Did we trick you...?
In our weekly message earlier today, we announced the following sad news…
Farewell to Miss Hague
We’re very sad to announce that Miss Hague will be leaving us at the end of the school year. Miss Karen April Hague has been Head of School for some years now and has been a wonderful figurehead for our happy and healthy school. Whilst not suffering fools gladly, Miss Hague has earned a reputation as being a firm but fair school leader. Now, exhausted by Covid risk assessments, the day has come for Miss Hague to step back and enjoy an early retirement.
Please be assured Miss Hague hasn’t any intention to leave us. Happy April Fools Day!
This week’s message (Thursday 01 April 2021)
We’ve made it through to the end of the Spring term! This week’s message is a day early because tomorrow’s the start of the Easter break. The first of today’s messages is a re-cap from Monday…
Testing positive…? (repeat from Monday)
As was the case at Christmas and in February, schools are being asked to support the government’s Test and Trace system.
If your child has been attending school this week, we need you to tell us if they get a positive Covid test result in the period Friday 02 April to Wednesday 07 April 2021. So you can give us all the information we need, please use this form or scan this QR code (hover over it with the camera on – a link should appear):
This means we’ll have the information to take the necessary actions, laid down by the Department for Education.
We’d prefer you to use the online form, but if the technology fails you, please contact school: scholesheadofschool@spherefederation.org
If your child receives a positive test result after Wednesday 07 April, you can tell us on the first day of the new term (Monday 19 April).
PCR vs LFD tests
It’s confusing, we know!
A PCR test (a polymerase chain reaction test) is one where the swap is sent off to a lab. An LFD test (lateral flow device test) is one that you can do at home.
Leeds Schools Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team have asked us to make sure you’re aware of the difference.
Apparently, some parents are taking pupils who have Covid symptoms to get a test and then having an LFD test and not a PCR test. Symptomatic people must have a PCR test – an LFD test is not sufficient.
Some test sites are open for different purposes at different times of the day, such as PCR testing in the morning and LFD test collection in the afternoon. It might be that parents aren’t aware of this and have arrived at the wrong time. Please be clear if you’re booking tests or arriving at a test centre that you need a symptomatic PCR test or if you’re collecting LFD tests.
Pupil premium
Throughout the pandemic, Leeds has seen a rise in the number of children and young people who are entitled to a free school meal.
If a child is entitled to free school meals, schools get over £1,000 every year to support your child’s learning. This is true, even if your child is in Reception or Years 1 or 2 and so they get a free meal, and even if they choose to have a packed lunch.
Find out more about free school meals, and pupil premium to support your child’s learning.
Farewell to Miss Hague
We’re very sad to announce that Miss Hague will be leaving us at the end of the school year. Miss Karen April Hague has been Head of School for some years now and has been a wonderful figurehead for our happy and healthy school. Whilst not suffering fools gladly, Miss Hague has earned a reputation as being a firm but fair school leader. Now, exhausted by Covid risk assessments, the day has come for Miss Hague to step back and enjoy an early retirement.
Have a happy and healthy Easter break – and be careful not to fall victim to any April Fools Day jokes…!
Please be clear on what lockdown restrictions are still in place
We’re all working hard to keep our school as safe as we possibly can. Lockdown may be easing, but we have to be careful and sensible about what we do. Nobody wants to return to a full lockdown.
The following comes from the government’s email to schools…
From yesterday, the rules on social contact, business and activities, and travel are changing as part of the coronavirus (COVID-19) roadmap.
Outdoor gatherings (including in private gardens) of either 6 people (the rule of 6) or 2 households are allowed, making it easier for friends and families to meet outside.
Children are able to access any outdoor childcare and supervised activities. Parent and child groups, for the benefit of children aged under five years, can also take place outdoors with a limit of 15 attendees (children under five years of age and group facilitators do not count towards the attendee limit). Parent and child groups must be organised by a business, a charitable organisation or a public body.
The ‘stay at home’ rule will end, but many restrictions remain in place. These include mixing with other households indoors. Remember that a support bubble should be one person living alone, and ideally local to you.
Please see the guidance on the COVID-19 response – Spring 2021 (Roadmap) for further information.
Testing positive...?
A couple of important messages…
If you’re taking a child for a Covid test, please don’t send any siblings to school.
In fact, if anyone in your household is going for a test, this will be because that person has symptoms. The rest of the household needs to be cautious. They might have caught Covid, but just not displaying symptoms – they could still infect others, so keep them at home.
And for the first few days of the holiday…
As was the case at Christmas and in February, schools are being asked to support the government’s Test and Trace system.
If your child has been attending school this week, we need you to tell us if they get a positive Covid test result in the period Friday 02 April to Wednesday 07 April 2021. So you can give us all the information we need, please use this form or scan this QR code (hover over it with the camera on – a link should appear):
This means we’ll have the information to take the necessary actions, laid down by the Department for Education.
We’d prefer you to use the online form, but if the technology fails you, please contact school:
- moortownheadofschool@spherefederation.org
- scholesheadofschool@spherefederation.org
- stjamesheadofschool@spherefederation.org
If your child receives a positive test result after Wednesday 07 April, you can tell us on the first day of the new term (Monday 19 April).
Letter to children and young people from the Secretary of State for Education
The Secretary of State for Education has written to children and young people to recognise the impact of the disruption they have faced over the past year and to thank them for their resilience – read the letter here.
This week’s message (Friday 26 March 2021)
Let’s start the message with a few non-Covid things…
Thank you
In case you missed it, we raised £403.60 for Comic Relief last Friday. Thanks to everyone for their contributions to our Red Nose Day.
Junior leaders
Rearranged from earlier in the term, next week, we have elections for our Junior Leadership Team (our new name for the School Council, to bring this group inline with the Senior Leadership Team in school). Democracy is a key feature of life in countries such as ours. We want to promote democracy as a way for people to have a say in what goes on. Our Junior Leadership Team is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in school life.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Today’s whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections next Thursday.
We’d like to thank the current school councillors for all their contributions over the last year (remember you can stand again). Good luck to the children who choose to stand in the election.
Recruiting
Our school meals provider, Catering Leeds, are looking for staff to join their teams, working in schools within this area. They pay the Leeds Living Wage (a minimum of £9.30 per hour) and have available part-time roles which are term-time only. If you’re interested, visit jobs.leeds.gov.uk website and complete an application form.
And now, one (just one!) Covid-related thing…
Self-testing at home
Lots of families now have access to home self-testing kits – these are called lateral flow tests. These tests are useful because they help find asymptomatic cases of Covid 19. That means they can sometimes identify that someone has Covid-19, even if they don’t have symptoms.
The tests shouldn’t be used to confirm a positive or negative infection.
If your child has any Covid-19 symptoms, they should isolate at home. The rest of your household, including brothers and sisters, should also isolate. Don’t send any to school. Book a PCR (lab) test.
Negative results from a lateral flow test do not rule out Covid-19 infection. This is especially in the early stages of an infection when the viral load is lower.
Even with a negative result, if your child has symptoms, don’t send them (or siblings) to school.
Also, if doing a lateral flow test, do it carefully. The tests are good at identifying if someone has a high viral load of Covid-19. They never confirm that someone doesn’t have the virus.
And finally for this week…
Here’s the latest Families Leeds & West Yorkshire magazine…
Have a really good weekend, hopefully enjoying some sunshine along the way.
Red Nose thank you
Thanks to everyone for their contributions to our Red Nose Day.
We managed to raise an impressive £403.60
I’m sure we manage to raise more and more each year! Your generosity is very much appreciated.
Children and young people - have your say!
Children & Young People Outer North East Youth Activity Fund Survey
On behalf of the local councillors from the Outer North East Community Committee please see link below which will take you to the online Youth Activity survey.
The survey will enable all children and young people living in the Outer North East area to influence how Youth Activity Funding is allocated in your area, we hope to engage with as many children and young people as possible.
Please complete the survey in order to have your views heard.
The survey will be available until 30 April 2021. After that date, the information will be collated to recognise the top 5 priorities which will then be shared with your local councillors, this will influence how they allocate their Youth Activity Funding budget for 2021/22.
This week's message (Friday 19 March 2021)
This week, we’ve had to close Year 5,6 bubbles in two of the three Sphere schools. This is such a shame, but really does highlight that Covid-19 is still out there.
Testing for Covid-19 at home
In one of the situations, the bubble closing stemmed from a pupil who had tested positive at home with a home testing kit (a lateral flow device test, or LFD test). The family then went to get tested again, this time using the central test sites where the tests are processed in labs (a polymerase chain reaction test, or PCR test) and the test result was positive.
This shows the value of doing the home-testing. It helps spot cases when someone has Covid with no symptoms, but can still spread the virus. (These are called asymptomatic cases.)
If a pupil has symptoms of Covid they should get a PCR test. A home LFD test isn’t enough – a negative LFD test for a person with symptoms isn’t sufficient evidence that they are negative. If your child has symptoms of Covid, or just doesn’t seem right in any way, please don’t send them to school.
In the situation described above, we’re grateful to the family for spotting a positive case, keeping children away from school, and therefore helping to stop the spread of Covid.
And a couple of non-Covid news items…
Does your child use Omegle?
You may have read some worrying reports recently about a chatroom website called Omegle. The website has as its tag line ‘Talk to Strangers’ – as you can imagine it’s for 18s and over.
We’ve had some worrying reports that younger children have been accessing this website and may have seen some inappropriate things.
Please check your child’s device regularly.
We’re a happy and healthy place to work!
Scholes (Elmet) Primary is a happy and healthy place to learn, but we’re proud to be a happy and healthy place to work, too.
Every year in the Summer Term, we ask you to complete an annual survey – it’s always good to hear your views. Every two years, we also ask staff to complete a survey – the most recent was in February.
We’re delighted that across all three schools in Sphere Federation, 100% of staff agreed that pupils’ behaviour is good and that pupils are safe. You might think staff would say this, but the survey is an opportunity to ‘tell it how it is’ in an anonymous way, so these outcomes are great.
Other questions related to staff wellbeing and workload; leadership; the curriculum; and assessments. The outcomes in these areas were also really high – typically over 95%.
Typical comments from staff at Scholes (Elmet) Primary are:
- ‘I have worked at Scholes school for a long time and have never felt more supported. The school has been on quite a journey over the past few years and I now feel that it is in a really great place.’
- ‘Safeguarding is a high priority.’
- ‘Leadership have been really considerate of mental wellbeing, especially during the pandemic. They are fair and supportive.’
- ‘Roles are clearly defined and all staff across the federation know who to go to if they need support.’
- ‘All of the Federation schools are really supportive of one another and the joined up thinking really helps staff. This has been especially noticeable whilst we have all been dealing with lockdown.’
Finally today, I found out that one of the fans of our daily / weekly messages is Miss Hague’s mum, so I’d like to say a big hello to her, and a happy Mothers Day to her, and of course to all mums!
This week's message (Friday 12 March 2021)
It’s the end of the first week back. Children have settled very quickly and teachers report they’re really keen to learn, which is great news. We hope the change to your week has been welcome!
Teachers also say the children, especially younger ones, have been tired, which is understandable – you can help with this by making sure they’re getting a good night’s sleep (the NHS recommend 9-12 hours for a 6-12 year old).
A word from Miss Hague
Welcome back. It’s the end of a very exciting week. We’ve had endless smiles and endless chatter this week. It’s been so nice to see all the children back in school where they belong. Monday saw lots of parents smiling after drop-off, too. I can’t think why!
A huge thanks for making our staggered start and end times successful. By arriving really close to your child’s start/finish time, you’re helping to reduce the number of people in the playground. By asking your child to stand with you until the doors open, you’re helping to keep our bubbles secure. By wearing a mask, you’re helping to reduce the risk of transmission. Thank you.
A few people wonder why we change the gates to enter and exit in the morning and afternoon. It’s because the wider gate is better for more people – when you’re with your child. So…
- wider gate with children
- narrow gate no children
Are you claiming income support?
The virus has been tough for us all. Some of you might be claiming income support to tide you over. If you are, please register your child for free school meals, even if…
- they don’t actually have a school dinner
- they’re in Foundation 2, Year 1 or Year 2 and so they get a free meal already
This is because for every child registered, we get an extra £1320 this year. Make a claim here.
We can use this extra amount to help pay for all sorts of resources that can benefit your child and their class.
Parent-teacher meetings
Just before February half-term, we’d normally have parent-teacher meetings and provide you with a Learning Update. We’re still planning to have parent-teacher meetings, but these will be in the last week of this term (week beginning 29 March – check the school calendar for the dates) and will be via Zoom, the same as last time. We’ll email you more details shortly.
Red Nose Day
…is next Friday. To mark the occasion, we’re having a non-uniform day and inviting children to wear some red. There’ll be a bucket to collect donations as you enter school. (Even though it’s a non-uniform day, pupils should dress appropriately, so no revealing clothes, high-heeled shoes or make-up – this is in line with our uniform policy.)
Staying safe
In emails from the Department for Education this week, one message is very clear: ‘England is still in a national lockdown. You must stay at home, leaving only where permitted by law, and follow the rules in the national lockdown: stay at home guidance.’
Please do keep following lockdown rules – we all so desperately want this lockdown to be the last!
Enjoy your weekend (including Mothers Day!).