Dear parents and carers
I would like to start this week’s letter by informing you that David Roberts, one of our support assistants will be retiring at the end of term. David has worked at Bramhope for over 17 years and initially started as a volunteer. He first assisted with the school orchestra, then after taking early retirement he was employed as a part time teaching assistant. He began providing ICT support in KS2 and then moved to KS1. More recently, David has introduced children in Y1 and Y2 to coding, and powerpoint.
We will be sorry to see David go after being with us for so long, but wish him all the best!
Caroline Judd
Pastoral care has long been a strength of our school and I know that many children and families have benefited from the care and support Mrs Cahill and Mrs Cotton have provided over the last few years. Following Mrs Cotton’s departure last year, we have decided to move to a whole school pastoral model. This means that Mrs Cahill and Mrs Judd will be supporting children from reception to year six, maintaining the valuable relationships they have built with children and parents and sharing expertise between them. Mrs Judd is now in post and both she and Mrs Cahill will be writing to you next week to tell you more about their whole school role and responsibilities.
Remote Learning
As you may be aware, three out of the four schools within our ‘Family of schools’ have recently had to close a ‘Bubble’ of children as a result of having a positive case of Covid 19 in their schools. Although we have been fortunate so far, it is likely that we will also have to deal with this at Bramhope in due course. If this happens, the affected bubble will be asked to self -isolate for up to 14 days and teachers will provide remote learning for the group of children affected. I will be sending you our remote learning plan next week and this will explain how learning will operate (and differ) if an individual, small group or whole Bubble are unable to come into school.
In the meantime, please ensure that you or your child do not come onto the school site if you have any of the following symptoms:
a high temperature – this means you or your child feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature).
a new, continuous cough – this means you or your child are coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual).
a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you or your child has noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.
Please also help us maintain social distance by leaving the playground as soon as possible after drop off and pick up. If you are unable to maintain a 2m distance from other parents, please consider wearing a face mask.
School Photos
All children will be having their school photograph taken on the last day of this half term, Friday 23 October. This will be for individuals and siblings and the photographs will be available to buy online afterwards.
Please make sure that children are dressed in full, correct uniform on the day and that long hair is tied back and off the face. If your child usually comes in their PE kit on that day, we ask that they wear uniform instead. Reception will be the first children to have their photographs on the day for obvious reasons!
