Dear Parents and Carers

It has now been announced that the lockdown period will be extended for at least a further three weeks. We will continue to give updates as soon as we receive them and will continue to offer support in any way that we can. That means school will remain closed for the majority of families until further notice. We will only be remaining open for children of critical workers and those recognised by the county who need to be in school.

We continue to urge all parents who are critical workers and have an option to keep children safe at home to continue to do so. This is vital to protect all the children and staff who are in school and will continue to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

From the briefing last night, as a nation, the measures we are taking in terms of the lockdown and social distancing are working and it is vital we continue to follow the guidance given. This has been an incredibly difficult time for all of our Newtown community. The staff of Newtown have been overwhelmed by the love and support given by the parent body.

Children coming into school:

Children can be at school from 8.30am-3pm. If your child is entitled to free school meals, they can arrive from 8am and be offered a free breakfast place. Due to increased numbers we cannot offer this now to all children due to the social distancing measures we need to put in place.

If any parents have any concerns around their working hours and drop off at the start of the day, please do not hesitate to get in touch and we will try and help in any way we can. The children will be carrying out a variety of learning activities as well as completing the packs provided for home learning. Children entitled to free school meals or who would like to order a hot lunch can continue to do so in the normal way when they arrive at school.

Home Learning:

Home learning will move to weekly and we are only expecting the children to spend 2 or 3 hours during the day to complete it, depending on the age of the child (this can be spaced out over the course of the day and does not need to be completed all at once)

The home learning packs will be uploaded to the school website each Friday where you will be able to access them. You can find the home learning on the website by following the links:

• https://www.newtownceprimary.co.uk/

• Click on 'children'

• Click on 'home learning resources'

• Scroll down to 'year group home learning resources'

• Click on the relevant year group

• Scroll down to find the resources under the date for the week

• Home learning resources for the previous weeks will remain on there for the time being

We have limited hard copies, but if you require a paper copy you must phone the school number during the day on a Friday - before 2pm. Please state your child's name and year group when placing your order. Your paper copy will be made available after 10am on the following Monday each week. This will be placed in a box by the main door and will be named for you to collect.

Please phone the school office to inform us when you are on your way to collect. If you know your child is on the Special Educational Needs (SEND) register and may require a pack from a different age group, then please inform the office team when placing your order. For example, your child may have some additional needs in maths and may require the maths pack from another year group.

Home learning will include:

• Daily English (including reading, writing, spelling and handwriting)

• Daily Maths

• Daily phonics (in Early Years and KS1)

• Weekly project

• Weekly science

• Some weeks there may be French/Music/Computing/Personal Development Learning which will be included

The pages of the work pack will indicate the days of the week to complete for English and Maths.

Please remember learning comes in lots of different ways so enjoy this time with your children and find other ways to learning, for example bake, play in the garden, play board games, make dens, examine different types of wildlife/trees outside. The Newtown 90 which we gave out at the beginning of the year will give you some further inspiration of learning opportunities to complete as a family.

All children who are learning at home and who are entitled to a free school meal will continue to have a lunch delivery. Please contact the office if you think you might be entitled to this offer.

Other Notices:

lease remember to use your personal log in to the Seesaw app. This gives your child the opportunity to keep in touch with child’s class teacher and share the activities they have been completing at home. If you need to contact the school for support, please do so and you will be able to speak to a key member of staff.

Finally, please can I remind all parents not to try and contact staff directly by email or through other channels. If you need to contact a member of staff please telephone the school office or email adminoffice@newtown.hants.sch.uk and we will pass your message on to the relevant staff member. The staff member will reply via parentmail or via the admin office email account. This is to safeguard all our staff in the unprecedented time.

Thank you again for all of your support and if you have any queries please do not hesitate to get in touch. We look forward to welcoming all of our Newtown children and their families when it is safe to do so. Please continue to take care and stay safe.

Kindest regards

Mrs E Howlett

Headteacher