THE HOLY FAMILY CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL CROOKHAMS WELWYN GARDEN CITY HERTS AL7 1PG

Tel: 01707 375518 www.holyfamily.herts.sch.uk admin@holyfamily.herts.sch.uk

As a family we live, learn and celebrate with Jesus

3rd July 2020 Dear Parents, It has been much cooler this week but a return of the sun would be welcome for our last week of term! In school the children are now used to the changes in place and have become more settled as time has passed. Yesterday the long awaited guidance from the DFE regarding the opening of schools in September finally arrived. It is a 35 page document with many aspects for school leaders to consider. This must now be read and processed by the senior leadership team, alongside lengthy guidance from both Herts for Learning/HCC and Westminster Diocese. Once this task is completed we will begin the planning phase for September. I’m sure you will have seen in the media that the proposal from government is that all children should return to school in September remaining in class bubbles in primary schools. The list of health and safety requirements to ensure we are as safe as possible is long and staffing bubbles adequately and consistently will be a challenge. The senior leadership team, alongside governors, hope to have a firm plan in place for September by Friday 17th July and will communicate this with all parents by this date. Jousters Wrap Around Care Unfortunately Jousters have decided to terminate their contract with Holy Family and will no longer facilitate wrap around care at the school. They have given various reasons for their decision but the overriding issue seems to be financial from a business perspective. We will not be able to put alternative provision in place for the start of the next academic year given Jousters late decision to terminate their contract (this week) and all the other planning that needs to take place to fully open school safely in September. However, we will investigative alternative

arrangements, considering all possibilities, and ensure we get wrap around care up and running again as soon as possible next term. The DFE have recognised that schools will need time to provide wrap around care in a safe way, according to the latest government guidance. I will be in touch with you before the holidays with regard to this, to get a clearer idea of the need for wrap around care going forward.

Transition Next week will be the final week in school as it is currently for those children attending at this time. The last week of term is dedicated to transition and all children from all year groups Y1-Y6 for next academic year are invited to attend their class transition session. In order to attend you must fill in the form on the link below so that teachers are able to plan appropriately and ensure the classroom continues to be set up in a safe way. If you do not confirm your child’s attendance for these sessions they will not be able to some into school. https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=YknOpvjHcU-1jK5Z3MfNotcJdnB-ZilGrMzoLLTG_cxUQjcxVUhHWlRUSTI4MUY1REo5WThSODJXVi4u

Miss Days’ time at Holy Family will also come to an end this term as she takes up a permanent role nearer to home. Thank you to Miss Day for her commitment to Y5 in what has been a challenging time. We wish her every success in her new role.

SUMMER CAMP This summer Super Star Sports will host a summer club for 2 weeks at our school from Monday 3rd August – Friday 15th August. This club is open to all children at our school and the local area. Superstar Sports have worked at our school from October 2019 and provide high quality sports clubs for us. Further details are below.

John Henry Newman Community Mass Today we joined the Saint John Henry Newman School Community Mass. It was a wonderful celebration of our wider school community led by Fr Norbert. Thank you for inviting us to be part of the celebrations.

‘No one saves oneself, the community is essential’ Poe Francis God Bless Mrs Katie Linnane Head Teacher

Nursery This week in Nursery we have been busy learning about the puff adder snake with a Tinga story. We made patterns on our own snakes and carefully cut them out to make spiral snakes. We cut different lengths of string, then placed them around the room and outside area for our friends to find and describe their position. Using string in paint, we made snake printing pictures and we also had fun making wiggly, squiggly marks on large paper like the marks the puff adder left in the story. Well done Nursery for another week of super learning.

Reception It has been a fantastic week in Reception. We have been concentrating on adding and taking away and attempting to

use bigger numbers by counting on and counting back. The children have tried really hard with their sentence writing

and have really enjoyed singing the jolly phonic songs.

Y1 In maths, Year 1 have been learning about fractions and continuing to learn their number bonds. Some of you are

learning your number bonds up to 100. (In tens). In Geography, Year 1 have been looking at the different countries in

the U.K. In English, they have been writing about the story, ’The Ugly Five’ by Julia Donaldson. I have seen some lovely

story boxes and writing. Well done Philip for using your imagination- making a story box using pasta and a bowl.

Fantastic! Please keep it up Year 1.

Y2 This week in Year 2 the children have once again been busy with their home learning. In English they continued working

on the topic of superheroes. They thought about what their superpowers were and also wrote their own superpower

rescue challenge. In Science we celebrated National Insect Week and some of the children created their own edible

lifecycles. I was very impressed! The children also carried out an experiment on surface tension which is what many

insects use to stay on top of water such as a water strider. They did this by trying to make a paper clip float. The children

have shown lots of enthusiasm whilst completing the activities set and I have really enjoyed looking at their work and

seeing photos. Please take a look in the gallery section on our class page. Well done children you are all doing a fantastic

job. Stay safe and keep smiling

Y3 In Year 3 this week we have been working extremely hard in all of our learning in particular our spellings. In English this week we have been using Oak Academy to develop our understanding of adventure stories. Following the lessons has helped us to develop our comprehension skills, understand key features of text and to also focus on prepositional words. In Maths the children have also been following Oak Academy lessons which has helped to develop their understanding of reading scales and ordering and comparing and adding and subtracting mass. I hope you have enjoyed completing your feeling good activity and a big well done for working so hard! Y4 This week Year 4 have focused on writing instructions in English and followed the Oak Academy lessons. We have continued to think about the topic of looking after our world. Children found out about the water cycle and created some posters to encourage people to walk to school. In maths Year 4 have been interpreting data and information on graphs and answering questions. Keep up the motivation Year 4!

Y5 Year 5 have been working hard in maths this week both in school and at home. For their home learning they have been revising different ways of solving problems in maths using their knowledge and in school we have been working on measurement conversions. I have also had some brilliant comic stories sent in from their home learning, see pictures below. We have also been sketching Medusa in Art at school. Year 5 have been finding out facts about Black Holes at home and creating posters to share these facts.

Y6 Year 6 have continued to impress me this week. They have particularly loved creating their own product in maths, along with a business plan and production costs. I have also loved filming their singing and dancing to our leavers song and look forward to sending it out. Let's make next week fab! The timetable for transition week is below.

Week beginning Monday 13th July

Day Morning Afternoon

Monday 13th July Year 4 group A

9am – 11.30am

(current Y3)

Mrs Micklethwaite/Mrs Cotescu

Year 4 group B

12.30pm – 3pm

(current Y3)

Mrs Micklethwaite/Mrs Cotescu

Year 3 group A

9am – 11.30am

(current Y2)

Miss Parmley

Year 3 group B

12.30pm – 3pm

(current Y2)

Miss Parmley

Tuesday 14th July Year 1 group A Year 1 group B

9am – 11.30am

(current YR)

Miss Miller

12.30pm – 3pm

(current YR)

Miss Miller

Year 5 group A

9am – 11.30am

(current Y4)

Miss Flynn

Year 5 group B

12.30pm – 3pm

(current Y4)

Miss Flynn

Wednesday 15th July Closed deep clean Open to children of key workers only

Thursday 16th July Year 2 group A

9am – 11.30am

(current Y1)

Miss Clifford

Year 2 group B

12.30pm – 3pm

(current Y1)

Miss Clifford

Year 6 group A

(current Y5)

Miss Lingwood

Year 6 group B

(current Y5)

Miss Lingwood

Friday 17th July Open to children of key workers only until 12pm