Headteacher

Not long to go now, until the start of the new term.

Please read the documents below, that set out details and information about the full opening of Bowmansgreen next week.

Letter – full school opening

Protective measures

We are looking forward to fully re-opening and welcoming back all pupils next month.

Wednesday September 2nd – INSET day (School closed to pupils)

All pupils return to school on Thursday 3rd September, 2020

Please ensure that you are aware of the timings of your child’s school day, for the autumn term.

Around 180 pupils safely returned to school before the end of last term. We put in place a range of effective protective measures, for pupils and staff, to reduce the risk of transmission of coronavirus and to ensure that the pupils who returned were able to experience as normal and full a school experience as was safe, practical and permitted according to government guidelines.

In September, we will be maintaining many of the control measures and procedures that were put in place last term.

These include staggered start and finish times – please see new times above.

In September, only pupils will be able to use the back gate to access the school site. A member of staff will greet pupils on the path to ensure that they enter the school site safely. Pupils must say goodbye to other family members before they reach the member of staff on the path and then walk themselves into school. We will ensure that, where necessary, pupils are directed or accompanied to their classrooms until they are familiar with the routine. This measure is to reduce congestion on site and around the school gates and to ensure a one way system at the back gate. These arrangements worked really well last term and are necessary to help minimise the number of contacts that pupils and staff have.

If you would prefer to walk your child onto the playground, then you must use the front gate to enter and exit the site, where a one way system is also in place, to minimise face-to-face contact.

Details and information about arrangements for the autumn term.

Information for parents and carers about COVID-19 and schools in the autumn term.

Miss Chilton has some important information for our Bowmansgreen Maths Rockstars. Find out who are the true legends, taking their places on the Rock Stars leaderboard. Game on, Mr Gowler!

Unfortunately, some of our families have now been directly affected by coronavirus and are coping with loved ones being ill or have lost family members during this pandemic.  Staff and governors at Bowmansgreen wish you all the very best and have you in our thoughts during this difficult time. If any parents are worried about the wellbeing or welfare of their children whilst they are not attending school, due to the impact of living through this pandemic, please let me know via the school office –  there may be additional support that we can provide or signpost to parents. Please read this letter for parents relating to how school is continuing to follow government guidance particularly relating to confirmed cases within our school community. There are lots of published resources that help children to understand the significance and impact of coronavirus, pitched at an age-appropriate level as well as guidance for parents to support their own and their family’s wellbeing during this pandemic, including the following:        Children’s Commissioner’s Guide to Coronavirus
Public Health England – guidance on mental health and wellbeing

I am sure you are aware that a government announcement is planned for Sunday evening about the easing of lockdown measures. There is lots of speculation that it will refer to the ‘re-opening’ of schools – when and how this will happen. Schools have not received any additional information about this announcement or an indication of any changes to the temporary school ‘closures.’ Once we know what the DfE expectations are and have a timeline of key dates, we will work closely with the local authority to ensure that we are prepared and ready to fulfil those expectations. We are likely to find out this information at the same time as the rest of the school community which may or may not be on Sunday. Fingers crossed!

Mr Sanders and Miss Bliss have been busy preparing PE activities and resources that families might find particularly useful during the lockdown. Look out for these resources on the PE page of our school website from next week. (Learning – Our curriculum – PE and Sport).

Today is Victory in Europe (VE) day. The Easter Bank Holiday was moved to today, to allow for a range of celebrations to take place around the country to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Many planned celebrations have unfortunately had to be cancelled but a series of  VE day events will still go ahead for families to experience, from home. There are also plenty of resources for children, including from BBC Teach so that children can learn about this significant date in European history.

New distance teaching and learning resources will be available on the school website, from Monday.

Take care of yourselves.

I hope that everyone is finding the distance learning resources easy to access and helpful for your children. New lessons will be available from Monday. The previous week’s lessons will remain on the website for you to access.

Please encourage your children to complete work in the school exercise books that they brought home – the writing book for any English work, the home learning book for maths. If you need any more books, please let the school office know.

Today, Captain Tom Moore celebrates his 100th birthday. Discuss this remarkable man and his amazing life with your children, through these home learning resources (poster, information resource and questions/challenges) from Picture News.

Captain Tom has now raised over £30 million for the NHS. As we all celebrate Captain Tom’s birthday and his incredible fundraising, I am sure that tonight, at 8pm he will be taking time out of his own celebrations to say thank you to our NHS heroes.

Don’t forget to join in by clapping, banging your pots and pans and cheering or if you have super musical talents…. play your drums for the NHS!

From Monday, daily lessons are available for your child, accessible via the school website. Please read today’s letter that provides updated information about these resources.

Thank you to all those who have completed our Distance Learning survey. Please take part, if you haven’t already, as it provides important information to help us deliver our distance learning effectively. The survey closes on Monday morning.

The number of children attending Urgent Care and Emergency Departments across the country has dropped. Local authorities recognise that families are understandably concerned about taking their children to health settings at this time but this has resulted in some children presenting late and as a consequence, being very poorly. The East & North Herts and West Herts Trust have produced guidance for parents and carers  for when a child is unwell or injured, during this pandemic.

Teachers have already been very impressed with the quality of work that pupils have been producing at home. Miss Ottley would like to say a huge ‘well done’ to all of the children who have been busy practising their reading this week. Bowmansgreen pupils have read over 125,198 words in Reading Pro Library and spent 43 hours doing so! That was only is the first 3 days so ‘great work’  everyone who has been reading! Miss Chilton is really pleased to see so many pupils have been practising their number facts and times tables. I think she might even have set some pupils a challenge…. against her! Children, keep up the super effort with your reading and maths –  the more practice you do, the more confident you will become!

There have been a few issues logging into some of the resources. Please refer back to the initial information and instruction letters and the details for logging in – the usernames and passwords must be entered accurately, not using spaces unless specified. Let the school office know if you continue to have problems accessing any of the resources.

Miss Kay would like to shout out a special mention to our fantastic children in Reception who have been putting a big smile on her face with their amazing home learning. Miss Kay has been blown away with the quality and variety, including mini beast hunts, sound races, drumming and ‘posh’ robot phonics! Keep it up Reception – we are all very proud of you!

Miss Connolly is our star baker this week with her recipe for Banana Oat Cookies.

Have you got what it takes to do the football cupid shuffle? Miss Hancock has!

Please read the most recent letter sent to parents and carers regarding distance learning.

To help keep your children busy and learning this week, we have activities and resources available on your child’s year group page, on the school website. Please check these pages regularly for new content. We will notify parents when new lessons are added.

Clink on the links below to go straight to your child’s year group page for newly published content, including planning to support phonics (EYFS and Y1) and reading (Y2 – Y6).

EYFS/Reception

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

Year Five

Year Six

To help support your child’s learning in maths, our maths calculation policy sets out the progression in written calculations for each year group. This is also available on the maths page of our website.

Whilst we will be publishing new lesson content weekly and providing accompanying resources, we will not be marking or following up on individual lessons with individual parents. The teaching and learning resources are to help support you and your child during this period of school closure and are there for you to use as much as is helpful and practical. There is certainly no expectation for lessons and activities to be completed on set days or within set time frames.