Welcome back to our children and their families. I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. We have lots of plans to make 2022 a fantastic year for our school and your support will continue to be invaluable.
It has been great to have everyone back in school and start the new year. This term we focus on Peace and Conflict. The value and question we will be focussing on in school is: What Are We Fighting For? Peace and Conflict
In all communities – from the school to the international level – there are conflicts of interest and disagreements. As a result there is a continual need to develop rules, laws, customs and systems that all people accept as reasonable and fair. Issues of peace and conflict are thus inevitably bound up with questions of social justice
On Monday, we shared the fantastic story about Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace prize winner.
School life
We have started the New Year with gusto! Author visits, Commando Joe, staff training on emotional coaching for the children in school, lots of amazing work and story telling around school with some creative play outside. It's been a fantastic first full week back in school.
Don't forget you can see what is being taught in each year group on the school website here
This week Reception have been learning the story of The Gingerbread Man and the children made gingerbread men. We have been talking about how we all like doing different things and the children have been drawing and writing about the things they like to do. We have also been practising forming numbers, if you would like to do this at home this will be much appreciated.
We have organised a Foundation Stage trip to see The Tiger Who Came To Tea at Billingham Forum on Tuesday 8th of February, more information to follow.
STar/mathematician/writer/ Reader of the week
Parent Forum
Next week we have another Parent Forum. Come along and see what are future plans are, what we are currently doing and have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have.
Tuesday 18th January 5pm - you can join here (no sign up required)
creative writing
Time to get the creative writing again, I'm looking forward to your creative writing this week
Entries Due by Wednesday 19th January
e-safety courses for parents
The online world is posing an ever-increasing risk to children, and it is important that schools, parents and carers work together to take an active role in teaching children about online dangers.
Learning how to act safely when using the internet is an incredibly important part of safeguarding our children.
We are therefore delighted to announce that at Galley Hill Primary School, we have shown our commitment to protecting our pupils online by working with National Online Safety- providing resources for all parents and carers.
The resources include Parents & Carers courses (presented by Myleene Klass), online video resources and weekly guides covering a huge range of topics, including:
- Online Relationships
- Fake Profiles & Social Bots
- Online Bullying
- Online Grooming
- Sexual Harassment & Violence
- Live Streaming
- Online Identity
- Social Media Platforms
- Age Inappropriate Content
- Online Fraud
- Games & Trends
To create your account, please follow https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/galley-hill-primaryschool and complete your details.
When you’re set up, you’ll be able to set ‘Parent/Carer’ as your user type.
We can work together to ensure that the children of Galley Hill are supported in school and at home with E-Safety in our ever technologically advanced world.
Ks3 Transition
The local authority are currently reviewing the transition arrangements for those children who move from primary to secondary school.
If your child is in year 5 or year 6 we would very much appreciate your views through completing a very short survey.
There are two surveys – one for pupils and one for you as parents/carers.
Pupils’ survey
Year 5 and 6: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GKPX7S2
Parents/Carers’ survey
Year 5 and 6: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/G8PLQ3P
Surveys are anonymous and do not ask for your name. Results will be pooled together to provide an overall picture across the local authority. Surveys are available till 24th January
School Dinners
Next week is week 3
COVID
There have been several changes in guidance for isolation in England recently.
The first change that came into place on 11th January 2022 is that you no longer are required to get a PCR test if you have a positive lateral flow test without symptoms. This is now considered positive and therefore you would need to isolate.
If you or your child have any of the symptoms, it is still required that you get a PCR test.
If you or your child live in a house where there is a confirmed positive case (either Lateral Flow or PCR) you should be taking a Lateral Flow test daily for seven days. If it is negative then your child can come to school, if it is positive they would need to isolate.
From Monday 17th January 2022, the guidance around isolation time will be reduced to 5 days from when someone tests positive either by PCR or LFT. 5 days is explained as five full 24 hour periods. On day 5 the positive case would need to do a LFT and then another on the morning of day 6 if both are negative then that person is free to come out of isolation. If they don' t test negative then they are required to continue isolating until they have 2 negative LFTs 24 hours apart or they reach the 10 day isolation point. This is not for 5's and under.
If you need any help or guidance with this please contact school and we will hopefully be able to talk you through it.
opal
The weather is still a little boggy so please do keep those wellies coming in! We are starting to develop some further areas and playing more games with the children, so they might start coming home playing new games.
Keep an eye out as we will soon be holding our first stay and play for you to come along and see what playtimes look like. It will give you an opportunity to get involved with all the games the children will be learning.
Play time snacks
Please can I remind parents and children that snacks that the children eat at playtime need to be healthy. Therefore, can we please ask that children do not bring into school, for their snack :- Chocolate - including chocolate covered products, crisps, sweets and cake
Unfortunately, your child will be asked to stop eating the product and offered a healthy alternative, if this is seen on the playground moving forward.
Also, may I take this opportunity to remind you that we are a nut free school.
If you have any questions then please don't hesitate to contact school and thank you for your cooperation.
What's coming up in the school calendar
E-safety and local news
Finally
A big thank you for all the hard work that Miss Malone has done while she has undertaken her Teaching Assistant apprenticeship at Galley Hill. Today we say goodbye to her and wish her the best of luck as she continues her training.
This weekend Miss Robinson is getting married. We can't be more excited for her! From all of us at Galley Hill - have a magnificent day and enjoy every moment of it.
Take care and stay safe
Mr Anthony McGeeney