east wichel community primary school and nursery ......lockdown learning please follow the link...
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Dear Parents/Carers We hope that you are all safe and well. It has been an interesting and
challenging term and we are so grateful to you all for your support
during this time!
Re-opening in September
The Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, announced the government’s plans for all
children and young people to return to full-time education at the start of the Autumn Term.
We are so excited to re-open and welcome your lovely children back to school!
To be clear, unless there is a change to government or Public Health guidance, all children will return
to school on Wednesday 2nd September. There will be wrap around care and school meals and the
children will be expected to return in full school uniform. Children will also need their own pencil
cases with the following items; pencil, coloured pencils, ruler, pencil sharpener, a pair of children’s
scissors, glue stick.
Please ensure all items are named. These will stay in school for your child’s use only.
The publication of supporting guidance sets out a range of measures to protect children and staff,
including advice on how we can minimise contact and mixing. I am working with senior leaders,
governors and the local authority, to develop a reopening plan for September.
We will share our risk assessment on the school website and communicate with you all as soon as
we have all systems in place and everything worked out. School will look and feel a little different
but we will make it work together and our highest priority will be safety.
Further details will follow before the end of term.
Warmest regards
Mrs Paula Phillips
East Wichel Community Primary
School and Nursery
Newsletter Term 6 2020
Covid-19 Lock Down Special
Catch-up and Well-being:
Please be reassured that children are actually incredibly resilient and we will work so hard here, as a
team, to deliver any additional support needed – including any catch up and/or support for any
mental health well-being issues that may arise or have arisen. We are already planning for these
things now.
Some children may struggle to re-adjust to school life – please don’t worry - this is completely
normal and to be expected after such a long period at home. They may, for example, come home
and say ‘I don’t like school or I don’t like my teacher!’ However, in most cases, it will actually be
because a school day is full on and they will be so tired. We have noticed a significant dip in stamina
from those who have returned to school – learning can be hard! Imagine if you were going to learn
Japanese, it would require a lot of effort, patience over a long period of time and there would be
frustrations especially if you have not studied as much for a while or you were used to getting 1-2-1
support as opposed to being in a larger class.
Please try not to be anxious about this as children pick up on any anxieties. Remain calm and
positive but also firm, reassure your child as much as possible and contact us so that we can offer
support and work together.
Always remember that we want the same thing as you - happy, safe children who are learning! If we
work together, we can achieve this.
If any child or parent is unduly anxious or worried about returning to school in September then Mrs
Hartridge is available to chat to them. Parents can contact her via phone, 01793 695134 or email,
visit her page for further contact details (click here).
Reports
You should have received your child’s report and details of their new classes and teachers on
Monday 13th July. Please do get in touch in the autumn term to arrange a telephone call
appointment with the class teacher if you wish to discuss the report further.
Class Organisation and Staffing September 2020
We are very excited to announce that one of our existing lovely teachers, Mr Josh Gray, will be the
Key Stage 1 team leader in September. He will be based in Sweden Class with Year 2 and I know that
he is looking forward to getting to know all of the children and families in Key Stage 1 in the autumn
term.
Nursey Ireland Mrs Fabian
Reception Wales Mrs Biddiscombe Scotland Miss Francis
Year 1 France Miss Thompson Spain Miss Gough
Year 2 Greece Miss Abraham Sweden Mr Gray
Year 3 India Mrs Ribbins and Mr Sawyer
Gambia Mrs Riddell
Year 4 China Ms Matthews Egypt Miss Wilkinson
Year 5 Japan Miss Hardy Mexico Mr Jackson
Year 6 Brazil Mrs Alabi New Zealand
Mr Webb
Lockdown Learning
Please follow the link below to see a summary of lockdown learning at East Wichel.
Our response to the Covid 19 Lockdown
We aim to develop and add to this over the summer to also include year group examples and embed
the videos so that they can be viewed.
Thank you so much everyone who has taken the time to give us feedback about the home learning.
It was received by the team with universal pleasure and pride and has encouraged us and spurred us
on to continue to develop what we do so that we can be the very best for the children.
We have collated some of this to share with you further on in our newsletter .
In September, we will continue to use Class Dojo. It has been such a successful and easy to use
platform and should we need to go into any localised lockdowns, we will be able to pick right up
from where we left off with this. Children who haven’t previously used Dojo will be getting log in
information.
A few people asked about Zoom and/or TEAMs LIVE lessons
It surprises us that some schools are using ZOOM. Schools are not strongly advised by the
government and by Swindon not to use Zoom. There have been instances where pop ups have
included pornography and it was banned in Singapore for this exact reason.
TEAMS or similar for LIVE lessons
We will always continue to review what we do and we will remain open to ideas. However,
we are also experts in primary education and this is not the best way for primary children to
learn. These platforms can work well with older pupils; pupils who are well trained and have
IT savvy parents and with university students but they are not actually an effective way to
educate most young children. The nature of teaching our youngest children is highly
interactive and responsive and requires a significant amount of personalised adult support -
online platforms would not work for this unless perhaps if they could be delivered one to
one. With the numbers of children we have, this is not possible.
Some of our families do not have access to a laptop and many are sharing one between
several members of the family. We went for the DOJO/website and ILD option together with
printed packs for those who needed them because every family has access to a mobile
phone.
Many children and some staff do not have the best broadband access in their homes nor
technical skills required for more complex platforms. All children would need to be set up
with email addresses and passwords that would then need to be
managed and there would need to be
training for children, parents and
staff.
Cont….
There are many potentially safeguarding issues when live cameras are in young people’s
homes that could pose a risks and that we are unable to control. These are not impossible
but they do present challenges.
Apologies if you have already seen this but the video clip below illustrates the challenges that a
group of adults can face on what is essentially a Zoom/TEAM’s call.
Trying get a group of 4-11 year olds to do this would result in frustrations and time wasted all round.
We do know of colleagues and other schools where they have tried and not found it helpful for
learning.
That said, there may be a possible pastoral benefit which we are considering. We have found the
touching base via a phone call helpful and the use of an online platform as a kind of tutorial/meet
up/touch base and social element may be possibility in the future should we go into lockdown again.
What have we done instead?
We have included pre-recorded lessons where we could such as the daily RWInc phonics lessons and
story time videos made by staff which have been very effective for those who have accessed these.
And for the work planned by teachers and uploaded by the children, teachers and TAs have given
specific, detailed feedback and praise every single day.
We trialled a weekly welcome message from the teacher and we have now moved onto the filming
some of lessons and teaching clips that can be paused and re-watched by the children. This is better
than live lesson as it enables those who learn at different rates to access equally in a way that a live
online lesson cannot replicate.
We have purchased some technology to help us to do this and we will continue to develop this
further as we reopen.
Today we have 115 pupils attending school . Current guidance is that for the remainder of this
term, primary schools should continue to operate in groups of no more than 15. I know we have
some disappointed parents, but most of our ‘bubbles’ are up to capacity and regrettably we do not
have the toilet and basin facilities needed for additional bubbles with current guidance. However,
we are looking forward to welcoming many of you back for some time before the end of the term.
Click here for video
Social Distancing
Can I remind everyone please of the important role we all play in helping the school to remain open
and be effective as possible in addressing the challenges presented by coronavirus. It is vitally
important that everyone continues to follow government guidelines on social distancing and enable
the measures that we have put in place at the start and end of the day to be effective. You must be
on time in the morning – 8:30 for nursery and 8:40 for the rest of the school at the moment. We
keep the doors open for 5 minutes. Once you have collected/dropped off your child please can you
leave the school grounds promptly so that there is no need to have to navigate around other people.
Thank you.
Parking Outside School
Thank you so much for supporting us to keep children safe by NOT parking outside school at pick-up
and drop-off time. It has been so lovely to see the children being able to cross the road safely. We
hope that this will continue in the new school year.
SEN Update
I wanted to say that it has been a pleasure to talk to so many parents over the last few weeks
discussing a variety of things from transition to specific provision for children in school or for
children returning in September. We have been working hard at school to ensure that the transition
back to school and into new classes in September is as smooth as it can be. We have been creating
videos, booklets, social stories and starting to get classrooms ready. If you have any SEN worries or
concerns about your child that you would like to discuss with me then you will find a contact me
function on the SEN page of the school website. Mrs C Hodges
Read Write Inc Phonics
It has been fantastic to see children completing the Read Write Inc lessons at home and see children
who have returned to school have been watching the videos daily. The good news is that Read Write
Inc are continuing to show videos over the summer. Even if your children have seen them before it is
important to keep going over the sounds and words to ensure that they are able to use them when
reading. The link for further information is https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/
If you have any reading books at home could you please send these back into school. They can either
come in with your child if they are in school or be out in the box outside the front of the school. It is
really important that we get all of the books back in so they can be sorted and organised ready for
September.
Sports Relief
Thank you to all who donated during Sports Relief in March, we were able to send them a cheque for
£368.01.
School Meals
It has been lovely having some children back in school this term and eating Grab and Go lunches in
their bubbles.
In September we are delighted to tell you we will have our lovely school meals back up and running,
the menu will go on Parent Pay soon, we will send you a message once this is live. It would be really
helpful if you could order your children’s lunches as soon and possible. Children will be eating in
their bubbles some in their classrooms and some in the 2 halls we have. Please do not hesitate to
contact me at sbaker@eastwichel.swindon.sch.uk if you have any worries about allergies or special
dietary requirements. Please could parents be mindful of items they are including in packed lunches
and ensure items are easy to open, lunchtime staff will be unable to support the children opening
items.
We are looking for Casual MDSAs to support the catering team when necessary, you would be up
called upon to help out when we are short staffed. If this would be of interest to you please check
out our vacancies page (click here).
Children moving from Year 2 to Year 3 will no longer be covered by the Universal Free School Meals
Scheme any meals taken will therefore be chargeable. Should you feel you might qualify for Free
School Meals please apply online here.
Have all lovely summer.
Mrs Baker and the Catering Team
Wrap Around Care – Breakfast and After School Club
We are pleased to say that these clubs will be running from September (date to be confirmed) We
will be emailing parents over the next few days with further information on how this will work and
application forms. Further details will follow and bee added to our page on our website.
PE news
Once again people have been really busy
keeping active and participating in the
challenges we are setting! A big shout out to
Olly in Year 5, Kyle in Year 5, Jasmine in Year 2,
Poppy M in Year 1 and Zak in Year 3, all of
whom have done the PE with Joe Wicks every
day since lockdown started – this is amazing
and their fitness levels will be some of the best
in the school we are sure!
Cont.…
The Rainbow Games took place and they really were a
huge success and made us realise a virtual house sports
week competition was possible! The events were far
harder than they looked on paper but it was good to see
so many people take up the challenges – pupils, parents
and staff alike. We think that everyone would agree that
one of the many highlights of the week, was Mrs Pullen
and Mrs McGregor’s daily videos of their attempts at the
challenges! Congratulations to the winning
team, Lydiard.
Another competition that lots of you took part in and was also a great
success, were the Wiltshire and Swindon Schools Virtual Games. These
games were in place of the usual athletics competitions that take place
every summer between schools. Again it was great to see so many pupils,
parents and staff (particularly Mr Webb and his winning long jump and
speed bounce) take part and we made the winners board for lots of the
events (thank you to the Simpkins family for your outstanding effort!) We have been told by the
organisers that we were very high up the leader board!
Remember to stay as active as you can over the holidays – we will post some ideas before the end of
term or you could just go back and try out any of the challenges we have previously set and see if
you can improve your previous performance!
Mrs Ash and Miss Hardy
Price Increase
Please be advised that from 1st September 2020 there will be a price increase to the cost of a school
meal, Breakfast Club, After School Club and administration costs. Please click here to see the letter
sent home on 14th July for further information.
Term Dates
Term dates for next year can be found here. Teacher training dates are as follows -
Tuesday 1st September 2020, Monday 19th October 2020, Tuesday 20th October 2020,
Wednesday 21st October 2020 and Monday 4th January 2021.
Well done on all the hard work that has been done. I feel very lucky that my son goes to this school. Over this lock down the teachers have been
amazing supporting us patents as well as the pupils. Keep up the great work it’s very much appreciated.
I wish all staff a very successful and happy phased return.
You're all absolutely amazing and have dealt with all these challenges so professionally
and considerately! Thank you all ♥
Wow you and your team have been so busy!!! The time to organise the
furniture, the seating, the markers on the floors, each child’s own pack as
well as clearing all the items that aren’t needed. Well done Mrs Phillips for
leading the staff so brilliantly! It is very much appreciated and I’m sure the
students returning will feel much better about coming back.
The speed at which you all mobilised for lockdown, the
comms, and the teacher support have all been great fantastic.
I'm very impressed with the preparation, communication and provisio
n for phased return also. From our class
teacher preparing for specific needs and the
reassurance that needs to the catering team making
sure that everyone's needs are catered for.
As a parent I feel reassured. Thank you all.
I just wanted to write to thank you all for everything you are doing for the children during this difficult time. The home learning provision has been outstanding and the regular posts and comments from teachers
just show how much your teachers love and care for the students. I know it is such a difficult situation for you and you can never make everyone happy, but from my perspective I couldn’t have asked for
anything more. My children are loving being back at school and despite some initial worries and tears at the thought of going back, your staff
have been amazing at making them feel safe and secure and they have quickly got used to the new routines (which were fantastically detailed in
the welcome back pack!).Thank you all SO MUCH!!
Thank you for the brilliant
communications being sent
out. It’s no easy task to keep
people happy but you are
doing a great job. I think
videos of the start of the
lessons is a great idea and
would keep us all on track. I
was just wondering if
short zoom calls
have also been considered? I
have heard of other schools
having class get together for
short learning sessions which
allows them all to interact.
Seems to work well for them
- just a suggestion :)
Some of the lovely comment received from parents.
Thank you very much for responding so
efficiently to the school closures as you
have done – this app has made the
communication and transition to home
learning effortless. ….
…. Thanks again to you and your staff for all
of your hard work in these unprecedented
times. The positivity and timely feedback on
completed tasks has been very well
received by our family.
I just wanted to say a huge
thank you and all the staff
for everything you are doing
to ensure our children are
getting the best education
in this difficult time. We
really appreciate it.
Btw, I am exhausted having just one
child for three days to teach. How
you manage to do this day in and day
out with over 28 students is inspiring.
This experience has made me
appreciate you and all teachers much
more. We don’t thank you enough!
Thank You
Thank you for the email and everything you are doing
for the children still in school, the teachers still working
are going above and beyond you truly are all amazing.
You can read more on our
website click here
Thank you for all
your efforts. It is very
much appreciated
Thank you Paula for the hard
work you and the team are
doing. All the best. Sorry I can’t
do more myself.
This is a great site,
thanks so much for
setting this up. I really
hope that school will
remain open whilst
everyone is fit and
well
Thanks so much to you and
your staff. I really really
appreciate all the effort
put into keeping my
children‘s education going.
After speaking to a few
other friends from
different schools, I realise
even more how much your
team are doing! Thank you
doesn’t seem enough, but
I really appreciate it.
I wanted to say a huge thank you and all the staff for
everything you are doing to ensure our children are
getting the best education in this difficult time. We
really appreciate it.
From a mum, I think every
teacher needs a wine. How
do you all do it? hahahah
Love the video updates, my
son’s face lights up when he
sees you. Thank you
Thank you for the email and everything you are doing for the
children still in school, the teachers still working are going above
and beyond you truly are all amazing.
Thank you to everyone
at the school for working
hard at this.
We like the
feedback from
*teacher* and
really appreciate
her efforts to
always try and help
us.
As a parent who is very supportive of
education, I cannot thank you all
enough for the way you are dealing
with thus. It’s such a smooth process
and now I’m in the swing I’m actually,
wait for it … enjoying it!
Thank you so much for this. I feel so reassured and at ease about my son coming back on Monday. I'm so lucky he
attends such a fantastic school 👏
Feedback on Dojo etc. As a parent I think it is
absolutely amazing!! It has kept myself and my
husband sane lol. It’s still very personal for us and our
son still feels connected to the adults that teach and
help in school. I like the fact that exercise books can
be collected outside school and the ease of
communication. …… You are doing a fantastic job,
thank you from the bottom of our hearts and keep up
the awesome work!!
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