FROM THE DESK OF MR CREASEY Dear Parents/Carers Four weeks in lockdown… The concept of time in a lockdown can be a very strange thing! In some ways the past four weeks have flown by but in many respects each day can feel very long. With many of us parents, we know how some days appear to go on for ever and personally, my wife is among many tackling the home schooling each day. So, trust me, I know what it can be like; she may have mentioned it once or twice over the past few weeks! As I write this piece for the newsletter, our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that schools are likely to be closed until at least until Monday 8th March but this date is not definitive. With several weeks still to go, we are very conscious of the various situations you all face at home. There are families with differing working commitments, some balancing the home learning for several children and dealing with the variable attitudes and enthusiasm from the children, day to day. We know how much we all long for those Friday evenings, only to be greeted by a cold, wet weekend where the daily walk just doesn’t seem to suffice. With this in mind, we want you to let us know if you’re finding the home schooling a challenge. Although we set a lot of work for the day to help you keep the structure, we’re aware for some it may be too much. This is particularly the case if children are in Hedgehog Class or Badger Class, where the level of expectation is much higher. As a result, the weekly timetable for these classes will be adjusted. On the timetable, we will make it very clear what is the minimum we’d like the children to do and work that is an ‘ideal, if you can’. Naturally, we hope this will help you to prioritise and ease the burden at home. For parents of all other year groups, we strongly encourage you to get in touch with the class teacher if you’re finding any aspects of the home learning a challenge, whether it’s fitting everything in, having challenges with a certain subject or struggling to balance your own work with home learning on particular days. We’ll be very understanding, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch. PTO

Ashill VC Primary School

Newsletter

Tel: 01760 440403 Friday, 29th January 2021 www.ashillschool.co.uk

“Teach a child how they should live, and they will remember it all the days of their life”

(Proverbs 22:6)

Our Christian vision is to create a happy, nurturing and inspiring school family that enables everyone to grow to their full potential and embrace the future as

understanding, compassionate individuals.

We aim to achieve this through our values of: Friendship, Respect, Pride, Resilience, Kindness and Independence

Support and Childcare bubbles With the current lockdown in place, we’re all having to seek various arrangements within our own families. We strongly urge you to make us aware of any current support or childcare bubbles that you have in place during this time. Please remember that these childcare or support bubbles should only be one, unique household. We are becoming increasingly aware of children and families who may be mixing households, both in and out of school currently, and it is important that you share any arrangements with us, so we know that it conforms to the current guidance. Please email the class teachers or me directly at head@ashill.norfolk.sch.uk If we strongly believe that the mixing of households is taking place, and you haven’t alerted us, we will naturally contact you first. However, we do have the right to inform the local authority or police to seek further advice, particularly with regards to children currently in school. If we feel the rules are being disregarded, the offer of a place in school during the lockdown period could be withdrawn. The mixing of households, outside of the guidance, could naturally endanger the children in our care, as well as our staff, in addition to undermining the national effort to reduce the transmission of the virus. We therefore take this extremely seriously. More guidance can be found on the gov.uk website. A new lease of life… It’s been long overdue, but the adventure playground has had a new, much-needed lease of life. Gone is the bark, that used to regularly make its’ way across the playground and even indoors, as we welcome a bit of colour in artificial grass. We’ve even replaced the wobbly bridge in Bumblebee Class.

mailto:head@ashill.norfolk.sch.uk

A poem for home schooling… Our thanks to Kimberley Shannon, who wrote this amazing poem that pretty much sums up the current lockdown and the challenges of home schooling. Here’s a little extract:

No qualifications, no college degree, Just a mountain of paperwork that's waiting for me. I'm not a teacher, I'm just a mum with her pooch, Mrs Filby, Mrs Beales, Mr Creasey, Mr Gooch,

They are all such an absolute hoot, Mrs Baker, Mrs Hooper, Mr and Mrs Boote! Mrs Robertson, Mrs Grigg, Mrs Butters too, And that's only to name a magnificent few!

Have I taught them correctly? I really don't know,

It's so different now, my brain power is low. It's so different from back when I was in school, They think being home means "great no rules!" Oh aren't they wrong, quick it's time for zoom!

All the kids lessons in the living room.

Time for a break, a drink and a snack, Get off your Xbox, it's time to come back,

It's time for English, grammar and reading, Another zoom call, your teacher is leading!

Remember your capitals, commas and full stops, You have a story to write, your imagination pops!

Next it's PE and star jumps you'll do, Bouncing around like an ape in the zoo.

Science and maths, history, R.E, Division, evolution, locomotions we'll see. All of the subjects, the work to complete,

Thank goodness for Google, Bitesize and Shredded Wheat!

It's almost the end of another school day, Just one more zoom call for the Mr Creasey to say..

"I'm so proud of you all, and the work you have done", "Now log off for the day and go have some fun!"

"I'll see you all Monday, through your computer screens, No uniform in sight, just T shirts and jeans."

Now it's time to put all of the school stuff away,

Slumped on the sofa is where I lay, Baby in arms, the house is a mess,

But it can all wait for an hour or less. It's time to cook dinner, not forgetting the drinks,

As emails come through with Mondays zoom links. It's finally bedtime, but not before...

A tall glass with a drink I excitedly pour, Mum is off duty, look at the time, tick tock,

Long awaited, deserved, it's finally Gin O'Clock!! With sincere best wishes and thank you for all you’re doing, Steve Creasey Headteacher

THROUGH THE TO……….

BUMBLEBEE CLASS Bumblebees have been making their teachers proud with all their lovely work and play. We are working hard on our Phonics every morning on our Zoom calls and have enjoyed using the new resources in our learning pack - our whiteboards and pen and our own sound cards. We have enjoyed our castle and dragon work and the Zog story. Some of us made our own dens and castles too. We have enjoyed different story versions of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and have made our own trolls and bridges. Bumblebees have been busy with learning about 3d shapes and subtraction too. We are looking forward to "The Big Garden Birdwatch" this weekend and hope to spot and count lots of different birds. Many thanks to all the parents who are working so hard to support their children in the play and learning activities.

SQUIRREL CLASS

Squirrel Class have had another very busy few weeks. Last week we read the story "Billy's Bucket" by Kes Gray. We were describing the different creatures we would find in a bucket like Billy. In topic we carried out our work on the space explorer Neil Armstrong, we had lots of fund creating amazing posters all about landing on the moon. We even had space themed baking from Edward. This week we have been learning all about Passover in RE. We found out about Moses early life, how God sent 10 plagues and how the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt. We have been learning about subtraction and multiplication in maths and year 1 have been creative with finding different household items to use for counting, we have seen Lego, toys and even dry pasta! We have all been working really hard and enjoying seeing each other each day on Zoom.

HEDGEHOG CLASS

Hedgehogs have been reading the story of The Iron Man and wrote their own hero robot story and this week they have been writing their diary entry as Hogarth. In Maths they have been solving worded subtraction problems.

BADGER CLASS

Badger class have had some fun in the snow along with investigating circuits. They have done some work on suffixes and how they can give clues to the meaning of words. Badgers have been working hard on subtracting fractions.

PTA

Fundraising that doesn’t cost a

penny! Do you shop on the Internet? If the answer is YES, by just a couple more clicks you can help Ashill School PTA raise extra funds without costing you a penny. Easyfundrasing.org.uk is a website that acts as a portal to over 600 shopping sites. By registering on the site and choosing Ashill School PTA as your charity you earn us money every time you shop at hundreds of places including Amazon, iTunes, Tesco and many more. You deal directly with the shopping site and shop as normal, we do not have access to your personal details but by clicking from this site to your chosen site we earn a percentage of your purchase. You do not pay any extra!

Here is a step by step guide to how you can help us:

• Next time you shop on the Internet go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/ ashillschoolpta.

• On your first visit please REGISTER so they know which charity you want to support. This is FREE. We are listed as Ashill School PTA. (If you use the address above it will take you to our own page).

• Next you LOGIN with your username/password. This is how the system recognises which cause you are supporting

• Finally click the retailer links you are interested in and shop as normal.

• Please go back to the easyfundraising site each time you go to a new retailer. You should still be logged in.

• Please pass on this information to friends and families if they would like to help support us too!

• Please be assured that you do not pay any extra, we do not have access to your personal data but we do receive a cheque each quarter for the money you have helped raise.

Ashill School PTA

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/