A few things on the update today. All in school is running relatively smoothly but we are not taking anything for granted and 'keeping our eye on the ball.' Every day is a new adventure !
1. Parking and the community
- we are receiving reports from concerned and upset members of the local community as a small number of parents are parking across drives, in the pub car park and other inappropriate places. Please 'be aware and care' and park safely and where you are allowed to !
Please do not park in the Parish Hall car park at anytime.
- Responsibility for parking sits with parents/carers and we will report any dangerous parking/driving that we observe but we also encourage the local community to do the same. There is plenty of safe parking a short walk from school. Thankfully the majority of people are parking sensibly and with consideration.
- The roads around school are extremely busy with tractors at the moment so please be really aware of where you park and turn.
2. Your child's online life
- A recent national survey shared some interesting data that is thought provoking - the average child spends approximately 450 hours a year or more in front of a screen and only an average of 157 hours outdoors. Does that match with your child or do you 'buck' the trend ?
- If you have Netflix then a really thought provoking documentary entitled 'The Social Dilemma' is good to watch (adults not children although elements may be suitable for older children - it has a 12 rating) regarding social media and it's use. It has input from the original developers of many social media platforms.
- Increasingly we are dealing with incidents of inappropriate use of social media, texting and internet use yet we teach children how to use it correctly and it's benefits. Technology is amazing and a real benefit to life (we all Google everything now) but children need to be taught how to use it properly and how to manage it both at home as well as school.
3. 'Remote learning'
Remote learning does not mean 'online' it just means remote from the normal place that you learn e.g school. We are ready to launch home learning if we need it (as we did before with a mix of on-line and physical resources) but we also need to be able to manage any children who are still in school and we only have a limited capacity with human beings !
4. Forest school clothes for all
'Function over fashion' is the order of the day and children need to be warm and dry. The PTA updated our waterproofs last year and we have a lot of kit. Our drying room was also linked to the electricity at the start of lockdown (some pictures are attached) which means we can dry kit fairly quickly over a day (we also have solar panels all over the roof which helps with our environmental commitment , we are due to apply for our 6th Green Flag Eco award this year).
Our forest school site has a toilet, kitchen and drying space now. We also have a range of sheltered areas and a very kind parent has volunteered to help put our giant parachute up next weekend (the parachute can fit 65 people under it).
We are extremely fortunate to have such an amazing forest school space for our exclusive use, our eternal thanks go to the Duchy Of Cornwall for their kindness and commitment.
5. Attendance and lateness
Incidents of being late are really rare (we close the gates on the final bell of the church clock at 9am). We open the gates at just after 8:45am and close them at 9am which allows plenty of time and helps the 'flow and go.'
At the end of the day we open the gates at 3:25am to allow a greater flow of people going.
You are making it work well, with minimal queues and people leaving the area quickly. Thank you.
6. Independence
- One of our biggest challenges at the moment is the independence of the children. Fear, anxiety and being together for months has led to children being less confident in doing things for themselves and home had a different routine to school. This is something we all need to work on and build up again as the weeks go by. Curriculum updates will give ideas and challenges for families to develop children's independence and resilience. Even carrying your own bag/lunch to school and home is really important. We are also reminding children of manner and eating correctly.
As always we 'take each day as it comes' and hope for another good week.
regards
Mr Batstone
