Whole School Letters home - see also Newsletters
Letters home - Spring Term
Please also see our Weekly Newsletters for information.
Letters home Autumn Term 2022
Letters Spring and Summer terms 2022
NEWT - Church magazine - Summer 2022
Accessing Remote Learning What ‘remote learning’ can I expect from Berkshire Schools Trust / St John’s CE Primary School for my child? As mentioned, we will be using Microsoft Office 365 for our education learning platform. Please follow this link for further guidance and resources on the use of Microsoft Teams at home: https://wke.lt/w/s/9pcwBY
Teams login details
Your child’s Login/username is: This has been sent by email to you
Your child’s password is: As advised
Please do not change your child's password.
Any queries, regarding Office 365, please sent to office@stjohns.reading.sch.uk
In your child’s virtual classroom, to ensure the safety of our children, the “Chat” function will be switched off for children. This means that children will only be able to communicate and share documents with staff members. (If this fails in some way we would appreciate some parental monitoring to ensure the child(ren) are using their virtual learning platform in an appropriate way. Please do alert school staff who will always endeavour to offer appropriate and timely support.
This information is to be used as a general guide We aim to implement remote learning from your child’s third day of absence, at the latest. There are two general scenarios outlined below; the first scenario where your child is not permitted to attend school and the second outlines the actions in the case of a whole bubble not being permitted to attend school or if the school is directed to completely lockdown.
During the first days of absence, while the resources are being prepared by your child’s class teacher/team, a combination of paper learning packs, our website and the government’s Oak Academy online lessons may be used for every year group, covering a wide range of our curriculum objectives.
Links and further information are shared below. If you do not have access to the internet and cannot engage with any online learning, please inform the school office and a member of staff will call to discuss the best way to support your child’s learning while they are absent from school. This is likely to be paper learning packs that can be printed off and collected at the school office. If you have access to the internet, you can access the following age appropriate learning for your child:
Circumstance/reason
| Expectations of parents for home learning | What school will provide |
Child is off school with COVID-19 symptoms or is self-isolating | If child is unwell: no home learning completed
If child is well but self-isolating: complete home learning
If sibling is asked to self-isolate but not unwell: complete home learning
| Home learning resources found on school website; https://www.stjohns.reading.sch.uk/
Go to the learning section and it is the first option, please then select your child’s year group |
Bubble self-isolation due to positive case in school/ lack of staffing | All children (unless unwell) are to complete home learning * Each child is expected to engage with a full school day of learning. During this day they will be asked to access some online and some offline resources. They will be asked to answer quizzes and submit work via the Microsoft online classroom and meet teacher deadlines for this.
| First two days: use home learning link from the website (as above) 3rd day from lockdown/ self-isolation onwards: The school will provide some recorded sessions or calls for children, at certain directed times during the day, virtually via Microsoft office classroom. A timetable for learning will be provided/available on the website (Staff will record virtual lesson content related to the school curriculum which will be uploaded to the Microsoft classroom as necessary and appropriate) Assemblies will form part of this package and will be provided by school phase groups, Oak Academy or our Vicar, as appropriate |
Local/ National lockdown - whole school closed except for Key worker children | All children (unless unwell) are to complete home learning *
Each child is expected to engage with a full school day of learning. During the day they will be asked to access some online and some offline resources. They will be asked to answer quizzes and submit work via the Microsoft online classroom and meet teacher deadlines for this. Key worker children who continue to attend school will complete home/remote learning in Key stage group bubbles in school with the support of LSAs, as directed by class teachers.
| First two days: use home learning link from the website (as previous) 3rd day from lockdown/ self-isolation onwards: The school will provide some recorded sessions or calls for children, at certain directed times during the day, virtually via Microsoft office classroom. A timetable for learning will be provided/available on the website (Staff will record virtual lesson content related to the school curriculum which will be uploaded to the Microsoft classroom as necessary and appropriate) Staff will only be available to talk to and respond to work during dedicated time during school hours Assemblies will form part of this package and will be provided by school phase groups, Oak Academy or our Vicar Leadership and pastoral staff will continue to phone and contact families as directed by the government and local authority teams The SENDCo team will continue to work with and support EHCP families and other high need SEND children with home learning – check ins, as appropriate and agreed, will take place with each of these families |
The use of MS Teams and the delivery of live or pre-recorded lessons, along with online feedback and assessment is new to many of our teachers and will take time to establish and become streamlined. We understand this may be new to many of you as well and we will support everyone as much as we can. If internet access or device availability is difficult for you, we will work together to ensure we are providing access to learning for your child if they are absent from school.
* The video learning sessions (calls) will not be facilitated by your child’s class teacher if the teacher is unwell or is the one experiencing COVID19 symptoms.
We know our parents/families will understand that the health and wellbeing of our children, families and staff is paramount.
Thank you for your support - in it together!
Newsletters are sent home each Friday, together with a Week Ahead - a snapshot of what your child can expect to be learning during the following week.
Other letters sent home, will be listed here each Friday and will remain for at least one term:
Wellbeing Wednesday
Letter from Ms Parsons Week 1 06.01.2021
Email regarding re-opening to keyworker/critical and vulnerable children only
School re-opening from 14th December 2020
School Closure Letter - 4th December 2020
Letter to parents regarding Covid 19
Flu immunisation letter and logon
Re-opening of the After School Club
Letter for reopening of school - Sent 27th August 2020
September 2020 - Reopening to all pupils sent July 2020
New Class Letter - September 2020
Forbury Gardens
School Update - 11th June 2020
Dear parents and carers,
We are very pleased that the start back to school for some of our pupils has been very smooth, and we welcome some of our Year 1 children joining us today.
As we get used to the new way of working, we would like to remind families of the following arrangements:
- The expectation is that children attend school 5 days a week, and this includes Wednesday until lunchtime. We need to ensure this happens, wherever possible (and of course with the exception of illness or self-isolation), so that we are able to plan our staffing appropriately.
- There are some families who are coming in either early or late for their allotted time of arrival or exit which is meaning more pupils at reception or waiting around the school. As we welcome more pupils tomorrow and Monday and we become busier, we need to ensure this is eradicated wherever possible, so that groups are not compromised. Please make every effort to be on time for your allocated slot.
- Some children are still bringing in a large bag to school every day. As they are keeping these at their workstation, please help us to manage this risk effectively by reducing it down to a small bag, or even better, no bag if it is not needed.
- Lunch will be eaten at school on a Wednesday, for those who have ordered lunch from Chartwells, and those who have brought a packed lunch. If children have no lunch ordered or provided then we will assume parents will give their child lunch when they have returned home. Please do book lunches in the normal way.
Lastly, you may be aware that there was a ministerial statement given regarding schools and wider re-opening, yesterday in parliament. We have no further information or guidance regarding this, but please be assured that if and when schools are given this we will be in touch about future plans. We will review our risk assessments and decisions will be made in line with any Government guidelines to ensure safety is at the forefront of our plans. At this time, with the current limitations, it appears very unlikely we will be able to offer places for many more children to return.
We would like to offer our thanks for the support we have received from our school community, and hope everyone is staying safe and well.
Kind regards,
Ms M. Parsons & Miss P. Cornish
Headteacher & Interim Headteacher