Yardley Hastings Primary

Head's Blog

Classes for 21.22 and move up mornings

hope you are all enjoying the lovely sunshine. Please apply sun cream and remind the children about sun hats over the next day or so…they will be needed!

As per usual, this term is flying by and we are already considering arrangements for next September. We really hope that things will be more normal by then and that bubbles will become a thing of the past but, in view of the government announcement yesterday, I think we will have to wait for further clarification before we can make definitive plans for next year’s logistics.

We can, however, advise you of the class structure and teaching staff for next year. I am delighted to say that our amazing staff team remains unchanged and the classes are as follows:

Class One	Nursery & Reception	Miss Amber Hayfield, Mrs Katie Evans, Mrs Lisa Kolodziejczyk
Class Two	Year 1 & Year 2	Miss Emily Spooner, Miss Melody Tipton, Mrs Ciara Madden, Mrs Laura Law, Mrs Lois Freeman
Class Three	Year 3 & Year 4	Mr Andy Baker, Mrs Kim Beasant, Mrs Amanda Nisbett, Mrs Claire Weedon
Class Four	Year 5 & Year 6	Mrs Bernie Nevison, Mrs Shannon Rutter, Mrs Claire Thompson, Mrs Caroline Pritchard

Move Up Mornings

We are really pleased that move up mornings will be able to take place this year. As we had scheduled these for after June 21^st, we had hoped that all the children would be able to mix together but this will now not be the case. We will now keep the year groups separate but, no matter what, your child will spend some time with their new class teacher if they are moving class.

Move up mornings will take place on Tuesday 22nd June and Monday 28th June. To avoid logistical issues and confusing staggered starts on the move up morning, children should arrive at their usual time and go to their current class. Our full move up programme will then start at 9:15am and we will move the children accordingly.

Transition Meetings

All teachers are now writing end of year reports and preparing for transition meetings where you can meet with your child’s existing and new class teachers to discuss progress this year and targets for moving forward. These will be held on Monday 28^th June, Wednesday 30^th June and Thursday 1st July and will be via Zoom. A link for booking this meeting will be sent within the next 24 hours. The procedure will be the same as for parents meetings and each meeting will be booked with your child’s current class teacher who will send a zoom link out for the meeting along with your child’s report. They will also invite your child’s next teacher, where appropriate.

End of Year Events

As restrictions have not been fully lifted, we will not be able to hold our usual Sports Days. We will, however, be holding ‘bubble only’ events. Unfortunately, due to restrictions on numbers outside, we will be unable to invite you to spectate. We will try to share as many pictures as we can via the school website and your Google classrooms.

We will also be unable to hold a whole school performance but are looking to sort out a performance of some sort for the Year 5 and 6 children, more details to follow.

We are currently looking at the logistics of Year 6 leavers celebrations, whilst complying with the current regulations. We will communicate directly with relevant parents about this over the next couple of days

As usual, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I can be contacted by email at any time but will be at Yardley on Friday if you would like to speak to me then.

Update 28th May

It has been so lovely to complete a term where COVID has not loomed quite as large and school life seems to be returning to normal. That is not to say we are underestimating any potential risk and it looks very much as though ‘bubbles’ and staggered starts etc will be with us until at least the end of this academic year.

COVID regulations

Staff continue to test twice weekly and will continue to do so over the holidays. I really hope you will all be able to get out and about a bit more and even get away next week! Please do, however, be vigilant for any symptoms and test if you are in any doubt. In the very unfortunate event of any member of your immediate family testing positive over the holidays, please do inform me. This is particularly relevant until Monday when a confirmed case would have implications for your child’s bubble.

Looking ahead to next term, we are going to try to normalise things as much as we can but, like yourselves no doubt, we are waiting for confirmation of how far things can ease after June 21^st. The local authority have notified us today that we should organise end of year events with caution and inform a Local Resilience Forum to ensure we do not breach regulations or incur a fine! Their advice is as follows:

“It is expected that the guidance for 21 June will be circulated no more than 7 days in advance of any relaxation in restrictions, therefore events planned for the latter part of June and July will need to consider this uncertainty.”

As such, we are not sure whether we will be able to hold Sports Days at this stage but will hopefully be able to at least organise some sort of ‘bubble only’ event towards the end of term. If parent spectators are allowed, we will try to give you as much notice as possible.

A whole school end of year performance will not be possible primarily because singing indoors, without social distancing, is still not allowed. We will however, try to organise some sort of Year 5 and 6 performance outside so the Year 6 children at least get the opportunity to take part in what has traditionally been a ‘rite of passage’ at Yardley. Similarly, we are also hoping that the Year 6 leavers celebrations can be as normal as possible.

In other words, we will do all that we can to ensure the end of year is as normal as possible but please bear with us as there may be last minute arrangements or adjustments!

Boys’ Reading

You may recall in my last email that I explained we are looking into the gap between boys and girls attainment in reading. This is a national issue but also replicated to a certain extent in our school. The trial of our boys’ Reading and Writing Club is going really well and the boys’ excitement and enthusiasm has been amazing. To give us the fullest picture of boys’ reading behaviours, if you have boys that attend our school, we would really appreciate it if you could complete the survey below:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=1H5lr2x-AkuoGAJeI3gMRFzzVWRvSMhAmRWujldDFutUN0MwUEVHMFpCVzRKNFhHR0VPODVOOVdOQi4u

We are not checking up on you and it will be anonymous! We are just trying to get as clear a picture of boys reading habits as we can so we can ensure any plans we put in place are appropriately targeted.

Supporting Anxious Children: Parent Presentation

As you are all aware, as a school, we place a huge importance on developing children’s social and emotional wellbeing as well as academic ability. The charity Making Me, who have supported us with the Feelings Flowers and Shields of Resilience, have offered to hold a Zoom based session for parents on how to support an anxious child at home. As a parent myself, I know that on many occasions, I would have loved some advice and support with this. The session will be hosted by us but Liz Fordham, who many of you met at our initial parent sessions, would deliver a 30/40 minute presentation; there would be an opportunity to ask questions at the end. It would be in the evening around 7pm. So I can gauge interest, if this is something that you would like to attend, please could you drop me a line.

As always, please come back to me if you have any questions or comments about any of the above.

Have a lovely half-term and enjoy the sunshine and warmer weather at last! We will see you all back on Monday June 7^th.