School Blog

School Blog Friday 29th January

Fri 29 Jan 2021 D Caswell

This Week's Headlines:

Return to School: I am sure you have heard that there is some hope that some learners may return to school after half term. This will be a flexible and phased return for the youngest learners initially. Please be assured that we will get our plans out to you as early as possible. We really do appreciate the impact this has on your daily lives. As always we will work with our cluster and local authority for consistency.

Core Business: No one is more excited than the staff to return to our core business of teaching and learning. You may have heard the term "catch up curriculum" in the media, but I want to reassure you that, in time, your child will reach their potential. However, any attempt to rush learning will not only be detrimental to our pupils' wellbeing, but will be ineffective. At Llanrhidian we follow the purposeful process of emerging, developing, securing and finally mastering knowledge and skills. If any part of this process is missed, learning will be hindered. I want to reassure you that we will continue to work with your child to facilitate progress from their starting point. We will continue to value play, creativity, problem solving and personal effectiveness- skills that underpin all learning. We are looking forward to working with you when pupils return, but let us remember that learning is a journey, not a destination.

Live Sessions - Thank you for engaging with our live sessions. These have been very successful across the school and we hope you agree that they have been beneficial for your child. If you have not yet participated, please email your teacher for the consent form.

School Blog Friday 22nd January 2021

Thu 21 Jan 2021 D Caswell

This Week's Headlines

Thank You! - You have been absolutely amazing. We are so grateful for your engagement and understanding. This situation is not what any of us want, and we have to hang on to the fact that this will end at some point. Every week we feel we are getting better at developing online learning, and our first live sessions have gone well. (Although not without the odd expected glitch!) Your children are an absolute joy to see, and it means so much to staff when we can see them responding to the lessons from the Pod Pages. As always, please put your own wellbeing first. Do what you can and what suits your circumstances, and do not compare yourself to other families. Staff are here to support, and as always, if we can help, we will help.

Reading Eggs - We are so glad pupils are enjoying using reading eggs. The staff are setting out the expectations weekly, and reading is definitely a task that can be achieved very effectively at home. We have just introduced reading eggs for our older nursery, and are now looking at the cost of introducing this for our newest school members. Mrs Gosney will keep you informed.

Dragon Schools Clothes Bank - We are continuing to accept good quality clothes and shoes in our clothes bank. The clothes bank is an excellent way for the school to bring in much needed funds and allow you to have a clear out of your wardrobes during this lockdown. Please could you email the school office to arrange an appropriate drop-off time.

Happy Cleaning!

Twitter - We love seeing your achievements, so please keep sending in pictures or tweeting @llanrhidianp so we can re-tweet. Please do not include your child's name but feel free to use your Pod's hashtag eg,#LlanPyrCop or #Llanpengwin etc.

School Blog Friday 15th January

Wed 13 Jan 2021 D Caswell

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have really valued the feedback regarding distance learning this week, we hope you understand that we are doing our very best for every pupil.

As always, we are always looking to improve and evaluate our practice. However, it does concern us that the media has promoted "live lessons" as the gold standard of home teaching. For nearly all primary school pupils, we strongly feel that the benefits of recorded lessons outweigh the benefits of live lessons, which is why we will be continuing in this way. However, we have introduced a weekly live check-in for the pupils. As with all digital learning, we are trialling this out and will no doubt find ways to improve and enhance the sessions. In the mean time, you can find the expectations and a tutorial here. Parental consent is necessary for these sessions, so please contact you teacher if you have not received the consent form.

There is now very high interaction with the website's Pod Pages - thank you. Some parents have asked for more structure, some have asked for less structure, but please remember that you must do what you can. Do not feel pressured by what others are doing, everyone has their own circumstances and I can assure you, we will support the approach that suits you.

We really appreciate that home learning is not easy, so we thought it may be useful to share a few top-tips :-

1. If you can, set a realistic daily routine. This can be devised and agreed with your child.

2. Keep clear morning and bed time routines, this will help with planning the day ahead and ensures everyone has a good night's sleep.

3. Watch the pre-recorded lessons with your child and discuss the expectations for any task that follows. If you are unable to do this during the day, you could watch the evening before so you know what your child will be watching.

3. Keep on top of the emails from the staff - they are there to support you.

4. Contact the staff if you need any resources - stationary, printouts of resources, paper etc. We can put a pack together for you to collect from school. However, please understand that this may not be immediate as teachers do have a heavy workload and are not all on site.

5. Make sure your child is checking in at least once a week through their Pod Page.

6. Contact your staff or myself if you are finding anything difficult. If we can help we will help!

Take Care & Keep Safe,

Mrs Caswell

School Blog Friday 8th January

Fri 08 Jan 2021 D Caswell

Dear Parents and Carers,

By now I am sure you have heard the news that schools will be closed until at least the end of January unless there is a significant reduction in transmission of Covid19. There is a likelihood that this may even be extended until February half term.

Never in my time as head teacher have I been as proud of this school. We all, together, continue to face the challenges of Covid19 with positivity and support for each other.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the staff for providing their online learning. A year ago most of us would have never imagined spending so much time in front of the camera! They have learnt new skills and effectively used last term to prepare the pupils for an eventuality such as this. Instructional videos are replacing the face to face lessons, and opportunities for pupils to check in and ask questions are available on every pod page. Our staff continue to be there for every learner, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Parents have embraced online learning to support our pupils. Thank you - without your engagement this would not work. Many parents and pupils are already sharing what they are doing, and I have to use the word "outstanding" to describe what it being done.

Last term pupils practised using the website to access their lessons in school. This was deliberate to ensure that the transition to home learning would be smoother. As a result, many many more pupils are now engaging imaginatively with the online learning, and we are seeing much higher levels of motivation and self direction. A huge well done to them!

Thank you also to the governors who have supported us all the way since March. They have continued to give us the confidence and direction through these times, and it has been so reassuring to know we have a strong team of leaders behind us.

I also want to reassure you that we do not want to put any family under pressure with home learning. If you need help or support, please ask. If your circumstances are such that you cannot support home learning, don't worry. If you need a device or connectivity, get in touch. If you just need a chat or are concerned about anything at all, give myself or whichever staff you feel comfortable speaking to a call. I will say this again "if we can help - we will help!"

The school continues to be open for some pupils and children of key workers. If you feel you need this provision, and have no other alternatives, please get in touch.

Thank you everyone! Keep safe!