Worship 2 Go - Week 5 'Thy Kingdom Come'

✝️ Bank Holiday Weekend Message from Father Andrew

A message for our schools and their communities - families, extended families and anyone who's interested.

Letter from Mr. Sharp about September 2020 and the Future

Dear Parents/Carers

I am writing to explain how excited, pleased and honoured I feel to be appointed by the Governing Body to the position of Head Teacher from September 2020. To be given the opportunity to lead our school in the next chapter of its long history is a challenge I am very much looking forward to. I don’t think anyone would say that this is the ideal time to become a Head Teacher, but I firmly believe that this is the best school to do so in. When I moved to Manchester in 2003 from my home town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria I felt nervous and even a little scared about the unknown and the step I was taking, but the whole All Saints family welcomed me so warmly, as they have done with so many before and since, that I instantly loved the school and definitely now call this my home.

The first thing I want to do is to pay huge tribute to Mrs. Tennant who appointed me as a Newly Qualified Teacher back in 2003. I will always be thankful to her for giving me the opportunity to teach and lead at this wonderful school. I know I am certainly not alone in feeling this way as she has supported thousands of children, staff members, governors and families during her time here. I doubt there has been a more distinguished Head Teacher in the history of the school and one who has made such a difference. Through working so closely with her for so long, I can tell you that she has worked incredibly hard and dealt with great pressures on many occasions, but always done so with such calmness that hardly anyone else would have noticed. Her constant professionalism coupled with her calm, caring and compassionate personality makes her a difficult person to follow and I will miss her greatly, as I know everyone else will too. Given the current circumstances we might not be able to immediately give her the send off she deserves, but I can promise you that when the time is right we will make sure we do. This is also true for any other members of the school who move on to new things, especially the Year 6 children.

As I progressed through the rigorous recruitment process, one of my main messages was that I would strive to protect the caring and inclusive ethos of the school and continue to promote the values at the centre of everything we do. As a Church of England School so closely linked with All Saints Church, the Christian values shared by other faiths and beliefs, of love, honesty, perseverance and compassion are the foundation of what we do and why we do it. These are values that I believe in passionately and try to live by personally and professionally. Many of you will already know that I have high (and hopefully reasonable) expectations of the children with regards to their behaviour towards others and their attitude to learning. It is with high expectations that we show the children that we believe in them and their abilities, hopefully making them more self-confident as a result. To maintain these high expectations and standards we must always strive to be good role models ourselves, provide challenge, question, nurture, praise, celebrate, as well as reflecting on the mistakes that we all make and embrace them as an opportunity to learn. As a parent myself grappling with working from home every other week and trying to support my two children with home learning, I certainly feel that I am regularly presented with many opportunities to reflect on myself and my mistakes during this difficult time.

My personal vision for education is a simple but challenging one and is based on my values as well as the experiences I have had working at our school for 17 years. It is that we should aim for the children to be:

Healthy, Happy and Confident

Initially this might seem simple and easy to achieve. However, I would say that these aims are the hardest to achieve, maintain and develop in childhood and as an adult. Personally I find keeping healthy, happy and confident more challenging as an adult than I do reading, writing, completing calculations, drawing etc. ‘Primary aims’ for ‘primary education’ I believe prepare children for future learning, developing positive relationships through life and to have the choices we want them to have when they grow up. Why do we come to school? Why is it important to learn new skills and knowledge? Why is it important to build positive relationships? Why is it important to get a job? Eventually, when you keep asking yourself these questions, I think you get back to these aims. I feel incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to lead a school where these aims are already valued, strengthened by the more specific ones below.

As you all know, it is a very big challenge to achieve all these aims purely through time spent in school. As children spend only about 20% of the year in school and 80% with their families, the better the working relationship is between school and families, the better the outcomes will be for the children. In my new role, I want to build a close, open and constructive relationship with you all so that we regularly hear your views, as well as explaining why we are taking certain approaches in school. Due to the large number of people within the All Saints community, I can’t promise that there will always be complete agreement, but if everyone remembers that each person cares very deeply about the welfare of the children, listens politely, keeps calm and respects other views, then we can continue to move the school forward.

Bringing things back to the present and September. Mrs. Tennant, myself, the Governing Body and all the whole staff are working extremely hard together to ensure that the children are safe, healthy and well supported in this incredibly difficult time. It is likely that the school hasn’t faced a challenge as big and as complex as this before, and it is a tribute to both staff and families how well everyone is pulling together to support each other. We will continue to communicate with you regularly and take on board your very insightful ideas and opinions. We are all missing the children terribly and can’t wait to have them back when it is safe to do so. All the staff care very deeply about the children and it is a huge strength of the school that ’everything is for the children’.

As the current situation is changing from week to week it is difficult to say exactly how the school will be operating in September, but what I can say is that the values, principles and ethos will remain the same. Health, safety, emotional wellbeing and moving learning forward together. I am delighted to say that we have already appointed a new Deputy Head Teacher, Mrs. R. Flatman, who is currently an Assistant Head Teacher in a school in Rochdale. Once she has had an opportunity to get to know the children and staff better, she will be leading on many crucial areas which are so important to us in ‘normal’ times but even more so now. As well as supporting me and the rest of the staff with adapting in these changing times, she will bring a wealth of experience to lead on Safeguarding, Emotional Wellbeing and Behaviour, R.E. and Worship and Support for Families. One of the main adjustments we will making in September is to the curriculum to reflect the needs of the children as they deal with the ‘new normal’ caused by the coronavirus. We will be spending more time on the following:

• Knowing how to keep safe and healthy

• Rebuilding routines and behaviour expectations

• Exploring and discussing our feelings

• Focusing on social awareness

• Rebuilding confidence in a school setting

• Listening skills and memory

• Speaking to each other clearly and expressively

• Enjoyment of reading, including accuracy and fluency

• Further developing maths fluency

• Collaborating and sharing with each other (safely) across a broad curriculum

• Physical exercise

I am very confident that Mrs. Flatman will be a great addition to the team and I know she is very much looking forward to getting to know you all.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this letter and if there is anything at all you want to ask or tell me, no matter how big or small, then please get in touch with me at enquires@allsaintsnh-pri.manchester.sch.uk. I am eager to continue working with you all in my new role as Head Teacher to build on the many improvements made under Mrs. Tennant. 

Thank you for your support in the past and for that to come.

Yours sincerely

Mr. J. Sharp

Deputy Head Teacher / Head Teacher from September 2020

Home Learning - Whit Half Term and Beyond

Dear Parents/Carers

As we approach the end of another half term and a very strange and tough one at that, I wanted to update you on home learning and our intentions after the Whit half term break.

As with the Easter holidays, the teachers won’t be adding or marking tasks in Google Classroom. They have all been working flat out at home as well as in school looking after the children of critical workers and vulnerable pupils. With guidance changing regularly, they need a mental and physical rest to recuperate from their huge efforts so far and to prepare for whatever comes in the final half term (on top of reports to parents, new transition arrangements etc).

If you do wish to continue supporting your child with home learning during half term then we have lots of links and ideas on our website to help you. Our advice for priorities at home are:

• Make sure your routines allow for time to spend time together having fun and relaxing. 

• Playing, making with your child and continuing to develop their listening, attention, language and personal skills, this is particularly important for the younger children.

• Reading, reading, reading. Read to your child, support them with their reading, ask them questions. Listen to audiobooks or stories online and also use instructions etc to make things. There are thousands of ebooks on myON.

• Learn anything - keep the mind active. It could be a new skill, hobby, project - anything.

• The links below will take you to some excellent resources.

The first priority is of course the safety and health of children, staff and families, but we are also aware that there is a possibility that some children may not be in school for at least 5 months and we want to do all we can to limit the damage this will cause to their academic progress. When we have finalised our preparations for a possible return to school we will explain how we intend to blend together learning in school and at home. We need to ensure that what we provide is appropriate for the age of the children and is manageable for the teachers. We now have about 2/3 of the children in a Google Classroom, which is a fantastic achievement in a short time, but there are still a number of children to sign up and also a number of children who are yet to complete any tasks. It has been challenging for everyone to start using a new platform remotely and we want to help anyone who needs it, or see if an alternative is required. Please get in touch.

I know I have said this many times, but I feel it should be repeated. Thank you. Thank you to all the staff, families and children for the care, positivity and patience everyone has shown. It is very much appreciated and sets the school up well for the future, whatever that future looks like. We all work in this school because we are passionate about the futures of the children, but also because they brighten our day, make us laugh and provide us with a huge thrill when they learn something new. We are all missing them very much.

Please take care of yourselves over the half term break, keep sending us news from home and we will keep you informed as quickly as we can when we know more.

Mr. J. Sharp

Deputy Head Teacher

enquiries@allsaintsnh-pri.manchester.sch.uk

Worship 2 Go - Week 4 'Kindness'

DfE - Statement by the Secretary of State for Education

Welcome to today’s briefing from Downing Street. I am joined by Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer.

First, I want to update you on the latest data on the coronavirus response.

2,489,563 tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the UK, including 136,486 tests carried out yesterday;

240,161 people have tested positive, that’s an increase of 3,451 cases since yesterday;

10,484 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus, down 12% from 11,872 this time last week.

And sadly, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 34,466 have now died. That’s an increase of 468 fatalities since yesterday. This figure is in all settings not just hospitals.

Before we begin questions from the public and from the media I want to remind people of the details of the next phase of our fight against coronavirus.

First, in order to monitor our progress, we are establishing a new COVID Alert Level System, with five levels, each relating to the level of threat posed by the virus.

The alert level will be based primarily on the R value and the number of coronavirus cases.

And in turn that alert level will determine the level of social distancing measures in place.

The lower the level, the fewer the measures; the higher the level, the stricter the measures.

Throughout the period of lockdown which started on 23 March we have been at Level 4.

Thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the British people in this lockdown, we have helped to bring the level of infection down and we are now in a position to begin moving to Level 3, in very careful steps.

We have set out the first of three steps we will take to carefully modify the measures, gradually ease the lockdown, and begin to allow people to return to their way of life - but crucially avoiding what would be a second peak that overwhelms the NHS.

After each step we will closely monitor the impact of that step on the R and the number of infections, and we will only take the next step when we are satisfied that it is safe to do so.

Step 1, from this week, means those who cannot work from home should now speak to their employer about going back to work. You can now spend time outdoors and exercise as often as you like. You can meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor, public place provided you stay two metres apart.

Having taken the first step in carefully adjusting some of the measures and our advice to people on what to do, we have also updated what we are asking people to do, which is to Stay Alert, Control the Virus and Save Lives.

If everyone stays alert and follows the rules, we can control coronavirus by ensuring the R number does not go above one and reducing the number of infections. This is how we can continue to save lives, and livelihoods, as we begin as a nation to recover from coronavirus.

At this time of year GCSE and A level students would have been making final preparations for their exams, while others were enjoying their summer term.

If you are one of them, can I say how sorry I am that this has happened to you this year.

The sacrifices that you and all young people have made have been especially tough.

It is now almost eight weeks since we asked schools, nurseries and colleges to close to all but a small number of children.

Once again I would like to say an enormous thank you to all the school, college and childcare staff who have been going above and beyond the call of duty to care for smaller groups of children of critical workers, vulnerable children as well as making sure there are resources available at home for children to learn, interacting with them and making sure that children know you are there for them. You have been simply outstanding and we’re so grateful for what you have done.

We have been quite clear all along, that we would only start inviting more children back into schools when our five key tests had been met. That position has not changed and it is what is guiding our actions.

But we do want to see all children back in school because we know how much children grow and benefit from being in school.

We can now start the planning for a very limited return to schools for some pupils potentially as early as next month.

Let me explain how this will work because I know that some people, including parents and teachers, are very anxious about this.

If the rates of infection are decreasing, it will give us a green light to get children back into childcare and more of them back into school from 1 June.

As part of a cautious phased return, those in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 will be allowed back into school in smaller class sizes. We are also planning to get some secondary school students back – those in years 10 and 12 – to make sure they have the opportunity to come back to school on a limited basis and have some face to face time with teachers.

We are prioritising these children because they stand to lose more by staying away from school. The first years of school are pivotal for children to develop social and behavioural skills and to learn the basics that are going to have a huge bearing on how well they do in their life. Students in Years 10 and 12 need support in the run up to vital exams next year and it’s vital that we do all we can to help them succeed and help them do well.

This is particularly important for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people.

There are some who would like to delay the wider opening of schools. But there is a consequence to this. The longer that schools are closed, the more children miss out. Teachers know this. Teachers know that there are children out there who have not spoken to or played with another child of their own age for the last two months.

They know there are children from difficult or very unhappy homes for whom school is their happiest place in their week. It’s also the safest place for them to be and it’s thanks to their teachers and the support that their teachers give to them that they are safe and happy.

The poorest children, the most disadvantaged children, the children who do not always have support they need at home, will be the ones who will fall furthest behind if we keep school gates closed. They are the ones who will miss out on the opportunities and chances in life that we want all children to benefit from what teachers and schools deliver for them.

So we’re asking some children to come back from the 1 June. And we are asking schools to adopt a number of strict protective measures.

This includes reducing class sizes, and making sure pupils stay within these small groups, creating a protective and small bubble around them.

Schools will also be rigorous about hygiene, cleaning and hand washing. School staff can already be tested for the virus but from 1 June we will extend that to cover children and their families if any of them develop symptoms. Track-and-trace methods will then be used to prevent the virus from spreading.

Together, these measures will create an inherently safer system, where the risk of transmission is substantially reduced – for children, their teachers and also their families.

My department has been issuing full and detailed guidance on how to implement these measures and prepare for wider opening. We have worked closely with the sector, listening to those who work in the classroom. We will continue to do so, to ensure schools have the support they need.

It goes without saying that we will be carefully monitoring the impact this first phase has and we will use this to guide us when we consider our next steps.

This phased return is in line with what other European countries are doing to get their own schools, colleges and nurseries back.

I know a lot of you may be worried about sending your children to school. Every one of us wants the very best for our children and I know how stressful this time has been for many families. I want to reassure you that this approach is based on the best scientific advice, with children at the very heart of everything we do.

Education is one of the most important gifts we can give any children.

So when we are advised that we can start to bring some children back to school we should do so, so that they don’t miss out on the enormous opportunities to learn, to be with their friends and to benefit from everything that their teachers and schools can offer them. We owe it to the children in order to be able to do that.

I would like now to hand over to Jenny and then we will take some questions.

Gavin Williamson MP