Welcome to St James' Church of England Primary School

'Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.'
Psalm 25:5

19th March 2020

Dear Parents,

At this time of unprecedented and uncertain world events and with the closure of schools, we hope you feel supported with the home learning resources we have, and will continue, to send through. Although we hope that the home learning experience is a fruitful one, we do realise it may not always be easy. On the face of it, some children may feel excited by being off school, the reality is weeks - or months - on end playing Xbox and watching movies may not be as fun as we think.  We have put together some thoughts and ideas that may help you through the next few weeks.

https://learninginlockdown.wordpress.com/category/daily-plans/

Help your child prepare a daily and weekly timetable. It may help to follow the usual school timetable but perhaps working to the child’s preferred hours.  Make a plan, stick it to the wall, a bit like they do in school when their day is written on the flip chart at the front of their classroom, with their day set out by activities, breaks and timings.

Give your child encouragement. These are challenging times. Such a sudden change will be unsettling for many children.

If your child gets stuck on a topic, see if you can offer practical solutions, such as finding a website with further information.
Encourage your child to email their teachers office@st-james.southwark.sch.uk  if they need help that you can’t provide, mark for the attention of their teacher and we will forward the email to them.

Review your child’s progress daily. Make sure they are sticking to their timetable, are not cutting corners and are producing work to the standard of which they are capable.

Your child may complete their work more quickly while schooling at home. So reward them with time off to do an activity they enjoy such as kicking a football in the garden or watching a favourite TV programme.

Try and have some time together outside, if you can.

Collect boxes and kitchen paper rolls and do some junk modelling.

Draw pictures, do some colouring in.

A sense of routine is key. Establish it and maintain it.

Face-to-face time will be a big miss for children. They will miss friends and the social dynamic of school, which is impossible to replicate at home. The social interaction they miss is more about not being with other people physically. They are the most social of creatures and need that space away from us as much as we need a little time without them.

Play some board games, card games, all that old fashioned stuff works.

They will feel isolation and boredom and frustration, too. And, actually, although online games are good, they risk stripping them from the normal social interaction of school. Try and vary the activities you plan.

Try and stay positive for, and in front of the children, have quiet moments of reflection, use humour, stay in touch with your friends and family.

Self-health is a huge challenge, try and eat healthily, drink lots of water, try and get some fresh air, if you can.

It's ok to have bad days, to feel guilty, to realise you have neglected your children for a couple of hours. It's not ok if you keep doing it every day. But don't beat yourself up and expect the home learning experience to be perfect.

Don't lose each other in separate online worlds. You on Facebook, them on Minecraft.

Find ways to interact together on screens, like FaceTime, messages, social gaming, family movies, but also away from screens.

Try and switch off your phone when spending non-screen times together, which is easier said than done.

Keep in touch with us via texts or email, we will be reading messages every day.

Stay well and stay safe, you are all in our thoughts and prayers,

from all the staff at St James'