2020-21 WELCOME BACK

I would like to welcome you back to school or welcome you to the school for the first time. It has been great seeing all the children again after the COVID-19 school closures and school holiday, looking so smart with many new uniforms and shiny black shoes. We are most definitely enjoying having your children back in school again. We hope that you had an enjoyable Summer break and feel ready for the school year ahead.  Please remember that the school newsletter is produced weekly and uploaded to our school website on a Friday (usually). The newsletter contains lots of important information and dates together with reports from classes and pupils so please log on to the school website, as above, to access this.

Being Head of School at Marhamchurch CofE Primary School for the fourth year running continues to be my pleasure and privilege. Most importantly, I would like to thank you for your continued support and recent patience during these very different and challenging times we all face due to COVID-19. In addition, I would like to thank the children and staff for their hard work with the many academic, sporting and musical achievements that we are so proud of as well as the resilience they have shown, adapting so well to the many changes needed in school since the lockdown in March 2020. What a team! I would especially like to congratulate those who achieved 100% attendance last academic year up until the COVID-19 school closures as well as congratulate Mrs Short and our School Council for achieving the elusive platinum learner participation award for the second year running- impressive achievements! Our children are well-behaved and are, quite simply, a pleasure to teach!

During these unprecedented times, we will unfortunately need to communicate more via Class Dojo, our school telephone or our school secretary e-mail (marhamchurch.secretary@celticcross.education) rather than face to face in line with the Government guidance to endeavour to keep everyone safe. Therefore, setting up a Class Dojo account for your child is essential – especially if your child is required to self-isolate or in the event of a part or whole school closure due to confirmed cases, localised lockdown or second peak. This is because, if this happens, remote learning at home will be required again, which will be made available via Class Dojo ‘Class Story’ learning platform and our school website class page.  Please note that all new parents will receive a Class Dojo invite with an invitation code to get verified, connect to your child’s classroom and set up your child’s account. All existing parents should have received a Class Dojo invite last academic year so the majority of you have your child’s account set up already. If you wish to be sent another Class Dojo invite, please simply contact our school secretary.

To ensure that you feel well informed, I have created a contingency plan for immediate remote learning. It explains the remote learning alternate plan that Marhamchurch CofE Primary School will follow if your child is required to self-isolate or in the event of a part or whole school closure due to confirmed cases, localised lockdown or second peak, which is available alongside our other September full opening arrangements on our school’s Coronavirus letters website page (https://www.marhamchurch.cornwall.sch.uk/coronavirus-letters/).

Initially, our focus this academic year will be on settling your children (and our staff) back into the new normal in school and their new classes, doing all that we can and having a whole school approach, working in partnership with yourselves and outside agencies where necessary, to support your children’s emotional wellbeing and mental health. Alongside this, we will also endeavour to reverse as quickly as possible any adverse effects on your child’s academic phonics, reading, vocabulary, writing, GPS

(Grammar, Punctuation and Spellings) and maths attainment caused by the COVID-19 school closures to catch up on any of this missed learning by Summer 2021 at the latest. With so many successes over the past few years, depending on how the government guidance evolves this academic year, we also aim to continue on our journey of improvement to the best of our abilities, which has and will hopefully continue to focus on:

• Developing the governance, leadership and curriculum of the school;
• Ensuring that the curriculum is rich and broad so that it provides real and purposeful learning opportunities that inspire and motivate the pupils;
• Strengthening assessments so that they accurately identify the children’s next steps in learning and provide the children with useful feedback to maximise their progress;
• Ensuring that Teacher’s planning provides appropriate challenge for all our children;
• Developing consistent and effective routines and procedures across the school;
• Maintaining high Teacher expectations with consistently high aspirations of all our children by continually aiming to improve the quality of teaching and children’s learning evidenced in their books and on displays);
• Setting alongside the children and their parents/carers (as well as where required other agencies/professionals) half-termly SEND provision map targets to effectively cater for the needs of children with special educational needs;
• Building children’s learning power and a growth mindset so that they see making mistakes as learning opportunities through pupil learning reflections and exploration of strategies to get unstuck independently;
• And continuing to review school budgets and expenditure, including staffing so that it is effective in maximising the impacts made and in ensuring high standards.

Having recently reviewed school budgets and staffing for 2020-21, we would like to inform you of the following changes:

• Mrs J. Colwill (an experienced EYFS Teacher) needs to be congratulated and welcomed back to the team as she has been successfully appointed as Class 1 job share Teacher again;
• Mr H. White will be working as Class 2 Teaching Assistant full-time as well as continuing his lunchtime supervisor hours;
• And Mrs C. Rice will be working as a Class 2 one-to-one Teaching Assistant in the mornings as well as continuing her lunchtime supervisor hours.

Finally, you may have noticed that we have contractors in school, who are completing essential fire safety work, installing a state of the art school system. Throughout the Summer holidays, they were working in the classrooms and they are now working in the corridors and hall, which we hope will be finished by the end of October 2020. Please rest assured that they will not have contact with the children and will social distance from staff too. We apologise for any inconvenience caused with parking due to the contractor’s shipping container, portable toilet, skip and vehicles taking up spaces in our school car park.

Once again, thank you for your continued support and patience. We hope that you feel well informed. However, should you have any concerns that are not already being dealt with, please do not hesitate to make contact with our school secretary so that where needed, the most appropriate member of staff may support you to the best of our abilities. 

Yours sincerely,

Mr. D. Hoare.

(Head of School)