School Closure Update 21st May 2020
Bishop’s Primary Academy Date: Thursday 21st May 2020
Unfortunately, the school is closed to most children.
Government advice remains that: ‘every child who can be cared for at home should be.’
Possible extension of opening to more children
Thank your for responding to both the survey and telephone calls from staff as we try and find out how many children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 might return to school. This is helping us plan and finalise our risk assessments.
We have decided that we will not be offering Nursery places from 1st June and will review this later in the month.
A decision on how many year groups we will offer places to will be communicated by tomorrow afternoon. We apologise for the uncertainty but we need to ensure that we can make the premises and organisation safe for children and staff.
Key workers
The school is currently required to offer provision for children of critical workers. With some workers beginning to return to work there will be an increase in the number of children attending these sessions. Please ensure that you email the school office@bishop.norfolk.sch.uk if you need your child to attend school. A member of staff will contact you to confirm arrangements before your child attends school. We will need to see evidence of your employment before a place can be confirmed. A list of critical workers can be found at:
We need to follow this process so that we can meet safety requirements for children and adults in school.
Home learning packs
Most families collected learning packs last week. These were for two weeks so there will not be any new learning packs until 1st June.
We still have copies of the current learning packs in the entrance to the school.
Teachers will be contacting some families over the coming days to check how you are finding the home learning. This is to offer a support and hear your views. We fully appreciate how hard it is to become teachers for your own families!
Teachers will send Dojo messages each day to remind you of the tasks for that day. Please try and post examples of your child’s learning on Dojo each day.
The packs should be collected during your daily exercise. Please ensure that you respect social distancing. There will be cones showing where to wait if there is a queue. There should only be one person in the entrance at any time.
Home learning
We do understand how difficult it is to support home learning. We hope these materials help but we only ask families to do their best with their children. Sometimes taking a break is really important. You can always return to learning activities later in the day.
It is also helpful to practise basic skills such as:
- Maths – counting and/or multiplication tables
- A reading activity with an adult or older brother or sister
- Practising spelling or phonics
- A short writing activity
- A physical activity
These can be done in a variety of ways – sometimes without the children even noticing!!
There remain a huge amount or really useful and enjoyable resources available on the internet. These can also be used at any stage. We think the following are particularly helpful:
https://www.thenational.academy/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/
https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/educational-resources
You Tube daily lessons
- 9.00 -9.30am every day - Joe Wicks PE
- 10.00am Music with Myleene Klass
- 11am Science with Maddie Moate
- 11.30 Dance with Oti Mabuse
- 1.00pm Maths with Carol Vorderman
- 2.00pm History with Dan Snow
- 3.00pm English with David Walliams
- 5.30pm Food Tech with Jamie Oliver
We are offering a provision for children of key workers and vulnerable children in line with government advice. If you think that you are a key worker and have not already spoken to us you MUST speak to us before sending your child in so that we can ensure there are enough adults present in school. Please contact the school to book places. office@bishop.norfolk.sch.uk
Families who have ordered a free school meal should collect these from the car park at 12:00. Please ensure that you stay two metres away from others as you wait to collect. If you do not collect an ordered meal we will not be able to provide further food for the rest of the week. We have been instructed to reduce food waste and only provide meals that will be collected.
Latest government advice can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
If you wish to contact the school please email office@bishop.norfolk.sch.uk. We will respond within one working day.
Mental health support
www.justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/mentalhealth
This is now the single place to find out how to access mental health advice and support for 0 -25’s in Norfolk & Waveney. The key message is that you don’t need a referral, you can get in touch straight away for advice and support. If you need more specialist help, we will make sure you get to the right person.
If you urgently need support from Children’s Services please call: 0344 800 8020
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/get-advice-and-support/
NSPCC 08088005000