School life

Some amazing work from everyone again this week! You are all doing amazingly well. Remember to keep sharing all of the work that you are doing on Teams, on Tapestry or you can e-mail/message me on Teams. A big well done to everyone at home as well, you are doing an amazing job. Remember, if there is anything at all that we can do to help or support, we are here.

Here is just a snippet of what you have all been getting up to this week!

Nursery talk for writing

Lunch in school

To help with numbers and ordering of food, whilst we have reduced numbers in school, please can you complete the Parentmail form to help us with this. Thank you.

Parent Support group

A few parents met this week to discuss how they are helping support their children at home. Miss Andrews (SENDCo) was also there, as well as myself, to continue to see what we, as a school, can do to help those who may be struggling.

We are going to hold another meeting during the week of the 1st February.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible to talk about how things are, how you are doing and support each other during these difficult times.

Look out for the link via Parentmail and Facebook.

Resources

If you need anything like exercise books for children to record their work in, please let us know and we can arrange a time for you to come and collect some from the main office. Reading books will not be able to go home at this moment in time. We are looking at what we can offer.

Assembly

You can find this weeks assembly below

We have set up a new team on Teams with the whole school in. There will be an assembly on a Monday and Friday for you join in with. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Monday morning at 10am.

WE ARE ARTISTS

STaff testing

As I am sure you will be aware, staff in primary, school-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools are being offered the opportunity to take part in regular asymptomatic testing. Galley Hill have started to receive deliveries of DfE home testing kits to offer to all our staff and testing will commence twice weekly from week commencing Monday 25th of January.

We believe the testing programme to be an important addition to maintain the continuity of education through the pandemic. The system of controls currently in place will continue to be rigorously applied to enable the safest possible environment.

All staff will be supplied with lateral flow device (LFD) test kits to self-swab. Staff will be asked to take their test kits home and carry out the test twice a week. The LFD test will give a result in around 30 minutes. Staff must report their result to NHS Test and Trace as soon as the test is completed and should also share their result with school to help with contact tracing and school opening. The positive element of this work is that we will reduce significantly the number of staff attending who are asymptomatic.

However, I must add the caveat that we will more than likely incur an increase in confirmed cases and therefore an increased occurrence of the possibility of having to collapse bubbles. As is now customary practice, we will endeavour to communicate such situations to parents as soon as is logistically possible.

Thank you for your continued support.

School social media accounts

If you are working from home, you can share your amazing work with us on Teams or via Twitter @Galley_Hill

Free School Meals

If your child is in Reception to Year 6 - you may be entitled to free school meals.

Who's eligible?

Children may be able to receive free school meals if their parent/carer receives at least one of the following:

Universal Credit - (providing you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400 as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)

Income Support

Income Based Jobseekers Allowance

Income Related Employment and Support Allowance

The Guaranteed Element of Pension Credit

Support under part V1 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Child Tax Credit - provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income as assessed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs of no more than £16,190

A 'Run-On' of Working Tax Credit - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

If you think you would qualify, no matter which year group your child(ren) are in, please do let us know, or contact Redcar and Cleveland authority directly who administer all free school meal registrations on 01642 774774. As soon they complete the form with you over the phone, we will get an email.

Devices

If you are in need of a device, please do let us know. We have a few still available in school to lend out. Also, I have secured some Vodaphone Sim Cards with 30GB of data on, so if anyone requires further data support, please do let us know. We are here to help support in any way we can.

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

WELL BEING SUPPORT

Finally

It has been another fantastic week of creativity, maths work, reading, writing and everything in between, with some wonderful Art work as well. I look forward to seeing all of the amazing things that next week brings both in school and for those of you at home.

Look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning for assembly at 10am.

Take care, stay safe and have a wonderful weekend.

Mr McGeeney