School Letters

Dear Parents/Carers Re: Maya Workshop As part of our history topic on the Maya, ‘Past Productions’ will be visiting our school to deliver a Maya workshop on Tuesday 6th October 2020 and Wednesday 7th October 2020.The day will include opportunities for the children to find out lots of information about this ancient civilisation and explore some Maya artefacts. They can also take part in a drama/re-enactment and meet a warrior! Past Productions have personal ties to the Mayan community and still have family living in the Yucatan Peninsula; they will be great at bringing the subject to life as well as making it fun through a diversity of activities. There is no requirement for your child to make or bring anything Mayan to wear. The school has carried out an internal risk assessment to ensure the workshops and events are Covid secure. 6M and 6DS will have their workshop on Tuesday 6th October and 6B and 6CR on Wednesday 7th October. To meet the cost of this workshop, we would like to ask parents/carers to make a voluntary contribution of £6.20. Payment should be made on ScoPay by Friday 2nd October 2020. Thank you for your support. Yours sincerely Year 5 Yours sincerely

Dear Parents and Carers, We hope your children have settled easily into their new year 6 classes. Please find below details of various aspects of the learning and organisation of year 6. Curriculum Map A curriculum map, which is a general overview of the work your child will be doing during the academic year, will be available on our website. If you require a hard copy, please contact the office. School Uniform You are reminded that the policy about school uniform is clearly stated on the school website. All children should be wearing a white polo-shirt, shirt or blouse; navy blue sweatshirt or cardigan (preferably with school logo); black or grey trousers, shorts or skirts and black shoes (not black trainers). To avoid potential loss of clothing, please ensure all garments are clearly labelled with your child’s name. Homework In light of the current situation, we are now setting online weekly homework. Your child’s log in details will come home in their green book, which should then remain at home. If you have any problems with accessing the online platforms or your child has limited computer access, please contact your child’s class teacher via the office. The first week of homework is Monday 14th September Spelling: This will be set every Monday. Each child will have ten words to learn and practise during the week and then will be tested in class on a Friday. We would encourage your child to use a range of strategies to help learn their spellings and they may wish to practise in the green homework book (this book will not need to be returned to school). Once your child feels confident that they have learnt their spellings, they then complete the online Purple Mash Quiz which will be able to be viewed by your child’s teacher. Quizzes will need to be completed by the due on the following Monday and feedback will be provided verbally within class. Maths: Maths homework is completed on an online program called My Maths, which is accessible by desktops or tablets. This will be set every Monday to be completed by the following Monday. Your child will use their existing username and password to log on. Whilst this is an online homework, your child may use additional resources such as paper and pencil to support their working. At the end of the homework, there is a ‘mark it’ icon, which will then mark and score the piece of work. Children may re-attempt the homework if they wish to improve their initial score. All scores will be accessible by the class teacher and feedback will be given verbally within class. Additionally, we encourage your child to continue practising multiplication tables each week using Times Tables Rockstars. Home Reading As part of our whole school approach to reading, children will have the opportunity to choose a library book to take home. Children are encouraged to read every evening. Please encourage and support your child with their reading. P.E. P.E. will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is important that your child wears their kit into school on these days: ideally blue or black shorts, leggings or tracksuit bottoms, yellow P.E. t-shirt, a blue or black sweatshirt or warmer zip up top and trainers or plimsolls. All jewellery, including watches or wrist bands, must be removed on the grounds of safety and security. The wearing of stud earrings will be permitted, but, as stated in the school and LA policies, these should be removed. Children with newly pierced ears must bring in tape to cover their earrings. Please note that teachers and other members of staff are not permitted to remove a child’s earrings; therefore, children must be able to remove and replace them on their own or bring a suitable micro-porous tape to cover them. SATs Week SATs for all Year 6 children is planned for the week of 10th – 13th May. It is important that no holidays or medical appointments are booked during this week. If any tests are missed, they cannot be rescheduled. Trips and Activites In Year 6 there are a few activities that we would ask for a voluntary contribution towards. Please be aware that prices are approximate. However, due to Covid restrictions, all trips and visits are subject to cancellation in light of changing government guidance. At the request of parents, we have tried to detail these in advance for the year as follows: • Design Technology activities for year - £4.50 – Autumn Term • Maya Workshop – History workshop in school - £10 – September • Fairthorne Manor – 5 day optional residential visit – £285.00 – 24th- 28nd May (instalments) • Mary Rose Activity Day- Local History Study- £9.00- June • Paultons Park – Computing and DT - £18 – July Mobile Phones and Social Media It is recommended that your child does not bring a mobile phone to school as we cannot be held responsible for any damage that may occur. However, if you decide it is necessary for your child, then the procedure is that they turn their phone off before entering the school grounds and hand it to their class teacher at the start of the day to be stored. Mobile phones should not be turned on until your child has left the school grounds. We would like to remind parents that the school policy is that children should not be using any social media platform beyond the legal age stated or without parental supervision. Therefore, any issues arising will always be referred back to parents. Finally, if at any time you have any queries or concerns, please let us know via the school office. Yours sincerely, Mrs Carter-Rowe Mr McMaster Mrs Di Marco / Mr Salmond Miss Batten 6CR 6M 6DS 6B

Dear parents and carers We are delighted to be opening up to all and look forward to having your child back with us next week. We have been working hard on plans to keep pupils as safe as possible while making sure the school day and classroom environment feels familiar and normal. Our first official start date is Thursday 3rd September. Key messages and arrangements for September Getting to and from school Please avoid using public transport as far as possible. We would encourage walking, cycling and scooting – there are facilities for cycle and scooter storage at school. We would suggest that you bring a lock as all are left at owners’ risk. Please do not congregate around the site at the beginning and the end of the school day to ensure that social distancing is maintained. As far as possible please either; allow your child to come to school on their own (if you feel that is appropriate) or drop them off near the school allowing them to walk to the school entrance by themselves. If you feel that you need to bring your child on to the school premises please use the carousel systems to drop your child off without staying around to engage in conversation with your child’s teacher (obviously a quick hello is fine). This is so we can maintain social distancing and make drop-offs efficient. This is a walking carousel as opposed to a stop and wait. Please queue up outside the school premises maintaining social distancing and do not cross the yellow markers in the playgrounds. At the end of the day you can either: • arrange a place outside the school grounds to pick up your child, • your child can walk home alone • use the carousel system to pick up your child as teachers will be on the playground with their class. Please be on time. Children will not be allowed to stay and play on site at the end of the day. Timings We will be having split drop off and collection times: • years 3 and 5 drop off 8.30am and collection 2.50pm • years 4 and 6 drop off 8.40am and collection 3.00pm Classes will be dropped off and collected in the following playgrounds using the carousel system. See attached map. The car park entrance should only be used by children who are entering and leaving the site by themselves and is not for parents at the moment. Communication Please contact the office by email or telephone call as far as possible rather than coming into the reception area as we need to minimise the number of adults on site. DFE guidelines state that parents should only come into school in an emergency. In any event we will only allow one parent/family in reception at a time. Miscellaneous • Children should NOT wear facemasks in school as this is against government advice. If you choose to wear one on the way to school they will need to be put away in a bag or disposed of in a bin • Pupils should wear school uniform except on PE days where they children should come in their PE kit. Children will be informed of their PE days once we return to school. We will be keeping windows open as much as possible so please make sure your child dresses accordingly and has a jumper to put on • Water bottles are to be brought in from home and taken home daily • Children should not bring in any additional items e.g. pencil cases • There will be no hot lunches as there are too many logistical challenges to enable these to be provided safely. Children will still be able to order a cold packed lunch through SCOPay which will still be provided free for those eligible. • If you are providing your child with a packed lunch from home lunches are to be placed in a washable lunchbox with your child’s name and class clearlhy labelled. Health We are fortunate in Portsmouth that the level of infection is currently low. You can play your part in keeping the rate of infection low and reducing the spread of the virus by: • Helping your child understand and follow the school's new arrangements to keep everyone as safe as possible • Teaching your child how to wash their hands effectively, and ensuring they wash their hands frequently • Encouraging good respiratory hygiene, by following the "catch it, bin it, kill it" guidance when coughing or sneezing • Keeping your child off school if they or anyone in the household has symptoms of coronavirus, or if they have returned from a country with quarantine restrictions in the last 14 days. • If reporting an absence please use the Studbugs app. https://studybugs.com/ Please contact us if your child has any underlying health conditions that you feel we need to be aware of and that may affect their return to school on admin@craneswater.portsmouth.sch.uk INSET Days We also have 2 in service training days days booked for the autumn term on Monday October 5th and Monday 30th November. Yours sincerely, Dave Jones

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