17th April 2020
CoronaVirus Update 17/4/2020
Hello everybody.
Hope you had a lovely Easter and are settling back in to the home learning routine whilst keeping yourselves and our lovely children safe and well. You are doing a great job!
I’m sure you are aware of the government’s decision to continue the lockdown for at least another 3 weeks and as nobody is sure how long lockdown will actually last, things will stay as they are for the foreseeable future. Schools will only reopen when the scientific evidence is clear that it is safe to do so – safe for pupils, staff and parents. NAHT have advised us that we will not be expected to “flick a switch” and reopen at short notice when the time comes but instead work with the government on an exit from quarantine strategy. I will continue to keep you informed.
Home Learning
Thank you for engaging in home learning activities and supporting your child’s learning from home and allowing them to conduct their independent inquiries under our Summer Term concept, “Grow your own resilience.” The Summer Term learning grids are now on our school websites under the home learning tab, in your child’s class folder. The grid shows all the objectives we would normally cover over the Summer term under our inquiry concept. The DFE do not expect us to ‘drop’ the National Curriculum, only to ‘lower the bar.’ We therefore have the following expectations:
1) You child completes daily activities/challenges for maths and English. These are set by their classteacher and uploaded daily onto Tapestry or Seesaw. (A how to guide for each platform is on the school website under home learning).
2) Your child conducts a line of inquiry under the concept of “Grow your own resilience” on a weekly basis (covering one or more of the objectives on the learning grid for their class) using the inquiry cycle of tuning in, finding out, sorting out, reflecting and evaluating (see photograph). Some children have already begun their research into organic farming, Olympic games, growing plants, motor racing etc.
Their learning can either be recorded online, in an app such as Powerpoint or in their workbooks and uploaded/shared to Seesaw or Tapestry. Then teaching staff and TA’s will give feedback and support where needed. We expect all children to spend between 2 and 3 hours a day on home learning in line with the National Curriculum, as set by teachers and the rest of the “school” time on ensuring a healthy wellbeing; spending time with family, cooking, building, playing in the garden with siblings, gardening, exercise etc. I can assure you that this is very relaxed in comparison to some other schools but our children are very used to our inquiry based approach and are able to take control of their own learning well so we have allowed them the time and freedom to continue this. We have duty of care to each child and will continue to make weekly phone calls to vulnerable pupils and those who do not engage with online activities and provide outreach support if required. I understand that this type of learning is new to us all and therefore some difficulties may arise, there may be poor internet connection etc so please could all of you click on the following link and complete a short questionnaire so we can monitor and provide extra support/activities where required:
Please do explore the home learning section of the website as there are tips for using on line tools and many helpful resources for you and your children to use to support learning.
Free School Meals
The government have now set up a national voucher scheme, however, there are teething problems and difficulty with access so I will continue to send Tesco Gift Cards to the value of £12.50 per child per week fortnightly until the problems are rectified.
If you have any questions about any of the above, you can either contact your child’s classteacher (email addresses are on the school websites under home learning) or myself on head@germoe.cornwall.sch.uk.
Take care and stay safe!
Paula Blackburn
