Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Comments about remote learning
Thu 28 Jan 2021Thank you very much for all the lovely messages we are receiving about the remote learning that our staff are providing for your children at home. We are delighted with how many of our pupils are engaging well with their learning and look forward to them submitting their work or joining our Google Meets. You are all doing a fantastic job supporting your children learning at home and we appreciate that it is a stressful time for all. Please be reassured that you are doing a great job in difficult circumstances!
If you need to have a reminder or have any questions about our remote learning offer please go to the Remote Learning page in the Key Information, Parents or Children sections of this website where this is in more detail. As always, please give us a call if there is anything you need or even if it is just a little question...we're here for you and your children. Alternatively, if there is something that you are not happy about, please call us directly so we can help to solve the issue as soon as possible.
When you send us your positive messages about your child's learning it would be great if you could also add it to the Parent View page of the Ofsted website please. I have attached the address below. This will enable Ofsted to see your views too.
https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/
Many thanks and stay safe
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FSM vouchers update
Wed 20 Jan 2021Edenred, which is the company issuing the vouchers for benefits-related free school meals have adopted a staggered system for being able to go online and order them. We are in the queue and will have these set up as soon as it is our turn. Please be reassured that we are as frustrated as you are by this but we'll have these vouchers sent to you as soon as possible. Thank you. -
M&S voucher offer
Mon 18 Jan 2021M&S are offering to upgrade the £15 food voucher to £20. Please see the offer attached.
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Stay safe by not socialising with others at home
Fri 15 Jan 2021Please can we remind you all to keep only within your household or small social bubble at home so that we reduce the risk of spreading the virus. We are aware that some have been mixing with other households on evenings and weekends. This puts yourself, your family and our school community as risk of catching Covid. We want to keep our whole school community safe. Thank you for following the advice so we can keep each other safe.
Please watch the video posted on our Twitter page from Wendy Burke who is Director of Public Health in North Tyneside.
Thank you.
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Thank you
Fri 15 Jan 2021Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to send a message to Ofsted praising the remote learning that we are offering our pupils. This means a lot to us as we work very hard to provide the best for every child at our school.
The remote learning we are providing is detailed in the Key Information section of this website, but as always, we are here to answer any questions you have so please just pick up the phone and give us a call if you need anything.
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Children in school clothing update
Thu 14 Jan 2021If your child is in school they may wear their school uniform if you prefer. Alternatively, they may wear sportswear as we are doing active lessons every day too. If they are not wearing their school uniform please make sure that they have a coat and sensible shoes or trainers with them as we still go outside for breaks.
As always, give us a call if you have any questions.
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Update for school lunches and FSM hampers
Wed 13 Jan 2021Following my discussions with the Local Authority Catering Services we are able to provide hot lunches for those in school starting again on Monday 18th January. I am delighted about this, especially as it will be good for our pupils to have a hot meal when the weather outside is so cold.
I am also delighted that following the huge disappointment of the FSM hampers provided over the last two weeks from catering services we are able to use the national voucher scheme again from next week. They will come again to your email address via Edenred who provided the vouchers during lockdown 1 and you can use them to buy the food that you need to feed your children while they are at home.
If your contact details have changed please make sure that you let us know as soon as possible so that you don't miss out on receiving your vouchers. We will be applying for them tomorrow afternoon so I apologise for the short notice. However, I hope that the vouchers will be a better option for you.
As always, please get in touch if you have any further questions. We are here for you.
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Remote learning
Tue 12 Jan 2021Please read the information about our remote learning offer. This can be found in the 'key information' section of our website under the heading of 'Remote Learning' -
Lunches in school and FSM hampers
Tue 12 Jan 2021We are hoping that from next week we are able to offer hot meals again in school. We have to wait for the decision to be made by the Local Authority Catering Service but we have requested this to happen. I will be in touch if we are successful in this.
Many of you who I spoke with on Thursday and Friday know of my frustration at the hampers that were sent to schools last week. These were certainly not what we would have wanted for you. I want to reassure you that I have requested vouchers again if possible and schools are all waiting for the response from the DfE about this. If they cannot provide vouchers then we have requested that the food hampers are improved. I will keep in touch with you once I get the answers to my questions.
As always, if you have any questions please get in touch. We are here for you.
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Letter from the Assistant Director for Education
Mon 11 Jan 2021Letter to Parent/Carers from the Assistant Director for Education 8th January 2021
Dear Parent/Carer
We recognise that it has been a difficult start to the new school term for you and your children. We would always want our children and young people to be in school wherever possible, as we know the long-term impact extended periods of absence can have on emotional, social and academic development. However, the exponential rise in infection rates across the country has led to the closure of schools once again. Our schools will now be closed until February half term, in the first instance. Headteachers have been required to make sweeping organisational changes with very short notice. This is not an easy task and is difficult for all.
We also appreciate the demands of home working and home schooling are incredibly stressful. While we firmly believe our schools are safe places to be it is important that within our communities, we are all playing our part to minimise contacts to protect our NHS and save lives, with the overriding message to stay at home if you can.
Government policy indicates that schools will remain open for critical workers. Our headteachers will work with you to identify who needs to go to school. It may be that headteachers ask for evidence to that effect.
‘schools can ask for simple evidence that the parent in question is a critical worker, such as their work ID badge or pay slip. Parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.’
A school’s unique circumstances within which our schools operate may mean that some will have more pupils attending than others. This is very much the same across the country.
All children and young people working at home will receive a remote learning offer. Our schools are working hard to provide high quality remote learning materials and to minimise lost learning. Again, this may look different in different schools depending upon approaches chosen.
You may have heard the Secretary of State for Education announce further devices will be issued to schools, for those families who struggle to access internet resources easily. This will take time to be fulfilled, as school must wait to be invited to apply for their allocation of devices in order to manage the supply chain.
Schools are also beginning the process of mass testing. This will start with pupils from Year 7 onwards and is a huge undertaking. We would urge you to provide consent for your child to be tested as and when required. This will provide a further element in our battle to reduce the spread of the virus.
We are ever hopeful that we can re-open our schools very soon welcoming back all our children and young people.
Thank you for your continued support in such challenging times.
Yours sincerely
Diane Buckle
Assistant Director for Education
