Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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