CoMPasS Registered Charity No: 1141329
You can follow us support and understanding. I would also like to convey my sincere gratitude to the teaching staff, who have worked through the holidays to prepare the learning environments for a term of face-to-face teaching and have now switched to online learning once again. The classrooms and learning spaces are looking amazing and are ready to receive the children as soon we are able to do so. I would like to thank the staff for their commitment and positivity as we prepare to preserve and deliver as much as we can of St Peter’s in a new way, until we can come together as a community once more. There isn’t a member of the school community, including parents, children and staff, who wouldn’t prefer to return to face-to-face teaching but I know we will all enter the current phase of distance learning with the same spirit of determination, creativity and resilience shown since the beginning of last year.
Happy New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful festive break and may I take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful 2021. A warm welcome to new families who have started their journey at St Peter’s School at this difficult time. The past year has presented a worldwide challenge of a type not seen in most of our lifetimes, and this has been felt in our community following the Government’s announcement on Monday evening of special measures to fight Covid-19. We also understand how much these extraordinary circumstances are affecting your home and work lives. We are of course saddened to have to close the school, however we know that we all need to play our part to protect the NHS. Personal interaction and shared experience have always been at the heart of the St Peter’s 2-8 learning culture but for at least the first half of this term, Reception to Year 3 cannot have the face-to-face relationships that we value so highly. It has been lovely to be able to welcome Nursery back to school, including several children starting their learning journey at St Peter’s. They have enjoyed a wonderful week and have not been deterred by the cold to head outside and explore the ice and snow.
We are so proud of how the whole school community, and the children especially, embraced distance learning in the previous lockdown. I would like to thank parents, on behalf of all the staff, for your
On Wednesday morning the term started with Antonia and I delivering an assembly to describe how we would be delivering our remote continuity of education and in particular the changes we have made based on our own reflections and also the feedback we received from parents. A recording of this assembly is on your child’s Google Classroom account. Throughout the week I have been so proud of the children who have adapted so well to remote learning and have worked so hard with their learning. Well done and thank you to the parents for all you have done to support the children this week, it has been appreciated. We would like to emphasise that your children’s teachers will be available to you during school hours and we are all looking forward to connecting with you and doing all we can to support you at this worrying and difficult time. Antonia Clarke and I will be available via email and on the school telephone numbers. There will no doubt we will need to tweak and adjust the provision as the first couple of weeks unfold and I would ask you for your patience while we adjust the new model.
Newsletter No: 13 Friday, 8th January 2021 reading books and completing the quizzes which they can use to ‘buy’ things within their virtual worlds.
Mrs Salisbury has put together a practical guide for reading at home that includes ideas to help develop reading skills at home. You will have received an email this evening with your child’s login and password. My thanks to the teaching assistants who are looking after the Critical Key Workers in school. They have supported the children by facilitating their remote online learning. Please note that all children who remain in school at 4.30pm (including Nursery) can be collected from the Dining Hall.
Finally, a huge thank you to the whole school community. Huge thanks for your kind and supportive emails they have been incredibly well received. It has been a different start to the term but I know we will enter the next half term with the same spirit of determination, creativity, resilience and kindness, putting the children at the centre of our minds as we I thoroughly enjoyed our Virtual Celebration Assembly always do. this afternoon. Each teacher provided a summary of what their class have been doing during the week and update from Physical Education by Miss Flockhart and Music by Mrs Hayden. It was so lovely seeing all of the children and I look forward to seeing them all on Monday morning for our start of the week assembly at 8.40am. One of the improvements to our provision has been the introduction of an online reading scheme. Obviously, we would rather our children were accessing books from our reading scheme at school and our extensive library, however, this provides an opportunity for the children to access reading material to support the development of reading. We have subscribed to ‘Bug Club’ to ensure all children have access to a range of suitable books whilst learning from home. Using their unique homepage, children can read the books that have been allocated by their teachers. When your child has finished a book, it will move to ‘My Library’ so the children can re-read them. Have a wonderful weekend and keep safe. Once your child has finished reading a book, a new one will be allocated but please remember that children really do benefit from reading books again rather than rushing to a new one. Throughout the book, there are quiz questions for your child to complete which will help develop their comprehension skills. The children can earn ‘ActiveLearn Coins’ by