Headteacher blog January 15th 2021
Tricky times…. Whilst we have settled into a more reasonable routine as regards COVID restrictions and the new Critical Worker/Remote Learning dual schooling, snow and ice have added a further challenge this week. Thursday’s snow was much heavier and deeper than anyone expected and, although we managed to stay open, it was very helpful that most children were collected early. This morning we managed to open again but ended up with more staff than children! I am grateful for the efforts of so many colleagues who were able to battle the elements and trudge to and from work – often over great distances.
Remote teaching and learning is going well but is clearly a challenge in many households (and for staff). Staff are conscious that they are displaying their professional practice to the community. There are so many elements to a good lesson and the teachers are like a chef preparing a meal with some ingredients missing and whilst one arm is tied behind their back. (How many more metaphors can I mix in this paragraph?) Nevertheless, I think that they are doing a very good job in these difficult circumstances and it remains a steep learning curve for everyone. Thank you for your support.
COVID arrangements remain a source of controversy in schools but I do think we have made some good decisions that mean that we have suffered less than many others. We also always thought that the hampers for Free School Meals was a dodgy idea and so we continued to do our own supermarket voucher system. Complaints about lack of IT devices applies less to us as we already have well over 200 of our Chromebooks in homes and we were supposed to get 30 more today from school funds and 10 from the government. Now that all year groups are doing Google Meets so regularly, there will be timetable clashes in homes so do get in touch if you think you do need a school Chromebook.
