Good morning,

I just wanted to write a brief message to you all, on what would have been the start of our summer term.

Firstly, I hope you are all well, both physically and mentally, I also hope your wider family and friends remain safe; these hopes are shared by all the staff.

Secondly, can I thank those of you, who are still working, putting yourself and your families in greater danger, by going to work each day, supporting vulnerable people, be it in the community, care homes or in hospitals. I know we have have all shared our doorsteps on a Thursday evening, clapping and showing support – it has really been quite inspiring.

Thirdly, schools…at present the situation remains the same, the school is open to support children of Key worker’s with a skeleton staff in place, others are working from home. Guidance remains the same as the daily government briefings, nothing at present will change in the short term. If and when further guidance is given, we of course will get this to you at the earliest opportunity. For now, we will continue to prepare work packs, share and highlight any websites and opportunities to support our children and families.

As always Mrs Raine, is working very hard behind the scenes, to ensure everything is running smoothly, the credit for ensuring the voucher scheme for school meals is up and running, this is very much down to her. I must also thank the staff who are able to volunteer for the rota system, which allows us to staff the school at these strange times. Also a big thank you to the many families who are sending photos and messages to school, these are greatly received and help keep up moral in these difficult times.

Despite these strange times, I am hopeful that we will return to normality at some point, when I don’t know! Until that time, please keep safe and look after yourself and your families, I’m sure in the end our community will be closer for the challenges we have faced together.

Take care,

Paul Dixon

Head Teacher

In addition, to support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, the Oak National Academy is due to launch on Monday 20 April. This brand-new enterprise has been created by 40 teachers from some of the leading schools across England, backed by government grant funding. It will provide 180 video lessons each week, across a broad range of subjects from maths to art to languages, for every year group from Reception through to Year 10.

Plan your week of homeschooling

Bitesize has 150 new lessons every week to keep you on track with your learning.

You’ll find daily lessons for homeschooling in Maths and English for every year group, as well as regular lessons in Science, History, Geography and more.

The homeschooling lessons have been created with teachers and other educational experts. They feature a mix of videos, animations, practice activities, quizzes and games.

Click the link below to view the latest schedule and find out what topics they’re covering.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/znbnscw

It was no shock to be informed that this event has been cancelled. I was competing in this event to raise money and awareness ‘If You Care Share’. For families who were kind enough to sponsor me, this is to inform you that i have successfully registered for this event on Saturday 19th June 2021 and will still raise money for the same charity. I feel this charity could well be supporting many families affected by this pandemic for years to come as it impacts on life as we know it.

The Rat Race team do not want all the 2020 medals to go to waste and have introduced ‘The Virtual Wall’, the conditions are to run 70 miles throughout the month of June, as part of your daily exercise. You simply track your runs using any tracker or app and send this proof to the team. Great news is that you didn’t even need to have been registered for this years run and it’s only £5! They want me to share the link below…

I can think of many of our parents who are keen runners so why not set yourself this goal and gain a 2020 medal for doing so. I’d also love to know if you do register for the virtual wall…I AM!

https://ratracethewall.co.uk/virtual-run/?utm_source=TW+2020+Runners&utm_campaign=f31737496b-Dirty+Weekend+Special+Relaunch_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9bd6781c79-f31737496b-91359032

If your circumstances have recently changed and you have applied for Universal Credits in recent weeks, please email consettjunior@durhamlearning.net so that we can check request further information to check your eligibility with the school meals team at DCC. Please understand that we are unable to process your application until we receive notification that you are eligible, normally this can take up to six weeks to be received and may take longer due to current circumstances.

Be assured we will check applications waiting to be confirmed daily and will be in touch as soon as you are eligible for free school meals. This will then enable us to help you access the national vouchers.

Take care
CJS Team

Edenred are the governments recommended national free school meal voucher scheme provider. Families of children who are eligible for free school meals were text a few weeks ago to inform them of what they needed to do for us to provide them with vouchers. As expected, this hasn’t gone as smoothly as we would have hoped, but over the weekend the company closed the site to enable them to process the very significant number of orders they had received. They have changed their system to allow orders that are processed to be released to families quicker.

Edenred were not expecting the high demand and traffic on their website, which is still working very slowly. They have asked for our patience and are replying to emails and queries as and when they can.

Families who emailed our school have now had vouchers fulfilled by Edenred and should have received their email with further instructions yesterday. If you know we have registered you for this and you did not receive your email, then please check your ‘junk’ folder before getting in touch. If you do not receive your voucher email by this Friday, then please contact school.

Families will receive the following from Edenred:

Two weeks of vouchers to cover the Easter holidays (please note, this will be received in two emails – my system shows that some families have only redeemed one voucher, this is not a duplicate or an error). This should have been received from Tuesday 14th – Friday 17th April.

A weekly Friday/Saturday email from Friday 17th April with your voucher allocation for the Monday that follows.

https://www.consett-jun.durham.sch.uk/national-voucher-scheme-edenred/

On Friday the BBC unveiled its biggest push on education in its history – ensuring that every child in the UK has the opportunity to continue to follow the appropriate core parts of their nation’s school curriculum in these challenging times.

Whether complementing what schools are providing remotely, or as a standalone resource, the BBC’s newly expanded education offer will bring 14 weeks of educational programmes and lessons to every household in the country – whatever your child’s age.

For more information see the lick below. This is due to start from Monday 20th April (after Easter), please keep checking the BBC page. for their updates on this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/coronavirus-education

The DfE have brought together an initial list of online educational resources to help children to learn at home.

These websites have been identified by some of the country’s leading educational experts and offer a wide range of support and resources for pupils of all ages.

The list includes subject-specific resources for:

English
maths
science
PE
wellbeing
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

They are currently being offered for free.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-online-education-resources/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-online-education-resources-for-home-education