Thank you so much to all of our parents and carers who are being so supportive of our staff at this time.  They are working hard in the most difficult of circumstances and knowing they have your support makes a difference to them.

We know isolation of children presents families with challenges and we are thinking of you all, hoping to help as best we can over the coming days.

The most important thing is everyone remains healthy and well; take care.

To our self isolating Year 4 and 5 families..

We all had our first ‘go’ at Microsoft Teams today and it went really well (especially once I had sorted my technology out!).  Today was teaching the children the skills to log in, mute, unmute and use the chat (they definitely mastered the chat!).  Thank you so much to the staff for their commitment to this.

As we use this tool more and more over the coming days please can we ask the following:

*children should always enter the meeting on mute

*children need to consider their background: ensure it doesn’t disclose any personal information about you as a family or an individual.

*please do not record or screen shot the meeting: it is a live meeting for the people who have permission to have access.

*please encourage your child to listen carefully to the direction given by the teacher during the meeting.

*ensure (now they know how to do it!) children use the chat function appropriately and not excessively as it can distract from the meeting content!

Thank you so much for your support as we grow confidence with remote learning at a challenging time for everyone.

To parents and carers of self isolating children…

If you require support with access to devices please can you email me to let me know nicola.moody@taw.org.uk

Best wishes

On our COVID page you can find links to suggested SEND resources, Oak Academy and BBC Bitesize if you wish to make use of any of these:

https://newportjuniorschool.org.uk/home/learning/covid19/

On our wellbeing page you can also find some useful resources:

https://newportjuniorschool.org.uk/home/key-info/wellbeing/

Dear Year 4 Parents and carers,

We are thinking of you and your Year 4 children at this time: it feels very strange this morning for us as we are sure it does for you. Please let them know we miss them and can’t wait to see them soon.

Please remember that your Year 4 child cannot leave the family home until Friday 20^th November.   Please reassure them that they are ‘heroes’ for doing this and for reducing transmission in our community.

Should your child develop symptoms then please book a test, isolate the household, let us know and notify us as soon as you receive the result.

Just some information about what you can expect from us over the coming days:

*Each evening ready for the next day you will receive an email, generated from the website, with home learning resources for the next day. This will generally be a reading activity, maths, writing and an other subject area.  If you do not receive the email please don’t worry, it can be found on the Year 4 page on our website.

We appreciate it is very ‘tricky’ getting children to work at home but we will be keeping the curriculum moving and the more the children can engage with this offer the better.

As always our priority as a school is keeping the children happy and we will also be sending resources to help with this. We suggest a daily timetable might help your child so they understand ‘work time’ and ‘leisure’ time within their routine.

*Each day you will also receive a ParentMail message ahead of the next day. This will contain an invitation to an online meeting on Microsoft Teams the next day with your child’s class.  The main focus of these sessions will be wellbeing and maintaining a sense of belonging with the class. Teachers may deliver some teaching points but they may also play games and lead other activities. The times will vary from day to day depending on who is leading the sessions but full details will be included in the ParentMail.

You will need the Microsoft Teams App on your device, this is free. When you receive the invite you will then simply need to click on the invite to access the meeting. (I appreciate we may have teething problems, please email me nicola.moody@taw.org.uk and I will do my very best to help if I can).

Please talk to your child about appropriate behaviours during these sessions: not shouting out, muting themselves unless speaking and considering an appropriate background.

*You are welcome to have email dialogue with your child’s class teacher. Class teachers will only respond between 9am and 4pm. You may wish to email in work for feedback or to ask questions both of which are fine. (If you/your child would like feedback on work it can be saved electronically and emailed in or take a photo and send this in).

Email addresses are:

Natalie.jukes@taw.org.uk

Eloise.jones@taw.org.uk

jeni.kuczynska@taw.org.uk

caroline.sisson@taw.org.uk

*If your child is in receipt of Free School Meals you will receive a supermarket gift card in the post to support you during this isolation period. If you have not received this by Thursday please email me to let me know. If you feel you require further support please do ask.

Please be mindful that school staff are also having to isolate and they need to look after their health and wellbeing like you and your children. They are working very hard behind the scenes to organise this provision and I hope you feel able to support them. If you do have queries please do politely contact us and we will do our best to help.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Best wishes

Mrs Moody