Message from Ms Gray, Wednesday 20th January

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope that you are all well and are managing at this truly difficult time. I have heard from some of you recently telling me about what a difficult balancing act  it is for you to manage children at home, especially if you have several children of differing ages and are trying to manage a job as well. We have loaned out laptops to every family who has requested one. If you are in need of a laptop and haven't been loaned at least one, please contact school as soon as possible and we will try to help.

We have started to use more live lessons to teach whole class or smaller groups. If you can attend these, please do as they are aimed at teaching key aspects of Reading, Writing and Maths that are more challenging for children to learn independently. Today we had almost all of Year 5 and Year 6 children joining the live lessons, which is great. Let's see if we can have even more children joining in tomorrow. After saying that, if you are finding it really challenging to attend these meetings, possibly because you have several children and/or are trying to work from home as well, please do not worry - just contact your teachers or me and we will try to help. Equally, if you have already got a timetable that works for you and your family, keep to it. We understand that every family's circumstances are going to be a bit different.

One of the most important things that you can do is to try to keep routines the same: early bedtimes; limited on screen time, especially as on screen learning has increased; normal getting up times in the morning; normal mealtimes without lots of snacks; drink lots of water; and take part in daily exercise outside. Children, and many adults, like routine and feel safest when they know what is coming next. If children are not getting enough exercise, they will probably find it harder to get to sleep, which can mean that they stay up later, which means they do not want toget up in the morning.

If your child is in receipt of free school meals, a voucher will be sent to you from Edenred, as during the lockdown last year: keep checking your bin, trash and spam folders if you do not receive an email in the next few days. Please follow the instructions in the email to redeem the voucher and, if you have any difficulty, please contact school. Due to the number of vouchers being issued across the country, it may take a little while for the voucher to arrive. If you have not received an email from Edenred by the start of next week (Monday 25 January) please contact school. If your child is not in receipt of free school meals and you think that s/he may be eligible, please contact school. Please note: if your child is attending school at this time, you will NOT be able to have a voucher.

I have started to record a story for KS2 children to watch/listen to: it is in the tab at the top of the page, entitled Ms Gray's Stories. Over the next few weeks, I will record some stories for younger children as well. Ms Elliott is also making some brilliant assemblies for children to watch and respond to - please make sure that your child watches them and completes the task. It would be great if you can then take a screenshot of the work and send it to: elliottm@netherthorpe.sheffield.sch.uk . Ms Elliott will then show some of the pictures in her next assembly.

Finally, I am attaching the latest information about Covid-19 from Greg Fell, the Director of Public Health in Sheffield. Personally, I find this information much more helpful than some of the news on the television and social media. Please watch it for advice, information and guidance.