Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Good morning everyone,
Here’s hoping that you are all safe and well and have enjoyed an Easter break if work commitments allowed.
Just an update on home learning...
When the lockdown began 4 weeks ago, it was an enormous shock for all of us. Parents suddenly faced the prospect of losing jobs, finding childcare and the possibility of being ‘teacher’ all the while giving our children the impression that ‘everything is fine’. It took us, as a school, a couple of weeks to work out staffing, key worker pupils, free school meals and distance learning. We’re still trying incredibly hard to perfect these things (if that’s possible under the circumstances). I gave teachers the task of uploading new learning for you to try at home IF you had the resources/flexibility/confidence, thinking that hopefully some miracle would occur and we’d be back in school by now. This was a short term plan and in hindsight, wasn’t necessarily the most effective option. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though isn’t it.
There isn’t one of us that will be left untouched by this virus. Whether it’s with financial loss, health and well-being implications or, and I say this praying that none of our families have to face this, but the possibility of the loss of a friend or loved one. I can’t stress this enough; the health and well-being of the adults and children that belong to our schools is THE ONLY priority.
The news and social media are consumed with statistics and conspiracy theories. The world as we know it isn’t a safe place at the moment but what we can do, as parents and professionals, is make sure that our small humans are coping. As sad as it is, we have to be realistic in thinking that another 3 weeks may not actually be the end of lockdown. Our children will miss out on huge chunks of learning. They’ll miss huge chunks of quality time playing with their friends and families. Everyone is in exactly the same boat. Let US worry about playing catch up academically when it’s safe for us all to return to some sort of normal school routine. For now, I’m asking teachers to adapt home learning to focus on revision of key learning from September to March. Reading can move on, so can phonics but anything else new needs to wait until we’re able to deliver it to our children properly (in terms of English and Maths). We’ll continue to upload topic learning in the form of questions to investigate IF you are able to do so.
To quote something that’s been widely spread on social media ‘no kids are ahead, no kids are behind’. All I’m asking is that you teach children how to cope. How to find the positive moments in every day. How to talk about the monsters under the bed that actually are OURS too in this situation. How to keep things in perspective most days. How to enjoy family time, whether there’s 2 of you or 22. How to keep that childhood innocence at the heart of everything despite the chaotic world around us.
It’s absolutely ok not to be ok some days. But please, remember that with home learning, little and often is great. If you can’t, then don’t.
As always, if there’s anything you want to raise or anything I can help with then please just email. Thank you for bearing with us and continuing to support our fantastic staff team.
Be kind to yourselves and each other,
Miss Hollings
j.hollings@lmjs.lancs.sch.uk
Please visit our letters section to find contact details for the Virgin Care School Nursing Team throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
Stay Safe & Well
4th April 2020
Dear Parents/Carers,
I’m hoping that this update finds you and your families well and coping under these unpredictable circumstances.
With regard to home learning, I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify a couple of points ahead of class pages being re vamped next week.
Firstly, do what you can IF, or when you can. Some of you are still trying to hold down full time jobs with children at home. Speaking from firsthand experience I fully appreciate that it’s virtually impossible to carry out most work related tasks particularly ones that require concentration or 5 minutes peace! I mean this sincerely, do what you can. Parents are not teachers at home. Working or not, mental health and well being comes FIRST. The children’s and yours. If the weather is nice, learn in the garden. Investigate habitats, insects, plants, weather! TALK 😊
Teachers are working hard to ensure that there are directed learning tasks available on class web pages that will help you as parents and will help our children with key learning for their year group. They’ve done a fab job of giving as much explicit guidance as possible and if they’ve felt particularly brave, you may be treated to a few video tutorials via See Saw!
Try; 10 min bursts EYFS, 15 minute bursts Y1-3 then 20 mins Y4-6. Plenty of brain breaks in between! An hour a day is great 👍🏽
Keep your eyes peeled on the ‘Parents’ section of the website where I’ll post other information if it becomes relevant.
If you want to and have the flexibility to give the children a two week Easter break then please do it! Learning will remain on the class pages week by week so you can go back to it at any point.
These are such testing and uncertain times and I’m sure we’re all craving a point in time where life can return to some sort of normality, but for now, please look after yourselves as well as the children.
Any concerns or questions, as always, please don’t hesitate to email me.
Take care and stay safe,
Miss Hollings.
j.hollings@lmjs.lancs.sch.uk
24th March 2020
Good Morning Parents/Carers,
Hopefully this message finds you all safe and well at home.
With regard to work set by teachers; week 1 and 2 of school closure- teachers will set ‘project’ themed learning tasks and will direct you to lots of useful sites.
Week 3 onwards- each class page will be updated with more specific learning and an outline of how you may wish to conduct your home-schooling day in line with normal class practice to keep routine. There will be online tutorials for aspects of maths bearing in mind that the Inspire maths scheme works differently to methods we, as parents, may not be familiar with.
There will still be directions to useful online learning if needed.
How we will go about marking/feeding back on your child’s work is yet to be confirmed but I strongly urge you to bear with us as we find our feet.
I appreciate that this is such a stressful time for everyone. This pandemic affects all of us in some way shape or form and whilst we may not have the home-school learning system perfected as quickly as we’d all like, our staff are continuing to put our children first, primarily to enable keyworkers and frontline NHS staff to go out into the unknown and fight this global battle.
If you have any queries with regard to home-school learning in the run up to week 3, please email me rather than individual staff as they are working tirelessly to keep school open alongside Mrs Rogerson.
Many thanks in anticipation of your continued understanding and support.
Miss Hollings
Dear Parents and Carers,
Unless a member of staff from our schools contacted you by telephone on Friday 20th March, school is closed until further notice. Please be aware that the safest place for us all is at home.
If your circumstances change and your child becomes eligible to be cared for by school you must contact school to organise the attendance in advance. Please do not simply turn up at school as your child will not be able to attend. We hope our whole school community remains safe through this difficult time. Please take extra care of yourselves and your family members.
Leyland Methodist Schools
Dear Parents,
This has been a very challenging week in school to say the least with the regards the ongoing Coronavirus situation. During my time in education, I cannot ever remember a situation like this as a child and as an adult. At the moment, we have managed to remain open despite significant staffing absences but we have pulled together as a team and got this far.
We are in unprecedented and challenging times. In response to the latest Government call for schools to help support our KeyWorkers in the coming weeks which could put a greater strain on all emergency services, especially the NHS risking the lives of many.
This is an initial expression of interest so that we can ascertain the approximate numbers of children who will be attending next week, and therefore allocate the required staffing provisions.
We are still waiting on a definitive list of key workers from the DFE, however If you believe you come under this category, please complete the following information and send it to office@lmjs.lancs.sch.uk as soon as possible in order to help us plan for next week.
Thank you for your understanding. Stay safe and well.
Kind Regards,
Mrs K Melling
Executive Headteacher
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Name: (Parent/Carer):
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Are both parents/guardians’ key workers or are you a single parent who is a key worker? In the event that 2 parents are key workers please complete the boxes below with both sets of details. |
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Name of Child(ren)/Year Group:
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Do they have any additional Needs? Please provide details
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Will they require a school dinner? £2.20
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18th March 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians
Further to my letter earlier in the week, I am writing with an update and notification of partial closures that will impact both schools.
The revised advice has meant that many more of us are now advised to self-isolate, which now includes family members of those experiencing symptoms and also vulnerable groups for whom the criteria was clarified and included a wider range of people than before. This has meant that more of the staff at our schools are affected by this advice.
Current advice is that should any child, or any other member of their household in which they live, show any of the following symptoms:
All in the household must self-isolate for 14 days.
Should a child attend school and display either of the above symptoms, we will send them home as per the advice already outlined.
Children who are classed as vulnerable should not attend school. The full list of vulnerable groups are described below:
Partial School Closure
The Senior Leadership Team met today to revise our plan as we have reduced staffing and 65 children absent because their families are self-isolating. As such we will have to close the school to Reception (Ash, Beech and Reception children only in Cedar Class) and Years 3 and 4 (Classes 3W, 3R, 4B, 4M) from tomorrow Thursday 18th March. Pupils in Y1, Y2, Y5 and Y6 will all come into school as normal. It is likely that this partial closure will remain in place until after the Easter holidays. This will then cover the 14-day isolation periods. I know and appreciate that this will be difficult for many of you but unfortunately these are unprecedented times. We will keep the situation under constant review. It may be likely that further closures are possible should more staff need to self-isolate as the weeks progress.
Pupil Exceptions to School Closures
Children of NHS Frontline worker
As this is an international pandemic, we are mindful of the necessity of supporting our parents who are frontline workers in the NHS e.g. nurses, doctors etc. or carers working with the elderly and housebound. If you are unable to make childcare arrangements that would free you to work, then school will try to make provision for your child in the event of partial closure. A message will be sent out shortly requesting this information.
Children in Receipt of Free School Meals
If your child is eligible for free school meals, school will make provision for your child to attend school in the event of partial closure. Please note this does not include Universal Free Meals that every Infant child is eligible for. This covers those in receipt of free school meals under the pupil premium grant. Please contact the office to confirm attendance.
Setting Work During Closure
At tonight’s staff meeting we will be discussing home learning and how we can sign post you to websites. It is anticipated that we will use the class pages on the school websites and upload learning tasks, where appropriate, to the age of the child.
Contact Details
During this time of uncertainty, it is important that communication channels are kept open so it would be helpful if you can make sure the school office has your most up-to-date contact details.
I really do wish for all our families to stay safe and keep well. I sincerely hope that you are not too adversely affected by this terrible pandemic, although, I fear it is likely that we are going to feel its repercussions for some time.
Kind Regards,
Mrs K Melling
Executive Headteacher