Swalwell Primary School
Working together, learning together
Welcome
Remote Learning update
Dear Parents/Carers,
I’m sure Monday’s announcement brought a mixture of emotions. I know it did for me. As we are in a national lockdown once more, we now know that our school will be closed to the majority of children until further notice. As in March 2020, we will open to children of key workers and those who are classed as vulnerable.
Class teachers will set work. Facebook challenges will continue and as last time, staff will call families to check-in with you all.
Please spend 5 minutes reading through some guidelines I received into school last night.
How will my child learn remotely?
As part of the partial closure guidelines from the government we have been asked to set remote learning for your children.
Each day you will receive videos on your tapestry account with English and Maths tasks for the children to complete.
Please contact school if you do not have access to the internet.
I have a question about my child’s learning? What do I do?
If your question is not specifically about your child. For example, how do I send you a picture of my child’s work? You can ask this on the bottom of the tapestry post in the comment section. PLEASE BE AWARE, YOUR COMMENTS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE VIDEO POST CAN BE READ BY EVERYONE IN YOUR CHILD’S CLASS. Therefore, please do not include any personal information.
If your question is about your child’s work. For example, Please can you explain to Jane how she uses brackets in her writing? This needs to be emailed to our remote learning email. Your child’s teacher will then ring you to speak with either yourself or your child.
The email address to use is: swalwellremotelearning@gatedu.org
Please place your child’s year group as the title.
There is now a government expectation that staff monitor how your child is achieving in their home learning and if they are completing the tasks. Therefore, we will be asking parents to return completed work. I will write out to you next week with ways this can be achieved.
My child is entitled to free school meals but not in school, what do I do?
Those parents who have requested a school packed lunch for this week, will be able to collect them from school, observing social distancing measures.
Next week, weekly food parcels will be prepared for those families entitled and will be available for you to collect from school. I will be in touch with how we will safely organise this.
If you feel you are entitled to free school meals, I urge you to complete the form below.
https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/article/7433/Free-school-meals
I understand how challenging this is, trying to juggle working from home, remote learning, caring for your family and worrying about the complexities the virus has brought to our lives. Please support your child in their home learning in the best possible way. During autumn term, children made great progress and we were able to address some of the lost learning from last year. I am confident we will be able to do this once more, when it is safe for school to fully open again.
Last term, I appointed a family support worker. Miss Katie Doyle will join the staff team this term. She has a wealth of experience in supporting our children and families and is here to help.
Remember we are here to help and to support one another through these difficult times.
Take Care. Stay Safe.
Mrs Rachel Hocking
Headteacher
Swalwell Primary School