Dear parents, carers and wider community,

I hope you’re all keeping safe and well.

It was lovely to hear the clapping and cheers last night, for the NHS workers.  They’re doing a great job being right at the front of the front-line!

What’s the message about the lock-down?

Stay in… only leaving for certain reasons:

  • Shopping for basic necessities, and as infrequently as possible.
  • One form of exercise a day – a run, walk, or cycle, alone or with members of your household.
  • Any medical needs that you have, or to help someone vulnerable.
  • Travelling to and from work, but only if this cannot be done from home.

It’s extremely difficult to maintain ‘Social Distancing’ measures with school children and staff, but we’re trying our best!  Fortunately, we’ve had some extra cleaning products from Park Dean and some hand sanitiser from the Pickwell Foundation which helps greatly.  I’ve heard that some schools have actually received complaints from neighbours about children playing on the playground or running around the field too close together and have even had visits from the police about this, who were equally as surprised as the school!

We’ve organised ourselves in to three teams at school to provide childcare and abide by the social distancing guidance as best as possible, and we have many staff working from home too.  The message from the DfE is that, ‘Those children who are safe at home, should stay there,’ and so the majority of our families are doing what I’m currently doing, juggling work and children.  (I’m writing this whilst organising school, organising my own four boys (currently making birthday cards for Mummy!) and trying not to get frustrated by the DIY!)

It’s about to be the school’s Easter break.  I’m extremely grateful for our dedicated staff who have all agreed to volunteer their time to allow us to stay ‘open’ over our holiday.  This is similar to many schools throughout the country, continuing to stay open for the key workers who have no alternative childcare provision, or to join with other schools to do so.

I’m in regular discussions with a very large group of Headteachers across the country as well as our own Braunton Cooperative Trust, and because there is little guidance from the Government in this unprecedented and unique situation, we’re trying our best to ensure consistency and best practice for our families.

With this in mind, we have also decided to continue to support our families over the Easter Break by providing some structure to the two week ‘holiday.’  After all, you can’t actually go on holiday or have much of a difference over the next two weeks, and getting back to work, to school or to an attempt of a structured day after two weeks ‘off’, is going to be extremely hard on everyone’s mental health!

On our website, we’ve got a suggested outline for a day at home with children, and we have pages and links for things that can keep your children busy.  We’re also going to upload into our Class pages an A4 sheet of suggested activities that could help further.  All these can be found under the Closure Tab at the top of our website and will be fully populated by the end of the weekend.

Please do feel free to step back from attempting to teach fractions, time, subjunctive verbs or any form of ‘school work.’  We’re not doing this in school either as we’re playing, or making dens, or colouring in, or simply enjoying a book together.  Please look after your own mental health too – join in and just colour in!

Please do feel free to get in touch with school at either the homeschool@georgeham-primary.devon.sch.uk email address for sharing what you’re doing with us, or to me directly at jthomas@georgeham-primary.devon.sch.uk

Hope this meets you well.
Julian