Newsletters

Dear Parents and Carers,

We very much look forward to welcoming all children back on Monday. I would like to say a huge well done to the many parents, pupils and staff who have been trying to juggle home schooling with every other aspect of life. We really appreciate your support throughout the last year and very much hope that we are now on course for a brighter future.  

As you are aware, we have a provisional plan in place for the rest of the school year and the focus for next week will be pupil well-being, support, and team building. If you have not yet chatted with your child about next week and discussed any questions or anxieties they may have, you may find the NSPCC returning to school information useful, click HERE.

Working together

Our position in school is that we continue to work very hard to keep Covid cases to a minimum. For example, we have strict hygiene measures in place, we ensure all rooms are well-ventilated, we limit the sharing of resources and we do not mix bubbles. However, we can only control what happens between 8:40am and 3:30pm and therefore need the full support of parents before, during and after the school day.

In view of how transmissible the current variant of COVID-19 is none of us can afford to be complacent about the mitigating measures we ask you to take.

From Monday, 308 children and their parents will be accessing our school site. I am sure that parents and pupils will be very pleased to see each other but safety of staff, pupils and parents is our priority, and we cannot police the whole site. We are therefore reliant on every parent acting responsibly and in the best interests of others.

Please can I ask that every parent supports us by:

• Sticking to the rules set by the government and resisting the temptation to bend or break them, even if it feels safe for you to do so.
• Following the staggered start and end of the day procedures for the time being.
• Ensuring that you arrive and leave our site promptly at drop-off and pick-up (timings below).
• Ensuring that you do not allow your child to stay and play together with other children at the end of the school day, however tempting it is.
• Ensuring that you do not arrange play dates before 29 March at the earliest.
• Limiting the time that you spend talking to others at drop-off and pick-up.
• Always wearing a face mask when dropping off and picking up if you cannot maintain social distancing of 2m.
• Ensuring that wherever possible, you follow the one-way system on school paths to avoid congestion.
• Ensuring that wherever possible, you walk on the left of school paths to avoid congestion.
• Remaining vigilant about the symptoms of coronavirus and ensuring that the whole household self-isolates immediately if any member of your household displays symptoms.
• Not delaying testing if your child or any household member is displaying any symptoms of coronavirus.
• Continuing to reinforce key messages at home, including ‘Hands - Face - Space’, ‘Catch it, bin it, kill it’, and ensuring your child knows how to cough or sneeze into the crook of their elbow.
• Continuing to ensure your child washes their hands regularly and thoroughly.
• Ensuring your child brings their school bag, and nothing else, to school each day. Please  remember that children who have PE should come in their kit on the day.

Please contact me directly if you require any clarification about the mitigating measures we have asked parents to take.

Remote learning

From Monday, teachers will be focusing their efforts on face-to-face teaching for all pupils.

In the event of a pupil needing to self- isolate or a bubble needing to close, our school will provide the following remote learning:

Day one of isolation:

If children are well enough, they should work from home. Parents can access the home learning page of our school website where they will find age-appropriate resources such as Times Table Rockstars, Mathletics and Spelling grids as well as the ‘Extras’ folder for challenge work. Children should work in their home learning books.

Day two onwards, school will:

Provide daily work so that pupils can, wherever possible, follow their usual timetable. This will be via Teams if a whole bubble has closed. Teachers will be explicit about what should be submitted, which work will be assessed and how feedback will be provided.

If you are unsure what your child should be doing whilst they are self -isolating, please contact your child’s class teacher during the first instance.

Drop off and pick -up times - a reminder

All children can be dropped off at any time between 8:40am and 9:00am. Please use the appropriate gate for reception, KS1 and KS2.

Pick up timings are as follows:

Reception

Arrive from 3:00pm at Reception gate (field side). Please maintain a 2m distance whilst waiting. Enter the outdoor area and collect your child from their classroom entrance. Please leave promptly via the reception gate (nearest the playground stage).

Years One and Two

Enter via KS1 gate (nearest the school kitchen). Please collect your child from the Y1/2 entrance and leave promptly. Please maintain a 2m distance whilst waiting and leave via the KS1 gate (nearest the staff car park).

1/2H 3:05pm

1/2F 3:10pm

1/2G 3:15pm

Years Three - Six

Enter via KS2 gate (front of school). Please collect your child from KS2 playground and leave promptly. Please maintain a 2m distance whilst waiting and leave  taking the route nearest the medical centre.

3/4H 3:10pm

3/4HL 3:15pm

4/5S 3:20pm

5/6L and 5/6M 3:25pm Children in Y5 or Y6 are also free to walk home by themselves if parents have informed their child’s class teacher of this arrangement.

On Friday 12^th, 19^th and 26^th March only, please pick up at the following times:

RB 1:00pm

RW 1:05pm

1/2H 1:00pm

1/2F 1:05pm

1/2G 1:10pm

3/4H1:00pm

3/4HL 1:05pm

4/5S1:10pm

5/6 L 1:15pm

5/6M 1:20pm

The Bramhope Buzz’s 10^th Issue and 1^st Birthday!

We will be celebrating 1 year of the Bramhope Buzz, as well as celebrating its 10^th issue.

The theme is Birthdays and the number 10. Can you contribute too?

Here are 10 ways of doing so…

1. Take a photo of your pet and send it in.

2. Bake a cake or do some cooking, take a picture and send it in.

3. Do a science experiment and send a picture in.

4. Do some gardening and tell us about it.

5. Go animal spotting or animal tracking and send us a picture.

6. Do a book review or a poem review.

7. Write a story, poem, or diary entry and send it in.

8. Write about a comic that you like.

9. Draw and write a comic or graphic novel.

10. If your birthday is near the Bramhope Buzz’s, tell us!

11. Can you do your own Top Ten?

Thank you

Mathilda, Maisie and Alice

Buzz Editorial Team

Housepoints!

Throughout this current lockdown we have continued to award house points to learners in class and at home. The children really look forward to me announcing our ‘weekly winners’ in assembly - well done to everyone who has been awarded a house point this term!

The total points for this half term are:

A big well done to Burton!

Art Competition

It is competition time!

• Can you turn a 'Last Supper' into 'Jack's Supper' ?
• Can you turn a Banksy into a Poppsy?
• Can you turn a Picasso into a Picasausageo Dog?

We would like children and staff to get involved in a new Art Competition, being organised by Red Kite. 

We would like you to recreate a famous painting in any way you like. It might include you, a member of your family, your pet, or even  recreated out of food!

Please email your submissions to: harriet.heald@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk by 22 March.

We can choose 4 winners from our school.

The 4 winners will receive a special Zoom call to congratulate them on 30 March, joining the winners from other Red Kite schools, where they can share their winning entries with each other.

Good luck!

Mrs Heald

Finally, it is nine weeks since some of our children have been in school. Please check that any medication we may have for them is still in date. Please also email the office if there are any changes to your child’s medical needs or if there is any new allergy information that we need to be aware of.