Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• STAY HOME ADVICE

  Tue 24 Mar 2020

  Yesterday, the Prime Minister announce new measures to help prevent the spread of the virus.

  For this reason, we have put on hold any plans for open air book swaps. We would also discourage people from coming to school to collect resources. See online learning resources posted under the Children tab.

   

  Coronavirus (COVID-19): what you need to do:

   

  Stay at home

   

  • Only go outside for food, health reasons or essential work
  • Stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people
  • Wash your hands as soon as you get home

   

  Anyone can spread the virus.

   

  Full guidance on staying at home and away from others

• School Closure - Home Learning

  Fri 20 Mar 2020

  Your child’s learning is very important to us and we will continue to provide opportunities for your child to learn whist the school is closed. 

   

  You will appreciate that we are not able to provide a full curriculum, or the same level of differentiation that we would in school.  However, my team of staff are committed to providing a range of activities and resources which will allow children to continue learning.  This can be augmented, at parents’ discretion, with the range of additional activities already posted on our website.

   

  Your child will today bring home a new exercise book, which they can decorate. This will be a space to record any written work they complete. This work can be shared upon their return but will not be formally marked.

   

  We will set activities, initially, a week at a time. The first set will come home today with their new exercise book. 

  
  Our expectation for the week commencing 23 March is as follows:
  •    5 age-appropriate maths activities
  •    5 age-appropriate writing activities/opportunities
  •    Daily reading (additional books will be sent home and we are working on plans to allow ‘open-air’ access to exchange books – more details to follow).
  •    Daily online spelling practice via Spelling Shed.

   

  Pupils not in school today can collect resources over the coming weeks. We will leave clearly labelled resources in the main porch to allow access for collection, without increased contact with others.  

   

  We plan to post further activities weekly on the newly updated Home Learning webpage. Please contact us via Parentmail if you struggle with printing or need access to basic stationery.

   

  We will resource the same range of tasks to the limited number of children for whom the school will remain open to, so as not to unfairly advantage or disadvantage either group of children.

   

  Going forward, we will continue to develop our provision for home learning and are exploring options for more extended provision after Easter.  We also plan to operate a system with class teachers making individual check-in telephone contact with their class.  The Pastoral team will also check-in by phone with certain children. Please do contact us by the usual means if you need further advice or support.

   

  We understand that this time may bring anxiety and uncertainty. Try to establish/maintain routines at home. Get children into a pattern of activities and make it clear what is happening ‘now’ and ‘next’.  Make a family plan so the adults at home know what is happening, to give children reassurance.

   

  Thank you again for your continued support. We will continue to update you regularly.

• Coronavirus Upcoming School Closure

  Wed 18 Mar 2020

  On Wednesday 18th March the Government announced that schools in England will be closed from Monday 23rd March.  We are awaiting further guidance regarding the closure and will communicate with you when we have this.

   

  The school remains open until Friday 20th March, including Breakfast and After School Club subject to sufficient staffing levels.

   

  Thank you for your support during these challenging times.

• New Coronavirus Guidance

  Thu 12 Mar 2020

  UPDATE - MONDAY 16TH MARCH:

   

  If a member of your household has any of the below symptoms your household should isolate for 14 days from the start of the symptoms. 

   

  ORIGINAL NEWS STORY:

   

  As you will be aware, the government has issued new advice if you have certain symptoms. The advice is:

   

  Stay at home for 7 days if you have either:

  • a high temperature
  • a new continuous cough

   

  This will help to protect others in your community while you are infectious.  Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.  You do not need to contact NHS 111 to tell them you’re staying at home.

   

  If your child has any of the above symptoms they will need to stay at home and follow the self-isolation guidance found here:

  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance

   

  If this applies to your child, please leave a message on the Absence line (01202 512241, option 1), or e-mail absence@st-marks.bournemouth.sch.uk, making it clear that your child is isolating for 7 days.  You will not need to leave further messages until the 8th day of absence, as your child will be marked as unwell for 7 days (5 school days).  Please message the school as soon as possible to help us with our planning.

   

  If your child shows any of the above symptoms at school, you will be called to collect your child and asked to isolate them for 7 days.

   

  As this guidance applies to adults as well as children, we may well be impacted by staff absence over the coming weeks.  Whilst we will try to operate as normal, we may need to make changes to the provision which we offer.  For example, your child may be taught by different teachers or as part of a different or bigger class.  It may become necessary to implement full or partial closure of the school and/or wraparound care provision but we would aim to give as much notice as possible of this.

   

  The needs and safety of the children will continue to be our utmost priority during this time.

   

  I thank you for your support as we all adapt to this new guidance.