So – what do you do when life gets a little bit different? When you can’t play with your friends or leave the house as often as you’d like?  When learning gets a little bit tricky without your teacher? When the keys and the right letters on your Chromebook take ages to find and all you really want to do is add a new paragraph?  When you wonder if the smell of hand sanitiser will ever seem appealing and you also feel like your hands may actually just FALL OFF if you have to use another drop? When you are sooooooooo c-c-c-cold and wonder if FIVE layers of clothing just wasn’t enough and how you could possibly manage to wear any more without looking like The Snowman or at least a really, really big version of yourself (school life!) or when you might miss people who you can’t see – equally when you may be feeling a little bit trapped with those who you are seeing so much of, every single day, within the same four walls right now?!

… You MAKE THE BEST OF IT! That’s the Unit 2 way and that’s just what we’ve done this week!

That’s another lockdown week completed (are we at week 3 already?) and what great resilience you all have demonstrated, facing each task with your usual enthusiasm and ‘can-do’ approach. Your ability to adapt to change must be commended, we are proud of you and we’d like to say well done again and thank you to all parents/carers at home for supporting remote learning.

Both Year 3 and 4 have had fun exploring division this week, completing tricky calculations with the help of place value counters and partitioning techniques.  We’ve also got creative with rainbow art (Sian from Relax Kids says that rainbows are a symbol of hope so we have embraced this), writing some poems inspired by all of the rain that we’ve had recently (Year 4) and sharpened up our drawing skills by following step-by-step instructions on drawing birds and other creatures (Year 3).

Year 3 have also enjoyed their second Relax Kids sessions, we’re getting better at learning to relax and practising techniques to install a sense of calm.  It’s really lovely to connect with those at home, please make sure that you are logging-in and joining us each week – look out for the link available on Google Classroom.  We would love to have full class attendance, the sessions are really useful and have made a real difference to all those who have taken part.  It’s really important to look after your wellbeing.

We hope that you enjoyed our first Whole School Virtual Assembly.  Each week we will be looking out for Star Learners again, so keep up the great work and keep trying your best.  Remember to use all your Building Learning Powers, the best part of these is that they work wherever we are (at school and at home!).  If you have any Good News that you’d like to share for our assemblies, or any 2%er top tip advice (either a video, poster, poem, etc.) please send them over to Mrs Symonds to be included at media@southill.dorset.sch.uk  We’d love to see you on screen.

Here are a selection of photos sent in from those of you at home (thank you!) and a few taken at school during our Relax Kids session.

Keep smiling, keep believing in yourself and we hope that you all have a lovely weekend!