Well done everyone! We have completed the first full week of Remote Learning with our new timetables. I do hope that there has been some measure of success, as well as some steep learning curves for parents, pupils and staff! Certainly from the work I have dipped into, the tutor groups I have joined on Google meet and the whole school zoom staff meeting, St Peter’s is doing brilliantly. We are very proud of everyone and that includes the parents. Children are really enjoying seeing their friends during their form time Google Meets at 08:30 each morning. Do make sure they are using the ‘Grid view’ (top right of the Google Meet screen), which means they see everyone. Help on this can be found further on in this newsletter. Activity timetables are shared in this information letter for ease of printing.
I would like to let you know that we have a member of the Senior Leadership Team on the front desk every day. Please do call up on the usual school telephone number if you have any worries and we can help you with logins, frustrations or can talk to the children. From experience, it seems that nipping problems in the bud early, rather than them overwhelming everybody, is a good plan! We will be sending a survey for feedback at the end of next week.
Do remember to sign in to Story Time every day; 15:00 for Pre-prep and 15:30 for Lower School. Mrs Ball and I are reading stories – we had 61 children on a Google Meet last week! The link is in the Assembly Classroom. The link to the Google Meet will be posted there and will be the same one each day.
Devon Wildlife Trust has made some wonderful resources for ‘Wild Learning at Home’ to support children in the current pandemic, from ‘Birds from your window’ to ‘How to start a nature journal’. There are loads of great ideas.
Over the holidays, I was lucky enough to be sent the most wonderful book by Charlie Mackesy – ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’. With wonderful illustrations, Charlie makes sense of the world and reassurance when things get overwhelming. It is indeed A book of hope for uncertain times.
Make sure to enjoy the weekend and rest everyone. Making weekends different to school days is important. Finally – thank you for all of your support and also emails of congratulations regarding the recent inspection report. It means a lot and we have passed all on to the staff team.
Charlotte Johnston, Head
