St Stephen’s (Kearsley Moor) C E School Bent Spur Road, Kearsley, Bolton BL4 8PB Telephone 01204 333642/333643 Head Teacher - Mr P Puckey e-mail – office@st-stephens-kearsley-moor.bolton.sch.uk www.ststephenskearsley.co.uk
12 February 2021 Dear Parent, Firstly, let me thank you for all of your support over this lockdown period. It certainly has been a challenging and exhausting 6 weeks. Who would have thought that after one day in school, we would be back into a national lockdown. It’s certainly not what any of us wanted, but we have all handled this in the best way possible to keep our community as safe as it could be. I am incredibly proud of our children and the resilience they have shown this half term. They have taken to their home learning with enthusiasm and uploaded some fantastic pieces of work. A big thank you to all those parents and carers who have spent time supporting their children with home learning. As a parent myself, I know the pitfalls of trying to teach at home whilst trying to work. Thank you again for doing the best you can, that’s all we can ask during these unprecedented times. The staff here at St Stephen’s have managed this difficult situation amazingly well. The challenges of providing home learning and in school learning are vast. The staff have risen to these challenges and worked hard to overcome the obstacles of technology and support the children in their classes. Thank you for the positive feedback regarding all these areas. We endeavour to give our children the best possible chances to succeed and are always keen to enhance provision where we can. Well done to those children who have had to come into school. It certainly isn’t school as we know it, but we have tried to keep it as similar as possible. Thank you to our key worker parents for trying to minimise the contact in school and looking after the children at home as often as you can. This certainly has helped keep the numbers lower where possible. However, recently we have had an influx of requests for school places. As you know, we follow the guidance and can only accept children of key workers, where there is no other childcare available. Please continue to do your best in keeping children at home where possible to keep our staff, children and you at home as safe as possible. We look forward to hearing the Prime Minister’s Press Conference on full re-opening of schools. As we know, the date of March 8th has been stated as the earliest time that this may occur. I will ensure that you are informed as soon as we know. The staff can’t wait to have their classes back and return to some kind of normality. Over this half term, do try and switch off from the rigours of home learning. Please make sure you and the children rest up and re-energise. The staff will be turning off their Dojo pages over half