Dear Parents and carers,

Our next note to keep you up to date and to let you know that you are all still in our thoughts and prayers, even though we cannot meet up face to face. This is such a strange time. Normally at this time of year we would be heading off to the church for end of term church services and we would all be wishing you a Happy and Safe Easter. Whilst we cannot do the former, I would still like to wish you a very Happy Easter from all of the staff at St Mary’s.

School remains open, on a skeleton staff, and will continue to be over the Easter holidays for the children of keyworkers who cannot be looked after at home.

Well done to all of you with the home learning that you are managing to do at home. I know that all of you want to do the best for your children but would wish to continue to stress that education as we know it has unfortunately ceased for the present time. Whilst continuing with learning is important, we would ask that you do not put yourself under undue pressure and ensure that there is a balance of leaning with more creative and fun ideas which can of course lead to excellent opportunities for learning as well as more enjoyment.

As the time we are spending away from family and friends increase it is to be expected that levels of anxiety, both for yourself and your children, may rise. Listening to a doctor on the television this week she had a few very sensible tips:

• Eat healthily – may be try some different fruit or vegetables and experiment with new recipes.
• Keep exercising – both inside and out and make the most of your garden, if you have one.
• Limit the amount of times you watch the news or look at updates on your phone or other devices
• Limit your use of social media – she was tongue in cheek about this – but seriously looking at other peoples supposedly perfect worlds is really not worth the added stress.
• Learn a new skill
• Find the positive in each day – the children are used to completing their ‘Best Bits Book’ a number of times a week and this is what it is all about. You might want to set up one as a family and if you get stuck remember the sun has been shining this week.

Remember that we do have a well-being section on our website with many more ideas for you to try.

As well as general learning opportunities, our website also has Easter ideas both for the whole school and in Year group pages.  I know that many children are wanting to share some of their projects with their teachers and we would love to see them. However, could we please ask that you do not share the teachers’ email addresses with your child and that all queries or examples of activities completed are sent form your email address and not your child’s. Teachers have been told NOT to reply to children in order to comply with our safeguarding arrangements.

Please continue to check the year group pages on our website regularly, (Parents-How to help your child…). Messages and activity suggestions are being added all the time.  Don’t forget to keep some of your rubbish in order to get those creative juices going. Consider at the moment not putting items straight into the recycle bin but rather use them for junk-modelling first.

I know that lots of you have continued to practice time tables with your children – just to let you know that the challenges are now available on the maths page in the ‘How to help your child…’ section of our website.

 

Finally, I would like to remind you to continue to follow the social distancing and self-isolating guidance from the government, so that we ensure that both the vulnerable and front line workers are kept safe.

Once again may I wish you all a very Happy and safe Easter from all of us. 

Best wishes

Caroline Welch