Headmaster's Welcome
Dear Parents
As expected, this week has unfortunately been dominated by news regarding COVID-19 and the procedures that have been put in place by our Government, followed by meetings and preparations.
I appreciate that you will have received and will continue to receive numerous emails from school with details about home learning. This is, at the moment, the method of communicating with parents but we will also be contacting families by phone throughout the period off site to ensure that all is well at home and that the children are managing both academically and pastorally. These are unprecedented times and your patience and support throughout is much appreciated.
Whilst schools have been instructed to close from today, we will as requested by the Government, remain open to children of key workers. The Government has stated that the intention is to prevent transmission and therefore states, if at all possible, that children can should stay safely at home. As mentioned, this is to limit the chance of the virus spreading. Obviously our normal staffing levels have been affected and whilst the school is open, we will only be able to offer provision based on the resources we have available to us. Pupils will be supervised whilst at school, though not necessarily by teaching staff, who will very often be involved in maintaining the Home Learning programme. Pupils of key workers, who are unable to make alternative arrangements, will be given IT access to enable them to follow the same Home Learning programme as their peers.
On a brighter note, Junior 3 and Junior 4 children were able to perform the Easter Production to the rest of school on Tuesday. Thank you to Mrs Wildey, Mrs Paphitis and Mrs Olden for their contribution and to Mrs Hill for taking the photographs. It is hoped that a video will be available shortly for parents to view.
We celebrated St Joseph’s Day yesterday and all children enjoyed a picnic lunch and an afternoon cake provided by Mr Sansum and his team. It was not the day we had planned but St Joseph, our Patron Saint, was remembered. Prayers were offered and this seemed to have a particularly calming effect at this difficult time.
Although we were unable to hold the usual celebration assembly today, I visited each classroom this morning to deliver Stars of the Week, silver and bronze awards and celebrate birthdays. We even managed to have some pupils from some classes perform an impromptu song. I am pleased to report that all children enjoyed this new approach but I sincerely hope that we will not have to continue this procedure for an extended length of time and that you will be able to return and celebrate with your children.
Stars of the week were awarded to: Harriet, Isabel, Edward, Lexi-Jean, J2H, Tommy, Julia, Elena, Joseph, Merry, Lili, Helayna, Millie, Ajunee and Tom. Congratlations to all of them and to our Merit Certificate recipients. A special mention goes to Esme who received her Gold Certificate. Well done to all of our pupils!
Staff have worked incredibly hard preparing for the home learning and will continue to provide support for your children whilst they are not physically at school. There are some very useful resources that they will continue to research and provide children with. We look forward to keeping up to date with you and hearing from the children too. We are acutely aware that the pastoral aspect of this extended period of absence may be upsetting and unsettling for families. We will do our utmost to keep in contact and support you through this time.
We will be reviewing many aspects of our provision in light of the current situation. Please feel free to share any good ideas or suggestions with us as we are all on a learning curve together. Thank you for all your words of support and appreciation. There have been so many.
Have a lovely weekend with your families.
God bless
Mr Duigan
