Dear Parents,

Although we do need the rain, I hope that over the weekend it can stay away during the day so we can enjoy our outdoor time! Having to dig out the raincoats and umbrellas has felt strange this week after two months of glorious sunshine.

This week we have welcomed back our Year 6 pupils. Thank you to their parents who have prepared them so well to return. Once again they have shown resilience in unusual times and have adapted to the new normal at school so well. They have come in each morning smiling and ready to learn. They have been really sensible in maintaining social distancing within their own class and have adapted to different break and lunch time with maturity. We are really proud of them all.

Thank you to the parents of Year 6 and our Key Worker groups who have taken on board all of our systems and have stuck to their start and end times and used the different entrances, this has allowed us to maintain social distancing at busy times of the day. Please can I ask that you try to avoid congregating before or after drop off and collection on the narrow paths around school and by the tree on Milkingpen Lane as it can then be difficult for families coming for the next drop off or collection time to pass safely.

Year 3 and 4 teachers continue to put work up onto the website for pupils to be working on at home and they still welcome receiving messages with photographs or copies of children’s work. Mrs Parson’s has added work for Year 5 and Mrs Lillywhite is uploading home learning for those year 6 pupils not in school. We have archived all home learning up until half term on the website so hopefully you can easily find the current work, but do feel free to still look at things that we previously uploaded. Again please do send class teachers any work your child has been doing and if you are having any difficulties please do email your child’s teacher and the other teachers in the year group for support. Teachers have begun contacting families on the phone this week and we hope to speak to all families every few weeks to touch base, but please do contact us if you need anything, don’t wait for that phone call.

Home learning can be found on our website using this link:

https://www.st-marys-jun.hants.sch.uk/page/?title=How+to+help+your+child%2E%2E%2E%28inc+Covid%2D19+home+learning%29&pid=67

Please also look at our AoW for Monday though the above link as there is a lovely activity we would love children to do based on the latest art work by Banksy that has been put on display at Southampton Hospital. All the details can be found on the AoW PowerPoint for 08.06.2020.

https://www.st-marys-jun.hants.sch.uk/page/?title=Acts+of+Worship&pid=327

The DfE have updated their guidance on what parents and carers need to know about schools and other education settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak to include information on the curriculum, after school activities, repeating a year for pupils, transport and keeping children safe online. They have also amended information on whether it is compulsory to send pupils to educational settings and education for children at home.

The guidance can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

 

We have been asked about the likelihood of more children returning to school before the summer holidays, as I have said before unfortunately schools are not given any more information than the general public get through the government briefings, we will of course keep you updated on anything that we can.

Library Books

We are aware that many of you have school library books at home. We would like to start the process of safely returning these to school to allow staff to stock check and to have the library ready for use when we can. Next week we will have a plastic box outside each of the entrances for Year 6 and Key worker pupils to return any books they have at home. We do ask you to look really carefully no bookshelves and under beds for any that you may have forgotten you had!

We will also have a box outside the main entrance for families in other year groups to return books into during the day while out on your daily exercise. Please do avoid the start and end of the day as this is a busy period for drop off and collection.

Finally, I would like to thank you for the positive comments we have received from parents whose children have returned to school this week and for the messages of thanks that teachers have received over email or on the phone.  The last few months have been a challenge for us all and we do appreciate these messages.

Best Wishes

Caroline Welch

Headteacher