Dear Parents and Carers,

 

We ended our week with the long awaited ‘Wonderdome’ in our school hall for our younger children to visit. They entered the dome and spent time ‘star and planet gazing’ whilst discovering new information about the solar system. Across the rest of the school, an army of robots have been constructed and space focussed biographies created and written.

 The children have shown compassion and care for their friends who are not in school due to the amount of illness we have in school at the moment. The amount of absence has caused some anxiety for the children who are in school and the teachers have talked this through with the children and reassured them.

 

COVID19 UPDATE

Today, we have 20 children and 3 staff who have tested positive for COVID19. We are keeping them in our thoughts and look forward to seeing them when they return. I think it is important that I keep you updated about the situation, this is not to cause you anxiety, but to be open and help us to continue to work together. We have confirmed cases in the following classes; Lewes, Bramber, Portchester, Southsea, Pevensey, Arundel, Bodiam and Hastings. Please be vigilant and test your child if you spot any symptoms, or if they are in any of these classes.

Thank you to the parents in Portchester class for their understanding yesterday when we notified them that we were unable to staff the class today. This really is a last resort and we had no other option available to us. The SLT (Senior Leadership Team) are covering duties and classes where necessary and we are doing all that we can to keep classes open.

If your child is unwell at home, they will not be set work on Google Classroom. If they are at home because family members have COVID19 and are unable to bring them to school then work will be set for them. If your child is at home because their class has been shut, work will be set for them on Google Classroom.

We will be ‘fogging’ every classroom in the school tomorrow in preparation for our return on Monday. This is a special sanitising machine that we have bought to assist with keeping infection rates as low as we can. We continue to have windows open and regular ‘hand-washing’ or ‘sanitising’. We continue to work in two bubbles and are not coming together as a whole school.

 

LOOKING AHEAD

Just to remind you that we have two INSET days planned that fall either side of half term. These are Friday 18th February and Monday 28th February when the school will be closed for staff training. I had hoped that this would enable families to be able to get away for holidays or short breaks , but did not envisage the current situation when these were planned last year! I hope that the extended half term gives you plenty of ‘family time’ and time to relax.

The Y6 children will begin their revision programme for their forthcoming SATS tests in May. This will be delivered as usual lessons and will not be something that the children will worry about. it is our way of supporting our Y6 children to enable them to be ready for Y7 as well as the forthcoming SATS tests. Please see the classteacher’s if you have any queries or concerns.

 

Have a fabulous weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

 

Take care

Kim Huggett