The Courier

Dear Parents

I hope this edition of the Courier finds you well and that you are coping with the demands and constraints that the lockdown is imposing on us all. I know how hard it is for families at home to juggle the home learning with their own commitments, but I hope you have been getting into a rhythm this week and that the children have been actively engaged in their learning. It is a strange time for everyone but with mutual support and encouragement, we can make this a productive time as well.

Communication is obviously more important than ever when we are not meeting each other in person. I hope you find the Courier a really useful way to keep up with school activities and as usual there is plenty in today's edition that I hope you will find of interest.

I have initiated a bird drawing competition in the school and it has been pleasing to see lots of children responding to this, with lots and lots of very lovely drawings and paintings coming in. Please do have a look at the online gallery that you can see elsewhere in the newsletter.

Taking the time to look after others and take care of those who need our help is such a worthy trait and more relevant now than ever before. I hope that thinking about the birds in the garden will help the children to do this. You will have noted a couple of teacher entries as well, Mrs Stapleton in particular has clearly got some previously hidden talents! Any parents who would like to contribute, please do. We would love to see your entries.

We post assemblies onto the children's Seesaw areas each week and you can also find links to them from today's Courier, should you wish to view them.

On a health and safety note, from next week Crescent staff are able to access lateral flow COVID-19 testing over at Princethorpe College. There is also the prospect of staff home testing kits being delivered to the school very soon. We have spent time this week refining the risk assessment for those in school as well as undertaking the normal fire drill.

As you can understand, staff who are running the key school are anxious to keep their exposure to risk as low as possible. Many thanks to all of you who are observing the lockdown so well and keeping children at home where you possibly can. By doing this, you help to keep yourself safe, as well as the staff and children in the school.

Enjoy your weekends everyone. 

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

It seems like no time at all, but as from Monday we will be fully two weeks into the current lockdown and another bout of home learning.

A lot of thought and hard work has gone into the programme that we are currently providing. As you know, we have a combination of lessons delivered through our online platform of Seesaw and live Teams sessions. Alongside this, the children are involved in regular live meetings for pastoral contact with their form teachers. Through these media, we are providing five lessons a day for all of the children that reflect the full range of the curriculum that we would normally deliver.

The Seesaw lessons are carefully put together by Crescent teachers to reflect the work that the children would otherwise be doing in school. They are multi-media, and combine video, picture and sound input. The intention is that they fully engage the pupils and at the same time give families the flexibility they need to access the learning in a way and at a time that is convenient for the whole family. Importantly, they also have the function of giving regular and rapid feedback from the teacher to the pupil.

The Teams sessions provide an opportunity for live learning and engagement in a real time activity, as well providing important contact for the children with each other and their teachers. Small group meetings can be particularly effective from a social point of view in keeping the children’s spirits up.

Many of you will remember that we surveyed parents’ feedback on these issues back in April of last year. Inevitably, opinion on some issues was divided, but overall satisfaction with the provision at that time was high, with 96% of parents saying they were happy with the provision (16% said very good, 59% good and 38% generally good).

We do not want to rest on our laurels, and we continue to strive to provide the best online service to the children that we possibly can. In that spirit, I feel it would be useful for us at this time to gather thoughts and feedback from you in the current lockdown to help us continue to refine and adapt our approach. With two weeks under our belt on Monday, we will be sending you out a survey form for you to complete to give you the opportunity to share your thoughts with us.

Keep a close eye on your inboxes.