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Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Before the March lockdown, school staff and governors completed some work to distil our school vision to a more succinct, easy to remember acrostic poem. The closure got in the way of us launching this so it has only been this week that I introduced it to the children so I thought I’d share it with you too. Since love and care are our central values, the word love is key:
Love and care,
At Upham we… Open our minds,
Value all achievement,
Encourage independence.
The children previously helped to explain ‘love’ by putting the words of how Jesus explained it, in the middle – love God and love others as yourself – demonstrated as care for other people. Back in the summer, Class 3 helped work out how to add the poem words to this – they thought around the edge worked well and I agree. You will see us using this image capturing our vision frequently over coming months.
The weather is starting to feel more Autumnal with a larger proportion of days overcast and damp. As a result, the field is starting to get too wet for continued use. We have therefore adjusted our bubbles to three zones; the playground, the playtrail and ‘quiet’ area and the field perimeter path & woods. Class 1 and 4 have joined bubbles fully now to make this work. Children are still getting lots of space to run and play and rotate around the zones across the week. On days when the field is dry enough, we will use it and some sports activities will continue to use it. We are trying to prioritise as much active play as possible for all the children to build their stamina and fitness. This means even on a slightly wet, drizzly day we will still play outside – heavy rain, slippery conditions or cold wind with rain would send us inside. It is therefore really important children bring coats into school as the term progresses and the weather deteriorates further.
Next week is anti-bullying week and we plan to use Monday as a way of introducing the children to this theme. We want to participate in ‘Odd-socks day’. This simple action – to wear completely normal uniform other than the most odd socks you can manage – is a powerful way to start conversations about uniqueness, whilst underlining the commonality of the similarity that they are all socks. We will use this as a starting point to discuss how bullying regarding ‘differences’ is ignorant, cruel and has no place in our school and lives. No money is required – just remember the odd socks!
We have been bathed in lovely sunshine all week and playtimes outside have been a delight – a real tonic when compared to the reality of the new National Restrictions which started yesterday. I spoke to the children about this earlier in the week to try to calm any worries the children had. School is largely unaffected so most of the children have enjoyed just carrying on. Class 4, being older and more aware, are a little more unsettled and conscious of restrictions so we have tried to reassure them and focus on the many more positive things happening.