Reflections on week 17

Dear Parents and Carers, (Heroes)

During this Pandemic, frontline workers have rightly been called ‘heroes’; however, I propose another group for such an accolade – Home schooling parents and carers!

Let me put my thanks on record, especially to those of you who are struggling to manage the differing demands upon your time. Your selfless actions in supporting this lockdown should fill you with a sense of civic pride. The media is full with stories of people breaking the rules, whereas, I see the vast majority  doing what they can to defeat this virus. I hope that with the vaccine rollout and the lockdown measures beginning to bite, we will soon see the infection rates fall and the pressure on our hospitals begin to ease.

I share everyone’s hopes that, this time, the lockdown works and that we will be able to welcome everyone back to something more approaching normal life before too long.

 

Home learning is now up and running for the vast majority of our pupils and, although we’ve had a few teething troubles, many difficulties have now been resolved. (My thanks go to all the staff, and especially to Mr Smith, for the support and advice provided as families try to engage with Microsoft Teams.) It is worth persevering with this platform as it allows your children to access ‘real time’ teaching and feedback from their teachers. I recognise that working at home is far from ideal. Please remember that you can only do what your circumstances reasonable allow you to do and please do not interpret calls from school as anything other than support and assistance. Again, I say to families, please let me know if you have any issues with devices, wi-fi connectivity or data and I’ll try to find a solution. Please also remember that the small room inside the front entrance to school is full of exercise books, pens, pencils and rubbers and I invite you to take whatever you need. If you are self-isolating, please phone with your needs and I’ll try and arrange delivery.

On a separate but related point, any families using ‘Tescomobile’ may be able to get an additional free allowance of data. Please email me your details and I’ll try and pursue this offer. A.fell@floweryfield.tameside.sch.uk

Yet again, we’ve had another change of plan from the Government (U-turn?) regarding FSM vouchers. On Wednesday evening, I received instructions to revert to using Edenred, as we did during the first lockdown. The vouchers we issued this week cover next week also, so this change does not affect our families until w/c 25th January. I will send further information next week.

Best wishes and please do all you can to stay safe,

Mr Fell