Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Spare laptops and ipads

  Thu 28 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington
  Morning all,
  
  We have lent several ipads and laptops to families who either do not have a device or were working from a phone. If your child is still working from a phone, please contact the school office on 0115 9151560 as we have a few more spare devices we could lend out.
  
  Best wishes,
  
  Mr Farrington

• Staff testing for Covid.

  Tue 26 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington
  Morning all,
  
  I am sure you have seen in the media that all primary schools will start testing their staff for COVID in the near future. I have placed a letter from the CEO of Transform in our newsletters section that sets out how our trust is approaching testing.
  
  Plans are well developed to introduce staff testing at Burford and this will begin in the very near future.
  
  Best wishes,
  
  Mr Farrington

• Friday PPA Time for teachers

  Tue 19 Jan 2021
  Hello everyone,
  
  What a wet and grey day! Hello, Storm Christoph!
  
  Now that our home-learning curriculum is up and running, we would like to make some small tweaks to support our teachers to deliver the best possible learning opportunities for your children.
  
  
  NEED SUPPORT?
  
  💻 If you need tech' support moving forward, please contact our school office in the first instance, as teachers are now focusing upon teaching their remote classes.
  
  🤔 If you need help with lessons, though, our teachers are ready and raring to go!
  
  Each class teacher should have made you aware of their feedback hour. Teachers spend all day creating their Seesaw lessons {that means A LOT of screen time for them!}, but they reserve one hour each day to acknowledge the FAB work their class are producing - either by 'loving' their post, commenting, leaving a verbal comment, or taking screenshots to share in the next day's lesson.
  ⭐ If you are not aware of when your child's class teacher's feedback hour is and would like more information, please ask them! ⭐
  
  
  A LIGHTER FRIDAY
  
  🚨 On a Friday, we are scheduling Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time for our teachers. 🚨
  
  This enables them to plan ahead for the following week and to work on their own professional development by accessing training opportunities.
  
  Therefore, 📣 FRIDAY SHOUT OUTS 📣 will happen by midday on Friday and teachers will not be available to families on Friday afternoons.
  
  If your child produces work after midday on Friday, this will not be responded to until the following working week. But, please don't worry, teachers will see it! Lessons on a Friday may also be slightly 'lighter' than the thorough multiple-slide, multiple-recordings lessons we normally post Monday - Thursday (e.g. fitness blasts, arithmetic practise...)
  
  Thanks, everyone!

• Free School Meal update

  Tue 12 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington

  Hi everyone,

   

  I thought I would update you about the situation regarding free school meal (FSM) entitlement if your child is not currently attending school, especially as there is a lot of press speculation at the moment. The government has yet to publish any detail about the financial help they will offer. So, as a school we are using the funding we currently have for FSMs to purchase a £10 voucher for all those children entitled to FSMs that are not in school. The first vouchers have been sent to those families that are entitled to them and we will continue to do that. Similarly, if the government offer any extra funding to increase this to £15 a week we will make sure that extra gets to all the families entitled to it.  

   

  As soon as I know more about the government's plans, I will be in contact.

   

  Best wishes,

   

  Mr Farrington

   

   

• Spare laptops and ipads

  Tue 12 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington
  Morning everyone,
  
  I am keen to ensure all families have appropriate devices to engage with our online learning. We have lent all our spare ipads to children who need them and are waiting on the delivery of 35 more. We now have a waiting list of children who are currently using phones to access our remote learning but would find life much easier if they had a laptop or ipad.
  
  I have been contacted by members of the community who have offered us use of their old laptops/ipads. I am also donating a laptop I have at home that is no longer used. We are going to wipe these devices of their content and offer them to families who need them. If you, or anyone you know, have spare devices please consider giving them to school so we can offer them to children who need them at the moment. If you can help with this, please contact the school office on 0115 9151560.
  
  Thank you and best wishes,
  
  Mr Farrington

• Positive Covid cases during lockdown

  Thu 07 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington

  Morning everyone,

   

  I hope you are all well and looking forward to the launch of our remote learning offer tomorrow.

   

  I know that most children are not now at school but I am still required to keep a list of any positive cases. So, if your child does test positive at any point, could you please ring the school office (0115 9151560) and update us please.

   

  If your child is accessing school, please do not send them if they have any of the Covid symptoms (dry, persistent cough, loss of taste or smell, high temperature). If your child does have these symptoms, please get them tested and contact the school office with the results.

   

  Best wishes,

   

  Mr Farrington

• After School and breakfast Clubs

  Tue 05 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington

  Hi everyone,

  I can confirm that Breakfast and After School clubs will be open for the children of key workers whilst we are in lock down. I hope that is a reassurance for those parents who need it. 

  Mr Farrington

• Inset update

  Tue 05 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington
  Hi again,
  
  Just to confirm, school will be open tomorrow for key worker and vulnerable children. We can offer this as well as run our inset training.
  
  Sorry for any confusion.
  
  Mr Farrington

• Online learning update

  Tue 05 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington
  Afternoon everyone,
  
  I thought it would be worth giving you an update of where we are in terms of plans for remote learning. The initial feedback I am getting from teachers is that parents have been very positive about Seesaw (our online learning platform), which is very pleasing to hear. In light of this, we have decided to bring forward our inset training to tomorrow (6th Jan 2021). I will update you on the roll out of remote learning once this training is complete.
  
  Please take a look a Ms Chapleo's 'how to use Seesaw' in Class Dojo if you need any further guidance.
  
  Best wishes
  
  Mr Farrington

• School closure

  Tue 05 Jan 2021 Shaun Farrington
  Good evening everyone,
  
  That was a shock. I was expecting schools to close but expected some notice!
  
  School will be closed until further notice for all children apart from those classified as vulnerable or the children of key workers. Mrs Harding will send a link out in a moment that details who falls into these groups. School will be open from 9-3pm for this small group of children.
  
  The plan for tomorrow is for teachers to ring all the parents in their class and talk them through how to access our remote learning offer. This will allow us to highlight any potential issues and mend them before we launch our online learning offer. This knowledge will help us deliver out inset training later this week.
  
  As the teachers will be on the phones all day tomorrow, and then attending our inset training, it will be a few days before we can begin to post remote learning. Please bare with us for a couple of days.
  
  I will be in touch with updated news tomorrow.
  
  Best wishes,
  
  Mr Farrington