ASPIRE – ACHIEVE – THRIVE – ENJOY

Newsletter 1 – September 2020

Face Masks

Please help us by always wearing a face mask when on the school grounds. All staff on the playground and gates will also be wearing a face mask.

To help us know which parents/carers are exempt from wearing a mask, please wear a sunflower lanyard. These are available to purchase for £1 from www.hiddendisabilitiesstore.com or you can pick one up for free from the Customer Service Desk at the Centre MK, Tesco and Sainsburys.

Thank you so much for your support at this difficult time.

School Roots

During ROOTS week the children spent a lot of time discussing mental health linked to our school ROOTS. Each child had the opportunity to discuss how to 'take care' of their minds whilst they were in school and at home. Every child created a safe hand in school. The safe hands have the names of five people who they can trust to go to with any worries or concerns. This is something we have done at Great Linford for many years and helps children understand they have places to go when they are feeling worried or anxious.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw learning has taken off this half term with a virtual assembly led by Miss Parish, which was lots of fun. We have been focussing on 'being me' and what makes us special. During the half term we will also be looking at what our hopes and dreams are going forward.

EYFS 2021 Cohort – Open Days

Open sessions for the September 2021 EYFS Cohort will take place on Monday 9th November and Thursday 12th November.

Each day will have two sessions: 3.45 - 4.45pm and 5 - 6pm.

Spaces are limited and must be booked through the School Office.

Year 1 Home Learning

Year 1 have been working hard on using capital letters, full stops and the word 'and' within a sentence. They've also been working hard on counting forwards and backwards to 10.

Ellis – Cedar ClassHugo – Rowan Class

Year 6 – Home Learning

Year 6 pupils were working hard at home last week. Here are a few examples of what they have been doing.

Welcome to Miss Snowdon

Hi, I am Miss Snowdon.

I share the Year 4 Willow Class with Miss Creed.

I have been teaching in Milton Keynes for 8 years. I have a particular love of English, with my specialism being grammar.

I have a daughter called Amelia, who is twenty months old and I hope to be getting married next May after my original wedding date in August this year was postponed! 

I have enjoyed getting to know my class and look forward to getting to know the wider GLPS family.

Health & Safety Executive

The HSE have advised schools that they will be conducting spot checks on schools from Monday 7th September. The spot checks will take the form of an initial phone call to review the measures taken for reopening to minimise the spread of the virus causing COVID-19.

Inspectors will check that the school has carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and put in place measures to make the school COVID secure in line with the latest government guidance.

Where the initial call raises concerns about a school’s approach, it will be referred for a further intervention which may include a visit to the school.

You can read the bulletin here :

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKHSE/bulletins/29c406f

Warm Clothing

Government guidance says that schools should look to maximise ventilation by opening classroom windows and propping open doors to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading. Therefore, as we move towards autumn/winter and the days are becoming colder, it is important that you ensure your child is dressed warmly, by wearing several layers, and that they bring a warm coat with them.

OnlyFans

OnlyFans is a social media site where users can upload videos and people can pay the creator to watch them. During lockdown, signups grew rapidly. In particular, it became a “go to” site for sex workers, unable to see clients physically, to upload explicit content. Terms of use say that users must be 18 or over to create an account but of course that is being ignored, by young people and, it seems, the company.

The BBC drew attention to OnlyFans in a BBC Three documentary which found underage girls selling explicit content. Vulnerable people are also at risk.

Find out more: What is OnlyFans? What parents need to know?

https://internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/what-is-onlyfans-what-parents-need-to-know/

https://parentzone.org.uk/article/onlyfans-%E2%80%93-what-parents-need-know

Google Classroom

All classes now have active Google Classrooms which are being used on a weekly basis. Please check there for weekly spelling tasks, information about home learning and class announcements.

If you have any questions or issues relating to your child's Google Classroom, please email or phone the school office. 

Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (EYFS)

The EYFS framework was updated on 4th September 2020 to reflect new regulations which allow temporary coronavirus (COVID-19) disapplications to re-apply if a provider is prevented from complying with the EYFS due to coronavirus related restrictions or requirements.

They also add disapplications around paediatric first aid to the transitional period, which originally only applied to disapplications around staffing levels.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework-2

Parents Evening

We will be holding our Parents Evenings virtually via telephone this year during October. Notification will be sent soon of which days your child’s class teacher will be available and instructions on how to book your 10 minute slot so please look out for this.

Bikeability

Bikeability sessions for Year 1 and Year 6 are being postponed until the Summer Term.

Further details will be sent nearer the time.

Parking

GLPS works closely with our community to ensure that issues that may affect our local residents are discussed and resolved to a mutually beneficial level. It is imperative that when parents visit our school, either to drop off or pick up their children, that they do so with due care and attention and do not put others at risk. They should also give consideration to our local community and park safely and in appropriate areas. It may result in parents parking a small distance away from school and walking into the school grounds to drop off or collect their children. Some parents are parking on the grass verges on the entrance road to Hartley or blocking driveways/garages in and are then causing a safety risk to other children, parents and members of the public. It is important to our school that positive relations with our local community remain in place and do not diminish due to inconsiderate, dangerous parking by our parents or visitors.

Thank you for your support in keeping our children safe.

Reading Update

Thank you to all of our families for your support and patience in allowing us time at school to benchmark the children before sending them home with a reading book. The majority of children should now have been benchmarked and given the opportunity to choose one or two books to take home with them alongside their reading record. Please remember that these books should only be coming back into school on a Friday in order to leave a sufficient time period before they are reissued the next week. Most classes will now be restarting their reading race challenges! When your child has read at home, please remember to comment or sign in their reading record to allow them to move up in the competition. Please see the previous parent communication regarding reading for the list of websites to support you, and remember to keep using Oxford Owl to access hundreds of e-books. As always, please ask your child's class teacher if you have any queries. 

Staggered drop off/pick up times and routes

To help with social distancing, we are operating a staggered start and end to the day and using a one way system.

Below is a reminder of the times and routes into school for each year group or class.

Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes before your specified time.

Please keep to a minimum the number of adults dropping off.

Parents should remember to set a good example of safe distancing at the school gate and on the school premises.

Parents should not come to the school office without a prior appointment.

Year group

Drop off time

Pick up time

Route

Year 6

8.30am

3.00pm

Through car park gate onto playground – walk round school (by windows) – in through door at bottom of stairs

Year 5 SH Elm

8.30am

3.00pm

Side office gate – walk around building – up fire escape stairs

Year 5 SS Sycamore

8.30am

3.00pm

Side office gate – walk around building – in doors at bottom of stairs (pre-school side)

Year 4 TR Lime

8.40 am

3.05pm

Side office gate – walk around building – in doors at bottom of stairs (pre-school side)

Year 4 KC Willow

8.40am

3.05pm

Through car park gate onto playground – walk round school (by windows) – in through door at bottom of stairs

Year 3 RJ Chestnut

8.50am

3.15pm

Through car park gate onto playground – walk round school (by windows) – in to yr3 room

Year 3 EH Oak

8.50am

3.15pm

Side office gate – walk around building – to yr 3 room on far side

Year 2 LS Beech

8.50am

3.15pm

Through car park gate onto playground – walk round school (by windows) – in to yr2 room

Year 2 SS Larch

8.50am

3.15pm

Side office gate – walk around building – to yr 2 room on far side

Year 1 LW Rowan

9.00am

3.20pm

Side office gate – walk around to first year 1 room

Year 1 CG Cedar

9.00am

3.20pm

Side office gate – walk around building – to second year 1 room on far side

EYFS

9.00am

3.20pm

Through car park gate onto playground – drop off at EYFS playground

Contact Details

Don’t forget we are always here for you.

You can contact us in several ways, either by email, phone or through School Gateway.

Email:enquiries@greatlinfordprimaryschool.co.ukPhone:01908 605027 – Main Office