I was surprised to reflect that, as we enter the fourth term-time week of school closures, this is only the 16th day of home learning.
In that time, our teachers have presented three home learning suggestions for each school day. We’ve also provided you with a menu of other ideas, which might be useful if you want to add to the learning activity or replace one that your child’s teacher has provided. During the school day, teachers are available to support by email , too.
More recently, we’ve responded to some of your suggestions:
- we’ve reduced a little the amount of Writing tasks as some of you had said this was the hardest activity to support at home
- we’ve changed the time we publish the home learning so you can you read through it and prepare in some way
- we’ve begun to refer to some of the new daily lessons available online, including from Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize
- we’ve begun to explore posting more videos online as a way to engage and deliver the teaching
On this last point, we understand that some of you are having difficulty playing videos posted online. For some, when the link to a video is clicked, the video will not play. This is likely to be a wifi issue. A possible solution is to try downloading the video by pressing the download icon (shown by the arrow) in the top right corner of the screen; the downloaded version should then play normally.
Living and learning during lockdown
Living and Learning is the term we use to describe all the teaching and learning we do around Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE). Each week in school, we’d typically promote Living and Learning around a statement. This week’s is I recognise mental health is important. One of the Sphere Federation Health Leaders writes:
As a happy and healthy school, we encourage children to think about their mental health as well as their physical health. Here are some activities to support this theme at home – these could be used in addition to, or as an alternative to, to home learning tasks set by your child’s teacher.
Listen to the story Kindness by Todd Parr. The story ends with the message, ‘be kind to yourself’. Talk at home about different ways to be kind to yourself to support your mental health. Here are some daily suggestions for your child (and you!) to be kind to yourself:
- Monday: go to bed earlier
- Tuesday: have some screen-free time as a family or limit screen time
- Wednesday: make the most of your daily allowed exercise to combine physical activity with being outdoors
- Thursday: make contact with someone you’ve not spoken to recently
- Friday: think of another way to be kind to yourself
Did you miss our prompt about free school meals?
In these tough times, more of you might now be eligible to claim for free school meals (FSM). Read more about the FSM eligibility criteria and how to claim.
Just now, children entitled to free school meals are receiving a weekly pack of food, including a loaf of bread, some small cheese portions, tins of tuna, a pack of biscuits, a large carton of apple juice, fruit, yoghurts, crisps and a couple of jacket potatoes. On a four week rotation, the packs will also contain a box of sanitary items, provided with support from Freedom4Girls. These items are usually available to women and girls for free through community hubs and One Stops for those who struggle to buy them due to financial pressures.
