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Dear Parents and Carers

Please take a look at this web page and video guide to make sure you are ready for your parents' evening video call. 

You will need to be logged in and ready before the appointment time. Have your email ready!

School Cloud Parents Evening Video call guide

Dear Parents and Carers,

                            This Thursday, 4^th March, is World Book Day! Instead of their usual lessons, your child/children will have a day filled with activities that encourage them to celebrate reading and books! We would love for you to get involved and celebrate with them. There will be ideas on all Google Classroom pages, but we wanted to draw your attention to a few key things which will be happening:

St Mary’s Spud Stories

Instead of dressing up, we would love for your family to get creative and make either a book character, or a scene from a story, out of potato. You could paint, carve, or sculpt out of mash! Anything goes, as long as it is made from potato. It would be great if you could then take a picture of your creation (if possible including the book it is based on) and send it in on Google Classroom

Share a Story

World Book Day have organised some live book events that are taking place throughout this week. Why not log in to one or watch it afterwards on YouTube?

The World Book Day website also has a range of great activities that you can enjoy as a family. There are classic stories for younger children, a range of audio books for all ages, and some brilliant competitions which your child/children might want to have a go at!

Have a brilliant, book-filled day,

Mrs Furze and Miss Heath

St Mary's Fields Primary School adopts TAP’s free thanking platform!

“Sometimes in life, it’s the little things that often mean the most. TAP gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the power behind a recognition for an action, a kind word, a helping hand and a smile.

I am excited to see how the introduction of TAP to our school can play a part in raising the Well Being of all involved, by both the giving and the receiving of the gift of thanks and appreciation”, says Helen Nott, Deputy Headteacher at St Mary’s Fields Primary School.

If you’d like to show your appreciation to our school staff, please visit: www.thankandpraise.com/thankingwall/st-marys-fields-primary-school

Dear Parents and Carers,

Digital Detox Day -Thursday

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week.

We recognise that for children, families and school staff, remote learning has been a new way for us to teach and support children and find new ways to engage children with learning. We also recognise, that remote learning can be frustrating and lead children and school staff to spend large periods of time on digital devices. It can also lead to worries for parents with having to ensure children are focused and complete work at home.

We would like to make sure that these times where children are at home, with their families can be ones that bring happy and positive memories. We also want to encourage children and families to have time together, to talk, play and do activities which do not involve digital devices.

With this in mind we have joined up with schools across Leicester City for a ‘digital detox day’. This will see thousands of children stepping away from computers, laptops, tablets and other digital devices and being encourage to do other activities.

So what will a digital detox day look like…

For pupils…

On Thursday there will be no remote learning digitally, no online check ins, no online feedback for pupils or school staff. Instead we will be sending you ideas for activities for your child and your family to do. These will be focused around mental health, wellbeing and talking to other family members. These are attached to the email. The school will be continuing this theme in school for those children attending.

For teachers…

Teachers will also not be online on Thursday. This will allow time for them to have opportunities to talk to colleagues, share ideas for good practice, review pupils learning for the week to support improving the learning experience and reduce their own screen time.

For parents…

Please take the time to have a break from ‘school work’. Instead use the time to spend with your child/children doing activities that you know they will enjoy – bake something, dance around the living room, have an indoor picnic, go for a walk and talk about what you see, play a board game or make a junk model. Please remember, that your mental health and wellbeing is important, so that you are able to cope with the challenges of remote home learning. So do try to find a few minutes of time which is just about you on the day too!

Attached are a range of ideas and activities to get you started but add in your own activities that you know your children will enjoy.

Our teachers will be back ‘online’ on Friday. We would love it if your child shares with us the next day what activities they did.

Yours sincerely,

Rebecca Dulieu

Head teacher

Detox Ideas

Detox Activities

Monday 4th January 2021

Immediate Closure

Dear Parents/Carers,

I would like to start by apologising for the late notice of this letter but as you will be aware, we had been preparing to reopen the school in line with the Prime Minister’s weekend statements that primary schools should open as normal this week. Following the announcement by the Prime Minister this evening that schools should remove to remote learning from tomorrow, this situation has now changed and consequently school will not now reopen as planned tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, school will remain closed for all children in every year group regardless of status. This will enable us to clarify critical worker/vulnerable pupil status and then use this to ascertain what provision will be offered for these children. We will also use this to set up learning provision for children who will be at home as well as those who will be able to come into school. Had this evening’s announcement come over the weekend, we would obviously have completed this today.

It is my intention to write to you again tomorrow afternoon to clarify who will be able to attend, who will need to stay at home and what provision will look like. We are hoping to get the school reopened (for keyworker/vulnerable children) from Wednesday 6th January onwards but this will be confirmed tomorrow. Remote learning should also hopefully be ready to go live from Wednesday. If it is not possible, we will let you know as soon as possible.

I know that the late notice of tomorrow’s closure will cause great difficulty. I hope you will appreciate that the timescales here have been outside of our control and that we would have given far more notice had we been able to.

We will be working hard now to put in place the very best possible provision for our pupils.

Please ensure you have notified Mrs Linnell if you are a key worker, I attach a link to the government website which shows the list of keyworkers.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational- provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational- provision

Mrs Linnell will also be in touch with the families that receive Free School Meals.

Thank you for your continued support

Yours Sincerely
Rebecca Dulieu

HeadTeacher

What to do if a child tests positive after school closure

You only need to inform the school if your child tests positive if their symptoms start on Friday 18th December or Saturday 19th December or before. Please use this email address office@st-marysfields.leicester.sch.uk  to tell us.

If their symptoms occur after this date, then they are past the 48 hours of being in contact with others in school and therefore the school does not need to take any further action. Public Health England will take over track and trace in this instance. School leaders will continue to monitor the office email until 23rd December and it is crucial that you inform the school if your child tests positive for Covid up to and including this date.

To summarise:-

• Last day of term is now Thursday 17th December for pupils
• School is closed to all pupils on Friday 18th December 2020 and reopens Tuesday 5th January 2021
• Book a test URGENTLY if your child develops symptoms on Friday 18th December or Saturday 19th December or before. You can do this at www.111.nhs.uk/covid-19
• Email office@st-marysfields.leicester.sch.uk if your child tests positive after developing symptoms

9 th December 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

Important – Change to End of Term Date

Following guidance from the Department of Education, the last day of this term will now be Thursday 17th December. The Department for Education have agreed that schools can close one day early to support senior leaders who will have to continue to do track and trace, should a positive Covid case happen in school after closure, and to reduce the risk of COVID impacting on Christmas for both staff and you as families. Therefore, school will be closed to all pupils on Friday 18th December. School will reopen to pupils as planned on Tuesday 5th January 2021. We feel that this decision is right for our families and wider school community so that the possible need for individuals to isolate over the festive period is kept to a minimum. What to do if a child tests positive after school closure You only need to inform the school if your child tests positive if their symptoms start on Friday 18th December or Saturday 19th December or before. Please use this email address office@st-marysfields.leicester.sch.uk to tell us. If their symptoms occur after this date, then they are past the 48 hours of being in contact with others in school and therefore the school does not need to take any further action. Public Health England will take over track and trace in this instance. School leaders will continue to monitor the office email until 23rd December and it is crucial that you inform the school if your child tests positive for Covid up to and including this date.

To summarise:-

 Last day of term is now Thursday 17th December for pupils

 School is closed to all pupils on Friday 18th December 2020 and reopens Tuesday 5th January 2021

 Book a test URGENTLY if your child develops symptoms on Friday 18th December or Saturday 19th December or before. You can do this at www.111.nhs.uk/covid-19

 Email office@st-marysfields.leicester.sch.uk if your child tests positive after developing symptoms.

We hope that you all have a restful Christmas and get to spend time with some of your loved ones.

Stay safe.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Dulieu  

Head Teacher

Raj Gill-Harrison

Chair of Governors

The government has announced that on 2 December Leicester will move into Tier 3: very high. You can see the rules for Tier 3 on gov.uk.

This is a reflection of the serious situation here. Cases in Leicester are starting to fall, but they remain very high. The recent measures are beginning to work so we must keep going to protect our loved ones.

• Stay at home except for specific reasons, such as work or education.
• Limit your contact with other people.
• Don't mix with other households indoors or in private gardens, unless you have formed a support bubble as a single adult.
• Work from home if you can.
• Reduce the number of journeys you make.
• Walk or cycle if possible, or use buses outside peak times if you can.
• Stay 2m apart from anyone you do not live with.
• Wash or sanitise your hands regularly.
• Wear a face covering on buses, in shops, when dropping or collecting children at school, and in any space where distancing is difficult.
• Book a test and self-isolate as soon as you get symptoms.
• If you test positive, continue to stay at home for at least 10 days and until you feel better. Members of your household should stay at home for 14 days.

The government says it will review our status in Tier 3 on 16 December.

How to book a test Click here