22nd June 2020
Monday 22nd June 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you are all keeping safe and well. It certainly has been unprecedented times and I cannot thank you, the school staff and the children enough for your support, kindness and understanding not just these past months but since I have been at the school. We are very grateful for our St George’s Community.
As I write, we are still awaiting Government guidance for September 2020 and I can’t speculate what the guidance will say. I know that the media have been speculating but we cannot make a clear plan for September until we have received the updated guidance.
We currently have EYFS, Year One, Year Six and children of Key Workers at the school. Sadly, we do not have the capacity to bring any other year groups back before the end of the summer term as we do not have enough staff and space to make this possible. We do ask that Key Worker parents and carers only book days that are needed. Can I also ask that Key Worker families continue to bring and collect the children at the normal school hour times of 8:50-3:30 wherever possible. We can take children from 8am until 4pm if parents are working earlier and finishing later.
Please can I ask parents and carers of children that are currently attending school to ensure that they order their school meal by the previous Wednesday.
As I have previously stated, I am very grateful that Mrs Price suggested that we have Google Classroom over eighteen months ago. It has been excellent for setting and monitoring work as well as giving the staff the opportunity to keep in regular contact with the children. It is our plan to have Google Classroom operational for the remaining weeks of the term. Thank you to the staff who set the work and monitor it so effectively. I would also like to thank you all for being so engaged with this form of working.
There will be other ways that children communicate with other class members away from Google Classroom. We would appreciate it if parents and carers can monitor these forums to ensure that the children are following the e-safety rules that we promote in school. Texting or sending a message can cause issues at time in that they can be misinterpreted.
St George’s is fortunate to have close working relationships with our local schools. The heads from Parkfield, Trull, Bishop Henderson and Bishop’s Hull joined me for a Zoom meeting with Rebecca Pow recently where we were given the opportunity to discuss the challenges that schools have faced these past months. She followed this meeting with an offer for us to meet with Minister Nick Gibb of which we have accepted and will meet with him on Wednesday 24th June to discuss the past few months, the urgent need for guidance so that we can effectively plan for September 2020 and also to heighten awareness of the need to support the children’s well-being when they return to school.
Although we have a draft version of our calendar of events for the next academic year, we cannot publicise this at present as it is expected that large gatherings will still not be possible in the autumn term and events such as the Harvest Festival, the Christmas Fayre, the KS1 Nativity and many other events will need to reconsidered. I am sure we could be creative on Google Classroom and with events such as the Harvest Festival and the KS1 Nativity.
The last day of the academic year for this year will be on Friday 17th July as we have an INSET on Monday 20th July. The children will start back on Thursday 3rd September for the start of the new school year.
I will keep you updated on the new guidance as soon as we receive this information.
Best wishes,
Mark Braund
