January 2021: As we are in a national lockdown, the school is only open to vulnerable children and children of critical workers.

The categorisations for these groups are much broader than in the first lockdown. To this end we have approximately 31 children in school across the week, rather than between 3-7 children we had in school during the first lockdown.

 The Department for Education has amended guidance for parents and carers. Significantly, this guidance now states: “Your child’s school will speak to you to identify whether your child needs to attend. You should keep your child at home if you can. They may ask to see simple evidence to check whether you are a critical worker such as your work ID badge or a pay slip.”  The guidance on critical workers and vulnerable children who can access schools or educational settings has also been updated to clarify that parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.  

From 6/1/21, the government have revised their guidance on the amount of remote learning proved by schools. For children in Key Stage One (Kestrel and Sparrowhawk classes) we need to provide 3 hours a day with less for younger children. For children in Key Stage Two  (Buzzard and Golden Eagle classes)we need to provide 4 hours a day. We will ensure children get this via Class Dojo, our chosen learning platform.

As a result of the places required in school, most staff are in school on their working days with some exceptions where  a few members of staff are working from home. The government have also  recently made explicit for the first time that learning should include both recorded and live direct teaching time and time for pupils to complete tasks independently. We have started looking at how teachers working from home can offer recorded or live sessions with children and will be working to provide each class with recorded or live sessions for groups of children within the school day that can be fitted in with staff commitments within school. Our priority is to support those children at home with zoom sessions as they are not seeing their teachers/Teaching Assistants or friends in person in the way that the Critical Worker children are. We do need to be clear that there is an expectation that adults at home are within earshot of children taking part in live sessions. Zoom Acceptable Use agreements will be sent to you by your child`s class teacher and we will need your consent emailed back. We will review how these sessions are going and adjust accordingly.

We are all working in challenging circumstances and we appreciate that many families are working from home in addition to supporting remote learning as well as having other demands and pressures on their time. We are here to provide support where needed, so please do not hesitate to get in touch with your child`s class teacher or myself if we can help.

Thank you for your continued support- we are all in this together! Stay safe.

We currently have spaces available in the following year groups: 

Foundation stage intake for September 2020

Year One for September 2020

Year Four for September 2020