Dear Parents and Carers,

We have made it to the end of the penultimate week of the term.  It may not look anything like the way we hoped and prayed it would.  But there have been many positives and I have been extremely impressed with the support and positive feedback we have received from the school community.  Thank you for all your positive feedback which I have passed onto the teachers.  I would also like to congratulate the wonderful pupils who have positively engaged in the learning.  I have been able to join some of the sessions and it has been wonderful to see the positive interactions and the children engaged in some great learning.  I particularly enjoyed Robins' obstacle course which made me laugh out loud!

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a huge, heartfelt thank you to the teaching and non-teaching staff at Longparish who have gone over and beyond to provide the best for our children.  They quickly grasped the needs of the situation when we closed the 'bubble' and then had to make the difficult decision to close the school.  Within a matter of hours, we had outlined our online provision and they were ready to lead the learning at 9:00am the following morning.  The administration was extremely efficiently managed by Mrs Leach in the school office, Mrs Moon updated the website and additional remote LSA support was put in place. 

 Arrangements for next week

 Unfortunately, a member of my family tested positive for Covid-19 this week and I now need to self-isolate until the end of term.  I am beyond disappointed about this but please rest assured that I am in regular, on-going contact with the staff using email, WhatsApp and Teams meetings to guide and offer support as we look towards finishing for the Summer next week.

 Following the updated government guidance, I have consulted with other schools in the area and we are united in feeling that we will keep the current 'bubble' arrangements in place until the end of term.  There has been a huge surge in cases and we are keen to do as much as we can to ensure that we limit the number of children/families that have to isolate.  Could we also remind our families to remain socially distant and wear masks again (a change to a previous communication from myself) during drop-off and pick-up from the school site. Thank you for your ongoing support with this.

 We are keen to go ahead with the bake-off and would like to request that children bring their entries to the front entrance where they will be directed to the music room for the cakes to be laid out and judged.  Winners will be announced during Worship on Wednesday morning which I will lead remotely.  Thank you to FoLS and to the staff at school for their management of this in my absence.

 We will be recording the KS 2 performance which we will share with you next week.  Please look out for further communication about this.  Sports day is going ahead in bubbles on Tuesday as planned as well as the Summer Party activities on Wednesday afternoon, also in bubbles.

 School reports

Staff have been beavering away in the background gathering assessment data ready to report to you all next week.  Should you have any questions or queries following the sharing of the reports, please drop us a line using the school email address and the classteacher will call you back before the end of term

 Kindest Regards 

Nicky White 

Headteacher 

16th July 2021