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.

I hope that everyone is safe and well as we move into week two of the school closures.

It is great to hear that lots of families are finding ways to keep in touch with each other and bring their children (and some staff!) together using a range of web and video conferencing apps and programmes. Connectivity with friends and family is really important for our mental and emotional health and well-being but it has suddenly become more difficult to maintain.

The government has published guidance for parents and carers about supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus pandemic. It contains some useful advice and information to support families during what could be a very difficult time of change and isolation, including about how to support your own well-being; behaviours and reactions to look out for in your children; and where to get further support if you are worried about your child. There are also lots of websites to support families, including Family Lives and Time to Change.

It is always a good time to remind pupils about staying safe online, especially during this extensive period of school closure. Thinkuknow have advice, information and resources to help families keep each other safe in the online world, including their new home learning packs.

Staff have been finding and preparing resources to keep your children busy and learning at home.

Miss Allen is this week’s star baker with her recipe for lemon drizzle cake. Watch Miss Allen bake her cake and read the recipe so that you can make this delicious cake for yourselves.

Create some 3D pictures called agamographs, like Miss Chilton and Nathandria and be inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s sunflowers, like Miss Allen, Nathandria and Verity. See what the finished art work looks like: day and night  and rainbow agamographs.

If you are a fan of Disney films, Miss Ottley has a curriculum for you!

We have also included the links to some popular and recommended sites that families might enjoy.

Phonics Play for EYFS and KS1

Listen to poems and stories read by Michael Rosen

City Youth FC have developed a ‘train at home program’ to help develop new and existing ball skills

Herts for Learning –  Essential Maths Challenge (See more Herts for Learning Essential Maths activities on our maths page)

Stay at Home Story Time with Oliver Jeffers

Something to interest our young engineers and scientists

P.E with Joe Wicks

I See Maths – Home Learning

BBC Bitesize – KS1

BBC Bitesize – KS2