Please find a link to the letter outlining arrangements in school for September 2021 sent out to parents below.

September 2021 Return to School

Today, we managed to gather on the field for our End of Year assembly.  Children were presented for the greatest achievement and most progress made in each year group before we said goodbye to our Year 6 children.  We wish them all the best as they move on to secondary school.

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Durham Music joined forces with Make Music Day UK again this year. The ‘Big Play’ is all about celebrating everyday music making – in the classroom, playground, practice room, at home, live or virtually! In 2019, nearly 18,000 young people from Durham and Darlington made music for Make Music Day and this year has been amazing too.  

All of Year 4 took part and recorded three of their favourite songs that they have been learning on the recorder all year. Robyn from year 4 and Anna, Benny and Eilidh from Year 6 also recorded their favourite violin pieces to share, joining schools from all over the world in the first ever Make Music Day Global Big Sing! 

Please look out for these over the next week, as we will be posting them on the school website too. 

KS2 were invited to take part in a mini-Olympic carousel at Parkside Academy. The children took part in throwing, running and jumping events. The event was brilliantly run by the Year 9 sports leaders and Mrs Inglis, a huge thank you to them. The children thoroughly enjoyed being at their first event outside of school this year!

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This week swimming lessons will resume for Year 5 and 6 children. Year 6 children will swim on Wednesday afternoons (apart from Wednesday 16th June when they will swim in the morning so that they are able to attend the Mini-Olympics afternoon at Parkside Academy) and Year 5 children will swim on Friday mornings. Please ensure that your child comes to school on those days with their swimming kit including a swimming hat.

Before half term, our Nursery and Reception children took part in a sponsored Welly Walk to raise funds to support resources to enhance provision across the Early Years. The children (and parents!) have completely amazed us by raising a massive £1127.50! A huge thank you to everyone who helped with sponsorship and walked in their wellies!

Captain Tom Moore was a former British Army officer known for his efforts to raise money for the NHS in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The 30^th April would have seen Captain Tom celebrate his 101^st birthday therefore in school we wanted to do something in recognition for what he did for the NHS and to celebrate his life.  Each class were given a Challenge 100 task to complete throughout the day which encouraged them to work together and use their Maths skills. Have a look on the class pages to see if what some of the classes did.

After school clubs returned this week, with Year 2 taking part in multi skills and Year 3 taking part in archery. The children thoroughly enjoyed the clubs with some children winning medals and chocolate eggs as prizes!

To celebrate World Book Day, the teachers have decided to read a snippet from their favourite books.  However, they are cleverly disguised with a mask!  Can you work out who is who?

After consultation with staff and following a review of our school risk assessment, we have concluded that due to insufficient staffing levels, we have taken the decision that school will only be open to the children of critical workers (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision ) and vulnerable children from tomorrow, Tuesday 5th January, with all other pupils remaining at home and moving to remote learning. We hope that this will only be a temporary measure and that all children will be able to return from Monday 11^th January (a decision on this will be taken on Friday 8^th January), however the situation will be under constant review and we will keep you informed.

For critical worker children, we will use the list we had during the first lockdown unless we are informed otherwise.  In order to keep children as safe as possible, we would ask that critical worker children only attend school on the days which parents are required to work. If you have not previously accessed critical worker provision and need to access it now, please inform the school via email by 4pm today so that we can plan for each year group.  Parents of vulnerable children will be contacted directly by us today.  We will be maintaining all current class bubble arrangements and will be operating the usual staggered start and end times.  Breakfast club and after school club will operate as normal for any vulnerable or critical worker children who require it with the same costs and timings.

We fully appreciate that this decision may cause complications for some families and please be assured that we are responding as best as we can to the rapidly changing and challenging circumstances and that safeguarding the health and welfare of pupils, staff and the whole school community is our top priority.

To continue pupils learning during this period, work will be assigned to pupils in Reception to Year 6 via Seesaw. Pupils will be expected to complete the work at home on a daily basis. Vulnerable and critical worker children will complete their work in school. Families we have identified as requiring technical support to carry out remote learning will be contacted by tomorrow morning.

We are grateful for your support and understanding during what is a difficult and uncertain time for everyone and we will keep you informed of any updates or changes as and when they happen.