Dear Parents,
Although there are a lot of gloomy headlines at the moment, I hope that this email finds you all well.
Reflecting on the positives of lockdown, below is an account of some possible consequences for children going through this different educational experience. The full account is attached.
"What if they (our children) have more empathy, they enjoy family connection, they can be more creative and enjoy the simple things? What if this generation are the ones to learn to cook and value eating together as a family? What if they learn to just be, are more resilient, are more content? What if among these children, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a simpler life to truly learn what really matters in this life? What if they are ahead?"
As everyone is aware, the Government's advice is to 'stay at home' if you can. The LEA sent out a letter (attached again) reiterating that 'schools have been asked to reduce the number of pupils in attendance while recognising that not being in school brings other challenges for children and increases the complexity of family life'. There is a delicate balance between the quality of home learning that can be offered when there are high numbers of school.
Government advice for vulnerable children and children of critical workers are as follows:
'Limiting attendance at schools and colleges helps to support the reduction in the overall number of social contacts in our communities, which is a vital intervention in the context of current very high transmission rates. Schools should continue to encourage attendance of those vulnerable children and children of critical workers who need to be in school. We know this means that attendance levels vary from school to school, but aggregate school attendance is much lower than full attendance, at around only 5% in secondary schools and 20% in primary schools at present, and so we will see the desired reduction in social contacts.'
The Government's criteria for critical workers is on our website at https://braywood-ce.eschools.co.uk/web/coping_with_a_pandemic/535412
We have just had two laptops donated to school by Angela Wilson (a previous teacher at Braywood). If you are able to donate any ipads or laptops to school for other families who may be struggling do please contact the office.
There is a leaflet (attached) outlining an ICT camp for the half term if anyone is interested.
On a final note, I would ask parents to be mindful of the significant challenges all schools are facing at present including staffing. Like yourself, every staff member is juggling a variety of demands. With this in mind, parents should only be sending messages to teachers regarding the education of their child, any messages which address school policy and procedures should be addressed to the office for my attention. I would also be grateful if emails can be sent within school-working hours of 9am to 5pm because I feel that my staff need to have time during the day to switch off from their teaching role.
Let’s hope that we all continue to stay safe.
Kind regards
Susan Calvert