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Dear all,
I hope you are all well and coping with the first full week of home learning. The engagement from the children and yourselves has been good and there are very few concerns (teachers will make phone calls home if there are). Thank you to the parents who have e-mailed to explain certain situations, we fully understand that every family has different circumstances, pressures and things happening.
Have no doubt that we would rather have the children back in school and a bit more normality, home learning is equally hard for school as well as balancing with the children in school. The staff have been amazing and have all 'slotted' into new ways of working, acting and communicating in a professional, sensible and values based manner whilst supporting each other and dealing with different issues and guidance every day. Thank you for your efforts and 'making the best' of it.
1. Mobile data solutions
If you are struggling with internet access or don't have any then there are solutions available - Amazon, Currys etc offer 'hubs' that give a set amount of data (16GB, 20 GB etc) and can work for up to 20 devices, depending on the signal and the type of hub (I have attached a photo). This a potential solution for people who do not have internet access/Wi-fi.
Devices - as a school we have been offered 5 devices by the government scheme but we have not even been allowed to order them yet ! We are also working on other solutions for families in need (that could be everyone !) and will update you when we have more news !!
We have been working with various charities to access potential funding for families, both for devices and also any internet needs (the charities have been very helpful and we will hopefully have some good news soon).
Devices that will work (you don't have to spend a fortune), we fully understand that not every family is in a position to purchase new laptops, Chromebooks or devices for all of their children and it is highly unlikely every child in every family at Madley will have a device. The following work well (my own children have some of these, they need a bit of reworking of systems and apps, nothing too technical, but then work well to access web based work and do not need large storage memory as the majority of work for primary and secondary children is uploaded to external systems). I have done a bit of internet 'search' sample shopping to give a flavour' of what works and the cost (fully understand it is still a great deal) -
HP 11a 11.6" Chromebook - 32 GB eMMC, White - Currys £199
Using X box/Playstation - I have attached a flier with instructions. You can access SeeSaw through these devices.
Printers - we are trying to make sure that not all of the work or much of the work needs printing. As a school we try not to use worksheets but fully understand that it is more of a necessity for many parents. People are writing things out, drawing things and making the best of a difficult situation.
2. WFH ideas
Forest school ideas
- attached is a document for a walk in the woods (not everything has to be printed as you could use the idea or download it to a phone).
- 'Forest bathing' (can be done anywhere) - some of you may like this - You Tube link = https://youtu.be/VpzoiZJihP0
- Forestry England have some fantastic resources and a new section about home learning (the link below is for a virtual tour and a link to an app) -
Being active
It is really, really important for your child's well being, mental health and levels of fitness to be active each day for at least 1 hour and, if possible, to be outside. Walks, runs, parks are still open etc and home based forest school (ideas have been shared). A night walk or a 'different adventure' keeps the mind active.
If you like Joe Wicks do that but there are a range of other things. You are permitted to exercise outside and near your home. We are fortunate that we live in a rural county and within walking distance of open countryside wherever we live.
Have a good day.
Best wishes
Mr Batstone
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Dear Mrs Giles, Madley Primary School has sent you a message Update - Wednesday January 13thDear Parents/Carers, 1. Values - not just about school but home as well. The values for January are 'Peace and Friendship' and can be explored in lots of different ways. - Design and create a poster to exemplify each value. If your poster was to be published then it must be to a 'publishing standard' and the very best work that can be done. - Have a discussion about the values and how they are exemplified at home, society and the World. 2. National data on 'live' learning (Twitter survey) 'Live' learning does not define the time allocated, quality of experience or curriculum area. If we are going to do anything that is 'live' in the weeks ahead then it will be done properly, have meaning and have impact. Primary Schools* Regarding remote learning, what proportion of lessons are live streamed? All 8.1% At least half 11.9% Less than half 27.9% None 52.1% Live 'streaming' may be an ipad propped in the corner of the classroom or a quick morning 'catch up' - there is no time definition. 3. Stride Active challenges - during the last lockdown there were challenges set for sport and PE. They have started their challenges again - visit www.strideactive.org and details are below: Virtual School Games Dance Competition Date: 4th February 2021 Venue: Virtual Our next School Games competition of 2021 is a virtual Dance challenge! This challenge starts on Monday 11th January and all routine entries must be in by Thursday 4th February We are linking this competition with Children’s Mental Health Week. The theme of the week is ‘Express Yourself’ Theme of the dance competition: Express Yourself Format: class/group (family members) / individual Judging: Performances will be judged based on Time: The routine should be no more than 1 minute long Entries: The whole school can take part and then a final school video should be sent to Stride Active (1 entry per school). Record the video (landscape) and email it to kieram@strideactive.org – please ensure that you have consent for all children in the video to be used on social media and for other promotion. Deadline for entries is 3 pm on Thursday 4th February 2021 Kind regards Mr Batstone |
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Dear all, Welcome to Tuesday ! Information, updates, learning ideas .......... 1. Staff absence We have some staff who are absent from school at the moment as they are shielding very vulnerable family members or they are unable to work at this time and are signed off. Mrs Johnson has also hurt her back badly and may be absent for a while. Team Madley always steps forward and the team are excellent at covering each other and going the extra mile. 2. Learning in the event of a teacher absence If a teacher was absent for a day then I would set some tasks for the class but it would be via Parentmail and not Seesaw and would not require any feedback. If the absence was to be longer then we would inform you of the processes. If the absence was Covid related and involved isolation for the teacher then we would inform you of the process at the time. These are unusual, unprecedented times and we are often encountering things we have no experience, guidance or training for so we make the best decisions and the ones we feel are appropriate. 3. Establishing routines Everyone is adjusting to new ways of working in challenging times (even if we have been through it once), schools have been given no training, proper guidance, budget or time to prepare for what we are experiencing now. This week is about adjusting and making things work with limited staff and resources whilst balancing home learning and in school learning (we didn't have this before). We understand that some families struggle for devices and printers, we are trying to find some help for people but it will take time and I will contact people as we have more information or resources. We cannot post work out as we do not have the capacity in terms of people. Teachers are monitoring all aspects of SeeSaw and we may adjust the times we post work to make it easier for parents but changes will only come from next Monday. Something I saw on Twitter: 'In business you would have 3 days training on a new ICT system or software change then two days of self experimenting to use a new system but in education it is introduced in a staff meeting at the end of a full school day with the instruction of 'have a play' and, by the way, we are using it from 9am tomorrow morning !' This may or may not be true but it resonated ! We didn't quite do that and had training in school before Christmas and we were prepared but this is something we have never done, we could not practise how to manage response or individual parental requests. These first few weeks of lockdown will be about - - finding systems that work for home and school but are collective not individual. - all about schools promoting themselves and how great what they are doing is........ whilst forgetting that not every school is in the same locality, position, have the same parental approach or a raft of other things. We will comment on how things have gone here but 'we learn from others not compare ourselves to others. ' - dealing with the raft of paperwork from the DFE, all about tracking numbers but very little advice or guidance. Outdoor learning ideas/websites The following is just the beginning and I will 'drip feed' you more sites as the weeks pass. Rooted Forest School is Herefordshire based and Sam has hosted courses for educators at Madley. These are all links copied from an educator who republished the list from last lockdown so, hopefully, they are all running again....... LEARNING THROUGH LANDSCAPES have created two a Facebook groups, one for educators and the other for families during COVID 19. Both are really lively pages, so check them out. This UK school grounds charity have opened up much more of its resources to non-members. You can access the whole lot if you join – it’s very cheap to do so. RENSSELAER YOUTH OUTDOORS is a network of partners whose mission is to introduce and engage the children and families of Rensselaer County in the wonder, science, and adventure of nature in an effort to create a healthier, more sustainable community in an increasingly complex world. But all their posting seem equally good for the UK. CRISIS CRAFTS – KEEPING HANDS BUSY If you are stuck with activities to do with children at home The Smart Happy Project are here to help. They will be sharing some easy Crisis Craft activities that are all related to natures patterns, every weekday at noon, via their Facebook page. All activities, once aired, will stay on the page, so don’t worry if you missed the live feed. Lisa, the founder has also produced this download about the Number 5 and associated geometric patterns. FRESH AIR LEARNING Jess Walton is posting a video or an idea every day on her Facebook page. She’s a qualified Forest School and Beach School Leader so useful for those who looking for this type of inspiration. ROOTED FOREST SCHOOL Sam Goddard is sharing activities every few days which can be done at home with one or two children. Fantastic! JEN’S FOREST SCHOOL A brilliant site for families and educators wanting to learn more about nature and not sure where to start. Good mix of suggestions, photos and videos. Heart picture (attached) An idea for when you are out on your walk or in the garden. Cut out the shape from card and then take a photograph of an amazing view (can be the ground) and share it via admin@madley.hereford.sch.uk (this is one of the rare occasions you use the admin address for work as everything is on SeeSaw now and via teachers). Sunshine stones (picture attached) Use natural resources to create a picture, can be photographed if you want. Best regards Mr Batstone
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Dear all,
We hope you had a peaceful, calm and safe weekend. We hope that you have followed all of the rules in order to keep yourself and everyone else safe.
Quite a lot of information today to work through:
1. You may be aware that the Council has an information and guidance website on a number of areas, health, wellbeing, debt, activities which is called WISH. The link below may be a helpful for parents as it provides information on obtaining laptops and internet access for home schooling purposes as well as details on educational programmes:
www.wisherefordshire.org/homeschooling
2. SeeSaw feedback
- Interaction/engagement from the vast majority of children and classes has been excellent.
- People have uploaded work, videos and photographs.
- The interaction between teachers and pupils is individual and more personal.
- Younger years (R and 1) is more video, photos and short pieces of work but more of them. Older children have longer pieces of work and less videos or photographs.
- Writing across the school has a better response and improved quality from the last lockdown.
- Children in school are following the same work but it is in a book and not posted on SeeSaw so we have consistency.
- There have been some wonderful comments and stories about home learning e.g younger children watching a teacher video on Madley TV and thinking it was a Facetime call. These are strange times for everyone but those moments are special.
A really good start to the home learning journey, well done and keep it going. There are lots of challenges ahead and some management issues to resolve but a really positive start.
'Teething issues and areas to address'
- In school a teacher has over 1000 questions or interactions with children during any given day (these are often quick verbal feedback but teachers now have to write the response and read anything the child says, this takes much longer).
In each class we are currently receiving between 80 - 200 interactions with children over the course of a whole day and evening and we are trying to find ways to manage this without teachers working 24 hours of the day and having a break from a screen as well. Teachers are now marking things or commenting late into the night as they don't want to start the next day with 50 pieces of work or photographs to view before they start the next day.
Hopefully this will calm as working habits are formed but we may restrict when work can be posted to balance workload and mental health !
Teachers at Madley will do what it takes (and more) but often at the detriment to their own well being and we have a responsibility to manage that.
- Some videos are recordings of the child doing something then it stops as they got something wrong then it is re-recorded with the correct answers. Children should be getting things wrong (you learn more from failure than success and it builds resilience). We would expect any child to get at least 10% of their work wrong or it may be too easy !
- Only the work set by the teacher will be commented on or marked. Projects are good but may have to be a little more independent.
- If teachers set work for around 4 hours but it is all completed in 30 minutes then the quality or standard probably isn't good enough. Teachers will ask children to re-do or improve the quality of work if they know the child is capable of better. You may have to deal with the 'fall out' from that, they probably wouldn't react in the same way at school !
- Please could you check that photos, work etc are the correct way up when posted as SeeSaw does now allow rotation. Photographs can also be 'bundled' and not just sent individually.
- Not everything needs to be sent in/posted as it may be practise and we don't need to see everything.
- Commenting is not text messaging or social media so the teacher will probably comment once or not at all on every piece of work.
- Please remember that SeeSaw may feel that it is just you, your child and the teacher but there are 30 other people who share that view ! All teachers have a weekly review meeting to look at what is working, work management, quality of working etc to make sure the system works for everyone.
Did you know SeeSaw can also be accessed through an X-box (if it is connected to the internet) if you are struggling for devices. Not advocating that but just signposting it for parents.
3. Attendance
Key worker attendance - this is a 'hot topic' at the moment and the DFE guidance was updated on Friday evening at 5:30pm to clarify that anyone (including key workers) who can work from home and have their children with them, then they should. We fully understand that this may be extremely challenging !
We currently have a fifth of the school accessing key worker provision at some point during the week (41 children from 31 families), in the last March lockdown it was a tenth of the school from around 10 families (we have had a 50% increase from last year). We still have some children to add.
The processes and procedures for school all work but it increases the risk to school staff and to your family in bringing the virus home. Thank you to key worker families for their compliance with stringent safety measures around school.
For all those working from home -
We have to report on absence, even virtual absence ! This is the most bizarre thing I have heard of so far but nothing surprises me anymore !
If your child is ill at home and cannot access virtual learning then you have to report it to school as we have to record it on our absence sheet each day ! We will leave this to your discretion !
4. Daily exercise -
Joe Wicks is the easy option but other ideas will be shared and children need to be getting outdoors and away from a screen for significant parts of the day.
Plan a walk, do some exercise outside, go on a bike ride .........
I will give you some good links for outdoor learning opportunities this week.
On-line bushcraft ideas with Ed Stafford
EVERY weekday starting Monday 11th at 10am (after Joe Wicks!) on our
@onlinebushcraft (You Tube)
YouTube channel Steven Hanton & I will be starting live forest skills lessons for kids and adults alike.
5. ICT headaches -
- We are actively exploring ICT options for families who need it and fall into certain categories. We are approaching charities and other organisations in order to assist people who meet certain criteria.
- If you do not have a printer don't worry and we try to set work that doesn't have to be printed or could be copied from a screen or can be drawn instead (without creating lots of extra work).
6. 'Would you rather..... ?' questions for the family......
Please don't sent your responses in as these are just for 'fun' or to stimulate conversation.
- 'Would you rather eat with a fork for the rest of your life OR eat only with a spoon for the rest of your life ?'
- 'Eat cold frozen food throughout the winter OR very hot food throughout the summer ?'
7. Music resources
Attached are resources for all year groups from Encore Music (who teach 3 classes Ukele and Samba in school). I have added the Nursery one as you may have a younger child.
Have a good start to the first full week. Establish a timetable and good routine (we know mornings are probably better to work), teachers will publish their 'outline' timetable as we have in school but remember home working is more intense and behaviours etc could be very different to school !
Regards
Mr Batstone
Our first day with the key worker children in school went very well, slightly different as staff are wearing PPE but we are still the same underneath. The children were amazing and adjusted to the new restrictions, different environment and ways of working with enthusiasm and really sensible behaviour. Parents/Carers around school were excellent and wore masks and were fast at dropping off and picking up, thank you all.
SeeSaw - feedback from teachers is positive and we are tracking who is engaging (the vast majority) before we phone home next week for those who are not. As we have said already, all children should be engaging with home learning and following the work set by the teachers (there is a 'flow' to some of this work which cannot be missed e.g Year 6 - Mrs Lacey is watching !! ). On the whole we are pleased and you should be proud of your approach to the work so far.
From Monday the amount and range of work will increase (not to keep your children busy) but to give a wider curriculum offer as we would in school.
There will be teething problems with devices, ICT issues etc but we are all working our way through unprecedented, new and challenging times.
Parents - hopefully your children are helping you by settling to work. Home is not school and there will be the good days and bad days of engagement and learning, it happens ! If you are struggling for devices etc please e-mail admin and we will endeavour to help.
Home learning
You will be given a range of comprehensive work but there are some useful websites for anything 'extra' that you may wish to do.
BBC bitesize and the BBC are hosting a range of films, work etc - it seems to be mostly in the morning but iplayer will have resources if you wanted to watch things later.
Natural History Museum
Phonics Play - free during lockdown (then £6 a year afterwards). Especially good for younger year groups.
Oxford Owl - younger children reading resources.
DK findout ! - suitable for all ages.
National Geographic - free. Wide range of resources to explore the wider World.
Tate Kids - free - modern art site for inspiration, ideas and things to try.
Have a lovely 'lockdown' weekend, stay safe.
Regards
Mr Batstone
Hello all,
We are back to a similar position as March of last year but in many ways it is more challenging as people know what to expect, it comes on the back of a holiday and we now have greater expectations of remote/blended learning alongside providing education in school (for at least 30 families so far). We will do our best and all of the team have stepped forward and, unconditionally, offered their support and help despite the fact that they know the risk is greater and they are putting themselves and their families in greater danger.
We did not have time to send books etc home as before but we will think about and try to address that in the next few weeks. We will provide paper packs from Monday if people are able to collect from the front of school (please do not come into the school building).
You will have your own challenges at home with devices, making things work and the balance of learning with screen time and active time. The aim of these updates is to give you feedback and some ideas that you can/may use.
The key message is 'do your best' and make it work for your family but we also need to be learning and engaging. Follow the structures that are given by the teachers (especially with writing, the weakest area we found from the last lockdown and a hard aspect to teach) and please follow the learning you are asked to.
Remote learning
Despite the Education Minister's announcement yesterday we had already agreed within the teaching team to provide up to 4 hours of learning for children via Seesaw and other ideas. It is more intense at home and 4 hours may be too much so please do not use that as a 'you have to do 4 hours' but as a general guide. It may be that you do 'sit down' learning in the morning then walks in the afternoon or they have projects etc, make it work for your family.
SeeSaw
It was great to see and hear about so many children trying it out yesterday as we ease into using it. We had 97 people requesting a replacement log in as they couldn't find it so hopefully everyone is sorted now. Please e-mail admin@madley.hereford.sch.uk if you still need it.
We will track the children using it and teachers will ring home if children are not engaging with it, just to check it is all working, see if you need support with devices and to ensure the children continue to learn.
A few 'not so gentle' reminders:
- the platform is not a social media platform for parental communication and is for the child and teacher. It is not a personal communication platform for parents to contact teachers.
- It is not Tapestry (often in a nursery/pre school setting a key worker would have about 5 children they are responsible for, whereas a teacher has 30 or more) and the response to your videos, comments or work cannot be the same. We loved seeing the videos of the children engaging with their work but not everyone will be commented on or liked (it is not physically possible whilst a teacher is planning, getting resources for the next day, recording videos for Madley TV etc).
- Teachers monitor things all the time and work in the evenings but they will only comment on work from 10am -2:30pm alongside everything else they are doing.
School website -
'Working from home' sections have been created for each class which will be populated with ideas and examples. The overall planning webs for this terms themes have been posted so you can see the learning that is intended, and you may wish to explore some of it yourself.
Madley TV - teachers will be posting videos of examples and teaching to assist you, especially with aspects such as phonics so we get the correct pronunciation.
Learning outdoors ideas
- Forest school - the 'booklet' of last terms learning is on the school website and it may inspire some ideas for walks or outdoor learning. Simple things like the stick tower challenge are easy and can be made as simple or as complicated as you wish, you can publish your resulting photographs or videos on SeeSaw.
- OS Maps have a good 'free' app (there is one you can purchase as well) to plan walks.
- Treasure hunt ideas - can you find something on a walk or in the woods or in the garden that begins with every letter of the alphabet (A to Z) - lay them out in order.
- Can you make every letter of the alphabet just using sticks ? They can be bent into shape or, raise the challenge, they have to be found in the correct shape !
Curriculum ideas
Art idea - attached is a piece of work created by a child using buildings in a city and bringing them to life by adding faces. All ages could explore this idea and you can extend it but drawing buildings from different ages or linking character to buildings (e.g what character would be castle be ? Black and white house ? Wooden hut ? Bungalow ? ). If you wanted to extend it further they could (or you could do it together) write a children's book with text and illustrations.
More ideas to follow soon........
Best wishes
Mr Batstone
Dear all,By 10am tomorrow morning your child will have work posted on SeeSaw to 'ease' them into the new 'flow' of learning (this includes key worker children for tomorrow as well). It will also get everyone used to using SeeSaw, please e-mail admin if you have any issues (lots and lots of login requests today !) and we will try to resolve them for you. We understand that some families may have to share devices or only have the use of phones and not laptops etc. Please don't panic or think there is a deadline, this week is about establishing routines, getting used to things and making sure everything works. Good luck.....
Use of SeeSaw: - You can post any work back onto SeeSaw and it will be seen by the teacher and they may comment (comments will be short and not a full marking approach). Unlike last time we will be more prescriptive with the work that is expected and how your children work.
- We are aiming to provide up to 4 hours work a day from Monday with additional 'project' and other ideas if you want to use them. We do expect all children to complete the work on SeeSaw provided by the teachers. We know from the last lockdown that working at home can be very intense and 4 hours is more than enough. We would also encourage you to plan in some exercise times and time outdoors (walks etc) for at least an hour, this is for both well being and mental health.
- SeeSaw is for communication between the teacher and child, it is not a comment forum or social media platform for parent/teacher communication. It is not Tapestry and please remember that most classes have 30 children so constant 1:1 communication/feedback would be an impossibility.
- SeeSaw gives the opportunity for teacher/child communication and for us to see the work they are doing much quicker and to be able to comment. The comments may be immediate or they may be delayed depending on what the teacher is doing (they are planning, setting work, reviewing work and responding throughout the day until 2:30pm, they don't stop work then but are preparing new work etc after that time).
Teachers will use the school website and the 'working from home' section of your child's class page as well as SeeSaw to post work. Classes will also use the Madley TV section of the website to post stories, videos etc to assist you and your child with their learning.
More information to follow tomorrow ...... Regards Mr Batstone |
Dear all,
Happy New Year !
This wasn't the e-mail I had planned or drafted ready to be sent tomorrow ready for the children to return on Wednesday ! Everything has changed and school will not reopen until after February half term at the earliest, at least there is a vaccine programme starting so a positive change from March.
Whatever your personal feelings about Covid may be, we are back to a situation similar, but not the same as March. This is not an easy option for school, you or staff and is a lot more work than being in school normally, as we were last term ! Hopefully we will be back at school after half term and things will begin to ease.
I will be in contact again tomorrow with more details but we are set up for home learning using SeeSaw (you have their home learning log on that is personal to your child) and other platforms that we have, teachers are prepared and will start to post work from Wednesday for you (it will be a mix of on-line and project work so they don't become addicted to a screen !). During the last lockdown the vast majority of children (96%) worked well at home and accessed things (we know there are some families who struggle with devices etc so we will see what we can do to assist you).
We are expecting similar or lower numbers (between 10 and 15) of key worker children to March (more clarity of what constitutes a key worker tomorrow but essentially your job must be essential to the fight against the virus and school is a last resort for provision, if you can make alternative arrangements then you should).
Unlike March teachers will be fully engaged with home learning all day, every day and posting/checking work daily on SeeSaw and we need to staff any other provision safely (all staff worked hard during the last lockdown but we have wider provision now and it will be more prescriptive with the learning that we expect, hopefully it should relieve some of the pressure on you).
Unlike March key worker children will be supervised doing the same work as their classmates and it is not child care, they will not mix as they did previously. We will provide provision between 9am and 3:30pm. I will clarify more when we have all of the details tomorrow (we will then invite you to send an e-mail to admin@madley.hereford.sch.uk clarifying why you are a key worker and the provision you need).
These are fresh challenges and trying times for everyone, there are no easy decisions and we won't keep everyone happy but we will do our best and provide you with work for your children (we know from March that a full day is too much for them and you so we will plan for up to 4 hours a day then feed you some ideas for other activities). And Joe Wicks is back (apparently !) although that isn't PE but exercise ......... (not that that bugs PE teachers at all !!).
More to follow tomorrow ...........
Best wishes
Mr Batstone
Dear Parents/Carers,
School will be closed to all pupils on Wednesday January 6th as we work our way through the numerous requests for children to be in school. We are back to the same position as March as we are inundated with requests (all have perfectly reasonable reasons but some have mis-interpreted the criteria, just because a business is open does not mean that it meets 'key worker' status).
We have a duty of care to ensure all staff are safe and a number of requests do not meet the criteria (we do not need a letter of proof from an employer as past experience means they don't help). Whilst we understand the pressure on parents and the sudden announcement there are people requesting a place who do not meet the key worker criteria. The government information is so wide it could cover every occupation so we have to make some difficult decisions as a school to ensure we can operate safely.
Support staff will be supervising the children in school as teachers will be focussed on learning all day, every day (more information to follow tomorrow). LSAs are not employed on INSET days so communication, organisation and safety training will take place on Wednesday.
These are challenging times for all of us so please, please think carefully about any requests and needs.
Regards
Mr Batstone
