Newsletter – 29th January 2021

Thank you all for your support again. Particular thanks to those of you who have been able to respond to my letter about in-school places and reduce your child’s attendance where you are able. We continue to respond dynamically to demand for places; please do not hesitate to get in touch to talk to us about your circumstances.

Rapid Testing for Staff

You will have received a letter this week about rapid Covid testing for staff which will take place twice a week. Hopefully this is another measure to help prevent the spread of the virus. Please refer to the letter for more information.

SumDog… Hot of the Press…

Miss Collins writes… ‘The Sumdog North Yorkshire maths competition finished last night and we can reveal that three of our classes were in the top 20 – out of over 120 classes who competed. The Merlins came 9th, achieving the highest placing among our classes and making Mr Greenway very happy into the bargain (the cheering from his classroom at Askrigg could be heard in Leyburn, I have been told!). The Swallows came 15th and the Golden Eagles achieved 18th place. We also had some very highly placed individual children. Out of over 1000 children who took part, we had five in the top 50: Otis, Caleb, Rafael, Isaac S and Caelan. Well done to everyone who took part.’

No-Screens / No-Writing Friday

Whilst trying to provide high-quality remote learning for those of you whose children are at home, we have become mindful that our children are probably spending a lot of time on screens. In addition, we would like to recognise and address the challenges you are all facing with trying to help your children learn from home. This might be because you are trying to work yourself; or because your child doesn’t respond well to your help/guidance; or because you feel you don’t have the right knowledge or skills to help them; or because you feel that some days you are just managing to survive lockdown without added pressures. Perhaps you are feeling a bit of all of these things? As such, next Friday is going to be a no-screens and no written-work day. You will be provided with a list of suggested activities that will be creative, active, and open-ended. They will be suitable for children to do either at home or at school in their bubble and will have scope for involving all of the family without requiring too much adult support. You are not obliged to do them but encouraged to send us pictures of your children enjoying some family time. We hope this helps and we welcome your feedback on this day so we can consider whether it might be appropriate to have a few more of them.