Egremont Primary SchoolCovid-19
January Lockdown
As of 5th January 2021, Egremont Primary is closed to MOST pupils. In line with government directives, we are open to vulnerable children and children of critical key workers. All other pupils will be working from home.
As a significant number of our families do not have access to Google Classroom, we will be providing two approaches to learning.
1) Google Classroom - this online platform will have at least 3 hours of work uploaded for the children to complete each day. There will be a daily focus on English and Maths and alongside this, we will be completing work in science, geography, history, RE, PSHE and art. The children will also be encouraged to keep active and access exercise outdoors or through Joe Wicks workouts etc. The children in school will be supervised and supported in following the work on Google Classroom.
The children will have access to 'Live' sessions - as a minimum, the children logging in from home will join their teachers for a daily reading session. Other opportunities and sessions will be added as appropriate.
2) Paper-based learning - this will involve parents/carers collecting the physical work packs each week from the school. The children will complete their work on 'paper' at home. Again, the work set will equate to at least 3 hours per day and will involve daily English and Maths as well as subjects such as science, geography, history, RE, PSHE and art. We will also be encoraging the children to remain fit and active by accessing regular exercise.
Whilst we are mindful of the children having the opportunity to continue to make academic progress, we feel that mental health and well-being is pivotal. Our plan is to ensure that our children, regardless of whether they are at school or working from home, have access to the staff from school on a regular basis. We will be checking in with the children regularly to discuss work and to see how they are getting on in general. The children with access to Google Classroom can message their teachers - this will be monitored throughout the day to ensure that the children are receiving a timely response. The staff are also making telephone calls and communicating via social media too.
We will be providing weekly food bags for any family that would like one and we will of course ensure that those children entitled to a free school meals are supported in terms of lunch time provisions. We have access to cereals and bagels for all families too and will ensure that we distribute these safely.
September - dealing with cases of Covid and accessing work whilst self-isolating
We have plans in place for dealing with cases of Covid-19 at school. If/when the school is informed about a positive case of Covid, we will work with Oak Trees Multi Academy Trust, staff from the Local Authority and services such as Track and Trace to identify which, if any, children/classes need to isolate. If any of the children in school need to self isolate, parents will be informed in a timely manner by text/email. A letter will also be sent to relevant families with further details once these have been established.
Work will be provided for any child who is self-isolating. Children might also need to self-isolate because of contact outside of school. We intend to provide work through Google Classroom or by providing physical copies of worksheets/books etc to those families without access to online resources.
March Lockdown
We recognise that the national school closures are a challenge for all. First and foremost our priority is keeping all of our children and their families safe during such unprecedented times. A big part of this is mental health and well-being. We are by no means experts and like every other school up and down the country, we are doing our best to make suggestions based on the knowledge and skills we have. With social distancing rules continuing for a further 3 weeks at least, we have reviewed what we are doing, what we offer and how we communicate this.
CAMHS have support materials that can be accessed online - with such uncertain and difficult times, this may be of use and benefit to ALL of our families. Follow this link for further advice: CAMHS
Our staff have commented on how refreshing it has been to be on the school rota as it has given them a reason to get up and dressed and provided some routine. With that in mind, here is what we recommend:
1) Get dressed regularly - it can be so easy to just stay in comfy pyjamas when you have nowhere to go and nothing specific to do but try to ensure you are getting dressed regularly. This will help to change your mindset about the day.
2) Plan activities for each day. A variety of different tasks will help to alleviate boredom. There are links below to follow with some good ideas.
3) Try to plan activities in different areas of your home - think about what activities can be done in the kitchen and the garden for example. A change of scenery will also help improve 'cabin fever'.
4) Make sure you fit in some physical activity - getting out for a daily exercise is great but dont forget you can do other exercises at home. You can walk up and down the stairs, skip in the garden, follow an online routine such as Joe Wicks etc.
5) Try to ensure you are still having a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and veg. Sometimes you can feel hungry when you are bored so try to stick to a good routine for meal times and have healthy snacks in between if needed.
6) Sleep is still important - even if you dont have to be up as early the next day. Sticking to a good bedtime routine at an appropriate time is beneficial. Our bodies crave routine. This will also help when the time comes for us all to go back to school.
7) Contact with others is so important - but we have to think about how we do this. The most important thing is we dont meet up with friends and family at this time. You could always to talk to families and friends on the phone, you could write a letter, send a text or email. It is especially important to reach out and talk to someone if you are feeling overwhelmed or sad at the moment. Our fantastic staff are very active on their emails, on twitter and on the phone at school during the week. If you need to talk, please reach out.
To help keep our children busy and their minds active, they have work books from school. To supplement these, the following activities or links may be useful:
1) Reading - reading is so important. We hope our children are reading every day. They should all have login details for bug club and can access books online. There are also many other opportunities for reading around the home - they may read a recipe or instructions for a game/lego for example.
2) Physical activity - PE with Joe Wicks is very popular. Oti Mabuse (Strictly Come Dancing) is also doing daily dance lessons - streamed to instagram, facebook and youtube. Disney's 10 Minute Shake-up can be found here: Disney
3) Curriculum learning - there are many lessons being provided online for children with resources. These have been designed especially for children at home during lockdown.
BBC Bitesize home learning can be found here: BBC
Oak National Academy has been put together by a group of teachers from various settings across the country. The online lessons and resources can be found here: National Academy
Links to STEM for science can be found here: STEM
Maths activities can be found here: NRICH Maths. In addition, the children can access mathletics and times tables rock stars. At school, we follow White Rose Maths. The team at White Rose have compiled lessons for children to complete at home and these can be found here: White Rose Maths
The Literacy Shed are providing some English based work and this can be found here: Literacy Shed
Art activities are great for creativity and can also be calming too. Ideas and tutorials can be found here: Draw with Rob Jump Start Art
We will also be posting regular ideas and challenges on our Twitter Pages so please keep checking these - please also tweet us with any work or messages.