Update 15th January

This has been the first full week of home learning and we understand it really isn’t easy to establish learning routines at home and that you will all tackle it differently depending on your circumstances.

We do not demand that all children log on and are registered at 8:45am and then require your child to attend lessons online for the rest of the day (this is the case in many schools).We don’t feel this approach would work for most at FLE. We’d be very concerned about the amount of screen time your child would be having, especially when screen time is often used as a reward by parents and carers. This is why we’ve tried to be as flexible as possible in our approach, so most things can be completed on paper and you can structure the day to suit the needs of your family. Please continue to use the teachers to support you and your children, even if it’s just to motivate them. Every class teacher is available for you to speak to every school day, so please don’t struggle, just call.

Another huge thank you to you all for submitting the work so promptly. This really helps the teachers assess where the children are and plan what they need to do next. I thought we’d be having to chase a lot more up, which is time consuming and wasting. A big success this week has been the GoogleClassroom social meet ups for every class. Following our assessment of provision from last time, we felt this was a gap. It is great for the children to have time to check in with each other and their teacher. I’m sure some of the shyness will wear off quickly over the coming weeks. This is a good use of technology and supports the children’s well-being. It would be lovely if we could manage a full class next week. If you have any issues with accessing technology, WiFi/4G to support this or home learning please call the office.

Unfortunately, just like the first lockdown, the guidance for schools is changing daily. At least the local authority is now highlighting and summarising the changes for us.

The main ones that impact on you are:

We now have to provide 4 hours of learning per day for KS2.
There are significant changes for keyworkers who are now called critical workers. If you are a critical worker your child may only have a place in school if you are NOT working from home. Parents will be challenged and asked to produce evidence of this as it is very unfair to take advantage. This has been put in place to try to decrease the risk and keep everyone as safe as possible.
Changes to school meal provision. I anticipate this continuing to change from the news today. Is it just me, or does it seem that since all this has started there has been more of a focus on the school meals than any other aspect of education? From next week we can’t provide the meals for KS1/FS children as we had done. This wasn’t done by many schools, it was a good will gesture on our part. Also, our food parcels will begin. Emma our cook will do her best, however, she does not have the same control over these as she does over the meals. As there has been so much controversy about parcels in the press the DfE have got involved and there are strict guidelines over the contents. Emma can only change the contents where there are dietary requirements and to do this we require a letter from your doctor and you need to complete a form for Chartwells. We are very fortunate to have Emma as our cook, she always manages to go over and above with what she provides for the children. This is not just the case now, it is the same on a day to day basis.

There are increased demands from the government on schools and in turn on parents and carers this lockdown. You are not the only one with an increased workload, it is the same for the teachers and myself. Only this week we were presented with a 31 page document (this is before we populate it) by the DfE that it is recommended that we complete to assess our remote learning provision. Oh and not forgetting the compulsory form/info on remote learning that we must complete and post on the website by 25th Jan. The government want to make sure children don’t slip behind as before, however, I’d like one of them to give home learning a go! Yes the expectations are high and I completely understand that the way the children do maths and English has changed since you were at school. I myself check with a teacher on the current trend in how I should be teaching something before I cover a lesson. I have said it earlier, but it is so important, please call us up and chat it through or put your child on the phone. The same applies if you are struggling with the workload. Please call a teacher before your child gets too far behind. We can get through this together.

Finally, please make sure that you all get a break at the weekend. Your health and well-being is the most important thing. As one of my staff said to me last Friday, “there’s nothing that can’t wait until Monday and you need to rest”. They were right, I slept over 11 hours on Friday night – you can tell I have no young children at home!

Update 8th January 2021

Well I was hoping I was never going to have to do this again, but here we are. This lockdown is very different in many ways, not just the fact it’s a lot colder and I’m not sat in the sun writing this.

The guidance from the DfE (Department for Education) came out at 22:50 on Monday evening. I then sat in bed reading it and drafting an email to my teachers and chair of governors sharing the guidance and my concerns regarding it; mostly around the workload issues. The email was sent 07:04 on the Tuesday, so by the time we arrived in school it had been read

and it was all hands on deck to produce the packs in line with our remote learning policy. This had been drawn up in the Autumn Term based on what had worked well in the previous lockdown. We also had to draw up our plans for our provision to ensure it met all the guidance given.

Our FLE provision:

School is open to children of critical workers and children classed as vulnerable. Please only use this if it is absolutely necessary as we are trying to keep numbers low to reduce the risks to staff and children.

All children in school and at home are completing the same tasks.

In school the children are supported by teaching assistants. We are using the teachers to support learning at home; assess learning at home; provide feedback to you and from this plan the next weeks work. So please call the school if you have any questions. You can put your child on the phone to the teacher for explanations etc. This is what the teachers are there for.

Your teacher will contact you every week about the work and how it has been going. In addition, we ask that you submit work for assessment. The easiest way to do this is on GoogleClassroom. If you require help doing this staff can talk you through it. If you are still unable to access it please speak to the teacher about making an arrangement to bring the work to school.

I reiterate, that it is a government requirement that all work is completed and we will be checking this with you.

Well-being has not been forgotten, if you have any issues or concerns please get in touch with us, you can talk to any member of staff and we also have Danny Biscombe who is a trained counsellor available.

Next week, everything that is in the packs will also be available on GoogleClassroom. Please can you let us know if you DO NOT require a pack as you are able to use it all from GoogleClassroom ASAP. A new part is on order for our main school photocopier, so finger crossed we shouldn’t have any snags next week. If we do I will be taking a few of you up on your offers - thank you!

Finally a huge thank you to everyone this week for making it all work at such short notice. There has been great team work and community spirit shown by parents and staff which is much appreciated. Wishing you all a safe a restful weekend.

Rebecca

Lockdown 3 letter.pdf

SCHOOL CLOSED

Update: School is closed tomorrow unless you are a key worker or they are classed as a vulnerable child. We are currently arranging food for the families who were entitled to the vouchers over Christmas. We will be in touch about the children's work tomorrow. Please bear with us - it is very short notice for us and you. As before, please don't struggle. If you have any concerns please contact us. I will be in school tomorrow.

Friday 23rd October 2020

Very Important information about changes to the start and end of the school day.

Following a review of our risk assessments for the school we are going to trial some changes to our staggered starts and finishes. We need your help to do this as the most important thing is that the children don’t all arrive together. So please use your common sense and if you can see there are a lot of families at the gate, please wait. We are reducing the slots to 5 minutes, please help us by arriving promptly and leaving promptly.

We will give it a couple of weeks to see how it goes and let families get into the swing of it.

Group A will start at 8.45am and finish at 3.05pm.

Group B will start at 8.50am and finish at 3.10pm.

Group C will start at 8.55am and finish at 3.15pm.

Autumn 2019

Please watch our end of term film which celebrates how the children are connected to each other in answer to our question 'How far and wide are we connected'. They have had a really interesting term exploring connections, for example: connecting body shapes to form art; connecting our countryside to sculpture; how we are connected to our ancestors in the Stone age; how our area is connected to America; how we are connected through our features and how music can connect all us through our end of term shows.

For Children in Need 2019 we all wore sports clothes to school and took part in a Joe Wick's work out. We also made a coin trail on the playground which measured 1.2km and held a Bring and Buy Sale in the afternoon. We have raised over £364.99

For our stand on single use Comic Relief Red Noses we were the Regional Champions of the Better Energy Schools Awards in the 'Totally Clued Up' catergory. We won £1000 and our school council had an all expense paid trip to London Zoo to receive the award. Yes, that is Dermot O'Leary in the picture with us and other celebrities we met.

Proudly receiving our award at London Zoo

We are making a stand against plastic red noses!

Join us raising money in a more sustainable way.

Go to the ‘News’ section to see our letters, photos and videos.

Our story on CBBC Newsround

Our story on BBC News

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A very warm welcome from all the pupils and staff at Fourlanesend Primary School. We are a small rural primary school located in a beautiful corner of South East Cornwall.

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Fourlanesend Community Primary School