Coronavirus 29/03/2020
29th March 2020
Dear Parents & Carers,
We pray that this letter finds you and your family safe and well in this continued time of uncertainty.
By now, you are probably feeling the expectations that have been placed on you by Covid-19 and I wanted to keep in contact with you.
Easter Holiday Childcare Provision for Schooling for children of critical key workers only
Schools are being asked to provide a provision for children of critical workers over the Easter Period. We are pleased to confirm that Premier Sports will be running an active programme at St John’s Angell Town School (for pupils at Christ Church Streatham, St John’s Angell Town and St Luke’s). As you know, we have been working in partnership with Premier Sports in the delivery of our PE curriculum for many years.
St John’s Angell Town, 85 Angell Rd, Brixton, London, SW9 7HH
Monday 6th April – Thursday 9th April and Tuesday 14th April – Friday 17th April.
Childcare will be from 8.30am to 4.00pm.
Pupils must bring a health packed lunch
If you require a space for your child/children, parents must complete the survey by Wednesday 1st April, in order for the school to plan effectively for this provision (staffing & resources). The survey is on the school website, under the Coronavirus tab.
Free School Meals (FSM) Provision
Currently we have been offering a hot meal for pupils who are entitled to free school meals.
Last week, we offered children who are entitled to free school meals a hamper (which will provide meals for 10 days). We are expecting the hampers to arrive on Thursday for those parents who requested them and are entitled to FSM. We will contact those parents when they have arrived to arrange collection.
From this week, we will be providing vouchers to all parents that are entitled to free school meals. We will contact those parents directly about these arrangements in the next couple of days.
(Please note that there is a difference between pupils who are entitled to free school meals (i.e. their parents are entitled to certain benefits) and those children who are provided with universal free school meals (all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2).
Schooling for children of critical worker or have a vulnerable child
Between the three schools, we are continuing to play our part by remaining open for the children of key workers at the front line of the crisis and for vulnerable children. Although Christ Church Streatham and St John’s Angell Town are temporarily closed, staff across the three schools continue to provide for our learners.
St Luke’s will continue to open from 8.50am until 3.00pm (including Friday 3rd April).
It is important to understand the following:
- Ideally, a key worker’s child should remain with their parents if possible
- Evidence of your key worker entitlement as defined by the government to remain active during the COVID-19 response must be given by your employer
- As we are providing childcare for children from all three schools, it is important that we ensure that we know in advance which days you are working and require your child/children to be in school, to ensure that we have enough staff in school.
If you or your child/ren have a temperature and/or a new persistent cough, please do not come into school. Please telephone and leave a message on the answerphone. It is important that we safeguard the children attending school and our staff.
Schooling for children of non-critical key worker or have non-vulnerable children
Children should continue to remain at home with their parents. Lots of establishments have closed such as libraries, cinemas etc. Walks are allowed but social distancing is essential, so avoid mixing with others. Please do not leave your child/ren with the elderly or other vulnerable adults. We have seen some lovely work from our learners working from home, please ensure that your children complete their work and put it in their portfolios. We will re-open fully as soon as we can when the national closure ceases and will let you know when this is by an update on our website.
Expectations of home learning support
You may be feeling that the expectations of home learning support are high and it is going to be stressful at some point for you, being at home with the children full time, getting them to carry out their work in a non-school environment and some of you may also be working at home.
Here are a few tips that will hopefully make things a little easier!
Your children usually carry out their education in their classrooms, where we have firm rules that the children know and try to keep to. With the exception of homework, pupils are not used to working from home all day. Home is home – a place of fun and relaxation with their friends and family. So start slowly with the things that they are happiest doing during whatever part of the day you have set for school tasks. Be guided by their interests rather than what you think is right or expected by the school.
It is going to be difficult to do your work as well as expecting the children to be carrying out their learning at the same time. Accept that your children will have to be occupied by something that keeps their attention for a long time (which probably means something screen based unless your child loves reading for long periods), be entertained by a partner or be asleep before you can settle to a task for work.
Your children’s teachers are used to working hard. This means that they will be planning more work than any child will want to do at home (or school!). Teachers will continue to provide you with activities and point you to online learning platforms so that you have as many options as possible to keep your child interested and learning. The activities are there to help you keep our learners busy so don’t worry if your child does not complete it all!
Successful home learning is not a competition. Try not to compare your situation with those of your friends that you may be communicating with. There is a reason most parents/carers do not choose to homeschool and even those who do so successfully are careful to build in a lot of ‘social time’ with others, which is not an option at the moment.
On-line Safety
The on-line learning platforms that you are signposted to by the school are safe sites. Please remember to check your e-safety settings on your computers, ipads and phones etc.
Internet matters - for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
London Grid for Learning - for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
Net-aware - for support for parents and careers from the NSPCC
Parent info - for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
Thinkuknow - for advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online
UK Safer Internet Centre - advice for parents and carers
Arbor and SIMS Pay
St Luke’s should be commencing with Arbor this week. As we previously mentioned, you will be able to pay for meals etc on Arbor. Therefore please do not use SIMS Pay any longer. All balances will be moved to Arbor.
We will be sending out details of how to use Arbor when the system is up and running.
Even though we are not physically with you, we are very much here for you. When a teacher or teaching assistant puts a comment on Class Dojo, please get involved. If you want to ask a question privately, please select: message.
We will continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops. If you want to get in touch to share any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via the contact details on our website.
I would like to thank all parents and carers for their continued understanding and support during this time.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Nicky Zeronian-Dalley
Executive Headteacher
