Author: Mr Roundtree

Some statistics to start this week’s message…

It sadly seems that the country is facing more restrictions due to coronavirus. Despite the challenges facing Leeds, it was encouraging to note earlier in the week that:

• no school in Leeds is completely closed
• in fact, 191 schools are fully open
• a further 84 schools are operating despite a bubble closure
• so, all 275 schools in Leeds are open to 114,814 pupils and 13,539 staff

Whilst the rate per 100,000 in Leeds has risen significantly (it’s around the 300 mark), there’s not been a significant increase in the number of pupils and staff testing positive. The numbers are currently relatively stable.

In our three Sphere Federation schools, although individual children have stayed away from school to self-isolate or to wait for a test result, we’ve not yet had to close a bubble. Thank you for your support with this. You’ve been sticking to the drop-off and collection times and it’s great that so many of you continue to wear face masks – we appreciate how responsive you’ve been.

Think carefully before seeking a Covid-19 test because colds are common at this time of year. When we showed his chart a couple of weeks ago, it proved popular. Read the full article.

Home learning

If your child is absent from school due to coronavirus, make sure you check out our home learning page. Every Monday morning, you’ll find some learning for the week:

• five Maths lessons (usually from White Rose Maths, which is what’s used in school) (suggested time: about 30 minutes each day)
• Times Tables practice using Time Tables Rock Stars (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
• Spellings practice using the spellings list that’s published each week (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
• some Reading fluency using the same text that’s used in school (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
• five Reading sessions, including using the ‘RIC’ text used in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes each day)
• two Writing sessions (suggested time: about 30 minutes each)
• a Topic lesson which will link closely with the learning happening in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes)
• a Science lesson which will link closely with the learning happening in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes)

Lunches

If you’re entitled to free school meals, you’re also able to arrange for a light lunch for your child each day, too – contact the school office.

Parent-teacher meetings

Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far for a parent-teacher meeting coming up in the last week of the half-term.

This is the first time we’ve run a parents’ evening online so please be patient with us. We’ll work hard to stick to timings and keep our fingers crossed for good WiFi!

And something completely unrelated to coronavirus…

We’ve added an extra feature to our website. If you go to the Safeguarding page, you’ll see on the right hand side some new content from Parent Info. Parent Info is a collaboration between Parent Zone and NCA-CEOP. It provides support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations. The content is updated regularly, and it covers six broad areas, such as technology, relationships and parenting, all linked to keeping your child happy, healthy and safe.

This week, we’ll kick off with two thank you messages…

Thank you to so many of you who responded to Monday’s message encouraging you to wear a face mask when dropping off and collecting your child from school – it was really good to see the positive response to this so quickly. We’ve tried as best we can to manage the movement of people in and out of school – we’ve got staggered start and end times and one-way systems for example. Even so, there are still times when there are lots of adults nearby. Wearing a mask can help protect the wearer, and others around. We encourage you to wear a mask when you drop your child off at school and when you collect them at the end of the school day.

Thank you for helping to keep our attendance so high. For the month of September, our attendance rate was 96.5%. The figures don’t include children absent due to the virus (the Department for Education doesn’t require this); nevertheless, this figure is still really encouraging – please keep it up.

Talking of attendance… There’s so much information (and misinformation!) all the time about whether your child should be attending school. The government has produced this letter about when you should book a test for your child.

In addition, here’s a guide from Leeds which might help to support you when deciding if your child should be at school or not:

And linked to attendance… This BBC article about self-isolation is worth a read. It helps to explain self-isolation. The last section is especially useful – it explains the rules for schools:

This morning was the first of the autumn/winter season when I had some frost on my car windscreen. It was also the first morning standing at the gate that I noticed water vapour from my breath (read this article with your child about ‘seeing’ your breath on a cold morning).

It’s that second observation that made me think even more about the importance of wearing a mask, even when outside if there are other people nearby.

The water vapour from my breath seemed to spread quite a distance. If that’s the case, the virus might also spread quite a distance as we breathe.

I’m not making any scientific conclusions about coronavirus here. What I am doing is encouraging you to consider wearing a mask as you drop off and collect your child.

At school, we’ve tried as best we can to create some one-way systems. Even so, there are still times when there are lots of adults nearby. Wearing a mask can help protect the wearer, and others around.

Be sure to read right to the end of this week’s message for some Scholes Superstar Celebrity News!

When the Government planned their guidance for the full return for schools in September, it was on the basis that Covid-19 would be contained effectively, with their Test, Track and Trace system up and running effectively. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Schools across the country are having to close bubbles far earlier than had been anticipated. This week, the BBC news site reported that ‘The number of schools in England sending home groups of pupils because of Covid-19 incidents has quadrupled in a week’. We’ve been fortunate enough not to have to do this yet, but I suspect it may only be a matter of time before we do. (In fact, the National Schools Commissioner predicted yesterday that partial closures ‘will continue until we have a vaccine’.)

Just as important are the numbers of individual children who are staying at home to self-isolate. If the testing service was working better, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but sadly we’re seeing children absent for four or more days while they wait for test results – all negative so far, thankfully, but the wait is just too long. That means we’re having to rush ahead with home learning provision.

Our new home learning page sets out learning for the week ahead. New content will be published by 08.30 on Mondays. The teacher isn’t available to prepare recorded lessons because they have a class to teach in school, so we’re using a mix of learning activities that are linked to what’s happening in class:

• online lessons such as those from White Rose Maths (which we often use in class, so the teaching and learning should be very familiar), Oak National Academy, and BBC Bitesize
• activities and ideas that link to some direct activities in class
• some more general activities that will be familiar to your child, such as ‘RIC’ (retrieve, interpret, choice), reading fluency and Time Tables Rock Stars

Like you, we’re learning about the process as we go along. Things aren’t perfect but we’re trying hard to get things right as quickly as we can.

A free school meal while self-isolating

Your child is entitled to free school meals for two circumstances:

• for financial reasons, or
• your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 and are therefore entitled to universal infant free school meals

In either situation, your child can have a free ‘grab bag’ lunch provided whilst they’re isolating at home – you just need to make sure you can collect the lunch from school. Please let us know if you want to do this.

More guidance about Covid-19

Public Health England has produced a letter for parents which explains when a person requires a coronavirus test and what the symptoms of coronavirus are. The intention of the letter is to help prevent children being taken out of school unnecessarily and answer some of the questions parents may have around testing.

Last week, we provided you with this information already: this guide sets out nine different scenarios if your child, or someone in the household, has symptoms of Covid-19. The guide tells you what you need to do and when your child should come back to school.

…And now, the Scholes Superstar Celebrity News, as promised!

On Tuesday 22 September, some of our older children featured on Steph’s Packed Lunch, a new Channel 4 daytime TV programme broadcast live from Leeds. Watch the episode. The children were featured as part of a gardening slot and then later on in the show in a discussion about pocket money.

Thanks to Miss Hague and Mrs Quirk for organising this so well, and to Mr Lindsay for accompanying the children whilst there (but not, alas, featuring on the show himself – he’s gutted!).