Parent Carer Update Wednesday 29th April 2020

Good morning everyone.

I do hope that you are keeping well and are not too downhearted about the change in the weather this week. We have been fortunate to have such lovely weather since the lockdown started, so this week has been a bit of a shock!

We are welcoming between 5 and 9 children each day at school and are into a regular routine now. It has been lovely to hear from some of you by email and through Google Classroom/Tapestry about how things are going at home. We now have a system in place to contact you all by telephone to make sure that you and the children are OK and to see if there is anything else that we can do to support you. The teachers are all working from home and you will receive a phonecall from them at least every three weeks. Sometimes you may also receive a call from a member of the senior leadership team, to check in with you. Don’t worry if you get a call, it is just that we want to make sure that the school systems are working and offer help wherever we are able to.

As you know, I am in school every day with Mrs Bird. Other staff are also here on a rota basis. This means that if you email admin@st-marys-burnham.essex.sch.uk someone will always get back to you very soon. Please could I remind that if you have a query about Google Classroom you need to contact gcsupport@st-marys-burnham.essex.sch.uk (not the school office) and Mr Anderson or Miss Westley will deal with this. Don’t forget that the teachers are also working with their pupils online and completing other school duties from home, so you will not get an instant reply, but they will try to get back to you the same day if possible.

I also wanted to remind you that, as well as GC and Tapestry, there are some further links to online learning on the school website www.stmarysschoolburnham.org.uk. Just look under the ‘Learning’ menu on the homepage and then you will see the Coronavirus page. I have also been placing these updates on the latest news part of the school website, which appears on the left hand side of the home page.

The following link may be helpful to you as well. As we are all spending so much time online nowadays, the government has provided this guidance about keeping safe online for parents/carers https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-online/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-parents-and-carers-to-keep-children-safe-online

At present, I have no more information than you do about a return to school for all pupils. I will let you know when I do! We are, however, starting to think about ways that we may be able to manage this as safely as possible, taking into account all of the measures that would be required. We want to have some possible strategies prepared, so that once the government expectations are made clear, we will be able to move forwards with this as quickly and safely as possible. For now, this is all that we can do and we will watch and wait, the same as you are dong at home.

Please accept my best wishes to you and the children. I hope that you continue to keep safe and well at home.

Geraldine Denham-Hale

Headteacher