herry Garden April / May Newsletterfluencycontent2-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/File... · The...
Transcript of herry Garden April / May Newsletterfluencycontent2-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/File... · The...
Cherry Garden
April / May Newsletter
What’s happening in school
We have 2 small key stage 2 classes and 2 small key stage 1 classes currently. Key stage
groups use separate dining areas and do not share soft play/hall in the same week. We
have several other measures in place to minimise the risk of infection.
The children are enjoying their new small classes and getting familiar with new
classmates and staff.
They have been accessing more outdoor learning particularly since the weather has
now improved and are enjoying Forest School activities in the tree area. We recently
had a car washing and vacuuming theme for some of the children and both adults and
children were very happy about this.
What’s happening at home
I’m sure you are all by now struggling to keep them entertained particularly if you do
not have access to a garden. We have a significant amount of children who are
vulnerable due to health needs and this places additional stress onto families.
Teachers have been doing a fantastic job of uploading lots of
activity ideas on Tapestry, Instagram, Twitter and by email. They
have been contacting you on a weekly basis to keep in touch and
you are all doing an amazing job in these extremely difficult times.
Please check out these links below (copy and paste onto your browser).
https://twitter.com/cherrygdnschool
https://www.instagram.com/cherrygardensch/
https://tapestryjournal.com/
Free School Meals
We managed to deliver food hampers for DFE eligible FSM families a few weeks ago in
partnership with AIP our catering company. This was greatly appreciated by parents.
We did this because we are experiencing great difficulty in accessing the national
school meals e-vouchers on Edenred. We are still continuing to
try to access the national scheme for pupils eligible under the
DFE for FSM.
Southwark provide FSM for all primary aged children in
Southwark so we also now have an account with Tesco and all
children who are staying at home will have now received these gift vouchers worth
£15.00 per week.
Playground Project
We are opening up the zipwire playground at the end of the day
for some families. This playground will not be used by pupils
after 12pm so will be safe to use (virus comes off surfaces in 3
hours in outdoors). After school slots are now booked up.
Meetings using via conference calls
We have had several staff meetings via Teams and Zoom and even managed
a staff quiz in the Easter holidays. We started annual review meetings with
parents last week and this has worked well and I’m sure will become much
slicker as times goes on. 6 monthly reviews for new children will not take
place for the vast majority of children but an updated IEP will be sent home in the next
few weeks and follow up by phone or video conferencing can take place if needed.
All children will also receive their Annual Report at the end of the academic year.
Government Guidance
There has been no change with Government Guidance, however many special schools
are closed completely. I believe we have taken the right approach for our school and
have built in appropriate risk assessments to ensure risks for pupils and adults are at a
manageable minimum. This does mean that we have only been able to take a small co-
hort of children thus far. Any possible increase after half term will need to be fully risk
assessed to ensure we are able to continue to minimise risks and I strongly suspect there
will only be a small increase in pupils after half term.
#Keep Calm and Cherry On
Best wishes and Stay Safe,
Teresa Neary