21st September

Dear families,

As each week passes and normality returns to school, it seems that outside our gates things are increasingly confusing. I know many of you have taken solace from how successful the children's return to school has been and we are proud of how well the children have settled back to learning. I am also very pleased to say that there has been a positive trend in our school attendance since we started two weeks ago. I appreciate all your efforts to bring your children to school on time every day.

I have shared with you before, our ongoing journey with curriculum development. It is something that we will continue to review and revise. As part of this process we our currently planning our history units for next term to incorporate explicit teaching about diversity. We are reviewing the events we traditionally use as examples and are critically assessing the people we study. We are also examining the most positive ways for the school to celebrate all parts of our community whilst tackling some of the difficult parts of global and British history. I am looking forward to sharing more details about this later in the term.

You will have seen that children in Year 4-6 are taking their iPads home. Whilst there are many several reasons for this, we primarily want to develop the children's independence and responsibility. The children will be asked to complete some home learning over the weekend initially, which will require them to log in to their Google Classroom and access varied resources. This initiative will also support these children if their class or year group is required to close temporarily.

Mindful of the ever changing situation I want to reassure you that your children's teachers are being supported with their own wellbeing. We know that we can only do our best when we are feeling content and secure so through partnerships with CAMHS, Hackney Council and additional specialists, staff know how to seek support. In addition to this staff have all completed personal risk assessments ensuring they, like the children, are safe and looked after.

If you have any questions about the bulletin or anything else, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Rory