By now, most of you will have heard the latest updates from the UK Government regarding primary school provision for the final weeks of the summer term.  In case you missed it, here is the key extract from the statement made by Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education:

“We continue to follow the best scientific advice and believe that this cautious, phased return is the most sensible course of action to take. While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer, we continue to work with the sector on the next steps, where we would like schools that have the capacity to bring back more children—in those smaller class sizes—to do so if they are able to before the summer holidays.” Link to full announcement 

What does this mean for the pupils at Georgeham School?

So far, we have been able to provide everything that the Government has asked of us, including provision for key worker children and then opening the school further from the 2nd June to children in Preschool, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.  We’ve created four ‘bubbles’ for children enabling them to be in school for four full days a week, as the DfE requested.  We’ve also implemented new systems around the school to support social distancing and have continued to provide remote learning for the children at home.  I am immensely proud and grateful to the team at Georgeham for their support and commitment to open the school as far as possible whilst continuing to offer support to those still at home.

We said that we would ‘lock’ the status quo for three weeks and then reassess, and that point is now approaching.  We know that some parents with children eligible for school places have not taken them up, some Key Workers families are supporting children at home too, while others need more school provision as their commitments increase.  We are aware that your needs may be changing and we now need to assess how best to organise the school’s provision to suit as many people as we can.

We know that some children are finding it increasingly difficult to motivate themselves to learn remotely and are missing their peers.  Many parents are understandably frustrated that their children are not able to attend school and have been away for so long.  I really do understand how difficult it is and can empathise, having four boys at home myself!

We would therefore like to survey you again to understand if your needs have changed since our last poll.   We are also beginning to think about September and ways in which we can help our children prepare for their return to school, whatever that looks like.  Your feedback will help us assess the options we might consider.

Google Form Survey 2… https://forms.gle/Qn9K4hV5MbUa5AoZ7  

One of our core values is Community and we remain committed to doing our best for all the pupils in our school community.  To this end we need to hear from you about what that looks like, within the constraints under which we are currently operating.  In line with our school values, we wish to be ambitious in our outlook, confident in our decision making, curious about your views, adventurous in our approach and most of all, kind and thoughtful in how we consider the emotional and physical well being of all our families and staff at this time.

As ever, things are changing fast and we would appreciate it if you could respond to this survey over the weekend so that we have chance to properly consider any changes that could be made to the current provision.

Thank you

Julian Thomas