18th March 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
I just wanted to keep you updated with the school situation regarding the Coronavirus.
At present, we have enough staff to keep all classes open. This will be reviewed on a daily basis. I may get to a point where I will need to close classrooms. We plan to close KS1 classrooms first and staff will be diverted to teach and support other classes as necessary. If a partial closure happens, children at home have plenty of resources with Mathletics, Times Tables Rock Stars, Bug Club and many other links that we provide from our school website.
We advise that you check our school website at least three times a day. The banner on the home page will be regularly updated.
When the school has to close we have a plan to provide work to all children. The daily resources from each class teacher will not be available until the school closes. The work provided will be uploaded daily on Google Classroom and there will be one piece of English, Maths and one other piece of work from the curriculum. We expect the children to read, practise their spellings and their times tables regularly. You will still be able to access Bug Club, Time Tables Rock Stars and Mathletics.
There is no replacement for your child receiving quality first teaching from the class teacher but the work provided is an interim solution to ensure that your child has continued access to the curriculum.
We have met as the Orchard Partnership (Bishop Henderson, Bishop’s Hull, Parkfield, St George’s and Trull) to ensure consistency of provision in the event of a full closure. We would like to ensure that the children’s education is not significantly impacted during this unprecedented situation. Therefore, we would like to signpost you to our class pages on our school website, where there will be information on accessing Google Classroom. There will be an opportunity for the children to leave a comment on completion of the work that the children are set.
We completely understand that every family situation will be different. Although it will be beneficial for your child to carry on their learning at home there is no obligation to complete these activities. Nor will they be able to be marked on returning to schools.
If you are unable to access the internet, we would like you to support your child in creating a topic based project.
If you have any concerns regarding safeguarding during this time, Mr Lake, our safeguarding lead, can be contacted via the safeguarding section of our website.
With this proactive approach, we hope you feel reassured that provision will continue in a way that is manageable for families.
It is with love and support that I write to you all as valued members of our wonderful St George’s community. I hope and pray that we will all get through this worrying time together.
With love and best wishes,
Mark Braund and all the staff & governors of St George’s Catholic School
