, this can become quite costly and unfortunately, the school budget does not cover these little added extras plus other bits and pieces throughout the year. We are really wanting to purchase new library books for children to be able to take home but at the minute, we do not have the funds for this.
This year, we have spent much more out of our school budget on staffing in order to provide smaller class sizes for the children’s return after Covid-19 but this does have a knock on effect in what we have left to spend on the enhancement of our curriculum. Therefore, we were hoping to be able to work with parents to continue to fundraise to support the school with little bits each half term.
In Autumn 1, we did the Halloween Dress up as we could not do the disco as a fundraiser. We asked for a voluntary contribution of £1 and will 309 pupils on roll, I hoped we would be close to the £300 mark…
Sadly, we only received £30 which means that only 30 people brought in their contribution despite nearly everyone coming in non-uniform. I am wondering if anyone simply forgot to bring this in (we know life is manic right now), if this is the case, please could you send this in with your child this week and we can add this to the pot. We understand that some parents/carers may have been made redundant etc and things may be a little challenging at present but we had hoped that most could look to find a spare £1 to support us, as collectively, this can make a big difference.
I have shared with Mrs Lythe that due to us not being able to do our Easter and Summer Fayre, we are needing to think of other fundraising ideas which are Covid safe. We would welcome any ideas from parents at home. Please feel free to add any ideas onto this post.
I want to be able to continue to provide our children with the little added extras plus purchasing some lovely new library books for children to take home.
Look forward to working in partnership.
Miss Laing
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome back. We hope you all had a lovely break, despite these very strange times. Times will continue to be very strange, but your child’s education is very important to us, as is their health and well-being. With this in mind, we are going to do everything in which we can in order to make school a safe haven for pupils during these times, where they can spend time with their friends and staff within their crews whilst making their learning fun and engaging, supporting them to be the best version of themselves.
I have put together a newsletter with some key information on for this half term. It is quite long, as I have tried to cover quite a few things, but I know that many parents are keen to receive regular updates in particular ways in which they can help at home.
Our main focus for the vast majority of reading for this half term is the following:
Keep safe everyone.
Miss Laing
I had the pleasure of celebrating handwriting twice this week due I missing it last week. They have worked so hard to improve on their handwriting during the last 8 weeks.
Everyone blew me away by their work hard attitude but these two young ladies have set the standard high in terms of beautiful work…
Freya B in Year 4 Crew Boswell blew me away with hers today. I will be sharing this with the rest of KS2 as it was amazing. But I was also blown away by Frankie Ms in Year 4 Crew Elmer. 👏🙌🏻 Keep up the beautiful work girls. 🤩
I have been thrilled to hear that so many parents have been in touch in order to find out how they can support their child at home in order to achieve the standard set.
Staff are going to be sending home learning tasks home for children to complete linked to what they need to achieve next.
Also for any children not on track, staff will be holding virtual meetings with parents when we come back after half term.
As I shared the other day, by working together we will ensure that we will get your child to their expected standard. 🌟
I’m going home this weekend feeling really proud of the way parents and school are coming together to support our children to ensure that they can be the best version of them self.
Have a lovely weekend. 🥰
I just wanted to let you all know that your child will be bringing home their first report for this year which shares some important information linked to their academic progress.
We have had lots of parents already asking staff in school for ways to help their child to catch up after Covid which has been amazing.
Whatever your child’s reports says, it’s still so early on in the year and every child is able to make rapid progress if we work in partnership. We are thrilled with the children’s attitudes to learning.
A letter is also coming home to just reiterate the impact that covid is having on some of our pupils academic success and in particular in Early Reading and Phonics.
We are confident that we are going to get all children caught up but we will need some help at home with practising and consolidation of Reading and also basic skills.
I know that together we are going to achieve great things for our children this year! 🤩
We are here to help in any way we can. Just let us know if you want anything clarifying or want any help understanding any home learning or ways to support with reading etc. Just get in touch. 🙏🏻
