School Updates - Friday 17th April 2020 (Issue 21)

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you are all safe and well and have enjoyed your Easter - it has certainly been incredibly different to what we are all used to. The announcement yesterday of a further three weeks lockdown didn't come as a surprise and as a school we will continue to provide our pupils with work to complete online. We will also continue to be available to those that need us - please contact us if we can help in any way.

Personally, I can't wait to get back to normal and I know all our Parkfield members of staff feel exactly the same. Whenever that is - who knows? However, I do hope that the communication your children are having with their teachers online is helping with any worries that they may have at this time.

Mr Kemp

PROVISION AT LITTLE HEATON

Parkfield remains closed and we are continuing to use Little Heaton as our base for a small number of Parkfield pupils. Parkfield staff are on site between 8.45am and 3.15pm to support the children attending Little Heaton. If your circumstances change and you no longer need to use the provision at Little Heaton please let us know at office@parkfield.rochdale.sch.uk and we can plan our staffing appropriately.

GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK

It's really strange to be saying goodbye to members of staff whilst we're in the current situation. Although they aren't being given the usual Parkfield thank you from the children, staff and parents their effort and commitment to Parkfield has certainly been appreciated by all.

Mr Hellon leaves Parkfield today after covering in both Y6 and Y3 over the past six months. We wish him all the best as he takes up a new post at a school not too far from ourselves! Mr McGhee, who has been teaching Y4 since Christmas, will be missed by all the staff and children. He built some really strongrelationships with the children in such a short space of time. Miss Henson, who has worked in KS1 for the past few months supporting a number of children leaves for a promotion to another local school. We wish her all the best in her new role.

RETURNING TEACHERS

Welcome back to Mrs Hartley (used to be Danby!) and Miss McCall who are returning from their maternity leave and from Monday will be setting work for the Y3 and Y4 classes. They both can't wait to get back into the classroom and meet their new pupils.

HOME LEARNING

From Monday teachers in Years 1-6 will be setting tasks again on Showbie for pupils to complete. There will be daily tasks set for English and Maths, in addition to a weekly PE challenge and a task linked to their topic for the half-term. Please note that teachers will set tasks suitable for home learning and they will not be full lessons. A reminder also that teachers will not be able to comment on every piece of work submitted by the children. Mathletics and Bug Club can still be accessed too.

For children in Reception, staff have been recording video clips of themselves on Tapestry giving children challenges and tasks to try doing at home.

We understand that homeschooling is difficult and we do not expect children to be sat all day completing their work. Our new web page https://curriculum.parkfieldprimary.com/home-learning still has a range of different links with ideas and resources to support your child, including, links to times tables and telling the time games - two maths skills in particular that we find children who practised at home perform better with in school and are clearly important in life.

Also, please keep encouraging your child to read books too as not only does this improve their reading fluency and vocabulary knowledge, but also the pleasure of enjoying stories is a great way to get happiness at the current time.

If you have any issues or questions around homelearning please email homelearning@parkfieldprimary.com.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS VOUCHER SCHEME

For those entitled to Free School Meals, we have been working tirelessly over the Easter holidays to ensure all vouchers have been sent. However, the online ordering system brought in by the Department for Education (DfE) has not been able to cope with the demand. We have completed everything as a school but vouchers seem to arrive sporadically to parents. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and all we can do is keep reminding you to check your emails, including your Spam, for the email from the DfE. You may notice in the next couple of weeks a voucher is of a greater value than previously sent out. This is because the DfE have asked schools to order multiple weeks to reduce the demand on the service. For example, instead of a £15 voucher, you will recieve a £45 voucher for the next 3 weeks.

If you are entitled and haven't recieved the email, please contact office@parkfield.rochdale.sch.uk and we will do our best to help.

CONTACT

If you need to contact school, then please email office@parkfield.rochdale.sch.uk . Please do not come to the school site as it's closed. For anything related to home learning please email homelearning@parkfieldprimary.com. In an emergency, then please ring the school telephone number and you will find details of how to contact us further.

And finally… thank you for all your help and support and stay safe.


Yours sincerely,

Mr M Kemp

Headteacher