June 2020

Our Food Bank, in conjunction with Welcome Change CIC, is open every WEDNESDAY between 12:30 and 1:30pm.

This is open to all families and the wider community. If you are struggling to get out of the house during these times, let us know and we will try our best to deliver a food package to you.

We’ve made some changes to our food bank - you will now be able to pack your own bags with your own choice of items.

It has never been more important to keep positive and stay focused than it is now as lockdown begins to ease. There are many resources available and the Learning Mentor Team has a range of resources available to share with you if you need support. We have resources to support; staying positive, resilience, dealing with change and coping with loss. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any support through Class Dojo or via the main office to request a call back. Here are some useful links:

Young Minds for a range of support tools and resources - https://youngminds.org.uk/

The Anna Freud Centre for families and children - https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/mental-health-needs/

STEM4 mental health support for teenagers - https://stem4.org.uk/

Mind Charity information around a range of mental health conditions - https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe!

Mr Wills and the LM Team

As part of our ongoing work with Unicef, we have decided to pick a ‘Rights Respecter of the week’ from each class. We will be looking for a child who has either demonstrated that they have respected their rights or others’ rights. Additionally, we will be picking a member of staff to be duty bearer of the week. Duty Bearers are accountable for respecting, protecting and fulfilling children's rights. We are aware that the current situation has impacted on children's rights. It is our duty as a team to address this, so we continue supporting our children at home and at school the best we can.

The latest update regarding Free School Meal Vouchers from the government this week stated that families that are entitled to FSM will continue to receive vouchers throughout the summer break. We will keep you informed as we are provided with the information. If you do have any queries which relate to FSM vouchers, please call the office and ask to speak to Mrs McCarthy.

Update on Class Bubbles

We have been operating 13 ‘bubbles’ this week which has been an increase on the previous weeks:

Reception B - Miss Allcroft Reception A - Miss Evans Reception B - Mrs Gonzales

Nursery - Mr Haw Year 1 A - Miss Magee Year 1 B - Mrs Reed

Year 6 A - Mr White Year 6 B - Mrs Wood Year 6 C - Mrs Newbold Year 6 D - Miss Mclaughlin/Mrs Lewis

KW A - Miss Jones KW B - Mr Carlton/Miss Martin KW C - Miss Collis

Our Year 1 ‘bubbles’ are now FULL, but we had more and more Year 1 children wanting to attend so today an additional bubble has been added - Year 1 C, being taught by Miss Jackson. We are also opening to Year 5 from Monday 22nd June. The Year 5 team are excited to be welcoming back our Year 5 children so that they can have some time in school before we break-up for the summer break and they move into Year 6.

Remember: If your child is in Nursery, Reception, Year 1, Year 5 or Year 6 and you’d like them to return to school, please contact the school office. We will require at least 24 hours notice so that we can make appropriate arrangements for a safe return.

I would like to firstly welcome everyone back after the half term break. We are now into our final half term of the academic year. At this time of the year we are usually busy preparing for the end of year events, sports day, parents’ evenings, Year 6 productions and a whole lot more. With the current situation we find ourselves in, these are all put on hold for now.

It’s been an extremely busy week for myself and the Lea Forest team. We spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for the ‘reopening’ of school on Wednesday, for not only our key worker and vulnerable children, but also for children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. I’d like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of the staff for being absolutely REMARKABLE. Posters were displayed, classrooms transformed and all areas were made safe ready for the children’s return on Wednesday.

The best part of the week was opening the doors on Wednesday morning and seeing so many of our children coming back to school with smiles on their faces. Some children were excited to be back, others were nervous. Within no time at all, it was like they’d never been away! The school was filled with happiness again. Although the number of children attending school has been low, it’s been great to see a gradual increase in numbers as the week has progressed. We started on Wednesday with 69 children, with 73 attending on Thursday. We’ve had a slight increase again today.

Please make sure that you watch my virtual assembly on YouTube as there are messages from not only our staff this week, but some of our returning pupils. The assembly can be viewed here. I’m hoping these message will reassure some of you that are still quite nervous or reluctant to send your children back into school.

THANK YOU for taking the time to leave messages on the ‘Thank You’ Padlet on our website. If you haven’t seen this yet, it can be viewed here.

Our Food Bank, in conjunction with Welcome Change CIC, is open every WEDNESDAY between 12:30 and 1:30pm. This is open to all families and the wider community. If you are struggling to get out of the house during these times, let us know and we will try our best to deliver a food package to you.

To support children returning to school, next week we will be introducing our ‘FANTASTIC FIVE’ attendance reward scheme. FANTASTIC FIVE rewards children for every full consecutive week of attendance. Every Friday, attendance will be celebrated in their classes and children will receive a certificate to show them how many full weeks of school they have completed. When FIVE full weeks have been completed they will get a special certificate and a reward!

Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again (in some capacity) on Monday for another REMARKABLE week at Lea Forest. Take Care!

Our Virtual School is well established now across all year groups for those who are not in school. Children should be continuing their learning despite the school being physically closed for some year groups. You should all be connected through ClassDojo and children in Y2 - Y6 should be completing tasks via Google Classrooms too.

We also have our own Youtube channel and a lot of our remarkable staff have been hard at work filming lessons, tips, clips, fun activities and stories for the whole family to get involved in whilst learning at home. If you have any, problems accessing our different programs, please contact Mr Croxon by sending him a message on ClassDojo or sending him an email to the following email address: ITsupport@leaforestacademy.org

AET have also created seven wonderful cross-phase and cross-curricular projects. Each project is linked to a national theme in the calendar, such as Garden Wildlife week or World Music Day and includes activities that are linked to a wide number of different subjects.

To be completed over the course of a week, each thematic project includes questions to think about and promote discussion, as well as physical and creative activities for children of all ages to design and make. The activities in these week-long projects have been developed to ensure opportunities are given for children to take part whilst outdoors, working collaboratively with their family groups, as well as within the home setting. With a main task central to each weekly project, there are also instruction videos to describe what children need to do, videos to inspire thinking and top tips to help children along the way.

Next week’s theme is ‘World Oceans Day’. Check out the topic web below for more information, or follow this link to access online: https://sites.google.com/academiesenterprisetrust.org/aet-virtual-learning/years-2-5-online-package