Today has been a very manic Monday! We have welcomed all children back after not only half term but isolation as well. The children have worked extremely hard and have been a real credit to the school today.
They have reset their crew expectations and have spoken about how we can all work together to improve our daily HOWL score. We discussed working hard and getting smart during this last term within year 2!
Well done everyone. Bring on the half term and the great learning we are going to be experiencing.
It has been brilliant being back in the classroom with all of the children today. SO many smiling, happy faces! We’ve really enjoyed making our base for our castle today. We had to use paper mache to make it nice and strong. It made our hands really sticky though! 🌟
I hope you are all having a lovely break with the children. I am just starting to plan for our return from Monday next week.
When we return after Easter we are going to trial the following times for start and finish:
Monday to Thursday:
Start: Children to arrive in a ‘trickle fashion’ between 8.25 and 8.35. Doors will close just after 8.35. Please ensure that your child is on time. We had a number of pupils arriving late and it adds pressure to the admin team.
Finish: Doors will open from 3.00 and again, children to be collected in a ‘trickle fashion’ between 3.00 and 3.10. Children should be collected by 3.10.
Friday:
Start: As above
Finish: Doors will be open at 12.45 and children to be collected between 12.45 and 1.00pm. Childcare for working parents will continue to run until 2pm for those parents who have signed up for this.
Unfortunately, the only way for us to cover Teaching Staff planning time is by finishing slightly earlier on a Friday. In terms of cover, our staff team will be used to cover in another class if it really is needed. Due to having 15 staff out at the same time, we just don’t have enough staff to cover without moving staff about. We hope you understand the decision to continue with this for the next half term.
Please may we remind parents that in order to reduce the volume of traffic on site at any time, parents should arrive during the times outlined above and should not use the playground to wait for long periods of time. This was done really well before Easter- thank you for this.
Finally, may we remind parents that when dropping off/picking up, parents should come unaccompanied (you can bring younger siblings though). But we want to continue to avoid having large groups of adults on our site and finally, please remember to wear your face covering unless your are exempt.
Please see post below regarding testing for families with school age pupils if they wish. This is not compulsory but is on offer for families who wish to utilise the service.
This is not something that is going to be managed by school, therefore, please may we ask that you only contact school about this if you cannot access the guidance required elsewhere.
As you are aware, we are joining the XP Trust very soon- we are hoping this will be no later than the 1st June 2021.
When we consulted with parents back in the Autumn, we had shared that we would follow the Doncaster Holiday pattern for 2021/2022. However, since then, the XP Trust have adapted their calendar and the two are now very much aligned.
Now that this is the case, I’m writing to parents to propose that we align our calendar in the new academic year rather than waiting for another year.
However, you will notice that one of the differences with the calendar is that the XP Trust have 10 staff days (INSET days) opposed to the Local Authorities 5 days. These staff days would be an opportunity for our staff to work with staff from the other XP Schools. One of the ways in which the days would be utilised would be to allow staff to work collaboratively in order to plan even better expeditions. Expeditions take a considerable amount of time to plan so the additional 5 days have been welcomed from our staff team who are working hard to provide a high quality curriculum within the time given. In addition, all trust CPD will also take place on these days, and again, CPS would love to be a part of this from the start if possible. I hope that parents can see why having the additional 5 days to work with the trust would be a fabulous opportunity for us as a school in 2021/2022.
I’ve attached the XP calendar, along with the Doncaster one. Hopefully, you’ll see that the two are very similar so hopefully this won’t cause too much of an inconvenience for parents. However, if this calendar change would effect you, please let me know by completing the Google Form as this will help me to make a decision as to when to switch calendars- 2021/2022 or 2022/2023.
Please could any feedback be provided by Monday 12th April so that we can then finalise our calendar for 2021/2022 and share this with parents and carers. Please find link attached below along with the calendars.
What a super Friday to end our Spring term! Today, we finished our final assessment. I saw lots of determined faces during the test, which was great to see. Then we finished our plot point for our persuasive writing. I am happy to say that the challenge of increasing our pace was met – it was much better Crew Gerrard! Our HoWL Heroes are:
Work Hard: Kian for improving his handwriting during our English session – you concentrated so hard! 😁
Get Smart: Jolie for a superb plot point that was full of persuasive language! 😃
Be Kind: Skyler for helping out myself and Mrs Gilliland all day! 😄
Our HoWL average for today was 3.1 and was 2.9 for the week overall!
Have a lovely break Crew Gerrard and lets hope for a more settled summer term! 😆
WOW! I cannot believe that we have reached the end of Spring term! It definitely has not come without its challenges but as a Crew we have achieved a lot since Christmas. Have a well earned rest and a lovely Easter break and I cannot wait to see all your smiley faces in two weeks time! 😁🌼🐰
Star moment
Star moment today was spending time as a crew together, it has been lovely that we have been able to spend the day in each others company without the pressures of learning.
Average is: 3.6!
Our Weekly HoWL target is: 3.0
How can we develop this tomorrow?
Crew Marsh’s target for tomorrow is to make sure that they are putting their hands up if they need something, we are starting to get out of our seats again far too much.
