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A message from our Head Teacher: COVID-19

National Lockdown January 2021

School is now closed to all children at least until the February half-term and the vast majority of children are ‘remote learning’ as everyone is urged to stay at home.

I hope you are all well and staying safe. We know how difficult the lockdown in Spring 2020 was and we are facing another challenging time in the coming months. Things do seem much more positive this time though and many more families are ready for remote learning which means we can minimize the disruption to children’s education and wellbeing. Unity staff have committed to delivering remote learning as follows;

• All primary aged-children will be set work that should occupy them for 3 (KS1) or 4 (KS2) hours a day
• Y5 and Y6 will access learning through Microsoft Teams. We are expecting more laptops any day and then we will also roll out Teams with Y4.
• Reception to Y4 will continue to post work and videos through Class Dojo. Classes will also be using Zoom at specific times so there is some live interaction with their teachers
• Each class has a timetable that they will stick to throughout this lockdown, the ‘live’ lessons have been scheduled at different times so that families with children in different year groups can always get to their live lessons if they are sharing a device.
• Core subjects (Literacy, EY/KS1 phonics, Maths) will be covered every day
• A variety of foundation subjects (History, Geography, Art, DT, Spanish, PE, PHSE) will also be taught every week
• At least 3 times a week there will be PE or physical activity timetabled
• There will be a ‘check in’ every day with the class teacher or teaching assistant which is like taking a register to make sure all children are engaging.
• There will be a story time at the end of each day.
• There will be a whole school celebration assembly each week at the usual time (Monday 2.30pm) via zoom.
• The work that children complete will be checked at least once a week by their teachers
• School staff will contact families where there is a concern over online engagement to see if there is any other way we could support children to access their learning.

Links to Class Dojo, MS Teams and Zoom are on this home page. Lockdown timetables to follow at home along with more information on remote learning can be found in the Home Learning tab above. We have scheduled ‘live’ lessons so that families with children in different classes sharing a device should all still be able to access their live lessons and interact with their teacher. We are monitoring children’s engagement in their remote learning and will be in touch if we are concerned that children are not accessing their learning so that we can support you in this.

Parents can support school by ensuring:

• Your child is engaged online every day and completes their work
• your child has the resources they need or contact school if you need support with this
• You speak to staff when they ring and communicate what is going well and where support is needed
• School devices are looked after properly
• Children get out for some physical activity every day
• Children’s emotional wellbeing is supported

I know how tricky home learning is for families and restrictions on our social contacts makes lockdown difficult for everyone. Please try your best with working with your children at home but don’t give yourself a hard time, you are doing a good job! By working together school and families can make sure our Unity children continue to thrive and I look forward to being able to welcome you all back to school in the future.

Take care, stay safe

Mrs J Lee

Headteacher

full lockdown leaflet

Remote Learning agreement Jan Lockdown

Revised Risk Assessment Jan 2021

Remote learning contingency plan