Newsletter 27 - 3rd April 2020
Dear Parents
THANK YOU! A
shout of thanks to all our wonderful families who have worked so hard and so
effectively to keep learning on track at home! We are all amazed at the
wonderful work that is being done in each home with people keeping positive,
creative and having fun. Please look on the “Whole School” page on Moodle for a
few items of Sharing that we can celebrate at the end of this week.
You will also find, on the
Whole School page, a very short reflection/quiet time/mindfulness topic which
is updated daily. Please encourage your child to spend a few precious moments
in quiet and reflection each day. This is part of maintaining their good mental
health and spiritual growth, whatever their faith or non-faith philosophy.
The link to Amazon Audible
(free at present) is also on this Whole School page, as is the First News, a
children’s newspaper that is much enjoyed by the children when they are at
school. Scrolling down through the Whole School page, you will see some other websites
published that might be of interest.
What happens over Easter? Teachers will not set work over the Easter holidays –
as you would expect. However, please do continue with reading as usual. Then we
will pick up the distance learning through Moodle again on 20th
April! Be ready for lots more fun and learning. Over the holidays, help your child
to keep up with their active lifestyle, their creative play and reading every
single day!
Where can I get support to keep my child safe online?
Careful supervision of primary school children is the very best way of
ensuring they are safe. There is a lot of support available to help you keep
your child safe online. Below are some relevant links that you may find useful:
- Thinkyouknow
(advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online) - Internet
matters - Parent info
- LGfL
- Net-aware
(support for parents and careers from the NSPCC)
Keep talking about
internet safety and cyber bullying with your child. Make sure your child is
comfortable to report to you anything that they are worried about or feel is
inappropriate – that they know you will not be angry with them but will be
pleased that they came and asked for support.
Your own wellbeing Whilst some families have managed this novel situation without too
many problems, for some of you there may be a point where you feel that you
cannot manage anymore. Wiltshire Local Authority has set up a Wellbeing Hub.
You can make contact with them and they will signpost you to the most
appropriate support for your particular needs, whether this is emotional,
financial or physical. Their details are:
“Wiltshire Wellbeing Hub”
Email: wellbeinghub@wiltshire.gov.uk
or phone 0300 003 4576
Please do not suffer in
silence. Ask for help if you need it.
Children’s wellbeing If you think your child is feeing stressed, you might like to access
https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/calm-zone/
This builds on the work
our children already know so much about, finding peace and strength through
quiet reflection and has lots of mindfulness activities offered by Childline.
And there are beautiful
chants and Christian reflections from Taize in France for everyone – again, our
children know how to use Taize chants to gain calmness and balance, and to find
that place of peace in their hearts.
Bags for A&E When our staff heard that staff in a local A&E
would benefit from having drawstring bags to put dirty clothing in after a
shift, to prevent contamination of their homes, they set out to make as many bags
as possible – in between their day jobs of managing the distance learning and
caring for the children of key workers. Within a few days, heaps of bags had
arrived at school made by our staff and their families and friends, and have
been sent on to our precious and valued front line workers. Working together as
a community of love and support is the best way to win this battle.
Fraud alert Do not give your bank details out! There are
lots of Corona frauds going on at present – even one claiming to come from your
child’s school. We will never ask for your bank details or any passwords etc.
Please be very careful.
Parents and Carers Pupil Privacy Notice This document has been updated by our Data Protection
Officer and accompanies this newsletter. It can also be viewed on our website.
. https://holy-trinity.co.uk/policies-2/.
On this tab, you will also find the appendix to our Safeguarding policy as it
relates to the Covid19 arrangements if you are interested.
Government WhatsApp
service A new GOV.UK WhatsApp
Coronavirus Information Service has now been launched. The purpose of this
product is to combat the spread of misinformation propagated through WhatsApp.
To use the service,
members of the public simply add +44 7860 064422 to their contacts and send a
WhatsApp message saying “Hi”.
Things to have fun with this week!
National Trust have some
lovely ideas, images and videos – including some things children can do before they
are 11 ¾ - whilst in isolation! https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/blossom-watch
Many zoos and aquariums
are offering webcam experiences and virtual tours:
And some great experiences
at the Houston Space centre:
Stay at home, stay safe
and stay well.
Best wishes,
Mercedes Henning
Read more...Newsletter 26 - 27th March 2020
Dear Parents
Corona Virus We urge everyone to abide by the very strict measures that
our Government has put in place to help us fight the pandemic, and to stay at
home. This is the best way to ensure that fewer lives are lost.
Whilst we are open to
children of key workers, we have been very grateful that our parents have
heeded the advice to keep children at home unless there is no other option. School
provision is used as an absolute last resort even for these key workers, in
line with Government direction, since every child who comes into school
increases the risk to the child, to their families, to our staff and our
community.
We are very grateful to
our staff who have responded to this challenge with their usual courage,
optimism and generosity and are working hard to care for children on site
whilst make sure that learning at home continues as effectively as possible. We now have staff isolating with symptoms of
the virus and we will be risk assessing the situation daily but hope to be able
to continue to open, with other staff picking up more of the load. This is our
contribution to the greatest challenge we have had to face for several
generations and we are proud to be able to play our part in providing this
emergency child care where necessary to keep our key workers on the front line.
Easter Holidays Our staff will be offering holiday care for the children of key workers
through the Easter break for those who have no other option for child care – we
will not be open on the bank holidays. It seems that many of our families with
key workers have made arrangements to be home with their children for the
second week of the holiday. In the event of just one or two children requiring
care in this week, we might signpost those parents to the Local Authority Hub
provision where children can be cared for at a different school. Whilst we are
open, we will continue to offer school meals (packed lunch) through the
holidays. Please order online as usual.
Social distancing – means no play dates! Children cannot really keep the 2m rule when they
play, and their hygiene is erratic. Whilst they are probably less likely to be
seriously affected by the virus, they can spread it to others who might be made
very ill. Please stay at home.
The Learning Continues
Please note: as mentioned
last week, children should be doing no
more than about 2 hours school work a day, rising to 3 hours for the older
children perhaps if they are inspired. If they are unable to complete all
the tasks in that time, please do not worry about this, as long as they have
had a good go at their reading, writing and maths so that they do not lose
their precious learning. They do not have to complete everything set. We do not
expect parents to take their children through the national curriculum, just to
keep their skills honed and ready for when we return to school. We have seen
some wonderful examples of creative and outstanding learning going on in homes.
Please keep an eye on the
messages your children send online. Sometimes children can forget to be kind
because they cannot see the person they are addressing. If we do have children
being unkind we will have to turn off the messaging part of our virtual
learning platform – but it is very useful so we hope that children will
continue to discuss only their work on the Moodle app, and nothing else.
- Please ensure that your children are safe online –
never let them use a device unsupervised. - Please make sure your children spend at least two
hours every day in active pursuits – outside in the garden if possible, or
clear the sitting room and have a dance/circuit training hour, or use an
exercise programme online for children. - Please encourage your children to engage in creative
activities each day – building dens, junk modelling, Lego, painting, playdough,
etc. - Please limit the time your children spend in front of
a screen or device. - Children must follow the same rules as adults when it
comes to staying away from gatherings. Please supervise them carefully. Children
must not attend places of mass gathering – play parks, parties etc must all be
off limits while we fight this threat in our country.
Looking After Yourself Wiltshire Local Authority has published a little document discussing aspects of looking after yourself as adults and also looking after your children through these dark days. Please find it attached to the email we sent to you – you may find some of their advice and resources useful.
COVID Symptom App The
COVID Symptom App has been launched with researchers at Guy’s & St Thomas’
& King’s College to help slow the spread of #COVID19 and identify at-risk
cases sooner by self-reporting symptoms daily, even if people feel well.
You can download the app https://covid.joinzoe.com/
here if you wish to take part in this.
You are also encouraged to
share the app and share your “well/ill” status to help provide data for the
policy makers to work with.
Admissions to our school for Foundation Stage,
September 2020 Primary national offer day is the 16th April. At the present time the
Local Authority are on schedule to still make offers on this day. However they
will be unable to send out offer letters in the post. Parents and carers who
have applied online will be able to log back into the online system and view
their place offer. People who have submitted a paper application form will be
able to call the Local Authority for their decision on or after the 16th April.
They will update their webpage with this information and contact numbers in due
course.
Other ideas for home learning There are lots of things to do online – we will
suggest a few each week and ask you to feel free to send in to us any sites
that are very interesting or worthwhile.
On Moodle, under the Whole
School topic, you will find a daily reflection for children (it is very
valuable for good mental health to spend a few minutes in meditation or quiet
time), and also you will find the First News – a children’s newspaper. Children
can browse through and read the captions of pictures if they are younger, or
any article that interests them if they are older. Encourage your children to
keep reading.
A site which helps children to do some easy yoga exercises – we use it in school with our little ones and they enjoy it. Look at cosmickids.com
https://www.cosmickids.com/category/watch/
Explore the Roald Dahl
museum
Virtual Roald Dahl Museum tour
Some ideas for art
outdoors – let’s get our children outside!
https://www.tts-group.co.uk/blog/2018/08/22/top-12-outdoor-art-ideas.html
For the older children,
some lovely images of artefacts with information about them on every period of
history.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/learn/schools/ages-7-11/ancient-britain/virtual-visit-peek-prehistory
When you need a break! Every
day at 11am, you can listen one of David Walliams’ World’s Worst Children
stories, so sit down and enjoy 20ish minutes of peace!
Best wishes,
Mercedes Henning
Read more...Newsletter 25 - 20th March 2020
Dear Parents
Corona Virus The Government has announced that schools will be
closed to most children from Monday 23rd March. Our school will be
kept open with a skeleton staff to provide support for the children of key
workers. These families are already in touch with us and plans are being made
for their children to attend.
The Government helpline is 0800 046 8687 Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk.
The Learning Continues Our virtual learning platform is up and running and
children have been introduced to it. Children will need an adult to log in for
them, to ensure that they are being supervised whilst they are online. Your log
in details for Moodle will have been sent to your email address. Follow this
link, set your own password and then have a look at the pages and topics for
your child/children.
- Each school day,
during this extended closure, please make sure you get into a routine of
settling down to do a bit of school work – perhaps an hour in the morning and
an hour in afternoon. Do not try to run a full school
timetable – this is not appropriate for home learning and one to one tuition –
allow a degree of flexibility but aim to get a couple of hours work done each
day. - Tasks will be set
daily and/or weekly and you will be able to log in each day to see the work
your children need to do that day. - Sometimes
teachers may ask to see some of the work the children are doing. This can be
uploaded either as a photo from your phone or a pdf document. - If you do not
have a laptop or computer at home, just use your phone. You or your child can
copy the tasks/problems into the books we have provided and work them out.
Solutions will be provided for maths problems so that you can check whether
they are correct. - Please supervise
your child’s learning each school day – it is essential that they do not fall
too far behind and lose the precious learning they have done. - Please ensure
that your children are safe online – never let them use a device unsupervised. - Please make sure
your children spend at least two hours every day in active pursuits – outside
in the garden if possible, or clear the sitting room and have a dance/circuit
training hour, or use an exercise programme online for children. - Please encourage
your children to engage in creative activities each day – building dens, junk
modelling, lego, painting, playdough, etc. - Please limit the
time your children spend in front of a screen or device. - Children must
follow the same rules as adults when it comes to staying away from gatherings.
Please supervise them carefully. Children must not attend places of mass
gathering – play parks, parties etc must all be off limits while we fight this
threat in our country. - There is no
holiday club and no Lions club activities. Money can be picked up from the
office. - A weekly
newsletter will continue to be published – probably much shorter! - If you are
entitled to Free School Meals because you are on certain qualifying benefits,
please order through Lataca if you wish to, and come to the school at 12.00pm
each day to pick up the lunch. It will be a packed lunch to minimise the number
of staff we need to have in school.
These are extraordinary times – we need to do all we can to minimise the threat to
our society whilst keeping our children safe, calm, happy and learning.
Thank you
all for your support and understanding. We have had wonderfully positive
messages from so many of you, encouraging us as we work towards helping to keep
our community safe, supporting those key workers who will be in the front line,
and ensuring all our children continue with their learning.
40th Anniversary We have given every child a copy of a whole school
photo to celebrate the opening of our school in June 1980 – our 40th
anniversary which we had planned to celebrate in the summer term.
Prayers and blessings on all of our children, their families and the wider
community as we stand together to win this fight.
Best wishes,
Mercedes Henning
PFA News
As per earlier
communication, and further enforced by the latest news to close schools as of
Friday 20th March, all PFA activity has of course gone on hold. We are hugely
disappointed to have to postpone this Friday’s flowers and tuck shop, plus the
following Friday’s Ladies Night. Needless to say though, these events will be
rescheduled as soon as we can, and let’s hope it’s not as far away as some
reports are predicting. Once again, a massive thank you to Olivia Pottinger and
her team, who amazingly answered our call for help with the Mother’s Day
activity, plus Olivia and Debi Bell-Hosking who will be taking on the Bake Off.
We’ll share all new dates and plans when we’re in more steady and calmer
times.
We thought that during this
time away from school if anyone has any good ideas and suggestions for
activities and entertainment for our children please feel free to post them on
our Facebook page. Keeping in touch will be helpful for us all.
Finally, the PFA, on behalf
of all parents, would like to thank all the school staff for the lovely way
they have cared for our children these last few weeks and the extra time,
effort and thought that has gone into the continuation of their learning. We
have all appreciated your smiling faces around the school and know you have
gone above and beyond for our children.
We hope everyone and all
their loved ones stay safe and well during these difficult and challenging
times ahead.
To contact us you can email holytrinitypfa@gmail.com or
join our Facebook page "Holy Trinity (Great Cheverell) PFA"
Many thanks,
Your PFA
Read more...Newsletter 24 - 13th March 2020
Dear Parents
Corona Virus The Government has announced that schools will stay
open for now.
However,
anyone with a new and persistent cough or a temperature, must stay home for
seven days. Please take note of this advice so that we can help to slow down
the spread of the illness and reduce the impact on our community.
We also need to keep washing our hands regularly and thoroughly – the
virus cannot survive soap and water. This is the very best defence against infection.
Encourage your children to wash their hands, and to keep their hands away from
their faces.
In school, we have instituted very rigorous hand washing protocols.
We will continue to
monitor the situation and will take advice from the authorities. In the
meantime, school and all our activities planned will go ahead as usual until
the Government directs us differently. We will keep you updated as soon as we
have any further information. Thank you all for your support and understanding
as we deal with this very unusual situation.
The Government helpline is
0800 046 8687 Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk.
Emollient Cream Because we are asking children to wash their hands so regularly, we are
concerned about dry skin on their hands. We will therefore be supplying an
emollient cream for them to apply should their hands be sore. If you don’t want
your child to use this, please let us know at the office. Kindly do not send in
your own cream – we have children with life threatening allergies and we cannot
have creams in school that might trigger a reaction.
Parent/teacher meetings
Thank you
to everyone who attended these meetings. Please remember that you are welcome
to make an appointment to talk to your child’s teacher at any point in the year
about any issue or to discuss their progress and attainment.
Bollywood dance class Adults Bolly-Fitness & Bhangra-Fusion
Dance Class will be held here in the hall on Monday 16th March 2020 from
7.30pm to 9pm (Please arrive at 7.20pm for the registration); £10 per
person - Pay at the door after registration.
PFA Thank you to our PFA for
helping us organise and run the Pancake races – always a great favourite with
the children and adults in school.
Spring Recorder Concert
To
celebrate the achievements of our recorder players and to mark the last week of
Mrs Jenkins’s time in our school, we will be holding an evening recorder
concert on Tuesday 31st
March at 5.00pm. All children who play recorder in school will be
performing in ensemble. If your child takes recorder lessons, please note this
date in your diary. The concert will
last a little over half an hour. If you would like to make a donation to a
leaving gift for Mrs Jenkins, please do so at the office.
Collective Worship Our theme for this week was “Treasure on earth, Treasure in Heaven” and
we reflected on how important it is not to place too much value on material
possessions but to value family, friends, our beautiful world and having fun.
Superstars Holiday Club Our very popular holiday club will be running in the
first week of the Easter holidays Monday 6th April – Thursday 9th
April. Do sign up if you wish your child to attend this week of sports
fun.
Village Clean-up Meet at the Pavilion on Saturday 28th March from
11am-1pm for a village clean-up session – there is a free bacon sandwich on
offer! Please come along and help us to keep your village clean & tidy J
Spring Hymns
– Come & sing on Fri 3rd April from
7pm-8.30pm at St Peter’s in Great Cheverell. Tickets from Freddie Coupe 07711
028352 or Cheverell Stores. £10 to include a glass of wine & nibbles.
|
Upcoming Events (Calendar of events is available on the website at www. holy-trinity.co.uk ) |
||
|
Tuesday 31st March |
Spring Recorder Concert – evening |
5.00pm |
|
Friday 3rd April |
Last day of term | |
|
Monday 6th April – Thursday 9th April |
Holiday club runs in school – Superstars booking https://www.super-stars.org.uk |
8.45am – 3.30pm |
|
Monday 20th April |
Everyone back to school | |
|
Tuesday 19th May |
Music concert, performances by children taking lessons in school. |
5.00pm Piano, choir, Brass, handbells, guitar and ukulele |
|
Wednesday 20th May – Friday 22nd May |
Forest of Dean residential trip |
|
| Friday 22nd May | Last day of term | |
|
Wednesday 3rd June |
Everyone back to school | |
|
Monday 29th June |
TD day | |
| Tuesday 7th July | Sports day | 9.15am – 12.00pm |
|
Wednesday 8th July and Thursday 9th July |
Years 3 and 4 summer performance |
Weds: 5.30pm Thurs: 2pm |
| Tuesday 14th July |
Year 6 restaurant for all year 6 parents |
1.30pm |
| Wednesday 15th July | School Eucharist | 2.00pm |
| Monday 20th July | Leavers’ Assembly | 2.00pm |
| Monday 20th July |
Parents’ welcome meetings for each class after school |
|
| Tuesday 21st July | Last day of term |
Best wishes,
Mercedes Henning
We
welcome and value your opinion. If you have any comments or suggestions, please
contact the Head teacher or Chair of Governors
PFA News
Mother’s Day
The PFA will be
selling flowers at the school gate at 3pm on Friday 20th March. There
will also be a tuck shop, so please remember to bring along some money next
week.
Shed
You may have noticed
the lovely new PFA shed has now been erected. Thank you to everyone who has
helped to make this happen.
Ladies Night- Friday 27th March
Thank you to those
who have purchased entry tickets and raffle tickets for this event. If you
haven’t yet had a chance to buy, tickets are still available at school
reception. This promises to be a fabulous evening with some great stalls,
generous raffle prizes and of course our guest speaker. Friends and family are
also welcome to purchase tickets and come along on the night.
Have you signed up for EasyFunding yet?
If you shop online, you
can raise FREE donations for Holy Trinity School PFA. Over 4,000 shops and
sites will donate to us when you use #easyfundraising to shop with
them! So far our parents have raised an amazing £2836 through this online
charity.
Please sign up and support
us: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/htspfa/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=gs
To contact us you can
email holytrinitypfa@gmail.com or join our Facebook page "Holy Trinity (Great Cheverell)
PFA"
Many thanks,
Your PFA
Read more...Latest advice on Covid - 19
Dear
parent / carer,
We wanted to write to you following the
national update to COVID-19 advice yesterday (12 March 2020).
The Chief Medical Officer provided new
advice around self-isolation and Public Health England have updated their web
pages so we would encourage you to review the updated information online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
The advice is that you should self-isolate at home
for seven days if you have a recent onset of:
- A new continuous cough and/or
- High temperature
If staff or pupils have
these symptoms then they should now take steps to stay at home and not leave
their house for seven days from when their symptoms started.
This will help to protect
others in the community while they are infectious. Anyone displaying mild symptoms
should not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.
If you decide you need to
keep your child at home and self-isolate you do not need to contact NHS 111 to
tell them they are staying at home and Public Health England will not be
testing people who are self-isolating with mild symptoms.
If your child is displaying
the above symptoms and you decide they need to self-isolate please report their
absence in the normal way to the office 01380 813 796 or email admin@holytrinity.wilts.sch.uk
.
You
can view the guidance around self-isolation online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-people-with-confirmed-or-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection
We
will continue to provide regular updates regarding this situation and concerned
parents should visit the NHS coronavirus webpage https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ in the first instance or phone NHS 111
and seek professional health advice if you are concerned.
We
thank you for your support in this matter.
Yours
sincerely
Mercedes Henning
Read more...