It was just over a year ago that I had to write to you and say that school would be open for Key Worker children and none of us knew what the future few weeks and months were to hold. In one way or another, the past few months will have touched us all in different ways, there have been highs and lows for all of us.
The community spirit has continued to grow, from last year through to this. You have all been amazing in your support, kind words, sweet treats and patience. We continue to put the children's wellbeing at the centre of all of our decisions and they have been a credit, once again, to yourselves and the school community, in the way they have settled back into school over the past few weeks.
School life
This week we were treated to several Zooms from authors and illustrators. On Monday we had Neal Zetter share some of his fantastic poetry with us. On Thursday we had our World Book Day celebrations with Zoom visits by Rachel Bright, Sue and Paul, Sophy Henn, Lisa Thompson, Lindsay Galvin, Tom Percival, Bethany Walker, James Harris, Helen Rutter and Natasha Farrant. Technology is enabling us to access so many Authors for the children.
Y5 and Y6 Stepping Up Transition Project
As part of the Year 6 transition to secondary school next academic year, we are participating in the Stepping Up Transition Project led by MFC Foundation.
Next term, Mr Crane, from the MFC Foundation, will visit school every Monday to get to know the children in Year 6 and begin preparing them for their step up into secondary school. As part of this process, he will deliver weekly PE lessons every Monday to build a rapport with the children.
In September 2021, Mr Crane will transition to Laurence Jackson with the children and stay with them in their new educational environment until February (the cycle will then begin again with a new cohort of Year 6 children). It is hoped that the same process will continue for the current Year 5 children.
Alongside delivering PE lessons in school time, Mr Crane is also running an after-school sports club (a range of different sports will be played across the duration of the club) every Tuesday from 3.15pm until 4pm. The first session will be Tuesday 13th April and it will run until the end of the half term. Children from Year 5 and 6 are invited to attend. If your child would like to attend the club, please give consent by completing the Parent Mail sent earlier this week.
Easter Eggs
Thank you to Morrisons Guisborough for donating Easter eggs to the Year 6 children and a special mention to Mrs Shutt for organising this. As you can imagine, this was a lovely surprise for the children, and they were extremely grateful.
Here is just a snippet of what you have all been getting up to this week:
Star/Writer/ Mathematician of the week
Learning conversations
Your child will be going home today with a learning conversation sheet. This was the basis of discussion on Parents' Evening.
We are continuing to develop the children's skills to reflect on their learning, what they are enjoying in school (and outside of school), as well as what they feel they need to develop further.
This is the first time we have done this and felt it an important time to do so. With children being in and out of school for various lengths of time, it is to re-engage with their wonderful positive learning attitudes. We will continue to develop this as we move forward and it will form part of the end of Year Report to give you a full picture of the development of your child through each academic year.
LETs localise - Easter raffle and updates
Thank you for you kind donations for the raffle, for buying tickets and for your support for the book fund campaign. In total, from the raffle and the campaigns we raised over £700! Thank you for all your support!
We also had a campaign for devices and yesterday we were donated 36 devices from Legal and General. This means we can offer devices for even more children if bubbles have to isolate and for those in school.
OPAL
We have some exciting news to share. We are about to start a programme to improve opportunities for physical activity, socialisation, co-operation, coordination, resilience, creativity, imagination and enjoyment through improved play. This is something that is core to our values of educating the whole child, placing play and well being at the centre of all we do.
The OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning Programme is the result of 17 years testing and development in over 500 schools and is now used in Canada, France and New Zealand as well as across the UK. In 2018 OPAL won first prize in an EU funded award for the best active school’s programme in Europe and two UK national playwork awards.
OPAL is based on the idea that as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learn when they play, and as 20% of their time in school is playtime, we want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is as good as possible.
Childhood has changed, and many children no longer get their play needs met out of school.
There are many proven benefits for schools which carry out the OPAL Programme. They usually include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, less accidents and greatly improved behaviour.
We look forward to sharing this new journey with you and will keep you up to date with all the play opportunities and areas that we will be creating in school.
If you would like to see what play will begin to look like at Galley Hill, here is another school who have been on their OPAL journey for a while and what play looked like after 18 months:
Covid
If you are self isolating or have tested positive and are in school with Key Worker Provision please contact us via the e-mail address: covid@galleyhillprimary.co.uk even if this is during the Easter holiday- this is needed so that we can continue to track and trace over the holiday period.
Updated list of asymptomatic COVID-19 testing site across the Borough
About one in three people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and will be spreading it without realising. The below test centres aim to reduce the spread of Covid-19 by identifying residents who are positive but who do not display any symptoms. Please see below for opening days / times for all three sites noting the changes coming into effect at Loftus from Thursday 25th March. Please feel free to share this information with your contacts and on social media.
Loftus Youth and Community Centre, Duncan Place, Loftus
PLEASE NOTE AS OF THURSDAY 25TH MARCH THIS FACILITY WILL OPERATE FROM LOFTUS FIRE STATION, CORONATION ROAD, LOFTUS, TS13 4SW
Mondays – 8am to 12pm;
Tuesdays – 8am to 12pm;
Thursdays – 2pm to 6pm;
Saturdays - 9am to 1pm.
Redcar Leisure Centre Ridley St, Redcar TS10 1TD
Mondays – 8am to 1pm;
Tuesdays – 1.30pm to 6.30pm;
Wednesdays – 8am to 1pm;
Thursdays – 1.30pm to 6.30pm;
Fridays - 8am to 1pm.
Golden Boy Green Community Centre, South Bank, TS6 6SD
Mondays – 8am to 12pm;
Wednesdays – 8am to 12pm;
Thursdays – 8am to 12pm;
Fridays - 8am to 12pm.
All sites offer lateral flow tests – which produce results in around 30 minutes and are sent directly to your mobile phone number or email address. The tests are available to anyone aged 18 years or over - irrespective of where they live – and who are not displaying Coronavirus symptoms. Anyone not displaying Coronavirus symptoms can book a test by visiting the Council’s website at www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk or calling the contact centre on 01642 774774. There are also a number of walk-in appointments available so the public can visit each site for a test during opening hours. Please do not attend if you have symptoms.
Anyone displaying the following Coronavirus symptoms should not come to the site for a test:
a new, continuous cough
a high temperature; or
a loss of, or change, in your sense of smell or taste.
If you have any of the symptoms listed above, you should follow the guidance online on how to book a test – https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test – or call 119. Lines are open 7am to 11pm. You will also need to need to stay at home and self-isolate.
Local news
wraparound
If you require wraparound provision please email wraparound@galleyhillprimary.co.uk to book your place for breakfast and afterschool provision.
Finally
It has been a very busy term. We have been in school, then had remote learning for many children, with everyone returning back to school 3 weeks ago. It is amazing to have the school full again and hear and see all of the wonderful things that the children have been doing.
Have a wonderful Easter holiday, rest up and we look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday April 12th.
Take care and stay safe,
Mr Anthony McGeeney