Dear Parent/Carer

Thank you to all those parents and carers who have engaged with our remote teaching and learning this week, either through our online platform or through the learning packs. By the end of yesterday 50% of children had logged on to Dojo to return work to teachers, 81 children were in school, 30 learning packs had been given out, which all means that this week most of our children have been able to continue their learning. The quality of the work that has been returned to school has been very high and it is clear that many children are continuing to work hard and are enjoying their learning in whatever form it takes.

Teachers have tried hard to differentiate the work for different groups of children as they do in school, but please don’t be afraid to move outside the band targeted for your child. If they are finding the work difficult they may need to look at a lower band to begin with; if they have found it relatively straight forward they might need to look at a band above, or may need an additional challenge. One or two parents have contacted school worried about the amount of work their child has completed; teachers are following DfE guidance in terms of setting work i.e. all children in a year group, either in school or out, following the same curricular expectations in terms of content and amount of work.

Having said this we are fully aware that children work at different speeds, concentration capacity differs etc, and added to this home circumstances are also very different. In short, do your very best to support your child’s learning but also understand that we are not expecting you to replicate what the teachers do in school.

By the end of yesterday, over 1000 pieces of work had been returned to school. As I’m sure you’ll appreciate, teachers simply don’t have the time to comment on each piece of work, they will look at every piece and they will comment when they feel it appropriate. To ensure staff health and well-being, there is no expectation from school that teachers will continue to mark work into the evening (although some may choose do so!), so some comments and feedback may not appear until the next day. Our intention is that as the weeks progress the amount of video material will increase to add support to teaching and learning.

For those children who have accessed teaching and learning through learning packs, we would ask that only work completed by the child should be returned to school, we don’t need all the additional resources returning. We would ask that each piece of work returned has the child’s name on and that the work is returned as early as possible on a Friday morning but no later than 12.00, so teachers can look at it and comment as appropriate. Teacher comments will be included in packs sent out to individual children on the following Monday. It is very important that parents requiring learning packs next week let school know by 4.00 today, we will only prepare packs for parents who request them.

Thank you to those parents making every effort to keep children at home, it is very much appreciated, we will do our very best to help and support you with your child’s learning. Thank you also for your patience and understanding as we got remote learning up and running this week, the response from children this week has made all the effort very worthwhile.

A particular thank you to all the staff at East Ayton Primary School who have responded so wonderfully to the demands placed on them in the last couple of weeks, I simply couldn’t have asked anything more of them.
Finally, a reminder that school closes at lunchtime tomorrow so that enhanced cleaning can take place in each classroom and around school. Class R and Class 3 will leave at 12.00; Nursery, Class 1 and Class 4 will leave at 12.15; Class 2, Class 5 and Class 6 will leave at 12.30. The children will have lunch before leaving.

Yours sincerely
Mr. D. Johnson