Happy Friday everyone.

Just a short parent update today as it’s been a very busy week at Colebourne. And sorry it’s a bit late!

Virtual Parent update meeting

I hosted the first virtual parent update meeting on Tuesday over Zoom. We had over 50 parents join this meeting to hear about the current situation. Thank you to all those who attended and for the many kind words about the staff and the home learning provision we have put in place during lockdown.

I hope to be able to host another one before the end of term as I’m sure many of you have lots of questions about how things might be in the future. I’ll keep you posted.

We’ve been preparing for some of our children to return to school next Tuesday. All the staff have been working hard to get the site ready, classrooms sorted and resources prepared as well as preparing the home learning for next week.

Back to school for a few children

Thank you to all those from Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 plus key workers who filled in the questionnaire asking for places. We are welcoming back about 10% of the whole school which has meant that we have been able to effectively accommodate all those who wanted places from the key year groups and allocate them in to small bubbles, helping to increase social distancing where possible.

Please note, there is only very limited space in the bubbles due to staff availability and the small size of the bubble. A huge amount of organisation and planning is involved to ensure that each bubble has the right staffing, staggered drops offs and breaks, different zones in the playground, staggered Zoom sessions and planned outdoor PE sessions.

Having to increase numbers in bubbles or create more bubbles requires movement of staff and resources and careful planning. Therefore, if you now feel you would like your child to return and they are from one of the key year groups or a key worker then please contact school next week and we can discuss this. On occasions we might be able to admit another child into an existing bubble or we may have to consider creating more bubbles and adjusting staffing or rota days for the children. Either way we may need a number of days or even a week or so to get this in place so please be aware of this.

Key points:

⁃ Current provision is only for Nursery, Reception, Year 1, Year 6 and Key Workers

⁃ Please contact the main school office if any new places are required for these year groups

⁃ You may have to wait for this provision to begin

Following subsequent government announcements, and only if we have the capacity, we may look at offering a small amount of provision for children in other year groups. If we did this it would not be for at least another few weeks. If we can offer this I will let you know.

Home learning

It’s been great seeing all the art work this week; keep up the amazing effort.

Next week, we have Padlet activities from your teachers with around 3 activities per day for you to compete.

Live Zoom sessions

From Wednesday, we also begin our Live Zoom Sessions. There will at least one Zoom session every day for every child in the school!

Next week zoom sessions includes:

  • Wednesday: Assemblies with Mr. Guest

  • Thursday: Fun quizzes with Mrs. Flint

  • Friday: to be confirmed

Keep an eye out for posts like this…as they will have all the meeting details and links.

A full timetable of Live Sessions will be posted online next week.

Also, just to let you know, as many staff are now working in the bubbles, they may not have as much time to respond to messages or portfolio posts.

Please keep encouraging your child to compete some of the activities and to post their work to their postfolios.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Mr. Guest

Parent update from Mr. Guest (12th June 2020)