Message from Ms Gray, Friday 12 February 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

I know that all days are likely to merge into one at the moment if you are at home and so I would like to remind you that next week is half term. Therefore, for children working from home, there will be no new work from the teachers next week and school will not be calling home or carrying out Zoom meetings. Packs will be available from Monday 22 February and Zoom meetings and daily briefings for each class will be available on the school’s website as usual. For children at school, school will re-open on Monday 22 February as usual.

I know that home schooling can be incredibly challenging and it is so impressive to see how amazingly well so many parents and carers have managed over the past 6 weeks. For those of you who have been able to join us for Zooms and who have collected work every week from school and helped your children to understand it, thank you so much. Your hard work and diligence will make it easier for us to begin whole class teaching again.

I think that half term is a time for a break for your and for your children. As days get longer and the weather improves (hopefully), please try to get out for exercise with your children and take a look out for signs that Spring is on its way, with plants starting to grow and trees starting come back to life. Scientific research shows that going out for a walk and looking around at the sky and nature really does help us to feel better.

I do not have any further information about when schools will re-open: throughout the whole of the last year, I have not been given any information at all about anything related to education before the rest of the nation and so I will not find out what the government plans before they make an announcement. However, I am personally optimistic that schools will re-open on March 8, especially if the R rate continues to decline. The latest information from Public Health Sheffield on February 8 is that the R rate is now between 0.8 and 1; rates of people testing positive are continuing to fall and around 200 out of every 100,000 people are now testing positive. There is still a long way to go but the lower the R rate, the quicker the spread of the virus decreases and becomes contained.

My thanks go out as well to the amazing staff at Netherthorpe who have all done their very best, as always, to give our children, both at home and at school, the very best education possible. I hope that they and you will be able to have a wonderful half-term holiday and will return rested and refreshed on Monday 22 February.

Please take care, stay safe and remember that we are still not able to visit one another’s households and must maintain handwashing, face covering and social distancing in order to be able to come back to school and some form of normality as soon as possible.

Thank you for your continued support

Elizabeth Gray

(Headteacher)