Update Monday 14th September 2020

Powerpoint used during the midday meeting on Monday 14th September

Update on Wednesday 9.9.20

Powerpoint used in the staff meeting on 9.9.20 is below.

Update - Thursday 2nd July - 5.50pm

Below are the powerpoint slides I've used in the Thursday evening meetings (25th June and 2nd July) for the staff that can't access the server. 

Updated on Friday 12th June at 3.10pm

It’s much nicer to share information such as below in person. Emails come a poor second – but given circumstances – it’s all we have. I have also added it to the staff secure zone.

Weekly overviews from teachers -

Thank you to all the teachers who have returned weekly overviews to Mieke and the SLT today. It’s really useful to help us ensure consistency across classes.

Changing start and end times for next week -

On Tuesday’s staff meeting I said that we would be altering the beginning and ending times for children this week and would share times on Thursday. I have heard staff ask when the new times would be shared.

They went online on Thursday night – they are also on the email that I sent this morning to all teachers - the timetable for next week has been updated with the new times. The link is below – I have attached the file for those that can’t access the server at home - to the email with this message. 

P:\Health and Safety\COVID19\Pupil attendance lists partial closure\Phase 2 opening from 2020-06-08\Week beginning 2020-06-15

Interview on Wednesday

Mieke and I had an exciting day on Wednesday and interviewed some very high calibre teachers. We have verbally offered posts to two new colleagues to come and join us in September. I am sorry but at this time I can’t share names until pre-employment checks are done.

Plans for September

The SLT are receiving questions about September, locations of teachers, timetables for staff, children, etc. The interview on Wednesday was a crucial part of planning for September and now that this is done, means that the SLT are now another step closer to sharing September plans ourselves.

We will share information when the time is right. At the moment I ask that you continue putting your hard work and effort to helping the children now. About a third of our children will be in school next week with two thirds still at home. Please continue to focus on these children now. I won’t ask you to start thinking of September when you already have reports, children in classrooms and children at home on a your agendas, it wouldn’t be fair.

Finally

Well done for this week. I was on the gate this morning and made a point of speaking to all parents and children as they arrived and stood in the queue. The staggered start made this really easy to do. All children enjoyed their first week in their bubbles. You have done what you are naturally good at, in helping children back to school happily and helping children ‘pick up the pieces’ of their summer term and the impact this will have on their learning.

Have good weekends

Updated on Monday 8th June at 5.15pm

Well done for today. All of the work and effort you all put into ensuring that today could run smoothly was easy to see. Thank you. 

I've updated the parent FAQ's tonight CLICK HERE I've clarified the beginning and end of the day. 

Don't forget that from tomorrow when the Y6 children start arriving at 8.45 that younger siblings will also arrive. All children will go straight to classrooms. There is no need for any staff to be on the playground form tomorrow at the start of the day. 

At the end of the day reception and Y1 teachers need to dismiss children to parents or carers on the playground as usual.

All parents from all year groups can come on the playground if they wish at the beginning or end of the day. The movement of the one way system means that in doing this they are less likely to accumulate and group on Laund Nook. 

I've added the powerpoint from Friday night below as I know that some people can't access the server computer. 

Updated - Wednesday 3rd June - 7.45pm

Thank you for logging onto tonight's staff meeting.

The risk assessment and the supporting document are on the

staff secure zone of the website CLICK HERE. 

or

on the server computer - P:\Health and Safety\COVID19\Risk Assessment

The electronic form you need to complete to show that you have read them can be found online CLICK HERE. 

Any questions that you may have please complete this online form by 9am on Friday 5th June - CLICK HERE. 

Please use the online form rather than email. It really helps the leadership team to keep track of what we are getting asked and means that questions won't get lost. We will answer questions submitted by the form - we may not answer questions by email. 

The powerpoints used on Monday's and tonight's meeting can be found below or on the server computer - P:\Meetings and minutes\2019 - 2020

Updated - Thursday 21st May - 10.30am

Below are the minutes for the TLA meeting on 20.5.20 and the powerpoint that we used. 

Thank you to all of the staff that have read the risk assessment CLICK HERE. Once you have read it you need to show that you have read it by completing the online form - CLICK HERE. 

There is also the V7 of the COVID-19 action plan on the staff secure zone main page a well. . 

Thank you for all of the work that you are doing in planning for June 1st - we have had several messages come into school this week from parents that appreciate it. A letter went home to all parents last night that you are encouraged to read - CLICK HERE. 

There are also 4 policies that have been shared with parents - there are links to these from the letter to parents. 

• Teaching and learning
• Curriculum
• Feedback and marking
• Behaviour

Updated - Monday 18th May 2020 - 6.40pm

Two documents from tonight's staff meeting below.

Thank you

Update - Thursday 14th May 4.45pm

Thank you for making time to tune into the meeting. Below you can find a copy of the powerpoint I used and a form that you can use to ask the Leadership team any questions to help us on Monday 18th when we next meet.  

Update - Thursday 14th May 9.45am

I have received this message from the governing body that Patience (Chair of Governors) has asked is shared with everyone. 

Following our Full Governing Board meeting on Wednesday the 6th May, we felt it important to thank every member of the St John’s team for your commitment in keeping St John’s Primary School and Nursery open for the children of key workers and vulnerable children, throughout the current lock down.  We are aware of the dedication of the staff at St John’s and the manner in which staff work to support each other. We are also mindful that the current situation will have really tested each and every individual in many different ways.

We very much appreciate you putting our children first, and also giving up what would have been school holidays to enable key workers to keep working.

 

Looking through the class pages, there is evidence of some really new, innovative and creative ways of keeping children engaged. Thank you so much for the time and energy you have given to your work in these challenging times and for the thought and care that has gone into making things exciting and different. 

We recognise that our children have a lot of confidence in their teachers. Having their class pages to visit each day, enabling them to continue to learn and also to interact with you and their classmates, will be providing those working at home with invaluable reassurance and support during these difficult times.

 

We look forward to working with you through the next phases of the lock down and thank you again for your commitment and compassion.

Kind regards

Patience 

Update - Tuesday 12th May 11.10am

The government published three new significant documents to help schools plan for June 1st yesterday evening. 

I have therefore updated the information on the staff FAQ's to help staff with any questions. CLICK HERE.

I hope that this helps. 

Please remember that at all times the leadership team will continue to ensure the safety of children, staff and community at all times when planning on how to implement the government advice. 

Update - Monday 11th May at 11.15am

I have updated the parents FAQ's with information about the Prime Minister's announcement last night and the 1st June plans that we need to make. CLICK HERE. 

We have planned to have a Leadership team meeting on Thursday morning (May 14th). By then we hope to have had the information that we have been told we will get from the DfE and will be able to update our COVID-19 action plan. 

I hope to be able to then share the action plan on Thursday afternoon. I am sorry that this is still three days away. I am aware that there are questions that you have that will want answering about June 1st and how the opening of school to more children will effect you. However, given that we have been told that information supporting yesterday's announcement will be published by the DfE over the next few days I feel that Thursday afternoon is potentially the earliest that we can safely interpret them to help us at St. John's.

Rest assured that the leadership team and the governors will have everyone's safety in mind when interpreting the government's scientists advice. 

Update - Sunday 10th May - 7.50pm

The messages we have been given by the prime minister tonight about the partial opening of schools on 1st June is hopefully going to help us bring some normality to some of our children. It also raises lots of questions that we will be able to work on answering over the next few days as more advice gets published by the DfE tomorrow. 

At this point the routines for all our staff and children remains as it has done for the previous three weeks.

The SLT and LT will work on updating the COVID-19 action plan over the coming days and share it as soon as possible. 

Update Thursday 7th May - 4.15pm

I hope that when I left the meeting today staff were still able to chat with each other. It did occur to me that as the host I may have closed it - sorry if it did.

All staff with access to microsoft teams can use it whenever they want to keep in touch with colleagues at any time. You can either set up a pre-arranged meeting like we did today - or you can use the calls facility to call one or a few people at the same time. Please use it to keep in touch and support each other. It's a bit unfortunate that only 4 people can be seen at once, (this may change soon according to microsoft)  but, having a chat with a few people at once can make someones day. Also sometimes a 5 minute chat can replace a dozen emails - which certainly gets my vote. 

In summary the messages I gave out were

• Thank you for all of your work online and in school for our children and families. You are all brilliant. You are really showing our community how good you all are :)
• We've had to cancel the two residentials. Messages have gone out to parents today on the FAQ's of the parent website and in the weekly email to them all. 
• We have two classes worth of reception children joining us in September.
• We have adverts on line for two temporary one year class teacher posts
• We are able to spend some extra money next year on resources and minor improvements with £4k extra in resources for children and £10k a year for two years on minor improvements to help bring some of the tired areas of school up to the standard of some of our new classrooms. 
• Have a nice weekend!

Thursday 7th April 2020 Message from KA

Hi,

I just wanted to share these pictures to show you all the hard work Yvette and the ladies in the kitchen have done this week to get these hampers ready to go home to our FSM families.  34 were prepared with Di delivering 3.

Updated on Tuesday 5th May at 9.55am

Sorry that some staff had problems accessing this secure zone yesterday. I asked Primary Site to do an update and in doing so we blocked entry to some staff by accident. All is sorted now so hopefully you can all read this again. 

Many thanks to the staff that have volunteered to provide our Meals on Wheels service. Sarah Allen is looking after the Rota for this and has shared it on this secure Zone - Thank you Sarah. 

We are not open on Friday 8th May. We only had three children request places and would need at least this number of staff therefore we will be closed. Many thanks to the staff that volunteered to go on the rota for this day if we were to open.

Have a nice day off. No work needs to be published to websites. Hannah and Liz are looking at providing some VE day generic resources for all children to go on the class pages web site - Thank you to them. 

The government have not given any advice yet about May Half term. However, we are preparing for them to stay that schools should open if needed by seeing which staff will volunteer to help.  Please complete the online form by 9am on Tuesday 19th May if you want to be put on the rota.  CLICK HERE. 

PLEASE NOTE - that at 8am tomorrow (Wednesday 5th May) the server computer will be turned off for about 30 minutes. We will not have access to anything whilst a piece of hardware is replaced in the server cabinet. It may be useful for all staff at home to make sure that you sign out from remote access at the end of today when you switch off. 

All staff with a school email address have been invited to a virtual staff meeting on Thursday 7th May at 3.40pm. I am sorry that I can't open this up to staff without email addresses. The meeting won't take longer than 30 mins.

Finally thank you to Charlotte T who has spent some time looking at information from Derbyshire LA reminding us all about safe working at home. All of it is worth a read especially the useful advice on using Microsoft teams and the video function as many of us haven't done this before from home. 

Updated on Tuesday 28th April at 10pm

It's lovely to see the work that the children did in school today with our rainbow now displayed at the front of school - well done!

Bank Holidays and Half term

The government have published information about school opening on the bank holiday, Friday 8th May. Section 12.2 on this bumper read updated on 28.4.20. CLICK HERE. 

There is no information from the government yet about the half term. With this in mind we are asking all staff as we did over Easter about their availability to work on Friday 8th May. 

Teachers will not be expected to publish work on the school website on either of the bank holidays or over the rest of the half term.

Derbyshire have still not published any guidelines for school staff that are volunteering to come into school over their holidays, however when they do we will act accordingly. 

If you do want to be put on the rota to work on Friday 8th May please click on the link below by 3pm on Monday 4th May. 

CLICK HERE. 

COVID-19 testing

As workers in a key industry staff at St. John's and their family members are now potentially legible to be tested for COVID-19. If you feel this would help you then more information is on the government website. This was last updated on April 28th at time of writing. CLICK HERE. 

Updated Friday 24th April at 9.15am

Unfortunately the first date for the collection of the Free School Meal fortnightly hampers has been pushed back a week. The first ones are due for collection/delivery on Thursday 7th May (Friday 8th is a bank holiday). The second one is Friday 22nd May. 

Thank you to all the staff who have volunteered to deliver where needed. We have asked parents to let us know a few days before if they need deliveries. We will contact you then if your help is needed. 

More information is on the page for parents. CLICK HERE. 

I have updated the staff FAQ's with some information about May half term and opening. CLICK HERE 

Update - Tuesday 21st April 4.50pm

Sorry I haven't got the report templates out yet for teachers - I will get them done this week - hopefully tomorrow.

Given that it's the start of a new term I have a couple of requests and duties for people working at home. 

Teachers - Spring term assessment data

We would like teachers to enter spring term assessment data in i-track for the children in their classes as we were going to do during the staff meeting on Wednesday 25th March. 

We are aware that teachers may want to refer to notes, books or paperwork that is in school. Therefore this can be done either now, if you have the information at home or after your next visit to school when the rota has you in.

If you are self isolating and not coming into school then please either ask a colleague to pick up any information for you and drop it off (staying 2m away from each other) - or do the best you can with the information that you have.

All staff - First aid training

We would like all staff with access to IT to complete some First aid Training. We are planning a first aid INSET day in the Autumn term, however, with school closed at present it will be over 3 years since a lot of us attended the last whole school INSET day on first aid on 24.4.2017. 

All staff that haven't had any first aid training since 24.4.2017 and are able to are to complete the online St. John's ambulance First Aid training with the computers or laptops that they have at home are to complete it. CLICK HERE. This will help us maintain a number of suitably qualified first aid persons at school until the next INSET in Autumn 2020. 

If you have any questions please contact Kathryn Astell in the first instance. Could you also please email her or me once you have completed it for her records. 

headteacher@st-johnscofe.derbyshire.sch.uk

Free School Meals - This section was updated on 24.4.20 due to the changes in the fortnightly hamper dates. 

We are going to be ordering fortnightly food hampers for free school meal children. The first ones can be collected on Thursday 7th May. CLICK HERE for information. 

If you would like to offer any support in distributing these hampers to families that order them please let me know by text or email. It would involve you agreeing to come to school at some point on Thursday 7th (and then Friday 22nd etc etc) collecting a hamper or two and then taking them to a family that can't leave the house as they are in isolation. From the size of the hampers at Easter when we did this I would guess that they are too big to carry by hand and enjoy a walk in the sunshine - unless you feel like a challenge. 

I haven't shared with families that we are considering a fortnightly distribution - but many staff have asked if they can do anything and this may be a help to our most vulnerable children. 

If you would like to be added to the 'Meals On Wheels' fortnightly rota - please let me know by Monday 27th April. 

Thank you - Roj

Update - Friday 17th April -  12.30pm

I hope that you have all enjoyed some sunshine over the last week or two. 

Many thanks to all of the staff who came into work over the Easter holiday to provide child care for families. 

I have updated the information on staff absence and when staff need to provide absence notes or self isolation notes. CLICK HERE. 

The government confirmed earlier this week that the lock down will continue for another three weeks. On the government page about school closures that was updated on the 16th April -  CLICK HERE - there is no mention of when the government are advising schools to reopen. With this in mind from Monday 20th April we will be returning to the role that we were for the fortnight beginning 23.3.20. This means that 

• School will be open for children of key workers and vulnerable children 5 days a week.
• Mieke will be producing a rota for class based staff to cover this
• The kitchen will be open cooking meals and midday supervisors will be at school for the lunch hour. Kathryn will be producing the midday rota. 
• Teachers working at home will be asked to produce two activities a day on their class web pages as you were doing before the Easter fortnight. 

On Monday 20th when I am in work I will be sharing report templates for teachers to begin to write annual reports for children.

Enjoy the weekend - see you all over the coming weeks when the rotas allow. 

Update - Tuesday 7th April - 11.55am

More messages of thanks from parents

We in the Fox-Dadd household wanted to wish you a very happy Easter and hopefully a good break! We can not thank you enough for what you have done to make the children feel happy and safe. Your virtual blog has been very popular and the kids have loved seeing your face, a sense of familiarity. Both Mrs. Wojcik and Mrs Carvell have been utterly brilliant on the support, contact and all the work they have done to make the children  feel good. We are so proud to have Children at St. Johns.  With love from us all,

 Just a quick message to say thank you to Mr Averis for his weekly vlogs. They are lovely and encouraging for both children and parents. Wishing you all a nice and safe Easter.

Sonia

And a message of thanks from the Secretary of State for Education. He sent this just before the weekend on 2nd April. CLICK HERE

Update - Friday 3rd April 3.40pm

Firstly another message of thanks off a parent

 Hello Mrs Heer! Thank You for helping people who were stuck on questions and please tell Mr Averis and the other teachers that I said Thank you for all the excellent work you have done! Have a amazing weekend!

In other news Mieke, Kathryn and I had our first video meeting today using microsoft teams. Other than Jude bringing a cup of coffee to me in the study half way through it appeared to go well enough - it may become the new norm over the coming weeks.

Well done to all of you for the work you are doing online every day. My video headteacher blog tries to recognise it and celebrate everything that you are all doing. 

Enjoy your Easter break, my phone will be on all holiday for anything I can help with and I will check emails (not as frequently as this week though ) but I will return messages. Many thanks to those who are in school for a day over the next fortnight ensuring our local key workers can get to work. 

Stay safe

Roj

Update Thursday 2nd - 12.45pm

Another message from a parent recognising what you are doing online - and also bringing home what our children are going through at the moment. 

Many thanks for setting out some work on here, it's a huge help as I wouldn't have a clue what to do, and to be honest it's just the right amount as somedays she is a bit flat and disheartened with this whole situation.

Remember that tomorrow's work is the last class work that you are expected to upload for a fortnight. You need to be ready to begin doing this again from Monday 20th April. 

However, with this comment from a parent and some questions I have already had from staff about uploading during the fortnight Mieke and I would like to propose the following. 

We'll set up an Easter KS1 and an Easter KS2 page. Mieke and I will begin to add Easter activities to it and invite you to do the same if you wish. Any teacher can contribute. 

You can add a link to the Easter activity page from your class pages if you wish. 

Hopefully this will mean that we all get to switch off for a break whilst continuing to support our children who may all be feeling 'flat and disheartened with this whole situation' 

Roj

Updated - Wednesday 1st April 10am

I have updated the information for staff that are off work. I hope that it helps. I appreciate that there is a lot of information and that this is frequently updated by the government.

If you want any help in finding out what notes you need off a doctor, or when you are able to return to work and be put back on rotas you should be able to find the answers. If you are still worried, please ring. We have enough on our plates at the moment - if a phone call to me can help remove a worry I look forward to helping. 

CLICK HERE. 

Several staff were asking about return to work dates after they or a family member had displayed symptoms. I think that the clearest piece of government advice can be found on this table. CLICK HERE.

Updated - Monday 30th March 12.50pm - RA

Thank you for your offers of working over the Easter break. With your care and generosity and the pupil demand for places, we have made a decision about Easter opening. We will be open on 7th, 8th, 9th and 14th April. The maximum number of pupils in on any of the 4 days is only ten and this falls to half a dozen on some days. 

We are not working in conjunction with any other schools at present and it looks like this will continue to be the case. 

Mieke will be adding a staff rota shortly for these 4 days, but the letter has just been sent out to parents and I wanted you to know officially rather than on the grape vine. 

There will be no office, kitchen or midday staff on site on any of the days. 

In other news - 

We have had some more messages of thanks from parents. 

Just sending an email to thank you all for your AMAZING effort to keep things as normal as possible for the children. In the end we made the decision not to send Elena to school as even though I work for the NHS we are rearranging things in a way where one of us can be with her at all times.

I was already very grateful for xxx to attend such a good school but what you are all doing proves your dedication and professionality. Thank you to you all!

All the resources are great. It will take us a little while to get into some sort of routine and not everyday we have time to complete all the activities or check out other resources but we are doing our best. We get started every morning with Jo Wicks (keeping all of us fit!)  and then we have made up a little time-table but we are keeping it flexible to fit in with everything else going on.

I hope you are all keeping well and safe, please don't forget to look after yourselves as well as the children if you come in at work. We will understand completely if at any point you need to limit your input as the main thing is for everyone to be safe and well to get through these times, together we will!

Wishing you all a good day.

Bye from Elena, Sonia & Neil :-)

Everyone at St John's staff is doing an even more brilliant job than usual right now and as a parent, I am very grateful.

Best wishes

Jo Lowton-Mayo

Such a smashing job of keeping us updated and providing care for the children of those on the front line. 

Well done.

Stay well. 

Emma & James Rollin 

Updated Friday 27th Match @ 5:06 p.m

In addition to Roger's most recent update to you all, I would like to let you know that I had the absolute pleasure of taking a call yesterday from Geoff Layland, Derbyshire LA Senior Advisor, who asked me to express his 'incredible admiration and sincere gratitude for your dedication and for the hard work you are doing for our families and children'. He was absolutely full of praise for every single one of you and this was shining through in every word he said. 

Updated Friday 27th March 4.25pm

Week one done - well done everyone. 

The field may be out of action next week as we may have Severn Trent doing some work on a water pipe. 

We have introduced a new daily attendance form for parents to complete by 4pm on the day before to let us know whether they need to send their child to school the following day. Hopefully this will help us with safe staffing, safe self isolation and Mieke's sanity when doing the staffing rota.

I have tried to emulate you all in the great work you have done on your website this week, with a video blog to parents. In summary I haven't reached your standards - but I hope I raise a smile to yourselves and to the children who's birthday it was this week. CLICK HERE. 

Have a lovely weekend - Roj

Friday 27th March 10.20am

Another message of thanks from a parent

I must extend our gratitude and thanks to yourself and your team for working so hard in these difficult times. Your communications and organisation have been exemplary. 

Thank you very much! - Jeremy Beatson

Thursday 26th March 5.15pm

Nothing new - other than Gemma Smith has politely let me know that she loves the people in Jersey but it's family in Guernsey that are using our class web pages. Sorry Gemma.

She also knows that friends in Leamington Spa are learning at home thanks to St. John's.

Thursday 26th March 9.30am

We are getting lots of messages of thanks from parents for the work that we are doing for the children in school and for the children at home. Claire and the SLT are forwarding them when we can by email. For those that can't access email here is one from today from Mrs. Haunts. 

I just wanted to say thank you for all the efforts you are putting in with the children’s work. 

I can see the effort that you are putting in and the guidance you are giving. I have seen the positivity on the friends of St Johns Facebook page too.  In contrast my sister (who is a key worker in Gateshead) is having difficulty with her school.  Her school hasn’t set any work for her year 6 daughter and all children are together in the hall playing (there is no normality for them). 

In fact the Year 6 daily work is so well structured with ideas on what you can do over the week and what to do each day that I have shared this with my sister.

I also had a conversation with Mrs Carvell yesterday who was very helpful and interactive with XXX.

It shows your commitment when the work you are doing is now getting used in other schools. Mrs. Haunts lets us knows you are helping children in Gateshead and Gemma Smith let me know that it is also getting used in Jersey. 

We have also had a letter of thanks from Gavin Williamson - the Secretary of State for education. CLICK HERE. 

Wednesday 25th March - 11.45am

I have received this message from a parent today. I have deleted the name of the child and the name of the school they are comparing us to. 

I have to say a big thank you to all of your staff who’ve put time and energy into developing the online learning for the pupils.  It’s so much better thought out than XXXXX offering!  XXXX is enjoying the work, challenges and online reading – Thanks.

This mirrors what I finally had a chance to see last night when I found some time to look at what the children at home were doing and not think about the children in school for a bit. I only had time to look at nursery, reception and Y1 (sorry) but I had my socks blown off. Some fantastic work and ideas - well done and thank you. I look forward to celebrating the other year groups later - I have been told that I should be looking forward to watching a pirate video 

I have started to think of a list of ideas and resources that we can use to help staff by compiling our ideas and to help parents as a point of reference. Thank you for the ideas that you have all sent me i have added them to the list. 

Tuesday 24th March - 4.30pm

We have chocolates in the staff room !! - see our twitter link - you don't need a twitter account - CLICK HERE. 

I have set up a list of FAQ's for staff - I hope that they help - CLICK HERE.