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!!