Dear Parents/Carers,
Following Monday night’s announcement, we have had to change the term we had planned. For this period of lockdown, the Government have set out the expectations that children will still access the full breadth of the curriculum. They have also set a minimum requirement of three hours of learning per day. The staff are working in school to care for the children of Key Workers and those who are vulnerable, as well as supporting children learning remotely.
We have spent the week considering how to adapt the curriculum we had planned in order to teach the children from the safety of their homes. We are aware that this is a crisis and people will have a lot to deal with. We have considered some of you will be working from home and will have more than one child to support. We can reassure you, we are here for you and want to support our children in the best way we can.
The lessons we set for the children at home, will be the same as the lessons delivered in school to the children of Key Workers and those who are vulnerable. We felt this was a vital part of this process so that all of the children receive the same opportunities. We have developed a proposed timetable which mirrors our school day. Some of you will like the routine that this brings, where some of you may feel overwhelmed by it. It can be used flexibly to fit in with your circumstances.
The leadership team have thought carefully about how to provide high quality lessons that are realistic and accessible. Please be patient with us as we manage this situation as it is a completely different way of working for everyone. Things may change slightly from week to week as we streamline the way we do things. The teaching staff have worked extremely hard to source teaching clips and videos with matching activities that correspond to each lesson on the timetable. We have uploaded all of the resources to the Remote Learning areas of our website. Many of the resources will require printing, so staff will prepare a weekly booklet of resources. If you wish to pick up a pack of resources from school (we will print them for you), we have developed a covid-secure system to support this.
Collection of packs from school:
We have allocated time slots and request that, where possible, you come alone to collect the resources. Please phone Miss Dodds to discuss any queries you may have.
Please wear a face covering unless you are exempt.
Remember to observe 2m social distancing.
Sanitise your hands on entry to the front porch area.
A member of staff, wearing PPE, will acknowledge your arrival and deliver your pack to the entrance of school. Please remain in the porch area – we are trying to minimise the number of people entering the school building.
Collection will usually be on a Friday at the following times. However, due to the closure on Friday 8 January the packs for week beginning 11.01.21 will be available on Monday between the same times.
| Class 1 & 2 | 9:30 – 11:30 am |
| Class 3 & 4 | 12:00 – 15:00 pm |
Please do not hesitate to get in touch via email if you have any questions. If you haven’t already seen them, the email addresses for our class teachers are as follows.
- Miss Morgan – class1@byersgreen.durham.sch.uk
- Miss Forth – class2@byersgreen.durham.sch.uk
- Mrs Bradwell – class3@byersgreen.durham.sch.uk
- Mrs Mowbray – class4@byersgreen.durham.sch.uk
Miss Dodds (who is overseeing all of the remote learning) and Mr. Kirtley will also have access to the mailboxes so they may respond to your queries on occasion. Class teachers will be contacting you regularly for feedback on your child’s learning. They will respond to emails during the hours in which they are on site. Please remember your child’s teacher will still be involved in teaching those pupils attending school so they may not be able to respond immediately. If you have any urgent queries, please contact the school office and leave a message.
We would like to thank you for your messages of support. We hope we can all pull together as a school community to look after each other and support each other. Please stay safe and take care and remember we are here for you.
Kind regards
Miss Dodds