Week 4 complete. Well done everyone!
Survey: thank you
We’ve run a quick Ping survey this week to gather your views on how remote education is working for you. Thank you to everyone who has replied – your answers will be really helpful. We’ll report back to you next week on our main findings and what we plan to do as a result.
Reopening?
You will have seen in the news that schools will definitely not open before Monday 8th March. That’s another four weeks at least of continuing remote education. I’m constantly impressed with how brilliantly you are all doing at home – please keep going; the end is (we hope) in sight!
Inset Day and half term
Please can I remind you all that the last day of this half term is Thursday 11th February. We are closed on Friday 12th February for staff training. We open again on Monday 22nd February to children of key workers as before.
Help with internet access at home
Just a quick reminder that we are able to help if you are struggling with internet access at home. We can get a pre-paid router for you and even mobile data – all free. Please send us a quick email if you’re interested. Your request will be treated in complete confidence.
Express Yourself
During today’s assembly, I introduced everyone to our idea for Children’s Mental Health week, which starts on Monday. I showed some slides on the theme of ‘Express Yourself’ and am encouraging as many children as possible to take part. I know you’re very busy at home – this isn’t meant as extra workload for you – but I hope you could have a bit of fun with it if you wanted to join in.
The main belief behind this idea is that finding healthy ways to express ourselves creatively is a good way of looking after our mental health. Over the week, children (and parents too, of course) are encouraged to be creative with art, music, writing, cooking, dancing – anything really that makes you feel good.
If children want to send videos or pictures in, we’ll happily show them off in our virtual assembly next week. The main thing though is to be creative, have fun and feel a bit better about things.
Here are some very simple creative ideas I shared in my assembly earlier today:
Squiggle game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozKW1M97JXE&feature=youtu.be
Origami Dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD4Gv3s3QH8
Southill’s Got Talent
This segment of our virtual assembly was a big hit today. We’d love to have some talents on display every week so, if you have any photos or videos of your child demonstrating their special talent, please send it to us: media@southill.dorset.sch.uk
Teaching Awards
A number of parents have contacted the Teaching Awards people to send thank you messages to the school. I have shared these with staff and they are an excellent morale booster – they’ve put a smile on everyone’s face. Thank you to all parents who took the time to do this.
Home education tip
Did you know that the White Rose powerpoints which teachers sometimes post in Google Classroom as a maths task can be opened in Google Slides where they will become editable? It’s a handy tip that might speed things up for you a bit as the sheets won’t need printing out.
Links from elsewhere
1. Learning with Parents
I recommend this website to any parent wanting some more resources to help with English and Maths teaching at home (especially during ‘normal’ times when there’s less home learning being set by school).
They have recently sent this pack for helping children tell the time, which you might find useful:
Maths-with-Parents-time-home-learning-pack
2. News from Sustrans
We wanted to let you know we’re relaunching Sustrans Outside In, a free resource to help parents who are looking after their children at home:
Sustrans Outside In provides fun ideas and inspiration for parents to bring education, health and wellbeing activities into their home.
Parents can access resources by registering for our free parent newsletter. Over four weeks, they’ll receive weekly videos, themed activities, games and challenges designed by our experienced school officers.