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Well, here we are again! Sadly we are in another lockdown and another difficult period for all of us.
I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you for the efforts you are making to help us make remote learning work. And an especially huge thank you to all your wonderful children who are making us all very proud with their attitude and resilience! We all understand that it is not easy when those at home are socially isolated too.
As I’m sure you're aware the staff here are working incredibly hard to make the learning experience for all the children, both at home and in class, a great one – so I’m sure you’ll join me in thanking them for all their dedication too.
This week saw the launch of the government scheme to provide Primary Schools with Lateral Flow Device testing kits for testing staff for COVID-19. The tests provide results in just 30 minutes and are part of the effort to try and stop asymptomatic people passing on the virus unwittingly. I hope you will be reassured to know that all staff at the school are now being tested twice a week, making our school safer than ever.
I also wanted to update you on our recruitment drive to find a Head of School for Snitterfield, as previously advised in the first week of term. I am delighted to tell you that we have had an overwhelming response to our advertisement, and, despite lockdown and all its challenges, a very pleasing number of applications. I'm not surprised at all, as Snitterfield is a wonderful place to work - but now the challenge is to whittle down the applications and continue to the next phase of interviewing. I will of course let you know when a new Head of School has been appointed.
At the moment it isn’t clear when we will be able to welcome all the children back into school, but rest assured we are doing everything we can to be ready when the announcement comes and to make the next few weeks of remote learning as easy and accessible as possible. Your co-operation and contribution truly is appreciated – keep up the great work!
Here’s looking forward to Spring,
Mrs Plaskitt
Robert Kennedy once gave a speech where he said,
"There is a Chinese curse which says 'May you live in interesting times.' Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history."
Senetor Kennedy was wrong in that the phrase isn't a Chinese curse at all, it was probably invented by a Western diplomat, but I think he's right about how 'interesting times' bring out the creative energy in people. These are certainly interesting times in school and I'm blown away by the creative solutions to the problems of remote learning that my colleagues and you at home are coming up with. As I've said before, it's a privilege to be apart of this team!
I have a few bits of good news to pass on this month. Firstly, you may remember that we collected shoebox gifts for the annual Teams4U appeal. As always, the Snitterfield family was very generous and the boxes you donated have found there way to children in Eastern Europe who otherwise would not have received anything for Christmas. Here are some photos of the joy your gifts have spread... Thank you!
We've recently received our allocation of new Laptops from the DfE to help families with access to remote learning. These along with a donation of refurbished machines from Laptops4Learners have been distributed to families over the last few weeks. If you are having problems with access to technology or internet access please contact the office - we may be able to help. I am also accepting donations of old laptops, which I will pass on to Laptops4Learners for refurbishment and reuse in schools around the district - they have given out over 160 laptops so far this year! Please consider passing on any old laptops you have lying around unused at home.
HUGE congratulations to Ethan Hobbs in Class 3 who recently received his Blue Peter badge! We are very proud of him!!
And finally, some words of wisdom from Professor Brian Cox - National Scientific Treasure and ex-keyboard player with 90s pop combo D:Ream...
Thanks for sharing your photos of home school! Its good to see so many of you making the best of the situation and to see the children enjoying learning at home. We hope that by sharing these photos it will help everyone to remember that even though we're in different spaces at the moment the Snitterfield Family is still together!
Each class was given the task of using their art skills from the first term to put together one quarter of the school logo.
Class 1 produced an excellent collage.
Class 2 were inspired by Van Gough.
Class 3 used a mosaic technique which ended up having an interesting marble effect.
Class 4 used homemade stampers to colour in their quarter.
Can you figure out which is which?
We are pleased with this as it symbolises a collaboration that took place remotely, very much like 2020. No group knew what the final piece would look like until they were all placed together in the hall.
Class One made the most of the wintery weather (as we're sure their friends at home did!) and made an iceberg!!!
Class Two managed to take a break from learning about Africa to have some fun in the snow!
The children made Tiger masks as part of their work on animals and they would like to wish all their friends at home a ROARSOME WEEKEND!!! (Can you guess who is who?)
Class Three have been studying electricity this term in science. We sent out kits to all the children working at home so that they could join in the 'enlightening' experiments (geddit?) - here some photos of the classroom circuits being made...
The children also managed to find time to have some snow-fun! Kudos to Ewan and Jacob for sticking to shorts!!!
Can you work out the class 4 members from their silhouettes? We created them by taking a photo and using it to cut out a profile from black paper. We then placed it on a white background and used a printout of a gold frame for decoration.
Class Four also managed to grab some fun in the snow too!
Raring2Go Magazine - Winter edition
Here is a link to the digital version of the winter edition of Raring2Go magazine.