St. Michael’s Weekly Post – 25th September 2020

25^th September 2020

One way system

Thank you for adhering to our new one way system, we appreciate that it has changed a couple of times but hopefully you will agree it feels safer for the children. Regarding St Michael’s Close, we recognise that some parents have concerns about the road safety and we are looking into how we can make this safer.

Homework

For Years 2 to 6:

This evening your child will be bringing home their new home learning books. Based on your feedback, we have made the decision to continue to use the CGP English and Maths resources to both support new learning and consolidate previously taught content. Children in Years 3, 4 and 5 will receive a maths book which is written for the previous academic year e.g children in Year 3 will receive a book aged 6-7. This is a deliberate decision to give the children chance to revisit content from the previous year (especially due to the unusual situation that we find ourselves in). Some children may have a slightly different levelled book as teachers have considered the most appropriate level for each child. If however you feel your child is finding it too difficult/easy please do let the class teacher know, via ClassDojo.

Each Friday, teachers will post the pages to be completed on Class Dojo. Children will receive a piece of English and Maths each week. Based on evidence, the best practice for homework is:

• Look at the pages with your child and check that they are happy with the topics covered
• Encourage your child to complete the work independently
• Support them, where possible, with any parts of the work that they are struggling with

In order to keep contact with items from home to a minimum, we would like you to check your child’s work at home to ensure that they have understood. All of the provided books have answers at the back, so we hope that this will be a manageable task for you. It will also provide you the opportunity to see how your child is doing and support them where necessary. We are aware that this is a change to how we have approached homework in the past and will involve a little more time but really hope that we will have your support.

In order to help the teachers to know whether home learning has been completed, we would like parents to send a brief, standardised message to their class teacher via Dojo to notify them that the tasks have been completed each week. Please use the following message:

• Home learning complete – no problems

Or….

• Home learning attempted – name found _____ tricky.

There is no need to upload images of the completed pages, but please do let us know if your child has struggled with a particular concept. We will then be able to provide them with some support in school.

At the end of each term, we will be asking for all home learning books to be brought into school, where they will be quarantined to allow teachers to look through the work that has been completed throughout the term. The first time this will happen will be just before the October half-term break.

Children continue to have access to their TTRockstar and MathsWhizz accounts, if for any reason this needs resetting please let the class teacher know. Please feel free to use these to supplement the children’s homework.

We hope that you will find the home learning books useful. As ever, should you have any comments or concerns about home learning, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher on Dojo.

Acorns and Hazel Class parents/carers will receive details on any homework via ClassDojo.

ClassDojo

Can we please remind you to continue to monitor ClassDojo. This is how teachers will share any messages, provide details on homework and inform parents of the class Learner of the Week and Writer of the Week.

PTA AGM

Just a reminder that the PTA’s Annual General Meeting is on Tuesday 29th September at 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The PTA are looking for new committee members, so if you would like to join the committee they would love to have you. Please let Michelle Miles, PTA Chair, know in advance by email aldbournepta@gmail.com. They look forward to seeing you there.

Braeside Education Centre

Braeside Education Centre, Devizes is providing a range of courses for primary school children. The courses are designed to allow students to benefit from extra-curricular opportunities to explore and develop areas of ability. They focus on challenges for Years 2 to 6 pupils.

Bookings need to be made direct with the Centre, and school needs to sign the booking forms to ensure the course is suitable for your child. More information can be found on their website and their booklet, which includes course details and a booking form.

Braeside have worked closely with their tutors to adapt courses to conform to all guidance. They have implemented a new classroom setup and cleaning regimes and are confident in the safe delivery of each session. Further Covid information can be found on page 10 of their booklet. If you require any further information, please contact the Centre directly.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact Miss Mearns.

St Michael’s School Council Elections

As a reminder, at the beginning of October, we will be voting for our new school councillors. Two children in each class from Years 3 – 6, who were not councillors last year, will be chosen in a class vote. If your child wishes to be considered for election they need to prepare something which will help them convince their class why they would be a good choice. It could be a simple speech, a poster, a leaflet, a video or even a PowerPoint!

We will be working on our links with the Nursing Home and, as always, looking for ways to improve the school environment. So, children should keep these in mind when creating their manifesto which needs to be ready for Monday, 28 September.

Bag2School

Bag2School donation bags are available from the school gates ready to bring your donations to school on Monday 5^th October by the front gate, before 9am.  Unfortunately we are unable to store any bags before the collection date. The more we give, the more money is raised for our school. Further details on what can be included is held on the Bag2School website.

Diary Dates – Term 1