News

Our daily message (03 June 2020)

Yesterday, our schools opened to more children than in the last few weeks – at Scholes (Elmet) Primary and at Moortown Primary, we welcomed around three times as many pupils than in April or June, and St James’ CE Primary opened again following a period of closure when the small number of key worker children attended Moortown or Scholes. We received some nice feedback from parents:

[My son] has come home from school today very happy, saying school was “good” (high praise indeed) and does not seem upset regarding how the school day/classroom set up has changed other than the issue everyone is facing in this lockdown re specific friends not being there. So thank you all again for your hard work in keeping everyone as safe as possible but just as importantly ensuring the children’s emotional well being in school.

Just dropped [my son] off at school. Fantastic welcome from [his teachers]. He went in all smiles…

Here’s the latest Families magazine which is a “surviving lockdown” issue. It’s full of resources and ideas to help with returning your child to school, home learning, pre-school play and has dozens of ideas for family activities and entertainment. (There are even some tips on giving your child a home-haircut!)

Our daily message (02 June 2020)

You might have seen or heard news stories presenting general overview of what it was like yesterday as schools opened up to more children. In today’s message, we’re presenting an overview specifically of our three Sphere Federation schools…

Two specific things have come up:

• one about social distancing – please read our policy on this because we’re following it really strictly
• one about what to bring to school (the answer to this is very little!) – please read this information, especially pages 4 and 5

From St James’ CE Primary…

We’ve had nine children in today. We were expecting 13 but two parents decided last minute (one this morning) that they didn’t want to send their child to school yet. One child is ill but not with COVID-19 symptoms.

The process of coming into school this morning went well. It’s good that we’ve started with small numbers so staff and parents can get use to this routine.

We hope to invite more pupils next week into a new Foundation/KS1 bubble. We’ll leave some space for additional key workers who may need a place in the following weeks, although this is becoming a challenge with the KS2 bubble which is quite full.

From Moortown Primary…

We were expecting 34 children in school but only have 32. The mood in school is positive. Staff are being vigilant but are taking things in their stride well. When I’ve visited classes, children have seemed less confident than usual, but that’s natural and staff say they’re easing into it.

The only big issue was responding to concerns about whether children have been socially distancing at home. We’ve a policy on this and we’re strictly following the policy – this has meant one parent has been asked to collect their child.

Other than that, there haven’t been any other glitches or issues, just a couple of minor teething problems like some parents not understanding the exit route (quickly rectified) – so far so good.

From Scholes (Elmet) Primary…

We’ve 31 children in school. We were expecting a few more but over the last couple of days some parents’ remained concerned while others had their work shifts confirmed/changed.

It was good having low numbers of children because it’s meant that our staff can also get used to working around lots of other adults – it’s important that they social distance, too, so they protect themselves as much as possible and therefore stay healthy to come to school.

Most parents had read the communications that are being sent out. However, we did have some bags brought to school – they got sent home.

Moving forward, we’d like to know if there are any more key workers who are going to need us. These people will continue to be our priority. After that, we’ll look at other children who we deem as being vulnerable.

Our daily message (01 June 2020)

We hope you had a happy and healthy half-term break from routines. The weather was glorious, which certainly helped. Did your child do some of the optional home learning activities? It’s not too late – one of the activities on the list could be an alternative or additional activity to the daily home learning tasks the teacher sets.

We start the week with news about schools opening more widely, some information about the school bubbles, and – as always on a Monday – our new Living and and Learning theme.

Schools opening more widely

This half-term, schools are opening to more and more pupils, although perhaps not as widely as the government and media headlines initially suggested. Research from the National Foundation for Educational Research shows that parents are still roughly split 50-50 about whether they want their child to return to school.

Here are just three of many barriers that schools have faced:

First, our classrooms and class sizes mean we simply can’t accommodate all the children set out in the government’s original plans: children of key workers, children who may be vulnerable in some way, and children from Early Years, Year 1 and Year 6. (The average class size in English primary schools is almost 28 pupils compared to about 20 across Europe – point 4 from this article from the “Independent Sage” group explains this well.)

Second, more and more people are going back to work. This includes more key workers, and that means there are already more children for us to welcome back, which in turn means the specific year groups identified by government aren’t returning quite as quickly as the government called for.

And third, we’ve fewer staff at a time when we need more. To operate smaller groups, and to ensure social distancing and cleaning, we need lots of staff. However, not all our staff are able to be in school because of particular health conditions or other personal circumstances.

The school bubbles

We’re committed to having more and more pupils back, and making this happen as safely as we can. We’ve established bubbles in our schools. Some of these bubbles might have space for more pupils, others less so.

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we have eight bubbles at this stage: Foundation 2, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, and three Years 5/6. There are two adults for each bubble to allow for breaks and cleaning. Over the week, we’ll look closely at the number of children attending – we may find some parents who said they wanted a place change their mind, in which case we’ll offer the place to other pupils.

Living and learning during lockdown

Living and Learning is the name for all the teaching and learning we do around Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE). As we start a new half term, our theme in Living and Learning changes to relationships. Each week in school, we’ve a Living and Learning statement. I listen to, share with and include others… is our statement this week. One of the Sphere Federation Health Leaders writes:

This Living and Learning statement promotes polite, helpful and kind behaviour. We want our pupils to know the importance of showing respect to everyone (whatever differences we may have) and to everything (whether it’s a school resource, a religious belief or whatever). Respect is central to one of our three school rules: We respect everyone and everything. 

You might want to read the poem, Say something nice, taken from The Little Book of Hopes with your child. While most of us are still at home, this week’s statement relates more to family than friends right now. You might want to encourage your child to spot when someone in your house follows this statement and listens to, shares with and includes others. How would they know? How does it make others feel?

Also, as we start a new month, check out the Action for Happiness Kindness Calendar for June with thirty actions to look after ourselves and each other.

Important message for next week #3

You’ll be aware that last night the Prime Minister confirmed that the five tests upon which the easing of lockdown depended have been met. As a result, primary schools will begin to open schools more widely.

The response to this from the Director of Children and Families, Leeds City Council, is:

The Leeds position is unchanged. It is important for children to resume their education so they can once again learn and interact with their peers but that this is done in such a way that the risks to pupils, staff and parents are minimised as much as possible. We know that every school is different and your offer to pupils will vary according to your unique set of circumstances. We will continue to support [headteacher] decisions about the timing and level of phased return for children to school that are based on the comprehensive risk assessments you have been diligently undertaking.

The position in Sphere Federation schools is unchanged, too. We’ll continue to prioritise the growing numbers of children from key workers (as more people are expected back to work, there’s more demand for places in school) and children who may be vulnerable in some way. After this, we’ll look at increasing numbers of children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, and we’ll aim to balance this by considering safety in school and the needs of children and families in other year groups.

At Moortown Primary and at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, the number of pupils next week is likely to be over three times as many as on a typical ‘lockdown week’ so far.

There are two more important messages for today.

Agreeing a place for your child

Only come to school if we’ve confirmed there’s a place for your child. Please note we only have a small amount of room for manoeuvre. We can’t allow more children without carefully checking the numbers we have already: each of the ‘bubbles’ can only take so many without undermining safety.

Social distancing

This morning, school leaders across the federation have agreed the following course of action if we have concerns about social distancing:

Important message for next week

This half-term is proving to be super-sunny so hopefully you and your family have managed to spend some happy and healthy time outside. Please remember to make sure you’re all staying two metres away from others and not gathering in large groups, wherever you are, and remember to wash your hands before you head out and when you come back in again.

Here’s another reminder of what’s happening next week…

On Monday 01 June, we’ll be closed for all children. This is so that we can prepare for increasing numbers over the following weeks.

From Tuesday to Friday, school will be open for those using it as they are already and for some additional children. By now, we’ll have contacted you, we’ve agreed for your child to come back, and you’ll know that your child is expected.

Your child should only attend school if this has been agreed. Please don’t just turn up – we won’t have a safe place for your child at this stage.

Read more about Scholes (Elmet) Primary opening to more pupils.

Whole school ‘Quiz of the Week’

If you’re struggling to keep yourself entertained this week…why not have a go at our whole school quiz?

Important message for next week

We hope the sun helped make the bank holiday weekend at least a bit more pleasurable than a typical lockdown weekend.

This is a reminder of what’s happening next week…

On Monday 01 June, we’ll be closed for all children. This is so that we can prepare for increasing numbers over the following weeks.

From Tuesday to Friday, school will be open for those using it as they are already and for some additional children. By now, we’ll have contacted you, we’ve agreed for your child to come back, and you’ll know that your child is expected.

Your child should only attend school if this has been agreed.

Please don’t just turn up – we won’t have a safe place for your child at this stage.

The original government message about particular year groups returning appears to be slightly shifting to simply opening up schools to more pupils. This makes sense. As more people return to work, including more key workers returning to work, we’re already welcoming more pupils back next week – up to three times as many, based on your survey response.

Whole School Quiz

Something to get your brains working and make you smile.

Happy long weekend everyone!

Stay happy and healthy

Get creative with Hello HipHop

We have been keeping in touch with Phil from Hello HipHop. He has created some blank lettering for our school name and a guide showing how to do some different effects.

It would be nice to have some of your ideas to display on the website and in school. If you would like, you can print this blank lettering and add effects or you can create your own ‘Scholes’ graffiti art with your own lettering. Send your ideas to Y2scholeshomework@spherefederation.org

Get creative!

Home learning and other support (22 May 2020) – message 2

This is the second of our two messages today. This one has information for when schools begin to open to more pupils – important for you all to read and be aware of.

The government has asked schools to prepare to open more widely to pupils. We’re sending this to all of you, even though only some of you will have children coming back to school in the next few weeks. This is so that you’re prepared for when we can welcome more and more children.

All the information here, and more, is in this document – please read the document carefully.

The document’s quite long so here’s an overview to help:

• page 1: an introduction
• page 2: our plans to slowly and safely welcome more pupils to school
• page 3: our priorities – we hope these provide some reassurances for you
• pages 4 and 5: some key information for you, like start and end times (and this includes our early closing on Fridays), uniform, and plans for continued home learning
• page 6: what you and we will do in the unlikely event of a case of Covid-19

As always, the message is that things are changing rapidly and at short notice. And also as always, we’ll always keep you updated by website posts and emails as much as we can.

Thank you all for your support over the last few weeks. We hope you have some rest and break from routines over the half-term.