Headmaster's Message
Dear Parents
The sun has continued to shine throughout our first week ‘back’ to school. Home schooling is probably a lot more demanding than anyone had anticipated and at least the weather has meant that the children are able to get outside between lessons and spend important time away from a computer screen. Although the place of work has changed, it is important to keep thinking about the work-life balance and for the children this means accessing the whole range of the curriculum, not just focusing on the academic subjects.
With today’s communications you will also find a questionnaire to complete on the new style of home learning we have put in place this week. Seesaw has been put through its paces for a full five days now and Teams online meetings have also begun to be rolled out. Speaking to my staff over the last few days, I am very aware of the hours they are currently putting in to make this work as well as they possibly can. That is also very apparent when I look at the lessons that have been set and the detailed thought that has gone into them. No-one will pretend that home learning is an ideal way of schooling, but I hope you have also felt the passion and the care that has gone into the lessons.
Having said that, whilst staff have built up years of expertise as teachers, they are not experts in computer technology (yet). For that reason, we want to continue to develop and improve, to have an open mind, and part of that process is to listen. I will look through the responses with the senior leadership team in the coming days and use them to inform our planning. I will of course keep you up to date at every step of the way.
I hope that St George’s house members remembered to wear something red yesterday. It is important to keep this aspect of school life going. You will see more house points being awarded for good work and endeavour in the children’s journals in the coming week and we are planning an afternoon of house activities for later in the term. It is important to break up the day to day learning with special events and we have been working on ideas for these… watch this space.
Enjoy your weekends everybody.
