Welcome back everyone! We are really looking forward to seeing you all.

You will get more information when we start back, with much more detail about our Covid -19 procedures, but we would like to reassure you that we have been busy getting the classroom ready to ensure that we all remain safe but the children can also learn effectively and have fun. You can see a few photos of our lovely bright and cheerful room below.

Some of you have been asking about what your child should/shouldn't bring. We would expect your child to bring their book bag as usual. For all new children, the first one is provided free of charge, along with a water bottle. These have been quarantined and will be given out on the first day. Bags and coats can be hung on the child's peg as usual. We used to store home packed lunches in the fridge but this involves too much handling for the current situation, so, for now, children will keep their packed lunch bags on their pegs with their other belongings. Each child will be given their own individual pencil case with all necessary pens, pencils, rulers etc in, so they will not need to bring their own from home. Government regulations now allow much more equipment and toys to be out for use in school (with strict cleaning procedures) but I'm afraid that toys from home will have to stay at home for the time being. PE will be going ahead, although adapted to meet safety requirements, so children will need PE kits in school every week, please. To ensure there is no accidental sharing of clothes, please ensure everything is clearly named.

We will be handwashing regularly throughout the day, mostly using soap as this is proven to be the most effective cleaner, but we will also use child-friendly hand sanitiser as required. We discourage the use of hand sanitisers from home as the Government recommends minimum items going between home and school to avoid spreading germs.

To keep everyone safe, we are sorry, but parents are not allowed in the classroom. If you want to speak to any of us, do catch us at the gate, or phone Mrs Preston in the office (mornings only) and she will be able to arrange something. I know parents usually like to settle new Reception children, but I can assure you that we will do everything in our power to make them happy and comfortable and, if there have been problems when you drop off, we will message you during the morning to reassure you that all is now well.

I am sure that some of you will be worried about how things will work and how your child will react to being back in school. This is perfectly natural and normal! I can only say that those children who were in during the strictest lockdown period, managed to stay safe and have a really enjoyable and productive time, so I am sure we can manage the same now!

We have received these photos showing what one family is doing at home. All sounds great fun. Well done! We do love to see your work and activities. I have really enjoyed seeing the excellent art competition entries from everyone - the committee will have a hard job to choose the winners!

May 22nd 2020

Hello all. I hope you have a good half term.

School will be starting again for some after the holiday and we look forward to seeing you. Please remember you MUST have your own water bottle. You will also need a healthy snack for playtime as we are unable to provide anything. We will start the day with "PE with Joe" so you might want to wear suitable clothes (for example, trousers - or PE shorts under a dress). If it is hot, you will need sun hats and sun cream as always. Packed lunches will be kept at your table and you will need to be able to open any packaging yourself. The children have made a booklet about what school is like at the moment, but I can only get the photos or the words to upload to the Blog, not both! We will hand deliver the booklet to those we know are coming back. If you would like a copy, just let the office know

If you are not coming back yet and you would like some work just let us know but you do not need to have anything from us. We know lots of you are doing some lovely family activities at home.

The Oak Academy is a Government website with lessons on that you might like to try? Just click here.

Our certificates today go to:

• Hayden for his amazing reading. He read to his sister and to himself and hardly needed any help. (We loved the photo, thank you)

• Riley, Alfie, Eve, Faith, Oscar - all for submitting SO MUCH work and putting so much effort in. Well done.

• Jenson for all the activities he has been doing at home. (Thanks for the email)

• Asya for her homework and for working hard back in school.

Harry and Ryder wrote the piece for the Parish News this month:

Our Federation schools have been closed due to coronavirus, but Brancaster has stayed open. The Government gave Mr King a list of what sort of children could still come to school and about 15 children in the Federation were on the list but only 2 have come. It is really strange just being two of us but we are doing lots of fun things and learning lots. (Mrs Bocking adds Ryder can now write joined up and Harry’s writing has changed out of all recognition! Well done, boys!)

Every afternoon we do art and we did a topic on famous artists and did finger painting to make pictures like Monet and printing like Andy Warhol and William Morris. We have been making butterflies with folding paper and also made them symmetrical by painting them carefully and folding them.We painted multi-coloured rainbows for the people who help us and we put them on the church gate so everyone would see them.

In English we have been learning about adjectives and adverbs so we can describe things and make it more interesting. We learnt about famous authors and compared and reviewed some of their special books.

We have explored plants and learnt about roots, leaves, petals and pollen. Insects like bees collect the pollen from the flowers. Birds collect the seeds so the plants can grow new plants. We planted some seeds that are now growing. We also did the life cycle of frogs and our tadpoles changed to froglets.

We learnt to program the beebots to go places like the yellow, red, brown and blue towers.

We learnt about Mary, the mother of Jesus and made a attractive altar for our assembly table. We put flowers on.

Every morning we do PE with Joe and now Rosie. All the staff join in and we are getting much better at the exercises.

We have been happily reading all the Mr Men books and our favourite treat is watching the Mr Men and Little Miss DVD.

Mr Johnson and Mrs Sayers from Sedgeford come and help sometimes and Mr Sayers has been painting the school Sharon and Mrs Lack have been sorting out the library with a bit of help from Mr King, and Mrs Tidd and Mrs Bocking are tidying out the attic. Our school looks really nice now – all clean and tidy and fresh.

By Ryder (age 6) and Harry (age 7).

I hope that everyone had a good Easter and that you are all still well and safe. Holidays officially finish this weekend. Some of you may then need some more work. If so, do please contact the school and we will get this organised.

Our topic would have been famous artists this term so you might want to explore some artists and art. There are lots of ideas and resources out there on the internet but here are a few links: twinkl or topmarks and a great one -BBC bitesize. Also the crafty classroom.

Science is anything to do with nature - growing plants would be a good topic for this time of year. Again BBC bitesize has some great resources, as does everyschool and twinkl.

Twinkl are still doing their daily timetable which gives you everything you need for all the day's lessons - just click here

BBC Bitesize are also doing the same thing - just click here

Phonics play will keep your child up to date with phonics - just click here

Oxford Owls is another great site - full of books and ideas -just click here

Some good maths sites include Learning at home, maths mastery and nrich - all have specific resources for home learning and all would fit well with the way we teach in school.

There are, of course, plenty more sites, and if you need more ideas, just contact the school.

Also some news - we sent the eggs we had collected for Easter Bingo and Egg Hunt to the staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as someone put out a message saying how tired the doctors, nurses and other helpers are, and how they needed treats. I hope they enjoyed them as much as we would have done! We were in the paper - just click on the link to see the article - EDP. We delivered the spare eggs to some of the people in the village who are self isolating and often a bit lonely. We had so many heartfelt thank yous. Thank you, children, for being so generous and giving your eggs away!