January’s often a month when people feel a bit flat: we’re still enduring the gloom of cold weather (including today’s snow!) and dark mornings and nights, and the the joys of Christmas or other festivals aren’t approaching. Many, many thanks for your support this week – it’s really helped us as we do the same balancing act you’re doing of combining work and home.
Children coming into school
Earlier today, we emailed parents and carers a letter from Councillor Jonathan Pryor, Executive Member for Learning and Skills at Leeds City Council, and Saleem Tariq, Director for Children and Families. We’ve included it here, too, because of the importance of its message, including this extract:
We are at a critical situation in Leeds. The infection rate has increased again to 316 per 100,000, an increase of 64% on last week, and further increases are likely as the effect of the Christmas relaxations feeds through… if you qualify as a critical worker, but can manage to have your children at home, please do this, and let your school know. Government guidance published on 7th January reinforces this point. It says: “Parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.”
We really need this to happen: we’ve managed to accommodate most of the requests for children to attend school but – like schools across the country – the numbers in our school remain too high to achieve what the Prime Minister set out on Monday: to stop schools acting as ‘vectors of transmission, causing the virus to spread between households’.
Home learning
The daily sessions have begun. Today, you’ll find six sessions in most year groups on the Home Learning page. (Scroll down the page to find the seventh one (Maths) – this was provided earlier in the week as part of a series of Maths lessons for any individual children having to self-isolate.)
The daily Zoom sessions – to review and reflect on learning – will begin next week. These are completely new and they’re likely to evolve over time as teachers explore what works best for the children who are joining the sessions.
There were a couple of minor errors in the Home Learning Guide we sent out yesterday – we’re sorry about that. This is the correct version – dated 08 January 2021.
The Sphere Federation Early Years team are working together to help you support your younger child at home. Check out their Class News page for this.
…and we’ve reached Friday! Whatever you get up to this weekend, we hope it’s a good one.