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Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Easter time is nearly upon us and classes next week will all be exploring the most important week of the Christian calendar – holy week. We would normally end the term with an Easter service at Blessed Mary which we are still not allowed to do at the present. We therefore plan to do a remote service, a bit like we did at Christmas, that families can link into, if they would like. We will use the Google Classroom platform that we used during remote learning as this can cope with many users and streams reliably. Just login using your child’s details and use the ‘Whole class assembly’ class – follow the link at the top of the page. This will take place on Thursday 1 April at 9.15am.
When you join, please ensure cameras and microphones are turned off. You may also prefer to change the view from the tile (where you see everyone) by clicking on the three dots in the bottom left and opening ‘change layout’ – then select ‘Sidebar or Spotlight’ and you will just view the class who are talking.
If other family would like to join (such as grandparents) I can send them a link to this meeting. Please send the email address for the link to by Wednesday 31st and I will try and send out the links early Thursday morning before the service. Note that if you want to use a phone to join, you may need to have already installed the Google Meet app.
Something we are trying to achieve in these few weeks following our return and before the Easter break is to keep the children’s experiences ‘normal’. By normal I mean keeping to the routines and experiences they expect – that’s why supporting Comic Relief was important for today (as well as the charitable good of course), because these events punctuate the changing school year. This supports emotional resilience.
It is also for this reason that I have booked some sports coaching for Fridays for all classes as this is what children are used to happening. You will remember when Sports Dave left before Christmas I wrote I intended to replace this provision – the closure really got in the way of this plan. In the interim, a curriculum coach, Mr Metcalf, from Saints Foundation will be delivering sports sessions to ensure we can keep this strength of our school going.
It is lovely to be writing a more colourful, interesting Newsletter again, celebrating some of the things that have happened in school. It hasn’t quite felt normal this week with everyone adjusting back to school days, but pretty close. The children are getting tired though – it’s not that school is harder than remote learning it’s just that there are so many more demands on children through the social interaction and continual activity. I am sure everyone will benefit from some good night’s sleep and rest over the weekend. It will take a few weeks to build back the usual levels of emotional resilience and energy so don’t be worried if your child has a few setbacks along the way.
Great to be back though! Many thanks too for the many kind words so many of you have shared, praising the work of staff through the closure. I have been very proud of the work of our team!