This lockdown seems a lot tougher than the last one. Nevertheless, we hope your weekend was as good as it can be at the moment.
As usual on Mondays, we start the week with links to the school assemblies. This week, they’re all about respect, linking with the Living and Learning message ‘I respect myself and others‘.
- the Moortown Primary assembly is led by Mrs Weekes
- Miss Hague leads the Scholes (Elmet) Primary assembly
- the St James’ CE Primary collective worship is led by Mrs Rowley
Your child can watch the assembly at any point in the week. After watching, have a conversation at home about respect:
- What is respect?
- When and where should people show respect?
- Who should we respect?
- Why is it important to show respect?
- How do we show respect? Does this differ depending on the situation?
Remembering the Living and Learning message ‘I respect myself and others‘, don’t forget to talk about self-respect – respecting yourself.
As we said at the start of today’s message, this lockdown just seems tougher in lots of ways – the weather, the short days, the fact we’ve been through it all before…
This weekend, The Guardian reported that ‘Parents’ stress rises over home schooling in Covid lockdown’. In the article, it’s reported that ‘Nearly half of parents say primary school teachers are expecting more of their child this time round’. This time round, the Department for Education expectations are for children in Key Stage 1 to have three hours of learning every day, and four hours for children in Key Stage 2. The seven daily sessions that we’re providing, plus independent reading, learning spellings and some physical activity provides this. However…
…that’s tough, we know. We’ve suggested that five might be realistic – maybe less, depending on your context. Here are some strategies that you’ve told us about for coping with home learning:
- using the timetable we provide in our Home Learning Guide to set expectations – we’ve provided a template for five as well as seven sessions across the day
- for time away from a screen, don’t under-estimate the value of quiet reading (or reading aloud to each other)
- another idea for time away from the screen is to drop a session and do something practical instead – cooking something up in the kitchen is a valuable learning experience, for example
- as an alternative, check out the BBC’s offer online, on TV and on iPlayer
- you could even consider buying some workbooks as a screen-alternative (for example, the CGP books are quite well-priced and popular amongst children) – this would mean your child is engaging in some appropriate and useful learning, although it will be different to others doing the home learning
- if your child doesn’t pause for the independent activities that are featured in our recorded sessions, and instead watches the clips through, don’t worry too much – at least they’re engaging
- try watching a session from a younger year group if your child’s struggling – it would do no harm to practise and secure Maths and spellings / phonics, especially, and might help boost your child’s confidence
- daily physical activity really helps learning and encourages a positive attitude
Do let us know any other ways you’re coping so we can share them.