Claire’s Update – Summer Week 10

Summer Week 10
Friday 3rd July 2020

School Creed

This is our school
Let peace dwell here,
Let the room be full of contentment.
Let love abide here.
Love of one another,
Love of mankind,
Love of life itself,
And love of learning*
Let us remember
That as many hands build a house
So many hearts make a school

From the school Creed of a school in Canada

*the original poem has God written here. I have taken the liberty to change this to learning as I feel it reflects our first key belief “We believe the most valuable gift we can give our children is an innate curiosity and love of learning”

Dear Families,

Next week is officially our last week of the academic year. This is usually a time for us to review the year with our classes and community, to pack up old classrooms and prepare the new ones. We would usually involve the children in this however again this will not be possible to do this, this year. Rooms will be tidied up and new ones set up, but this will be done by the teachers and staff during the planned Inset day on Friday 10th July. With the lock down we did not even manage to have the school photo taken, and now with bubbles and social distancing getting all of us together isn’t possible. So, I have decided to share the one we took last year. I am hoping that come September we will get the chance to have taken altogether again.

Reports and Assessment
The kindergarten and class and subject teachers have all been busy writing reports since the Easter Break Although reports are an overview of the whole year, they are also an indication of where the children are on their learning journey at the end of the year. We track children’s progress in many ways. Teachers are constantly reviewing children progress and adapt their teaching through the many different tasks and activities they set to ensure that their development is supported, and they achieve the levels we would expect for their age. In kindergarten progress is tracked using the Early Years Foundation Stage goals, these are statutory, and we are inspected against these. In the Lower School we have our own robust learning steps which are based on a combination of indications from the Steiner-Waldorf Curriculum as outlined in The Task and Content of the Steiner-Waldorf Curriculum by Kevin Avison and Marty Rawson and the Programmes of Study and Attainment Targets from the National Curriculum. These learning steps are designed to allow us to track pupil progress in all areas of the Curriculum, support progression and ensure that children are given an appropriate breadth of experience.

Due to the schools COVID-19 closure we have not been able to complete our usual cycle of termly assessments. In the Lower School teachers tracked progress as much as they could during the lockdown and on return to school have continued to review children’s progress. Any judgements made on levels achieved have been mainly based on the data collected during the Spring Term assessment period for the Lower School and the January EYFS goals review in
Kindergarten.

In line with Covid-19 guidelines and in an attempt to take a greener approach to our paper usage the Reports will all be sent electronically on by Tuesday 7th July. Should you have any questions about your child’s report please do not hesitate to contact either their Kindergarten or Class Teacher. These reports
are for you as parents and we ask that you do not share them directly with your children.

Time to say goodbye

Sadly, we won’t be able to do this in true TLAS style with a celebratory end of term assembly however all classes will be taking time to say goodbye to anyone leaving in their own way. As staff we will have a socially distanced picnic in the back garden as our farewell.

This term we say goodbye to three teachers, Nimrod, Mariam and Lucile. We wish them all the best for the future and thank them for all the hard work and commitment they have put in and shown to the school. We will miss Nimrod’ s enthusiasm and energy particularly in games.
We have been very fortunate to have benefited not only from Mariam’s expertise in mathematics but also her valuable contribution to the running of Little Acorns.
And for Lucile who has been teaching French with us for only a short period, we wish her all the very best with her travels to Brazil.

We say goodbye to Cecilia and Laith in class 5 who are moving onto Secondary school. We also say goodbye to Yeva in class 4 and her sister Coco in class 2, Ludovico in class 2, Vito and Phoenix in Class 3 and Lina, Emily and Sebastien in Class. 1 We wish them all the best in their new homes and school, we will miss you all. In kindergarten we say goodbye to Hassan, Shade, Dune, Maximillian, Amy and Nola. In Kindergarten we also have Akira, Ataru, Audrey, Bea, Damien, Emmett, Jessica, Mya, Milla, Teasel and Zoe moving to Class 1 in September. We will also be welcoming their new Class Teacher Zoe Wiles.

School Plans for September

We now have the Government Guidelines for Schools reopening in September. I will be going through this over the next few days with the SLT, Staff and once we have a plan the Board. I will share this you once we have this in place.

Summer Holiday Extended Week Monday 13th July to Thursday 16th July

We are looking forward to having some of the children back for this extra week.

Summer School Monday 20th July – Friday 31st July

I am very pleased to announce that we now have enough interest for this to go ahead. I will be working closely with the staff who have agreed to help run this over the coming week to finalise a timetable for the 2 weeks. Helga and Melani will be helping with the younger group and Lisa, Stacey and Myrto (Our school music teacher) and Eleanor Greenwood (afterschool drama Teacher) will be helping with the older group. Emma our school yoga teacher will be running some sessions in the mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have agreed to do some cooking and Vic is keen to organise some gardening and craft. For social distancing purposes this will become a new bubble and depending on numbers we may mix the 2 groups.

Marketing

As part of our marketing campaign we will be making a short film for the Website on how we are managing post lockdown. There will be some filming taking place on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday next week to capture how as a school community we are adapting to the new normal and exploring the advantages of our children being able to socially distance in 125 acres of parkland.

Keeping Safe: An important message

It continues to be important that as a community we follow the government guidelines concerning social distancing. As a school we are required by law to observe the Guidelines set by the Department for Education. As I have mentioned before, we have a duty of care to our children, our staff and to ourselves. Although the Government has lifted some restrictions, the 2-metre rule outside still applies. Government Guidelines as of 13th June are:

• You can form a ‘support bubble’ with one other household if you live alone or are a single parent with
  dependent children – in other words, you are in a household where there is only one adult.

You must not:

• gather outdoors in groups of more than six people with people you do not live with (except for limited
  circumstances) or, from 13th June, people that are not in your support bubble (if applicable).
• visit friends or family inside their home or any other indoor place, except for the limited set of
  circumstances set out in law or from 13 June if they are in your support bubble.
• stay away from your home or your support bubble household overnight – including holidays – except for
  in a limited set of circumstances, such as for work purposes.

These will be in force until 4 July after which there will be some very limited changes.

Drop off and Pick up Arrangements

Children can only be dropped off or collected from school by an adult in their family bubble, nannies and childminders and grandparents if they live on their own are part of a family bubble. Single parents can arrange to be part of another family bubble, but this family must always be the same one. I’m sorry if there has been some confusion about this however as a school, we must abide by the Government Guidelines.

Community Webinar Thursday 9th July 8pm

As a community we, the Governors, Staff and myself would like to invite you to an end of year Webinar on Thursday 9th July at 8pm. This will be chance for us to review this somewhat challenging year but also for us to share our plans going forward and of course for you to ask any questions you may have. More information and an invitation to attend this will be sent out early next week.

Wishing you all a restful weekend.

Kind regards

Claire