February 2021

News

12th February 2021

February Newsletter and Parent/Carer Consultations

Dear St Wilfrid's,

As we approach the end of this half term, we want to firstly say a big thank you to all of our children for the hard work and determination they have shown to their learning over the last 6 weeks. We know the challenge that all families are facing right now and the difficulties and significant strain this situation can put on your home lives as we all seek to keep each other safe. Therefore, a massive thank you to you all for your support of your children's education and wellbeing over these incredibly difficult 6 weeks. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the whole team at St Wilfrid's, both our wonderful staff and our dedicated team of governors, for their adaptability and hard work in managing this situation as we strive to provide the best we can for all the children in our care.

School's fully opening

From what we understand from the media, the earliest schools might be allowed more children to return to school will be Monday 8th March and, although there is sure to be speculation over half term, the actual detailed announcement will not be made until Monday 22nd February. As always, once we know more we will be able to put together our plans and will let you know as soon as possible after the announcement on Monday 22nd February.

Therefore, after half term we will be continuing as we have been with only those children of critical workers and vulnerable children in school. Once again, we must reiterate the message that if you can have your children at home even if you are a critical worker then we ask that this continues for those 2 weeks at least. We have been very fortunate as a school not to have any need to close for groups of children due to a positive case and, obviously, the fewer children we have the better.

Parent/Carer Consultations

Also, after half term, we have organised times for you to meet 'virtually' with your child's class teacher to discuss their learning and wellbeing. Although the majority of our children have been at home and we have been able to communicate via email, we want to be able to discuss with our families about the learning that has taken place so we can see how best to support your children when they all return to school. We are spreading the sessions across 8 days from Tuesday 23rd February and there will be between 4 and 8,  10 minute sessions a day depending on your child's class. These sessions will take place during the school day and can be booked on the Parentmail system from 5:00pm today. In order to book your appointment, you will need to go onto your Parentmail account or use the app and click on Parents Evening Manager.

The meetings will then be via Teams and booked in using your children's Teams logins. Also, we will be sending you a link to a Microsoft Form with questions about your child's learning and if you could complete it before the meeting then it will help to support the discussion. 

Heads on - Hearts of Gold

'Heads On' are an NHS charity for mental health services in Sussex. They run a project called 'Hearts of Gold'. This week, children at home and in school have been making and decorating hearts to display in their windows and in the windows at school over the Valentine's weekend. Their aim is to spread hope and joy in our local community and raise the importance of looking after our mental health. If you would like to know more about the project and the work of 'Heads On' then follow the link below,

http://www.headsoncharity.org/news/heads-on-hearts-of-gold/index.html 

Mrs Paxton

I am delighted to inform you that Mrs Paxton will be returning to St Wilfrid's as her adoption leave comes to an end and will be working on Mondays and Tuesdays from Monday 22nd February. She will be using her considerable expertise to work with groups of children across the school and we look forward to welcoming her back. As Mrs Paxton has decided to step down from her position as Head of Infants then we are really pleased to be able to appoint Miss Thouless to the role on a permanent basis following her time as Acting Head of Infants in Mrs Paxton's absence.

Sussex School Games

Once again thank you to everyone who participated in last week's challenges and remember to submit your scores for this week. It would be great if we could maintain our spot on the participation leaderboard and maybe even get higher. Everyone in the family can take part!

Over half term, there will be 4 more challenges and the link to those will come out on Monday 15th February.

Finally,

We hope you are able to have an enjoyable half term despite the circumstances and we look forward to seeing you, if only 'virtually', after the short break.

Kind regards,

Mr Hateley