Home learning

March 26, 2020

Please take a look at our new home learning page. If you have any suggestions for this please email admin@alverstoke-jun.hants.sch.uk and we will share them. Thank you.

Home learning

March 26, 2020

Please take a look at our new home learning page. If you have any links that you think other parents would like please email admin@alverstoke-jun.hants.sch.uk and we will upload them.

Letter to everyone 20th March

March 20, 2020

Dear Parents and carers,

It has been a challenging few days for everyone and we find ourselves heading into uncharted waters over the next few weeks.

Last night we received the guidance from the Department of Education on what constitutes an ‘essential worker’. The list is comprehensive and the reason for this is that of course every occupation is important within its context and the community’s needs. Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer every child of one of the workers on the list a place at school in the coming weeks. There are two main reasons for this: firstly, we will not always have the staff to cover that number of children as they themselves may be in a vulnerable group and in isolation or develop symptoms and therefore be in quarantine for fourteen days. Secondly, if we open to the numbers so far as indicated we will be doing very little to contribute to stopping the spread of infection as we will still have so many staff, children and parents on site.

Thank you to parents who have responded positively to the key worker support we will be offering next week, at present we will be supporting 36 children as their parents continue to do sterling work to keep the NHS and other services running smoothly. We have already exceeded the Government advice of 10% per school but feel that we need to offer these places as a matter of urgency to these parents.

It was good to see the pile of contributions for the Food bank this morning as well. At a time like this, being neighbourly has never felt so important.

Just a few things to make you aware of:

We have emailed home learning out today. We have selected some activities to keep basic skill work going each day and also some activities that children can demonstrate their independence and creativity with as well. It will be good to see some of the end products when we come back to school in the Summer term.
We appreciate that for some families it will be important that you are still able to contact us. The best way will be to email admin@alverstoke-jun.hants.sch.uk and Mrs O’Brien will ensure that your email reaches the right member of staff. We will also be sending out a newsletter each Friday to keep you up to date.

Before we close to the majority of our pupils for the foreseeable future, I wanted to share some thoughts with you. Please remember that some of our children are just as scared as we are right now. Our children not only hear everything going on around them but they feel our tension and anxiety as well. They have never experienced anything like this before and although the idea of being off school for several weeks sounds exciting, they are probably imagining summer holiday fun not the reality of being at home and not seeing their friends. Over the coming weeks, you may well see an increase in more challenging behaviour with your children. Whether it is anger, anxiety or protest that they can’t do normal things. I offer my reassurance that this is normal and expected under these circumstances.

Please do not worry about them regressing at school. Every single child is in this boat and they will all be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will focus on their learning and meet their educational needs. At the end of all of this, their mental health will be more important than their academic skills.

Finally, on a lighter note, can I say how much I have enjoyed my time here at Alverstoke Junior school, it has been a pleasure working with such a dedicated team of staff and having the pleasure of meeting your children as well. I shall miss them when my time here ends. Mrs Slowther will begin her time as head teacher on Monday 20th April but until that time, the staff and myself will continue to keep the school running smoothly regardless of whatever is thrown at us.

Best wishes, keep safe, and well,

Mrs Zoë Dudley

Caring hands

March 19, 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are keen to support our local community during this time. So, tomorrow (Friday 20^th March) children may come into school in non-uniform – please all note that this voluntary not compulsory. If your child wishes to wear non-school uniform, in payment we ask that your child brings in an item of food, may it be a tin of tomatoes, a box of crackers or cooking oils. We will be taking these donations of food to our local food bank at ‘Caring Hands’, Gosport. If your child is bringing in an item, please ask them to bring it to the office.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Marissa Ballard

Deputy Headteacher

Public health update 16th March

March 16, 2020

Update 16th March

Corona virus

March 13, 2020

Following on from recent advice from Public Health England, please do not send your child to school if they have a temperature or a new cough. For any other information please refer to www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england

Wednesday 18th March 2020 update

Dear Parents and carers,

RE Coronavirus update – school closure to most to most pupils.

Following on from my last update yesterday afternoon, I’m writing to let you know that we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday until further notice.

As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.

We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you thin that you child may fall into one of these categories. Please email admin@alverstoke-jun.hants.sch.uk with your child’s name and their class and your job. We’ll be in touch again as soon as we are sure who this does apply to.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday 23rd march onwards.

Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We will open fully as soon as we can and we will let you know when this happens.

This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience as we deal with this ever changing situation. We will be in touch with more information when we can.

Mrs Z Dudley

Tuesday 17th March 2020 update

Good afternoon,

Just to keep you up to date with the current situation at school. There has been no further advice given by the DFE or Government regarding schools closing although we have been told that headteachers may need to advise parents that if staff members have to self isolate, this may have an impact on safeguarding children in school and we may need to close certain year groups. Should we find ourselves in this position and need to close certain year groups, a text message will be sent as early as possible in the morning to let parents know.

We have received notification from several of our Club providers that they will not be running their clubs until further notice and we have made the decision to stop running any of our other clubs at this difficult time. Similarly, the Year 5 outcome and the Mothers Day fair will not be going ahead.

Please can you ensure that your child has a water bottle in school at all times as we are closing down the outside water fountains for hygiene reasons. The inside water coolers will all still be available for use however.

The advice remains the same for keeping children off school : if they have a new persistent cough or a high temperature, then please keep them at home.

At the present time, teachers are putting together work for children should the school close. If you have decided to self isolate, please encourage your child to continue to read and do some timetables rockstars until this work becomes available. We will not be sending out packs of work to individual children until the school receives notification to close.

We will be contacting you again tomorrow with the latest updates.

Mrs Z Dudley

Tuesday 16th March

Latest update.

Good afternoon! At present, we are still unaware of any decision by the Government to close schools so we are continuing to stick to business as usual.

We are however taking some precautions in line with the advice given by Public Health England. On Wednesday afternoon, Year 5 will still be holding their celebration of work but we would ask that 5R parents come into school for 2.15 until 2.35 and go into class where the children will perform for you. 5S parents, please come into school at 2.45 until 3.00 and go into class for their performance. 5S parents will be able to take their children and siblings home after the performance.

The Mother’s Day sale may still go ahead although we will be looking at running it earlier in the week and ensuring that children attend in small groups rather than en masse.

At present, clubs will still go ahead and parents will be informed by text if the provider has cancelled a club. All club providers have been asked to keep using the hand sanitisers and to encourage children to use tissues if they need to.

We ask that you continue to work with us, keeping children at home should they demonstrate a new persistent cough and a high temperature. We will continue to keep you abreast of any changes, as we are made aware of them.

I will aim to send an update to you every day as matters unfold. Thank you for working with us and the support you have shown us over this matter.

Mrs Zoë Dudley.

World book day!

February 26, 2020

Dear parents/carers,

This year, World Book Day is on Thursday 5^th March 2020. We will be reading a range of different poems, all based on the style of nonsense poetry. The children will be exploring nonsense poetry from famous author and poet Michael Rosen as well as other well-known short poems. Your child will devise their own nonsense poem by the end of the day which can be available to read with you at home should you wish.

Similarly to last year, your child may wish to dress up on World Book Day linked to a book of their choice. This is entirely optional but please note: it is not a general non-school uniform day so if your child chooses not to dress up for World Book Day they should wear their school uniform as usual.

Your child will be coming home with homework linked to World Book Day. They will be asked to recommend a book of their choice to be purchased for our school library. On WBD, each class will take a vote on the book recommendations and choose one book which will be purchased for the library; each book purchased will have a note inside with details of the class it was recommended by and reasons for the recommendation.

At the end of the school day, there will be a Big Booky Cake Sale, which has been organised by the Young Governors, on the playground. All profits from the sale will be sent to a charity who the World Book Day organisers work alongside to provide children from less fortunate circumstances books which they can read for pleasure. Please do feel free to get creative book baking at home if you would like to contribute to the bake sale. All cakes made need to have a connection to a book in some way.

If you have any questions about World Book Day, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

Kind regards,

Sammy Swainston

English Leader