Dear Parents and carers

We are now almost two weeks in to having Year 6 pupils back in school, along with our keyworker groups. The children continue to be amazing and having spoken to many parents at the gate, I know that they are reminding you about social distancing as well.

I am sure that you are all aware by now that the government has now backtracked on the idea of other year groups returning to school before the end of the year. Whilst we would love to have your children in and see them, we do not have any further capacity to be able to take back any more year groups, whilst maintaining the required smaller class sizes and social distancing. I can assure you that the teachers and myself are as upset by this as you are, but we realise that we need to continue to follow guidelines and work together to keep our community safe.

Road crossing

The School Crossing Patrol (SCP) on Belle Vue Road will be resuming work on Wednesday 17th June 2020. They will be socially distancing and so please ensure that if you and your children use the crossing you also observe the social distancing rules.

Online Safety

As many of you continue to educate your children from home and those in school are still unable to converse directly with some friends, it is really important to keep revisiting how to keep safe online. As you are aware there is a full section dedicated to this in our parents’ section please follow the link below to access all of our current resources.

https://www.st-marys-jun.hants.sch.uk/page/?title=Online+safety&pid=68

This week I would also like to sign post you to one specific resource. Think U Know have created videos to support parents during Covid-19 and the closure of schools to many children.

You can find the videos here: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/presentations-for-parents/

Wellbeing

For those children who are now in school, we continue to provide Circle Time, although due to social distancing this is no longer in a circle! In our well- being section we have many resources to support you at this time, including how to contact other professionals should you need any further support at this time.

Please follow the link below to this section of our website:

https://www.st-marys-jun.hants.sch.uk/page/?title=Emotional+Well%2Dbeing&pid=326

Our weekly acts of worship are also a good starting point for both discussions and ways perhaps to bring a little perspective back to life as it is at the moment. Recently we have talked about the concept of ‘Best Bits Books’ that we use in school. This is a way to record something positive every day and also gives you a resource to look back on. Linked to this we asked for people to send in photos whilst out on their walks to focus on the amazing world that we live in and to look out for both the ordinary and extra-ordinary – thank you so much for all of the photos that I received back – they certainly cheered me up.

Next week, we will be focussing on Respect and our central them of ‘One Family’ reminding everyone of the importance of treating everyone as you would wish to be treated regardless of size, shape, colour, background, gender or religion.

Follow the link below to find all of this term’s acts of worship:

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

Thank you once again for your patience and understanding at this challenging time.

Best wishes,

Caroline Welch

Headteacher