Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Can you believe we are half way through this half term?!  Thank you to all of our families for working so hard and doing the very best they can in these unusual times both at home and at school.  We appreciate there will be highs and lows but please remember that we are here to help you with anything that you need.

 

As part of the government scheme, we have received our allocation of 18 laptops.  Mr Hughes and I have already delivered some of these to families to support the learning at home.  If you are a family who are really struggling to access and engage in the learning through Google Classroom due to a lack of appropriate devices, please let us know on our office2@yaptonschool.org email address.

The teachers have enjoyed giving feedback to the children at home through Google Classroom.  As part of our marking and feedback policy, children would be required to improve some pieces of work following the teacher’s feedback.  During the partial opening of our school, we would like children to respond and improve one piece of English and one piece of Maths work a week.  Look out for a pencil emoji at the beginning of the feedback – this will indicate the feedback must be responded to, the work is improved and resent back to the class teacher.

 

We are beginning to introduce Class Zoom Meetings so that the children at home and at school have a chance to see each and interact together.  The focus of these sessions will be one that encourages discussion between the children.  The details of the meetings will be posted on Google Classroom and they will also be sent out on ParentMail.  Please find the attached ‘Code of Conduct’ (which defines the parental responsibilities) and the ‘Expectations of Behaviour’ (which is for the children).  Please be patient with any teething problems that may occur but we hope they will be an enjoyable time.

 

As part of the community test and trace programme, staff at our school will begin to take part in this type of testing twice a week.  In order to support our families, we have decided that school staff will test themselves on a Sunday and Wednesday.  As this test identifies asymptomatic carriers of the virus, any positive test results of school staff will result in a class being closed whilst a PCR is undertaken.  Following the outcome of this test, parents of the affected class will be notified of the next steps to be taken.  Information regarding this will be sent through ParentMail. Please check your ParentMail communications carefully on a Sunday and Wednesday evening.  We aim to let you know before 7pm.

Please find attached a letter from the Director of West Sussex Public Health with reminders about advice regarding the pandemic.

 

It was great to talk to some more parents this week during our Tuesday Chat. These will continue every week and we look forward to seeing some more of you next week.  The meeting code will remain the same as last week.  We will send a reminder on Monday.

 

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Take care

Kim Huggett