our school vision: “loving god and loving our neighbour”
TRANSCRIPT
St Giles’ C of E (A) Infant School
Newsletter - Friday 20th November, 2020
Our school vision: “Loving God and loving our neighbour”
This half term’s Christian value is ‘Forgiveness’ – have you shown forgiveness this week? Have you needed to be forgiven?
Our British value for this week is ‘Individual Liberty’ – I can choose to keep active on my own or as part of a team, through a
hobby or my daily routines.
Dear Parents,
Thank you to those parents who virtually attended our workshop on Monday evening
and thank you for the positive feedback we have received from a number of you. The
slides are now available on our website for your attention. Please do contact us if you
have any further queries regarding our RSE teaching and learning.
https://www.stgiles.surrey.sch.uk/jigsaw/
Whilst on the subject of the website, I do hope you have had a chance to view our
virtual tour of the school - well done to all of our children!
Anti Bullying week
This week the children have been celebrating Anti-Bullying Week 2020: United Against
bullying.
We started the week with Odd Sock Day. It was lovely to see so many of the children
celebrating their differences by wearing odd socks!
We have been incorporating anti-bullying into our lessons across the curriculum this
week.
Mrs Tuttle and Mrs Baker staged a conflict in the classroom... Mrs Tuttle knocked
down Mrs Baker’s magnatile tower which shocked the children but led to a wonderful
discussion about how to resolve a situation like this.
Year 1 have been sharing their ideas about what bullying is:
Miss Board also demonstrated an activity about saying sorry using a crumpled piece of
paper. When someone has been unkind they can make a person feel like a crumpled
piece of paper. When they say sorry, we may be able to unfold the paper but we can’t
entirely smooth it out. This is a simple way to show a child that bullies another, that
saying sorry after they’ve been mean doesn’t heal the scars that may stay with that
person forever. It is important to be mindful with our words and to use our influence
to build people up instead of crumpling their hearts.
In Year 2, the children learnt that we need to unite together against bullying. We
discussed how each one of us is a piece to the puzzle and we can make choices to
unite against bullying. We also learnt about the different roles that can occur when
bullying takes place. The children understood it is important to be a ‘defender’ and
stand up for someone being bullied.
We have also been encouraging a lot of paired work this week and putting an
emphasis on working together.
Roof Works
This week has seen the completion of our lovely new roof. I am sure you agree it looks
amazing and it is great to have full use of the playground again!
Thank you for your patience and understanding over the last few months and we can
now all enjoy looking at the school without the scaffolding!
The School Governors now have the challenge of raising the mandatory 10% the
school has to contribute, approx. £25,000, through fundraising and donations. The
governors can be contacted via email on [email protected] if you would
like to help or for further information.
Epsom and Ewell Foodbank
Many thanks to everyone who brought in Harvest gifts this year, which we passed
onto Epsom and Ewell Foodbank; it was an amazing contribution and much
appreciated. We are very much hoping to continue donating to the food bank each
half term to help those families who are in need of support, especially in these
challenging times. If you are able to contribute any items such as dried foods, tins,
household goods (washing powder etc.) and toiletries (shower gels etc.), we will be
collecting on Wednesday 9th December. Please bring any goods in with your child.
Many thanks for your continued support and generosity.
Operation Christmas Child
Each year we like to support a particular charity at Christmas. This year we are
supporting the ‘Operation Christmas Child’ run by the Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian
international relief organisation. Their mission is to provide local partners around the
world with shoeboxes filled with small toys, hygiene items, and school supplies as a
means of reaching out to children in their own communities with the Good News of
Jesus Christ. They will ship these simple gifts outside the United Kingdom to children
affected by war, poverty, natural disaster, famine, and disease.
The national collection week for shoeboxes is 5-14 December. If you would like to
contribute to this worthy cause, we will be accepting boxes on Monday 7th December.
Please bring the boxes with your child so we can quarantine them ready to be
delivered later in the week.
For information on how and what to pack inside please look at the link below and/or
look at their Facebook page ‘Operation Christmas Child UK’.
https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child
Any queries or questions please email Mrs Tuttle using [email protected]
**Note to Rabbits class from Mrs Angus** – this is very exciting news that we are
supporting this charity. It is one of the charities that we were looking at on Monday in
our RE lesson. Please share with your parents what we learned about charities!
Please support Operation Christmas child if you can!
St Giles’ Stars
Well done everyone who received a certificate this week – what fantastic behaviour
for learning!
Mathematician of
the week
Star of the Week Values certificate
Owls Annabelle Honey Aodhan
Squirrels Marianna Ashwin Isla
Rabbits Keegan Leo Eiqaan
Warm coats!
The current DFE guidance advises schools to keep doors and windows open as much
as possible. We also use our outdoor provision as much as we can. It is getting colder
anyway, so please can you ensure that the children always have a warm coat in school
– there are a number of children who are coming into school without suitable outdoor
clothing. Coats should preferably be dark coloured such as navy blue or black,
however, it is more important that they have a coat in school, so if you only have a
different coloured one, then that is fine.
Ollee – a resource for parents with children aged 8-11
This may be of interest to parents who have older children in KS2.
Ollee is a digital friend for children aged 8-11, created by Parent Zone and funded by
BBC Children in Need’s A Million & Me initiative, which aims to make a difference to
children’s emotional wellbeing.
It’s designed to help children reflect on how they feel and to process their experiences
with the support and help of their parents and carers – and it does this by offering
them advice about a range of subjects: school, family, friends, their body, the internet
and the world.
For each of these subjects, children can choose an emotion that matches how they
feel about it: happy, angry, sad, confused, frustrated, stressed or worried.
Next, they can choose from a list of topics – for instance, a child who was worried
about school might be able to select ‘I haven’t done my homework’ as the cause of
their worry. Finally, they’ll see a page of advice about the topic, presented in child-
friendly bite-sized chunks they can read then or save for later.
You can more information and download the Ollee app here:
https://parentzone.org.uk/Ollee
Provision of school places in the event of a full closure
At the moment, schools remain open and I am not aware of any changes to this from
the DFE. However we do need to be prepared in case we are asked to close. As a
reminder, we will take vulnerable children first and if we have space, we will open for
key worker children but this is dependent on the number of spaces we have and on
staffing numbers – it is not guaranteed that we will be able to offer everyone a key
worker space. Places will be on a full time basis only this time – there will be no part
time spaces and children will be expected to be in school every day.
I would ask for parents’ understanding with this and for us not to be compared with
what other schools may be offering. Each school has different circumstances and this
applies to the offering of key worker spaces too.
Current arrangements
In view of the current lockdown, please could we remind you to adhere to the
following:
Parents/carers to wear a face covering at drop off and pick up times
Please stand next to a ‘Teddy bear’ marker by the fence when you are waiting at
drop off and pick up times. This will support social distancing measures
There should only be one adult per child dropping off and picking up
Please ‘drop and go’ and do not stand on the playground. Please keep moving
and exit the green gate as swiftly as possible. Similarly, please do not
congregate on Dene Road once you are through the green gate
If you are running late and will not be on time for your child’s bubble group to go into
school, please telephone ahead and let us know. We are not able to let children in
once their Bubble group has gone into school. Please support the staff members who
are on the gate with this. Parents will need to wait until after the Bubble groups have
come into school (9am). We appreciate that this can be frustrating, but it is part of
our Risk Assessment which has been agreed by the governors and local authority.
Please do adhere to this – thank you.
Please see updated government guidance for parents and carers
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-
know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-
covid-19-outbreak/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-
providers-schools-and-colleges-in-the-autumn-term
INSET days
As everything is still very uncertain, and because our staff training arrangements for
this academic year have had to change, the final two INSET days for this year will be
20th and 21st July 2021.
We will finish for the academic year on Monday 19th July 2021.
Twelve Fifteen School Lunch Survey
As part of our food development and menu planning, our catering provider ‘Twelve
Fifteen’, would like to gain feedback regarding the current menu offer. Please could
parents complete this short survey by the end of today:
Twelve15 School Lunch Survey.
Protocols for correspondence
All confidential information only which includes any safeguarding concerns, changes
in family circumstances etc. should be sent directly to [email protected]
All general enquiries/information such as absence, lost uniforms, pick ups, dietary
requests, information regarding changes in medicines and/or medical requests and
PTA events or inquiries should be sent to [email protected]
All learning or academic enquiries e.g. homework or classroom activities etc. should
go to the relevant class emails:
As there is usually only one member of the Admin team in the office at any one time
please leave a message on the answerphone if you don’t get an immediate reply, as
these messages will get picked up and actioned. There is usually a member of the
Admin team at the gate during drop off and pick up so if you have any urgent or last
minute change to pick up arrangements please let us know then. If you are
requesting a meeting with Mrs Angus, please email [email protected] in
the first instance.
We would also remind parents that if you have concerns about your child that you talk
to the class teacher in the first instance before contacting Mrs Angus.
Attendance ‘Heroes’!
Our whole school attendance is currently at 97.7% - above our target, well done
everyone!
Whilst we fully understand that the situation for all schools is different at the moment,
we are obviously still encouraging children to be in school as much as they can, as
school is mandatory at this current time. At St Giles’ we are continuing with our
Attendance ‘Hero’ system which is as follows:
Here
Everyday
Ready
On time
This is used to encourage all children to be in school (except if they are unwell or there
is a need for families to isolate – we understand this). Please support us with us by not
requesting Special Leave of Absences as I will not be authorising any requests unless
the request meets the exceptional circumstances criteria.
What to do if your child shows any COVID-19 symptoms
If your child is displaying any of the COVID-19 symptoms (they do not need to have all
three symptoms), they need to be at home as per government guidelines.
The symptoms are:
A high temperature
A new, persistent cough
A loss of taste or smell
The link to the latest ‘stay at home’ guidance for parents is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-
at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection
We are aware that there are some difficulties obtaining tests. This has been raised
with government officials and they are working as hard as they can to rectify the
situation. We realise this is frustrating, but we would ask for your understanding with
school if you are asked to get a test done for your child as we are following the
guidance and all schools are expected to follow the same procedures to keep everyone
as safe as we can.
We know that children always get colds and runny noses at this time of year – the key
difference with the Coronavirus are the three symptoms listed above, but individuals
do not have to have all three symptoms to be COVID positive. This is why the testing
process is so important. If your child has a cold, but DOES NOT have a temperature (or
any of the other symptoms) and they are well in themselves, then they can be in
school.
We will be continuing to carry out spot checks on the children’s temperatures and if
your child has a temperature (or displays any of the other COVID-19 symptoms) then
you will be called and asked to collect your child from school and to book a test.
Please make sure you read this letter to parents/carers from the Department for
Health and Social Care about when to book a test:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-parents-and-guardians-
when-you-should-book-a-coronavirus-test-for-your-child/letter-to-parents-and-
guardians-when-you-should-book-a-coronavirus-test-for-your-child
If there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 in our setting
If school has a confirmed case, we will be guided by Public Health England regarding
the action that we need to take – please note any decisions will not be taken without
advice from PHE. Each school’s circumstances are different and therefore the action
we are told to take may differ from other schools.
Please also note that we are unable to disclose any information about individuals who
may have had tests, whether the results are negative or positive – this is confidential
information and would be a breach of an individual’s medical records if disclosed. We
would ask parents to respect this – thank you.
School pick up
Please do ensure that you continue to let us know if someone other than the parent is
picking up your child. We need to know any changes even if the person who is
picking up is known to the school. If we have not been told, then the staff will not be
able to release the child until we have telephoned and spoken to the parent to get
clarification and authorisation that the person at school has been asked by you to pick
up your child.
This is part of our usual safeguarding procedures so to avoid unnecessary delay, please
ensure that you have emailed the office team prior to pick up time regarding any
changes.
Have a lovely weekend everyone – see you next week!
Best wishes,
Mrs Angus
Headteacher
Autumn term dates for the Diary – please note meetings and workshops for parents
are being held virtually at the moment. You will be given log in details for these
nearer the time.
Please note any changes are in Red – thank you for your understanding if we need to
change dates at this current time.
Friday 11th December – We will now be watching a ‘Vimeo’ video version of the
pantomime. We will make the virtual panto as exciting as we can with snacks and
hopefully a big screen! Details nearer the time. This will also be Save the Children’s
Christmas Jumper Day!
Week of 14th December – each class will take part in their own class Nativity. We will
then record the ‘performance’ and this will be uploaded onto Google classroom for
parents to view. Further details to follow.
Wednesday 16th December – class virtual Christmas Services
Year 2 - 9.15am
Year 1 – 10am
EYFS – 11am
Thursday 17th December – Christmas Lunch
Friday 18th December – End of term
Year 2 finish at 1pm
Year 1 finish at 1.10pm
EYFS finish at 1.20pm
Spring term 2021 will begin on Monday 4th January