Good morning everyone,

I hope you had a safe, enjoyable and calm weekend and are set for the week ahead.

This week would normally be our Year 5 and 6 residential to Stackpole, Pembrokeshire (we managed it last year) but the National Trust Centre has now closed permanently and our 13 years of attending comes to an end, a sad time but also a chance to reflect on some amazing memories and experiences. We are starting to plan other residential opportunities for Year 5 and 6 with a hope that something might be able to happen before the end of the year. 

As well as managing the everyday we are also planning what lies ahead and beginning to get ideas together for lots of opportunities ........

1. Numbers in school this week

Monday = 28

Tuesday = 31

Wednesday = 25

Thursday = 30

Friday = 27 

Thank you to all who access this service in school for your thinking around your needs, adjusting possible working times and being flexible. We have a few more people who will join as they return to frontline jobs. It is hard balancing working with childcare but please only access school if you have exhausted all other possibilities (you are allowed to form childcare 'bubbles' with one other family/person).

School is not the place it normally is as staff are wearing masks, aprons and gloves and it is quite restrictive, this enables us to keep everyone safe (including the children and their families). 

2. Mental health week 

There will be lots in the media this week and I have shared some resources with you about well being, mental health and what is good for your children. Some reminders are below -

• Establish and maintain a good routine (clear structure to the day with times) with a clear timetable (don't negotiate).
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• Reward for sustained good work/behaviour (over the whole week not each day) - always get the children to define how they have done more than just the expected.
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• Get outside each day and enjoy the world around you - notice things (touch/smell/sight). 
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• Break the day up, if possible, into manageable chunks. 
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• Make sure your child works each day, we can't perform miracles when they return if they have done very little or nothing. 
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• Expect the best from your children (we talk about 'exceeding their individual potential') but allow them to make mistakes and find a pathway through it (if they are really stuck then get involved). In school we talk about waiting, watching and listening before intervening.
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• Home is not school and school is not home ! School has just invaded home and it won't go away !! We have to be mindful of that and the difference in expectation, habits and routine. 
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• Get away from a screen for 'chunks' of the day and monitor it carefully, one of my children had 28 hours on screen for schoolwork last week from Monday to Friday  (that's what the update said), this is without screens for pleasure such as tv, gaming etc. 
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• Be kind to yourself and others (children and adults). 
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• Adults model the behaviours and attitudes the children follow. 
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• Do your best .............. (whilst working, taking up a new hobby, running 5km a day, baking amazing meals, redecorating the house, comparing your lockdown experience to others and making the best of everything else ! Don't compare yourself to others ..........).
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• Reflect on the positives - we live in a rural county with access to the outdoors within walking distance. We might have more time together as families. We had snow ! 

3. 'Musical Madley '

Music can play an important role on our mood (I am listening to the younger children doing a dance session (I start this update at the end of one week and finish it on Sunday), socially distanced in the hall - dancing to lively music which lifts the mood (I haven't been tempted to join in yet though !).

We have been successful with the roll out of Chrome books  and we got to thinking about other things, lockdown is a long process and being outdoors is crucial but it may also be a time to learn something new so we thought that Ukuleles may be an option and keyboards.

Like the Chromebooks they would come with an agreement for use and would be loaned to you until we are back in school. Please e-mail admin@madley.hereford.sch.uk and we will see what we can do.........

Attached are music resources for the week from Encore. 

4. Values for February are:

'Responsibility and friendship' 

Discussion - can you define what the values are, what they mean and how they are exemplified in life ? 

Poster (this can be sent into admin) - can you design a poster that exemplifies 'friendship' and all the elements that make a good friend. 

Anti - values ! - what is the opposite of responsibility and friendship ? Which element has more reward (genuine values or anti-values ?! Might be an interesting discussion depending on the mood at the time).

Responsibility challenge - make a list of 5 things you (the child) will be responsible for each day (25 over the week) and write them down. If all 25 are achieved then it could result in a reward ? If you do this each week it builds (and it takes approximately 35 days to form a habit, good or bad). 

Seesaw 

- Please make sure you access the announcements each day. Most people in most classes are and it is between 1 and 5 in each class who aren't but we need everybody to do it please. 

- Engagement across the school is good. 

- Teachers have set a clear pathway for learning that will help when the children return to school. 

- The vast majority of people seem to be making the 'best of it' and managing what they can, when they can. 

Keep it going ...........

Enjoy Monday ! 

Kind regards

Mr Batstone