RE: OFSTED INSPECTION

21/11/22

Dear Parent / Carer,

We have been notified today that Norman Pannell will be inspected by Ofsted tomorrow and Wednesday. 

Please find attached two documents from Ofsted to parents, giving information about the inspection, and in particular about how to share your views on the school via Parent View.  I would kindly ask all parents to spend a few minutes, if possible, completing Ofsted's Parent View questionnaire, with similar questions to the ones we have recently sent out following parents evening.

Kind regards,

Rob Simpson

Head Teacher

P.E. Kits - Please send your child in correct kit on P.E. Days

3.2.22

Dear Parents and Carers,

I'd just like to remind everybody of our policy with regard to wearing P.E. kits into school on P.E. days.  We made this change to make things easier for parents, (not having to prepare kits and uniforms), not having to store kits in school that can get lost, and also to maximise the amount of time children are actually participating in lessons, rather than wasting time getting changed.

However, recently we have seen standards of P.E. kit getting worse, with a growing range of non-uniform clothes being worn.  As the children are in these clothes all day, this makes the school look and feel like a non-uniform day, with those who are following the policy feeling that it is unfair.  P.E. day is not non-uniform day.

If you would like your child/children to wear P.E. kit on their classes P.E. day, then the following should be adhered to:

• A plain white t-shirt or a white Norman Pannell t-shirt
• Plain Black Shorts/tracksuit bottoms/leggings - a small logo near the top is okay but no colourful stripes or designs
• The official school hoodie, or alternatively the school jumper/cardigan

If your child does not have the correct kit above, they are to come to school in their school uniform and then change into the clothes they do have just for the lesson. 

We would like to see an immediate and significant improvement to uphold the high standards of school that your child deserves.  If this issue continues then we will have no option but to return to the old routine of children coming to school in their uniforms and changing in school. We really hope we do not have to resort to this as the vast majority of children, parents and staff prefer the P.E. kit rule.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reply to me, speak to me or Mrs. Denton on the yard at the beginning of the day, or speak to your child's class teacher after school when other pupils have left.

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter, helping our school to be the best it can be.

Kind regards,

Rob Simpson

(Head Teacher)

Please click on the letter to find out information about this year's Science Week competition.  Children have brought a 'Design a lab coat' template home, which can also be accessed on the Science Curriculum page by following the link below and scrolling down to 'Science Week':

Click here for the Science Curriculum page

National Lockdown - January 2021 - Letter to Parents and Carers

Dear parents and carers,

Following tonight's televised broadcast by Boris Johnson, it is with great sadness that I am contacting you to confirm the closure of the school to the majority of pupils as we move into another national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Only children of 'critical workers' and 'vulnerable children' will be able to attend school from tomorrow, Tuesday 5th January.  I will explain some important details about those eligible to attend school and remote learning for those at home below.

Firstly, however, I wanted to reassure you that during the Autumn Term, we have been busily preparing for this possibility, either for an individual bubble or for the whole school.  School staff have worked hard to develop remote learning, meaning that we can support your child's education on a daily basis, regardless of whether he/she is at home or in school.  Obviously we all hope that infection rates will reduce and that school can re-open soon; however, we are confident and optimistic about what can be achieved during this latest lockdown period for every child with your help and support.

Our responsibility to your child is the top priority.  The children lost a great deal of priceless learning in school in 2020 and we have been working to catch that time up since September.  What we cannot afford is for the children's learning to stop now, but to work together to ensure the children's learning continues.  We will do everything we can to support this.

Children eligible to attend school: Children of 'critical workers' and 'Vulnerable Children'

Below is the Government's definition of 'Vulnerable Children' and 'Critical Worker':

Vulnerable children and young people include those who:

• are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, including children and young people who have a child in need plan, a child protection plan or who are a looked-after child
• have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
• have been identified as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who could therefore benefit from continued full-time attendance, this might include:
  • children and young people on the edge of receiving support from children’s social care services or in the process of being referred to children’s services
  • adopted children or children on a special guardianship order
  • those at risk of becoming NEET (‘not in employment, education or training’)
  • those living in temporary accommodation
  • those who are young carers
  • those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)
  • care leavers
  • others at the provider and local authority’s discretion including pupils and students who need to attend to receive support or manage risks to their mental health

Critical workers

Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections.

Health and social care

This includes, but is not limited to, doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

Education and childcare

This includes:

• childcare
• support and teaching staff
• social workers
• specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response to deliver this approach

Key public services

This includes:

• those essential to the running of the justice system
• religious staff
• charities and workers delivering key frontline services
• those responsible for the management of the deceased
• journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting

Local and national government

This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of:

• the coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
• essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), including in government agencies and arms length bodies

Food and other necessary goods

This includes those involved in food:

• production
• processing
• distribution
• sale and delivery
• as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

Public safety and national security

This includes:

• police and support staff
• Ministry of Defence civilians
• contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
• fire and rescue service employees (including support staff)
• National Crime Agency staff
• those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas

Transport and border

This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure through which supply chains pass.

Utilities, communication and financial services

This includes:

• staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
• the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
• information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response
• key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services)
• postal services and delivery
• payments providers
• waste disposal sectors

****************************************************************************

If one or more parent of your child is identified as a 'critical worker' or your child is classed as 'vulnerable', he/she can continue to attend school.  We will be open for these children from 9am tomorrow, entering through the front gate from 8:55am.  School will close at 3:15pm, with children again collected from the front pedestrian gate area.  If you are intending to bring your child tomorrow, please complete the online form below by clicking the link so that we can plan ahead for staffing and supervision.

Click here to request a place in school for your child

Remote Learning (Learning at Home)

It is essential that your child's learning is not put on hold for this unknown period of time.  Our teachers and teaching assistants are trained and ready to deliver high quality online learning and have been teaching the children in class before Christmas.  

While some paper-based activities can be provided, I must stress that your child can make limited progress through the provision of paper-based packs.  Children may be able to practice some skills (e.g. handwriting, sums, worksheets) but your child needs to continue to make progress and for that, we are providing dynamic learning through Google Classrooms, our online learning platform.

I will be holding another parent tutorial on Zoom in the coming days to help parents engage with their children online.  Please take this opportunity to see Google Classrooms in use and ask questions (you don't need to show yourself on screen, you can just watch and listen).  I will send out more information on this within the next 2 days.

Electronic digital devices for home learning

We have a number of electronic devices from the DfE to support home learning for households who do not have adequate technology to support their child's learning.  This includes:

• Tablet computers (with Windows 10, Google Chrome, pre-installed software)
• Data only SIM cards that can be used to provide free broadband for devices through mobile phones
• Broadband dongles to provide broadband access where the household does not have it

A number of our children have already successfully used these devices during bubble lockdowns.  If you would benefit from a device to support your child's home learning, please fill out the online form by clicking the link below:

Click here to request a digital device for home learning

Free School Meals

As this is a very sudden announcement, we await further instruction from the Local Authority on distribution of FSM vouchers.  Children in school will continue to receive a free school meal if eligible.  I will update further on this as soon as possible.  Only benefit-based free school meals are eligible, where application has been made through the local authority.

Over the last few days, this has been a very rapidly changing situation and I am sure that more details will emerge.  Once we know the numbers of children in school, we will provide more details of how classroom arrangements, bubble organisation and staffing will work.

Thank you once again for your support during this difficult time.  I am sure you have many questions and will do my very best to answer them if you reply to this email, however, please understand that there is a lot of work to do before tomorrow morning.

Kind regards,

Rob Simpson

(Head Teacher)

Good morning parents,

As mentioned in my newsletter, I will be leading a Zoom meeting for parents from 4:00 - 4:30pm on Monday 16th November to show parents our new remote learning platform, Google Classrooms.  

Some children are already using Google Classrooms at home while isolating, with some excellent results!  Most other children in school have at least seen Google Classrooms in use and practised so that if and when their bubble has to isolate for 2 weeks, your child should be able to get on with meaningful learning.

As a school, we are responsible for ensuring that all children are still engaged in high quality learning even when shielding or isolating at home during the Coronavirus pandemic. It is therefore really important that staff, parents and children feel confident about how to use Google Classrooms.

Here is the invite and link for the meeting today:

Rob Simpson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Mr. Simpson's Google Classroom Zoom Meeting
Time: Nov 16, 2020 04:00 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93756531764?pwd=UVUzamZDeVd1bllNMzE3dk9MUFkydz09

Meeting ID: 937 5653 1764
Passcode: 9463jV

(If the link does not work automatically for you, please copy and paste the Zoom address into your browser (Google, Bing etc.), or enter the Meeting ID and Passcode into your Zoom account if you have one)

I intend to show parents the following:

• How to log on for the first time to Google Classrooms,
• What it looks like for your child,
• How to start a piece of work,
• How to submit work
• How to send a message to the teacher

Mrs. McMaster will also be joining us and will share some of her tips from the teacher point of view, showcasing some of the excellent work from Y2 so far.

This is a completely new aspect of school life (for teachers and parents) so please do not worry or be nervous about joining us.  I promise, I'm also a bit nervous about doing a first ever live Zoom with parents, but we need to make sure that all children are able to access this fantastic resource, which we will be able to use long after the Covid-19 pandemic has been and gone.

I hope to see you on Zoom at 4pm.  I will 'Mute All' so that you don't need to worry about background noise in your house, you can just watch and listen on whatever device you have available.

Kind regards,

Rob