Following the government's decision to begin the phased reopening of schools from June 1st, we look forward to welcoming our first children back on Monday. Please refer to the previous letter regarding social distancing on site and your drop off and collection time and place. Please be advised that the main car park will not be in general use.

I hope that everyone is well.

It has been a particularly busy week since the government announcement that schools may be asked to start a phased reopening for years R, 1 and 6 from June 1^st. Guidance regarding this has been arriving throughout the week.

In addition to reopening for the year groups stated above we will be continuing to offer the existing key worker provision, as we have done throughout the closure period. If your employment status has changed and you are now a key worker retuning to the work place, please contact us.

You may be aware that the government has an ‘ambition’ to reopen schools for all year groups for a month before the end of the school year. This remains an ambition and no additional guidance has been given to schools yet – as soon as I am aware of any developments I will let you know.

I have been really pleased to see what children and families have been up to, especially through emails and posts on seesaw. Some families are not accessing seesaw currently – if this is the case and you need technical support please do get in touch – we are happy to help! And please remember if you are struggling to access learning due to lack of a computer or printer let us know.

Have a good weekend and take care.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Bartlett

Please complete this survey on the link below to help us plan for a possible return to school on 1st June:

 

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/G3LYCTB

Staff have produced and recorded a special VE Day message which you can see in the Children / Class pages tab.

Enjoy your 'stay at home' celebrations...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-supporting-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-and-wellbeing/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-on-supporting-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-and-wellbeing-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

The Children/ Class pages section of the website has numerous resources for parents to use at home with their children. This is updated weekly. We are signposting BBC Bitesize for Years 1-6 (not Year R) as a really useful daily activity resource. The Seesaw app is now being used across the school from Year 1 - 6 - if you have not received an access code please get in touch. Seesaw enables pupils to upload their work and news for their teachers to see and feedback. Year R continues to use Tapestry to facilitate two-way communication.

 

There are also numerous other activity websites that are highlighted on the class pages for your use.

 

Paper based packs of learning which replicate much of the online learning can be requested if parents have difficulty printing resources or have limited access to a computer. We are happy to help. These are not in addition to online learning and parents should not feel that children complete both!  

 

Please use the resources as works best for you and your family - it is highly unlikely that your child will need to access all of the resources. Remember, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.

Dear Parents,

I hope that you are well and have managed to enjoy the sunny weather over the past two weeks.  

Following the Government announcement that the national lockdown will continue for the next three weeks, I thought I would touch base with you all regarding the school's plans for various areas.

Remote Learning:

Thank you for being supportive of your children’s home learning. We are very much aware that every family is different and that there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to support children’s learning. I would stress that we fully appreciate how difficult home learning can be to manage, particularly if you are trying to work from home, and that there is not an expectation for children to complete all tasks set. We have, however, enjoyed seeing examples of work and activities that some of our children have been doing.

Please do keep referring to the school website for activity ideas which teachers are updating regularly. BBC bitesize has also changed today and parents may find this site very useful both in terms of structure but also the range of online videos and other resources. Lessons are organised into daily maths and English with one additional subject. Some year groups are already accessing the ‘Seesaw’ app to keep in touch with teachers and share work. Our intention is to expand its use across the school and we will share further information regarding this shortly.

Key Worker and Vulnerable Children:

Whilst the school is closed to most children we do still have a very small number of children attending. Teaching staff in school this week are:

Juniors –              (Monday/Tuesday) Mr Banner and Mrs Lipsham

                             (Wednesday to Friday) Mrs Harvey and Mrs Bloss

Rec/infants –     (Monday /Tuesday) Mrs Forsey, Mrs Crowe, Mrs  White

               (Wednesday to Friday) Mrs Jackson, Mrs Martin   and Mrs Gould

 

In the meantime:

There have been a number of rumours regarding school reopening dates over the past week - we can’t say yet when we’ll be able to open the school fully (we are not provided with information in advance of the government’s daily news briefings), but rest assured that we’ll continue doing our utmost to keep your child learning and our school community connected.

We would like to extend our warmest welcome to the children and families who will be joining Castle Primary School in September 2020. We have added a New Entrants section (please follow Children/Class pages/New Entrants 2020) on to the website where we will add important information for parents. Given the unusual situation we all find ourselves in at the moment, it is likely that induction for new families will be different this year - we will share our plans for this in the near future.

If you have any concerns about your child's additional needs and would like to speak to someone before induction arrangements are in place, please email our SENCO, Nadine Ricketts at n.ricketts@castle.hants.sch.uk to arrange a telephone call.

Thank you.

A letter will be sent today to parents of children who have peripatetic music tuition in school to provide links to the Hampshire Music Service Virtual Learning Zone through which you will be able to obtain advice and email questions direct to their teachers....

Hello children,

 

I hope you are all keeping well! School is very, very quiet and I am really missing the hustle and bustle of a busy school day... I know teachers are busy keeping you occupied with different learning activities which you can access through your class pages... and it is really nice to see some of you emailing us with your achievements.

 

I hope to see you all again very soon and make sure you stay in touch.

 

Mr Bartlett