On Thursday 3 March, we will be celebrating World Book Day at Byers Green. Children can come to school dressed as their favourite book character! We have always been so impressed by the children’s enthusiasm on our dress-up days. Please could they also bring along their favourite book (with their name on) to read with their friends?
Kind regards
Miss Dodds (Deputy Headteacher)
Please see the updated information below from NHS County Durham:
Where and when you can you walk in to get your jab in County Durham updated CURRENT
Dear Parents/Carers,
On Tuesday 8 February we will be joining schools and youth organisations across the UK in celebrating Safer Internet Day 2022. Safer Internet Day is a global campaign to promote the safe and responsible use of technology, which calls on young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers and more, to join together in helping to create a better internet.
Using the internet safely and positively is a key message that we promote in Byers Green Primary School, and celebrating Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity for us to re-emphasise the online safety messages we deliver throughout the year. Some of the activities we’ll be participating in on the day include:
We would be delighted if you could join us in celebrating the day by continuing the conversation at home. To help you with this, you may be interested in downloading the free Safer Internet Day Resources for Parents and Carers which is available at: saferinternet.org.uk/sid-parents.
There are top tips, quizzes, and films which you can use at home with your child.
Some other resources which you may find helpful in supporting your child online are:
Online safety is an important issue which as a school we’re committed to teaching our pupils about.
If you have any concerns or questions about keeping your child safe online, please do get in touch with us.
Kind regards
Mr Kirtley
Headteacher
Dear Parent/Carer,
The week beginning Monday 7 February is Children’s Mental Health Week.
We’ll be doing some special activities during this week to help children keep mentally well, using resources provided to us by Coram Life Education SCARF and on Friday 11 February, to mark the end of this week, we’ll be holding a special Wear your scarf to school day.
SCARF is a big part of our health and wellbeing/PSHE curriculum where we learn about all the things we can do to keep ourselves physically and mentally healthy.
On Wear your SCARF to school Day children are invited to wear a special or favourite scarf all day in school. We’ll be doing some special activities to help us remember and celebrate SCARF’s important values of Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship.
You can also try these activities to support children’s emotional health at home, provided by Coram Life Education SCARF, during the week.
Coram Life Education SCARF is a children’s health and wellbeing that works throughout the UK to provide high-quality PSHE education for primary-age children. You can find out more about Coram Life Education by visiting their website www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk and about their SCARF PSHE resources here.
Thank you for your support with this important part of your child’s education.
Kind regards
Miss Dodds
Deputy Headteacher
FAO: Y4, Y5 & Y6 parents and carers only
STUDENT VOICE SURVEY
Our school, as well as many others in County Durham, is participating in a survey for children and young people. This survey will inform the development of plans and services across County Durham and is designed to positively impact upon pupils as services can be directed to support where particular issues come to light.
The survey has been designed in conjunction with children and young people and includes questions of a range of topics including:
Educational wellbeing
Social wellbeing
Health and physical wellbeing
Community wellbeing
Each response will be anonymous and confidential, and therefore no pupil will be identified when the data is analysed. The council’s Research and Intelligence team will receive the results and data for use in further analysis at council and school level. The council and partners will then use this information to plan and target services, especially where improvement is required. Further information is available in Frequently Asked Questions, which can be found below.
I hope you will agree with us that this is an exercise in which we wish to co-operate fully. I will assume you DO APPROVE unless I hear otherwise, and I look forward to working with you to support the best school life, health and wellbeing for our pupils.
Yours sincerely
W. Kirtley
Headteacher
SVS FAQs for children and young people
Data Protection Act 2018
Durham County Council complies with all relevant statutory obligations. Personal information processed by the Council will be handled in accordance with the Council’s privacy statement, which can be accessed here http://www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy.
If you have any concerns about how your data is handled, please contact either the Data Protection Officer at DPO@durham.gov.uk or the Information Commissioner’s Office casework@ico.org.uk.
Please see the message below from Durham University:
We are back running sport and activity camps from Monday 21st to Friday 25th February at our state of the art Sports and Wellbeing Park. The camps are available to all 5-11 year olds and can be booked on a day to day basis. Costs are £15 per day (09.30am-4.30pm) with a small charge for wraparound care from 08.30am and until 5.30pm each day.
Click here to see a short video about what happens at our Holiday Camps.
To book a place for your child, please click here.
Please see the message below from Durham County Council:
FAO parents of Y5 & Y6 children
Please see the information below from Durham Music Service:
Please see the information below from the Department for Education:
From Monday 17 January, people who are self-isolating with COVID-19 will have the option to reduce their isolation period after 5 full days if they test negative with a lateral flow device (LFD) test on both day 5 and day 6 and they do not have a temperature. For example, if they test negative on the morning of day 5 and the morning of day 6, they can return to their education or childcare setting immediately on day 6.
The first test must be taken no earlier than day 5 of the self-isolation period, and the second must be taken the following day. All test results should be reported to NHS Test and Trace.
If the result of either of their tests is positive, they should continue to self-isolate until they get negative results from two LFD tests on consecutive days or until they have completed 10 full days of self-isolation, whichever is earliest.
Anyone who is unable to take LFD tests or anyone who continues to have a temperature will need to complete the full 10 day period of self-isolation.
Further information on self-isolation for those with COVID-19 is available.
Dear Parents/Carers
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas break.
With the children returning to school on Wednesday 5 January 2022, I wanted to provide an update in light of the current circumstances in relation to coronavirus.
As you will no doubt be aware, daily case numbers are now significantly higher than they were at the end of last term and there is continued uncertainty as to how the situation will develop as we head into this new term. Therefore, we feel we need to put in place some additional measures to reduce the possibility of transmission in school and minimise the risk of infection for everyone. Our approach is to create infant (Class 1 and Class 2) and junior (Class 3 and Class 4) bubbles which could then be streamlined into individual class bubbles should the need for further restrictions arise. Please see the information that follows for an overview of these additional measures.
Drop off and pick up
| Class/
Year group |
Teacher | Start
time |
Finish time |
| Class 1 (YR) | Miss Morgan | 8:45-8:55am | 3:05pm |
| Class 2 (Y1/2) | Miss Forth | 8:45-8:55am | 3:05pm |
| Class 3 (Y3/4) | Mrs Bradwell | 8:45-8:55am | 3:15pm |
| Class 4 (Y5/6) | Mrs Mowbray/Miss Dodds | 8:45-8:55am | 3:15pm |
Drop off
Pick up
Playtimes and lunchtimes
These will be staggered to ensure that there is no mixing between the infant and junior children at these times.
Breakfast club
Breakfast club will start again on Wednesday 5 January 2021 at 8:00am. The children will be seated in infant and junior groups during this time.
Contacting school
In the interests of the safety of everyone concerned, we request that parents only contact school by telephone or email in the first instance. Parents/family members needing to come to the main entrance for a specific prearranged reason will be expected to remain in the porch area and wear a face covering unless exempt.
Take care and stay safe.
Mr W. Kirtley (Headteacher)
