#TransitionTuesday

To try and give students an idea of the different subjects and the teachers that they will meet, we’ve put together a series of videos. This week is English, Maths & Sports Art and Performance and look out for all other subjects next week.

English – https://youtu.be/dossWWtAMKc

Maths – https://youtu.be/go-FWzmIwiY

Sports, Arts & Performance –

Following on from our last #TransitionTuesday, please see link below to some FAQs.

https://bit.ly/3dJfe77

Since sharing the devastating news about last nights deliberate fire, it is without surprise that our families were as equally shocked as we were. Their generosity and care has been amazing, calls to help tidy, emails offering help and to just to share their devastation. We have also been informed that a gofundme page has been set up to try and give the children back the summer house they once had. Thank you to all parents and especially Kyla, Mother of Elise, for starting the page. We are speechless….and for those who know our staff team, that doesn’t happen often!

With everything going on at the moment, the tasks involved in preparing the school to reopen, this is the last thing we expected.

Thank you to everyone, it really means a lot.

CJS team

https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-summer-house-for-consett-junior-school?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

It is with great sadness and anger that we inform you of a fire that we had on our school grounds last night, which resulted in the school’s outdoor summer house being burnt to the ground. The fire brigade were called at 5pm by a parent who lives nearby.

The team worked for over an hour putting out the fire and then making the site safe enough for children to continue attending.

The school is currently open to key worker children, with the intention of opening for Year 6 pupils on the 15th June. The police believe that this was a deliberate arson attack. The summer house was built after the school won the Tesco community grant scheme and we intended to make it into an outdoor library for the children at our school. As you can imagine the whole team at CJS are deeply saddened by this thoughtless act and we are appealing for any witnesses to contact the police 0345 606 0365 or 101.

As a school who put our hearts into the local community and families, we are left devastated by this thoughtless and disgusting attack. With all the uncertainty and sadness we are facing in the world right now, this act is utterly shameful.

We are obviously relieved that no-one was hurt in the fire and our children were not present to see it.

From all at CJS

We have been informed that the cost of school meals will increase from September 2020.

The cost of a school meals will increase from £2.05 per day to £2.10 per day.

The fifth set of work packs are printed and ready to collect. If you have previously emailed consettjunior@durhamlearning.net or rang school to request paper copies, you DO NOT need to do this again as we have a list.

Due to social distancing, these packs will be in named sealed envelopes and left in the school reception porch. When you come to collect it, please be considerate of other people who may also be collecting theirs, and maintain your 2m social distance. As they are in the front porch you can come at anytime as access to this area is 24/7.

If you have not arranged for a paper pack please do not come to school, as there will not be a pack for you to collect.

This afternoon your child’s website class page will not be available. If you try to log in it will request a password. This is to allow the new packs to be uploaded to the website. If you have not yet printed or saved the documents from your child’s page, you only have until 3.00 p.m. to do so. Once the pages are live again the only work on there will be the newly uploaded packs and on going topics. This is to save confusion on what your child has or hasn’t done. Do not start any work until you receive your text. All children in each class have different capabilities, your text will be curtailed to meet your child’s ability.

As previously shared, these websites are also really useful

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/znbnscw
http://www.thenational.academy/

Finally, these fifth packs are for the two weeks commencing Monday 8th June, we have agreed that there will only be one more pack of work to complete before the end of the summer term, which will be for w/c 22nd June. The remaining two weeks are for children to catch up on any work they have not yet completed from previous sets and we will also set a fun ‘challenge’ to end the summer term – details to follow.

As always we welcome photographs of what your child has been up to emailed to school, we have really enjoyed the Fun in the Sun photographs!

Stay safe…we are only an email away…

CJS Staff Team

We are looking forward to starting to welcome some of our children back into school.  The information below is tightly linked to risk assessments and is aimed to support all staff and children in school and minimise the risk as far as possible.  We recognise some of these measures are very different to how we normally work but we need to ensure everyone in school is safe.

• Children will be taught in groups of 8.
• All classrooms have been measured to support social distancing
• Children will be allocated to a group and this group (pod) will remain together at all times across the day, they will not mix with anyone else in school and will, where possible, have the same teacher at all times. They may not be in their normal classrooms and we cannot swap children or guarantee staff or other children in the pod.  Your child may not be with their friends due to numbers involved.
• Children do not need to wear school uniform but do need to wear clean washed clothes daily as the virus is known to sit on clothing and paper for a period of time.
• Please adhere to strict social distancing at drop off points and only arrive at school in time to drop off and collect your child.
• The office is closed to visitors and parents. No one can come into school unless by a prior arranged appointment and social distancing rules will be followed.
• Information or concerns can be passed through the office via telephone or email.
• Please ensure you are aware of your child’s pick up and drop off times and stick rigidly to these times to help the day run smoothly – Your child’s pod adult will collect children from the gate and they will be escorted into school to wash hands immediately. If you are late you must ring the office to arrange an alternative drop off.
• Your child’s pod adult will also bring them to you at the gate at the end of the day. We ask you stand at an appropriate place for collection, following social distance guidelines.
• Children should not bring anything from home into school except for a sun hat on days where it is forecast to be warm and sunny. We will provide water bottles daily.  Please ensure that you have put sun cream on your child at the start of the school day as they will be going outside wherever possible and this will protect them.
• All children in school MUST access the school packed lunch provision – this is to help mitigate the spread of the virus. For families that pay for school meals, they must pay using ParentPay.
• School will look different due to the measures in place e.g. marked playgrounds, distanced desks etc.
• All children will be given their own bank of resources to include all stationery etc. they will need.
• Staff may wear PPE to administer first aid or intimate care.
• For safety and timing purposes at the end of the school day, staff will not be able to liaise with you about your child that day. If there is anything that needs to be communicated to you directly, you will receive a telephone call.
• School will close at 1:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon to support remote learning and deep cleaning. Key worker care will continue to operate as normal on these afternoons.
• We will continue to set home learning for those children not in school.
• If you choose to send your child into school, we ask that you continue to maintain Government social distancing guidance at home to ensure everyone is protected within their pod. YOU MUST MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING AT ALL TIMES.  If social distancing is not maintained outside of school, we may withdraw an offer of a place for your child due to the increased risks to other children and staff.

Parent and Carer Protocol 03-06-2020

 

3rd June, 2020

Dear Parents/Carers

I just wanted to update you in regards to our preparations for welcoming a greater number of children into school.

Currently, we will be in a position to welcome year 6 children into school on the 15th June, staff will be ringing each family individually, this will be completed by the end of Tuesday 9th, this is to ascertain numbers. This will allow us to prepare the appropriate numbers of classrooms to accommodate the pupils who will be coming back into school. There will be 8 pupils per class.

The decision of returning to school lies firmly with families and their judgement will be totally respected, the decision to ring families, is just to give us clarity on numbers.

Alongside the Year 6 pupils we will continue to support the children of key worker children, currently we have 37 children registered to this group.

The government have expressed a desire that all children, at some point, return to school prior to the summer holidays; to be truthfully honest, this is unlikely to happen at Consett Juniors with current guidance and the 2m social distancing rule – our accommodation is not suitable. Obviously if guidance changes, we will adapt our planning.

Following this letter, I will also be sending out a guidance document for year 6 parents and children, setting out how the school day will look for them on the 15th June – this will hopefully help families make their decision whether to send their child back to school or not.

As always, I hope you and your families are well.

Paul Dixon

Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers

Its with great sadness that I have to tell you that Mrs Smith has decided to retire at the end of the summer term, obviously we are devastated that she is leaving, but wish her nothing but happiness and a long happy retirement.

Mrs Smith has been at the Junior school for over 15 years and previously taught at Consett Infant school. She has taught a tremendous number of children (some now our parents) over the years, who have benefited from her calm, caring, measured approach – always with the children in the centre of everything.

We can’t currently celebrate as we would wish, but I am sure when things return to normal we will be holding a big party to give her the send-off she deserves. Due to this, we are gathering messages to pass onto her, if you would like to send in your own personal message please email consettjunior@durhamlearning.net

I’m sure you will join me and all the staff in wishing Mrs Smith well for the future and saying thank you for all the many years hard work and commitment.

I am sure we will continue to see much of her in the future.

Paul Dixon
Head Teacher