Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
I am pleased to inform you that our OFSTED report for the inspection which happened on September 13th and 14th, has now been published on our website.
I am pleased to report that the school has been judged GOOD in all areas and has an 'Overall Effectiveness' judgement of GOOD.
The report also gives us clear ways to continue to make the school even better.
I would like to thank the whole staff team and the governing body for their hard work for the school.
You can read the report by clicking on the 'Key Information' tab and then, 'OFSTED and Performance Data' I have also saved it in 'Letters Home'
I sit here writing this just before the February half-term and look back upon a busy January and early February. The children have been learning lots in their classes and I have added pictures of some of what they have been up to at the end of this report.
Since the last edition, we have had whole school workshops on personal, social and health education (PSHE). We have also learnt together in assembly about Holocaust Memorial Day in an age-appropriate way. The children also enjoyed their first school disco since before the Coronavirus pandemic!
Mentioning assemblies, we listen to music as we come in to and leave assemblies and have been focusing this month on Baroque composers. We have listened to music such as ‘Winter’ by Vivaldi and Handel’s ‘Messiah’ trying to listen for certain instruments such as trumpets and harpsichords.
As I write this, we are in Children’s Mental Health Week and I wanted to share with you how we educate the children about positive mental health and wellbeing. Poor mental health in children has been of increasing concern since the pandemic and promoting good mental health is something we are very proud of at the school. We have a Mental Health Leader in Miss Moore, who works with children on interventions to support their wellbeing after talking to their parents and were one of the first schools in Cornwall to get a designated NHS Mental Health Professional attached to us to work with children and their parents to support positive mental health.
We talk about the ‘Five Ways of Wellbeing,’ to promote healthy habits of mental health and we have trained and recruited Mental Health Buddies from the pupil body. These ‘buddies’ can listen to other pupils and know which problems need to be shared with adults and which problems can be helped by a friendly ‘Worry Worm,’ a crocheted creature kindly fashioned by one of our grandparents, which can ‘listen’ to children’s worries! We also have worry boxes where children can ask for help or share their worries with staff without having to tell them face to face.
By the time this article reaches you, we will be in March and the evenings will be starting to draw out once more. We have lots of things planned for the month of March including our celebration of Saint Piran’s Day, parents’ evenings, a Year One and Two trip to the beach at Summerleaze to take part in beach clean workshops and a Year Three and Four trip to the county showground at Wadebridge for a Farm and Country day. In late February (long after this has been written) Year Five and Six will be visiting Wildwood at Escott in east Devon to learn about the Anglo-Saxons. I look forward to reporting on much of this in upcoming editions of the Village News.
Michael Watson
Head Teacher
Dear Parents and Carers,
Tonight's news about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has shocked and saddened the nation. I wanted to take the time to outline how we as a school will approach and explain this momentous event to the children.
Firstly, I will be holding an assembly for all children at 9.15am tomorrow morning;. We will cover the death of the monarch, her life and service, and as this is the first instance of death that many children have experienced, we will also look at how the passing of a loved one is not just sad, but the chance to celebrate a great life and remember happy times.
Furthermore, we will collapse the curriculum tomorrow and focus exclusively on the queen. We will look at her life and achievement and what she meant to so many.
Following that there will be a collapse of our curriculum for the following 2 weeks (with the exception of maths and science) which will cover the death and funeral of our queen and the accession of our new king. I will be in contact with you with our topics in the near future,
This is a momentous moment. The queen has been a constant moment in the life of the overwhelming majority of the school's community. We have lost our head of state and have gained a new head of state for the first time in more than 70 years.
We have a duty as a school to convey, explain, comfort and educate our children about what is happening in these historic days that will follow.
My thoughts, as I am sure are yours, are with the family of Queen Elizabeth II, who are having to mourn the death of a dearly beloved relative, whilst standing with the rest of this nation at a time of sadness and change.
Michael Watson
Head Teacher
Please see a reminder of the arrangements for the end of term in addition to what has been published in our newsletters and on Class Dojo:
Firstly, parents of Year 6 children, you are welcome to attend our Leavers Assembly. This will start at 1.30pm. Due to rising Covid-19 case numbers in our area, we are limiting attendance to 2 people per child. Please can I ask that NO children who have been asked to isolate from another school attend (this includes year groups who have been asked to self-isolate - we reserve the right to refuse entry - I apologise if this sounds harsh but the safety of our pupils, staff and other parents is paramount).
Please congregate at the front door, you will be admitted via the side gate. Please wear your mask at all times unless seated. On leaving your seat, please leave the field via the gate and wait at the front of the building for your children to be dismissed,
I apologise that we are able to accommodate 2 people per family of YEAR 6 PUPILS ONLY. I am sorry, we will can only admit parents of children who are in Year 6.
We are finishing early tomorrow with the following finish times:
Summerleaze (both Y5 and Y6) at approximately 2.30pm - once the assembly has finished
Sandymouth and Duckpool at 2.45pm
Crooklets at 2.55pm
Widemouth at 3pm
If you have children in Summerleaze class and in other classes, you will be able to collect your younger children once the assembly has finished. Please allow a few minutes for classes to return to their classrooms and get organised.
I would dearly love to be able to invite all parents to this event but am being deliberately cautious to safeguard the health of the unvaccinated and to prevent all members of the school community from being required to self-isolate during the summer holidays.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you for your support, patience and understanding through what has been an incredibly challenging year for all of us.
Michael
Dear Parent/Carers,
As you are no doubt aware, the prime minister announced to the nation on Monday that there would be no further lifting of Coronavirus restrictions before the 19th July 2021 rather than the anticipated date of 21st June.
We had planned for many of our events to be held in the second half of this term to take advantage of the planned relaxations of Covid 19 retsrictions. The announcement has meant that we have had to take a look at our plans.
I have received confirmation from the Department for Education this afternoon that ‘ all current protective measures (in place in school) remain in place until there is a further announcement on Step Four of the roadmap. Therefore, the following measures will remain in place at the school:
The above measures also have impacted upon the planned events we were going to hold including:
I appreciate that many of you will be disappointed with the decisions I have made. They have been made by following advice and guidance given to me by the Department for Education and Public Health England. My prime concern is to keep all members of the school community as safe as possible from the Coronavirus especially at a time when Delta Variant cases are rising across Britain.
Please can I also remind you that if your child or a member of your household develops symptoms, your child should remain off school until a negative test has been received. This should be a PCR test which can be booked by calling the NHS on 119.
Although many of us have received a first vaccine or both vaccines, please can I ask for your support in these matters as, not all members of the parental body have yet been vaccinated and we have parents, teachers and children with underlying health issues.
I also want to reassure you that as a staff team, we will endeavour to make the last five weeks of this term as normal and fun as possible for the children,
Thank you for your continued support in these strange times,
Yours faithfully
Michael Watson
Head Teacher
Dear Parent/Carer,
The full reopening of school on Monday 8th March 2021
Following the announcement by the prime-minister, Boris Johnson on Monday, I am pleased to confirm that we will be reopening to all pupils on Monday 8th March. I am really excited to see you all and look forward to seeing and hearing busy classrooms once more.
As before, we will endeavour to make school feel as normal a place to be as possible for the children and provide them with a nurturing, fun and safe environment in which to learn, play and develop. The spring term and the coming summer term are a wonderful time in school and we are looking forward to help your children have important experiences which will enable them to flourish academically, socially and emotionally.
Our first priority in terms of ‘catching up’ is to make sure the children feel happy and safe in school and have the chance to play, share and relax with friends. If we can get this right, it will be a firm foundation on which to base academic progress.
From March 8th 2021, school is once again compulsory for all and to reassure you as parents, in the remaining part of this letter, I will outline the safety measures we have in place already as well as additional measures we will implement on the return of all pupils.
Existing Covid-safety measures:
I would like to reassure parents that the levels of infection in the Bude area are very low, but as a precaution and to keep all members of our school community as safe as possible, we will be introducing the following measures from Monday 8th March:
I appreciate that the government announced the return of after-school clubs but due to the rules on bubbles remaining in place, we are not able to offer these for at least the remainder of the spring term.
Whilst the news of a gradual reopening of society is exciting, please can I ask you to bear in mind that we do have members of our school community, children, staff and parents, who have underlying health issues, therefore, please can you abide by all of the government’s Covid-19 social distancing rules out of school as we do not want a rise in cases in the local area. In addition, please remember the guidance surrounding symptoms of the virus:
Please do not send your child in if they, or anyone in your household, has any of the following symptoms:
If anyone in your household does have one of these symptoms, keep your child at home, inform the school and ring 119 to access a Covid test for anyone within the home who is developing these symptoms.
If your child displays symptoms when at school, we will call you and ask you to collect your child as soon as possible
I know that some of these rules are inconvenient, but I would rather return cautiously and as safely as possible and then review the situation again at the beginning of the summer term.
Can I also remind you that at present we still do not have a crossing-patrol officer in place, although members of school staff are around to offer assistance when crossing the road, please can you exercise caution when crossing the A39 at the beginning and end of the day with your children.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support, kind comments and incredible job you have done in supporting your children learn remotely during this difficult period.
I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Watson
Head Teacher
7th January 2021
Dear Parent/Carer,
Remote Learning from Monday 11th January 2021
Following the announcement from the government, school will be remote for most of our pupils until at least the February half-term. We have been using the time this week to prepare for video lessons on our website from Monday. We have moved to video lessons for Years One to Six in response to the government’s new guidelines about what should be set for remote learning, in Reception there will be a mix of videos and activities you can do with your children. This letter sets out how remote learning will work from Monday as well as outlining how you can get help should you need it.
Daily lessons
From Monday, your child’s class teacher will post a daily timetable for your child on their ‘Class Story’ section of Class Dojo. This will be the same as the timetable being followed in school and the content of the lessons will also be the same as those that are being worked on by pupils in school.
The overwhelming majority of the lessons posted will have a video teaching your child the skills that are necessary for them to complete the lesson.
If you follow the timetable that has been posted by the teacher, your child will get feedback in the lesson via Class Dojo as they are working on the same content in class. Assistance can be given by comment in Class Dojo and, if necessary, we can call to assist you and your child.
As we have all five class teachers in school teaching classes, most of the videos will not feature them but will be led by qualified teachers from the Oak National Academy or White Rose Maths. The sequence of learning has been planned by your child’s class teacher and any feedback or assistance given to your child will be from your child’s class teacher or other member of Kilkhampton School staff. The day’s timetable will be uploaded before 9am and all necessary video materials will be in place for learning by 9.30am.
Once your child has completed a written task, take a picture of it and upload it to the portfolio that has been created. If you’re unsure how to do this, just get in contact with your child’s class teacher!
All staff will have access to Class Dojo during school hours and will endeavour to give feedback or assistance as quickly as possible. If you submit school work outside of school hours, there may be a delay in receiving feedback.
Supporting Materials
We are aiming that this approach to remote learning means parents are not having to teach their children daily as the materials provided by us will take most of that role. We also appreciate that printing off materials is expensive and have therefore put together a pack of supporting materials: paper, maths work books/worksheets and other items to help. As soon as these are available, I will be in contact to arrange how these can be acquired.
Issues and Problems
If you are experiencing issues at home with remote learning, please contact us. If your child is stuck or unwilling to complete tasks, please contact your child’s class teacher in the first instance. If there is an issue with the IT, please contact me in the usual manner.
Why engage with remote learning?
The more you and your child/children engage with remote learning, the more they will get out of it. We have carefully planned the learning offered to ensure that completion of and engagement with the work will lessen the chance of a loss of learning and gaps when they return to school.
Safeguarding
Although the school is closed to most of its pupils for face to face learning, we still have a responsibility for the safeguarding of all of our pupils. Monitoring the engagement with Class Dojo is an important part of teachers ensuring their pupils are safe. If your child does not engage with Dojo, we will be adopting a protocol which will involve teachers messaging through Dojo after one day with no contact, with texts and phone calls following thereafter.
In addition to this, I will be aiming to contact every family at least weekly during lockdown to check you are all OK and if you need any assistance. If the school is unable to make contact with parents, we may need to involve the Educational Welfare Officer, Sarah Mallard to ensure we are meeting our safeguarding duties.
Praise and recognition
Children working on line will receive Dojo points, which we will convert to house points. I will also be recording a weekly virtual assembly as we had in the previous lockdown where all children can be involved in celebrating the achievements over the week.
We are aiming to provide for at least four hours remote learning per day but appreciate that different families have different circumstances. If you fall behind, you can still access prior learning and can always contact your teacher for help. If your child requires more, we will provide links where additional online learning activities can be found. These will be shared via Class Dojo and the newsletter.
I appreciate that remote working creates a range of challenges for families and if you are struggling or have questions, please do not sit worrying, get in contact with us and someone will be available to help.
Please remember, you are not alone.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Watson
Head Teacher
Dear Parent/Carer,
It is with the deepest sadness that I write to inform you of the death of Jayne Amos-Yeo. Jayne had been away from school since November due to ill health and, sadly, lost her battle in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
I do not need to tell you that Jayne was an indispensable part of life here at this school and in the wider community. For more than twenty years she has ensured that children have been able to safely cross the A39 at the beginning and end of the school day. Also, she has cleaned and cared for the school site and looked after the children at lunchtimes.
What you might not know is that Jayne gave so much more to the life of the school; she listened to readers, would help out with gardening and with the children, and would even take the left over runner beans at the end of the season to make her legendary runner bean chutney. For all of these reasons and many more too countless to mention, Jayne will be sorely missed.
What will leave a bigger hole in our lives is the person who we have lost and for whom we are grieving. Jayne spread light into all of the lives in this school community. Every morning she would greet every member of staff with a hot drink and a friendly word. She genuinely cared for this school, its staff, its children and the parents and would have done anything to help any of us at any time.
Jayne had an amazing sense of humour and would always bring a smile to any of our faces but she also had a deeply kind and sensitive side. She had an innate sense of when someone, child or adult, was having a difficult day and was always there with a kind word or suggestion.
Personally, as a new head teacher at the school, Jayne took me under her wing from day one and over the years we remained close. Through Jayne, I got to learn about the intricacies of the building, special knacks of how to mend things and much, much more. She was always there to pick me up after a hard day or to make me smile when things seemed challenging. These are my memories and the things that Jayne did for me. Every single person who is or has been a member of this school community over the many years that Jayne served it will have their own memories of this special lady.
My sympathies and condolences naturally turn to Jayne’s husband Pete, her children John, Rob and Vicky and her grandchildren and her mother Hilary. Also, I want to acknowledge that Jayne touched many, many people’s lives in this village and beyond and her colleagues and all of these other people will also be in pain and grieving at this time. The beautiful tributes of flowers that have been laid by the side of the road show how loved Jayne was.
The national lockdown has robbed us of an immediate chance to commemorate Jayne as a school community in person but we are making plans for a physical commemoration of Jayne in the school to remember her permanently. These plans are at an early stage and I will share them with you all in due course. If you have any ideas of how Jayne can have a permanent memorial, please share them with the school so we can consider the widest range of options.
I will, of course, speak to the children in school and via ClassDojo to give them the message in an age appropriate fashion. Some of you may have already mentioned Jayne’s death to the children and if any children have questions about grief, we as a school are happy to speak to children on an individual basis whether they are in school or at home.
I have been in contact with Jayne’s family and they have kindly invited a small delegation to attend her funeral that, due to coronavirus restrictions, obviously has to take place on a much smaller scale than anyone would have liked.
Jayne’s family are requesting family flowers only but are accepting donations to Bowel Cancer UK. Once more details are released by the funeral directors, I will provide more details.
I am so sorry to have brought this news but when I know the day of funeral, maybe you could all join me by lighting a candle that evening to remember the life of our friend and colleague, Jayne Amos-Yeo.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Watson
Head Teacher
4th January 2021
8.20pm
This is a copy of the message I posted to Class Dojo this evening.
Dear Parents,
I am sorry to be messaging you at this time of night. However, the prime minister's announcement came with no prior warning for schools. I am so sorry for the short notice of this message but I have just finished watching the broadcast and just come off of the phone with the chair of governors.
From tomorrow in line with government rules, we will be closed to all pupils APART FROM THE CHILDREN OF KEY WORKERS AND THOSE JUDGED VULNERABLE.
Below, is an interim guide of who we can accept at school tomorrow. Please read the list and could you let me know if you are planning on sending your children in by 8.30am tomorrow morning so I can judge numbers:
VULNERABLE
If your child has an EHC plan
If your child is a 'Child in Care'
If your child has a social worker attached
If your child is classed as a 'Child in Need'
If you and your family are getting support from the Early Help Hub.
KEY WORKERS
I circulated this list last lockdown and will message all parents tomorrow to check I have the most up to date list for all of you. If you think you are a key-worker and would like to send your child in tomorrow, please contact me with your job title and the fact that you would like to send your child back.
During the week, we will continue to refine and add to our list of children for who we can offer places and will be in contact. As you can appreciate, I am doing my best to serve all of you at very short notice.
For those of you whose children will have to remain at home, please accept ,my apologies, I have acted as quickly as I could given the lack of notice from the prime minister.
We will post work on Class Dojo in your normal classes from tomorrow, but please bear with us. It will take us a couple of days to get back into our new normal routine.
I will be in contact with details of what we will be offering all pupils and how we will continue to assist you. I will also be in contact with those of you who qualify for free school meals about how we will continue to provide your children with the lunches to which they are entitled.
I apologise for the length of this message and if I have not yet provided an answer to what you wanted to know. Please bear with me, I will be in further contact tomorrow and through the week,
Stay safe and take care
Michael
Dear Parent/Carer,
Return of Reception, Year One and Year Six Pupils
Further to my letter yesterday, I am writing to the parents and carers of children in the Reception year and in Years One and Six. As you are aware, the prime minister has outlined plans for children to return to school in these year groups, from 1st June at the earliest.
Having received advice from the Department for Education (DfE) and taken part in discussions with the Local Authority, I have drawn up a plan for the partial reopening of the school. This plan has been shared with the governing body and all members of staff. However, the plan is dependent on me knowing how many children will be coming back to school when it partially reopens. Therefore, I am asking for your help. In the next few paragraphs I will try to outline some of the aspects of the plan. I will then send a text to all parents in those year groups and ask you to inform me whether you intend to send your children back to school or will choose to keep them at home for the time being. I understand that this is a deeply personal choice and I want to remind you that parents will not be fined if they choose not to send their children back to school.
In order to try and minimise risk, we will stagger the start and end of the school day and ask that parents do not enter the school building; lunch times will also be staggered. If you need to speak to a teacher, we can ensure that you are called by phone. The Department for Education has also set maximum numbers of children in a class. We will educate children by year group rather than by their usual class; this may mean that your child does not have their normal class teacher, in order to keep class sizes as small as possible.
The National Curriculum will be taught to all pupils with a few constraints. In order to minimise the infection risk, certain PE activities such as cricket and rounders will not be taught and cooking will remain off the curriculum for the time being. Access to toilets and shared areas will be managed to reduce the risk of too many people in one space.
As you are no doubt aware, socially distancing children of primary age is virtually impossible and the government guidelines acknowledge this. In line with the guidance, children in the early years will be taught in small groups within a class with the same adult. They will have their own resources for that group and will go to lunch and play with that group. We will endeavour to keep groups of children two metres from other groups but I have to say that obviously, with children, I cannot guarantee that they will be kept two metres from each other at all times.
In Year Six, children will have their own supply of stationery and will be kept a distance apart. Again, I cannot promise you that I can ensure that children will always be two metres or more from another pupil as, from experience, this is a highly challenging endeavour!
In terms of PPE for staff and children, the DfE have issued clear guidelines that PPE is not suitable for staff for most activities in school, unless dealing with first aid incidents and for other occasions which require close contact. The DfE also state that masks are not suitable to be worn either by teachers or pupils. In the case of pupils, they have scientific guidance that states, due to the nature of children touching their face and other surfaces, masks can prove to be more of a risk when worn by children.
Obviously, our cleaning regime will be enhanced. Surfaces, door handles and some equipment will be wiped down regularly and classrooms will be thoroughly cleaned.
This is a broad guide to the plans that are being developed but, in order to plan further, I will need to have an idea of the numbers who will come back once the school is partially reopened. Therefore, please can you respond to the text message as quickly as possible and, ideally, by the end of this Friday (15th May). As I have said earlier in this letter, this is a deeply personal decision and views in families will differ. I respect whatever decision you make and, if you choose not to send your child back just yet, want to reassure you that work will continue to be set on ClassDojo for your child and that the government has stated that parents will not be fined for keeping their children at home at this time.
I look forward to hearing from you and will have more information when I have the numbers of children who wish to return.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Watson
Head Teacher