Home Learning update - parental information heading into the Summer Holidays!

Dear Girls & Boys (and Parents) 

We want to thank you for all your hard work over the last 3 months - it is hard to believe that we are heading quickly towards the end of June.  Over the last 8-10 weeks we all have had to adjust to changes in our daily routines - all of you, (boys and girls) have had to learn to complete school work at home and all of us (adults - including maybe your parents) have had to learn to do our jobs mainly from home and adjust to working a lot more online.  Without time to prepare for this and with little guidance we all did it!! - We adjusted really well and this makes me proud of the whole Camphill Team - you - all the boys and girls, all the staff and even your parents for supporting us as we have really 'stepped up' and made Home Learning the best it could be for us all! 

Did you know? -  All our Teachers quickly had to adapt to the new 'normal' - they supported you all by providing really, really good Home Learning to try and keep you as much as possible up-to-date with your learning. They did all this whilst working around the emotional and physical needs of their own families and often continued to work well into the evenings prepping work, posting work, responding to emails/comments, writing reports and lots more - so on behalf of all of you (the boys & girls) and us adults (who are parents)  - I thank all the teachers for this!  

We are now entering a period of uncertainty awaiting what the return to school will look like - and I use the term return to school not 'going back to school/work' as you (the boys & girls) have not been 'off' and the teachers and staff of Camphill have certainly not been 'off' work either during this time!  Whether it has been our teachers, office staff, classroom assistants or cleaning staff  these adults have all continued 'working' - some staff have been on 'rotas' or working from home continuing with jobs they have been asked to do. 

Along with the hard work the staff have been doing I know our pupils have also been keeping up with lots of our daily learning - and as I said at the start we are very proud of you all!  As we finalise school annual reports to go home it is worth mentioning that the staff have all bought (personally) each of you (the pupils) a 'sweet treat' to go home with your report as a big thank you from them to you for all your hard work!! So well done! 

Good news! This week (Mon.8th June) will be our last week of full 'Home Learning' - then next week (Mon 15th June) each day a shorter Literacy and Numeracy task will only be posted on the website and then moving into our last full week of Term some 'End of year Summer activities' will be posted for you all to enjoy! There then will be no further posting of Home Learning activities after this until further notice. (During these last 3 weeks the staff are now back into school preparing your classrooms and getting resources ordered hoping that when we return in August we are ready to face what the new school year may bring.) 

To our P7 pupils - we wish you all the best with your move to Post-Primary School - please come back and visit us as soon as you can! We really have missed not being able to say a proper 'Good-bye' to you all this school year! 

Parents - Can I continue to thank you for all your support, encouragement and commitment during this time of home learning. I hope you do agree that we have continued to work hard to support your child in their learning and we are continually looking into ways to add to this if we are to continue a 'blended learning' approach come the new academic year. As mentioned above 'Home Learning' will start to decrease over these last 3 weeks to enable staff to get into school and plan for the new school year. You will be receiving a Parentmail this week regarding a 'day/pick up time' to come into school to collect your child's school report and belongings - please bring a large plastic bag with you to put your child's books etc into. We also ask that you return any school books/ Reading/AR books your child has at home too. (If your child was a Sports Day cup winner in 2019 or a family member received a P7 Prize Day cup/shield in 2019 we also ask that you return this at the same time - thank -you)

As I am sure you are aware, it will not be the 'normal' return to school this autumn term and as soon as we can determine what the Dept. of Ed. requirements are for the new academic year we will be in touch via Parentmail.  We will then give you details of your child's next class teacher and starting date for the new term and hopefully more details about the way forward.

School uniform will be available to order online we hope by the end of this week/early next week too and will be ready for collection in early August. 

Finally, we all deserve a Summer Holiday.....wherever that may be this year..... - so the school website and school email address will be closed from Tuesday 30th June at 12noon until mid. August. I trust you and your family can find the time to have a relaxing summer together and do hope you all stay safe and well. 

Thank you for your ongoing support in what has been a very difficult school year for us all. 

Kind regards

Mrs McMaster