Stanmore Post - 12 June 2020

12 Jun

Dear Parents,

We have had a very settled week in school. Thank you to those who have been at the school, for your support in walking around the site for pick up and drop off and encouraging children to follow the new rules in school to keep everyone safe.

As you will be aware from the statement made by the Secretary of State for Education earlier this week, schools are not able to welcome back all primary children in Year 2 3 4 and 5 by the end of this term. We are waiting for further guidance on this. Meanwhile, we are looking at how we could work within our capacity to include more children in some activities before the end of term to strengthen their sense of belonging to the school community. The purpose of this connection would be to re-assure children that they still belong to our school and, although it looks different for now, they will still recognise familiar faces and know that we have the same expectation and ambition for them. If we find that we are unable to do this safely on the site, we will make arrangements to do this virtually.

I don't have further detail on this yet, but I will be able to update you by the beginning of July. I have written separately, to parents of children in Year R 1 and 6 who have not yet taken up a place, asking them to confirm their intention for their children to return to school, or to remain at home for the remainder of the term. We support families in making either decision, but if we are more certain about our numbers, it will help us with our planning for the remainder of the term.

At the moment, we are unable to offer spaces beyond those in Year R, 1 and 6 or those already identified as vulnerable or in a key worker group. We recognise that this places those returning to work in other sectors; for example hairdressing or 'non-essential' shops, in a challenging position. In addition, parents are continuing to work from home remotely with increasing demands on their time. This is a frustrating and difficult situation but as a school community we have to work within the guidance provided by Public Health England. What we can do is listen to feedback from parents about ways to increase independence for children in their home learning.

This week, home learning includes links to the Oak National Academy in Maths and English as well as our school home learning tasks. Oak National Academy steps children through a lesson in a way that might be helpful to some families.

We are keeping a close eye on the situation for schools in September. We will act swiftly on any further national or local authority guidance, as it emerges, to catch up programmes including any suggested improvements to online learning in Primary Schools.

If we can help your child to access work in some way, please get in touch.

Please send work to:

We can provide printed versions of the work on line. Please contact the school office to arrange collection.

Work submitted this week and house points can be found here

Year 1 and 2 home learning can be found here:

https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/news/2020/6/11/year-1-and-2-home-learning-15-june-2020

Year 3 & 4 home learning can be found here:

https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/news/2020/6/11/year-3-and-4-home-learning-15-june-2020

Year 5 & 6 home learning can be found here:

https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/news/2020/6/11/year-5-and-6-home-learning-15-june-2020

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor