Friday 17th April 2020
Hi everyone, I hope you are having a lovely and safe Easter break. I am sure that you are enjoying the lovely weather and the important family time over this period.
Before Easter, the staff at Tobermore Primary School, worked extremely hard to prepare ‘Learning Packs’ for each pupil, to help with learning during this very unusual period. We all hope you have been working hard completing these tasks as best as you can.
From Monday 20th April, children will be able to access the ‘Home Learning’ section of our school website, to gain more resources based on the planning from each class (See attached PDF). The teachers are using their planners to create tasks/activities for the children to download and complete, as if they were in school
Each week there will be ‘Weekly Planner’ created, which will identify the Numeracy and Literacy tasks that your child/children can complete. There may also be a World Around Us task, linked to the theme that your child is studying. Please look at the tasks very carefully and try to complete one task per day of Numeracy and Literacy. These tasks or activities can be printed out or the majority can be viewed using a laptop, a desktop, a tablet or a phone and copied onto a page at home .
There is also an information sheet on Reading for Year 1 to Year 3 and Year 4 to Year 7. This will hopefully help you to support your child/children with this part of the curriculum. Please use the information provided to help you child/children gain access to a variety of books. Children in Year 4 to Year 7 will also have access to their Accelerated Reding tests and should keep these up as best as possible.
Children from Year 3 to Year 7 have also been given access to a website called 10ticks. They have been provided with their own individual username and password, which allows them to access Mental Maths activities based on their year group. This will be changed on a weekly/fortnightly basis to continue to challenge your child/children. Please see the information sheet on the Home Learning page.
There is also an option to leave a comment about the tasks you are completing, so please complete this if necessary.
A text message will be sent on Friday 17th April, with the password to access this section of the website. Again, if you have any problems accessing this or any of the work on the website, please contact Mr Cheevers on his email. As we also have mentioned if there are any difficulties with any of the activities that your child is completing, please do not hesitate to contact us via the emails below.
cspeers883@c2kni.net - Mrs Speers
jsmyth262@c2kni.net - Mrs Smyth
hhawthorne284@c2kni.net - Mrs Hawthorne
icheevers766@c2kni.net - Mr Cheevers
Many of you will still be feeling worried and anxious with everything that is happening in our world and for many parents, the work being set for children following may feel like an added pressure.
Remember! You are not ‘Home-Schooling’. ‘Home-Schooling' is a decision taken by a parent/carer to remove their child from formal education. This is not a decision that you have made after careful consideration of a range of factors. We are now in an extraordinary situation that none of us could ever have foreseen, the result of which means that schools are engaged in ‘remote learning’ and parents have suddenly found themselves in the role of the teacher. These are positions that are alien to us.
Our advice...do the best that you can. Please do not feel that you must become a teacher overnight and remember too that you know your child better than anyone. Nobody is expected to complete every single activity. There will be days when your child is eager to complete school set tasks, other days when they are not. That is fine. If the sun is shining, leave the formal work for another time and spend some time in the garden, if you can. Learning Packs can be supplemented by getting regular exercise, playing games outside and inside, reading, listening to stories, completing puzzles, cooking and baking together, helping at home to prepare snacks and lunches and even watching TV!
Many of you will now be working from home. This is challenging enough without the added pressure of trying to teach your child. Much of the work provided in our packs will be revisionary and should allow your child to work independently at times. We hope that this will allow you to focus upon important elements of your own work that need attention.
Due to the indefinite nature of this closure and mindful that you as parents, will be aiming to achieve a balance at home, we would encourage in the longer term that you focus on a few key elements of learning....
Where you can.... Ensure that your child reads or is read to each day. Older pupils can continue to use Accelerated Reader. Prepare for an element of Maths, such as learning tables, reading time, exploring money, measuring with cooking or problem solving, counting and exploring language such as taller, shorter, most, least etc
Try to include physical activity every day, build with LEGO, or create with junk materials that usually find their way into the recycling bin. Sort toys, paint if possible, cut and stick. Our Facebook page has a detailed list of online learning opportunities to supplement those already suggested through packs.
Please do not feel pressurised into doing everything we have mentioned. That will not be possible at home as you juggle other commitments. These are ideas and suggestions! You will know what suits your circumstances.
Most importantly of all though, continue to keep safe and look after each other.
Our children will be worried. Their minds will be filled with questions. They will miss their friends. Your encouragement, positivity, time and of course love will help them more than anything to navigate these difficult times and come out the other side, ready for what the future brings.
Take care.
Mr. Ian Cheevers
(Principal)
