The last few days have been the most difficult of my teaching career. It has been emotional and exhausting. I have been supported so much by staff, chairs of governors and by parents. For that I am extremely grateful. We were delivered a challenge with very little support.
School will remain open for parents who most need it. They are most certainly not ‘closed’ as the Prime Minister announced. Staff will be working behind the scenes to deep clean classrooms and resources, finance, safeguarding, completing online training, developing the curriculum and many other tasks.
As a small school we have limited staff to work with and we will try to maintain the service in school as long as we can. This is why on Friday I had to ask parents to wherever possible, in line with government guidance, to keep children at home. I know this means making some sacrifices and I am extremely grateful to all those of you who have managed to keep your children at home.
Teachers will be setting daily tasks for children to do at home and they will be set via Tapestry. Please can you respond at least once a week to let us know how it is going, share work or just to say hello.
There is an expectation to complete some work each day, some children have already set their own timetables. Routine is important to children and if they know what is expected of them they are more likely to rise to the challenge. However if at anytime during the day doing work with your child becomes at all stressful put it away, play a game in the garden or a board game, snuggle up with a book, watch a movie together or bake some cakes. I know that many of you will be trying to work from home and if children just need to play in the garden or go on an Ipad whilst you do that please dont worry.
I will be calling people who do not communicate, as it is really important that we stay in touch. I will also call families throughout the next few weeks just to check in. If anyone needs to speak to me please email head@cradley.hereford.sch.uk as I am anticipating Tapestry will be very busy. These are going to be a challenging few months for everyone but if we continue to support each other I know, as a community, we will get through this.
If you need anything at all during this time please email me, or put a note on Tapestry and someone will get in touch. If we can't help, we will find someone who can.
When this is all over we will get together for a big party to celebrate and regroup!
God bless you all,
Mrs Jones