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

Update for families regarding Parentpay credits. I have now been granted permissions to issue refunds on Parentpay. My task over the next few days is to work through every child’s account and make refunds on the following: School meals, Breakfast Club and and remaining Special Persons Day credits.

As there are hundreds of payment items to refund and each one can only be done individually, it will take some time to complete (it does not help my delightful children are at my feet constantly!). So please continue to be patient, it is really appreciated. I am hoping this is all done over the next 2/3 days.

The refunds will be prioritised as follows:

Families with the most credit
Families with more than one child with credit
Finally, alphabetical order.

Similarly, if you have arrears on your account, please log in and pay for the services you have used.

Thank you, take care
Mrs Raine
Operations Manager

I hope you’re all looking after each other and enjoying your time together as much as possible. Please don’t put pressure on the children to complete lots of school work during this time. The main focus at the minute is your child’s happiness and wellbeing.

A little bit of home learning is great: read, practise your tables but make sure this is balanced with play, fun, baking, making, building etc.

I have attached my email address below. If you need any support with anything during this time I am happy to help, whether it be to support your child with SEND or to ask a SPAG question!

Stay safe.
Miss Waters

r.waters200@consett-jun.durham.sch.uk

To ensure we continue to support you in the provision of your child’s free school meal, we are in the process of setting up evouchers through the governments recommended provider, Edenred.  At the moment you do not need to do anything, as we are taking care of this for you. Once set up they will email you directly with your evoucher number as well as some instructions as to what you need to do to use it.

I have attached the parent/carer guidance and i strongly recommend that you take some time to read this. It also lists which supermarkets accept the vouchers, however, you must go online and choose which one.

DfE_FreeSchoolMeals_ParentCarerFAQs

As the vouchers are only to be issued during school terms, your first weekly payment will be processed on Friday 17th April, then every Friday thereafter.  If you have more than one qualifying child in our school then we will process one voucher that equates to your the full value due to you, i.e. 1 child = £15 per week, 3 children = £45 per week.

If you have emailed school requesting these vouchers, then you will receive them. If you have changed your mind and would like them, just contact school.

If you do not receive your email on or before midday on the 17th April, please check your ‘junk’ email prior to contacting school.

As it is a new system, we are expecting a few issues, fingers crossed there wont be!

Take care

Mrs Raine

Operations Manager

The second set of work packs are almost complete. If you have emailed consettjunior@durhamlearning.net or rang school to request paper copies, you will be sent a school text in the next day or so to inform they are ready to collect.  Please do not come before receiving your text as they will not be ready.

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.

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. However, you can still contact Mrs Raine at either option above to request one is ready.

From 3.00 p.m. today 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, and will take several hours to complete. 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. 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.

Finally, and most importantly of all, these second packs are for AFTER EASTER. Please, please ensure your child has two weeks off from school over the next two weeks, with the exception of reading, having LOTS of fun and making memories through learning of a special kind.  Therefore it will be four weeks from Friday 3rd April before you can expect anymore work.  As always we welcome photographs of what your child is up to emailed to school, we dearly miss your children and in these difficult times, it keeps our spirits high too…

Stay safe…we are only an email away…

CJS Staff Team

The government have asked schools to consider opening to provide childcare for children of key workers during the Easter Holidays. We will be opening school to support our families.

If we have already informed you that you qualify, please email consettjunior@durhamlearning.net if you require your child to be in school at anytime over the next two weeks and ensure you include the dates and times. If you do not need childcare you do not need to email. If there are no childcare requests on some days then we will not open the school.

Can you also be please consider other options for childcare as the advice is only to send children to school if there is absolutely NO other option.

SCHOOL WILL BE CLOSED ON FRIDAY 10TH AND MONDAY 13TH APRIL – BANK HOLIDAY

Stay safe
CJS team