Dear parents/Carers
You may be aware that yesterday the Government announced that school will continue to be closed after the Easter holidays until further notice. For full details of what this means for schools, please see the link below.
There seems to be plenty of speculation surrounding both the lockdown and schools being closed. The truth is, no one can say for sure how long the lockdown and school closure will need to last for. So for the foreseeable future, things will stay as they have been.
As you can appreciate, it is not feasible for schools to continue to provide a ‘normal’ school education during this time. We recognise it is not possible to copy the usual school experience at home. It is also not realistic for family members to suddenly step into the role of a teacher.
We recognise this is not an easy situation families find themselves in. I do want to stress to all families that all of the staff at Lark Hall are aware of the strains this is putting onto you.
It is also very important that all of our families know we are here for you in the many different ways below.
- If any family would like to speak to a member of the leadership team at Lark Hall, please contact the school on 020 76223820. We are on hand during the school day.
- If you need to communicate with your child’s class teacher, on the website remote learning page you will find the email addresses of your child’s teacher.
- If you want to communicate with Gary, his email address is head@larkhall.lambeth.sch.uk
- For anything else, you are always welcome to contact the school in the usual ways via email or telephone.
I must reiterate, sometimes a chat is all that is needed to get us through these times, so please do not hesitate to get in touch through any of the routes above.
I now want to turn to some pieces of key information.
Home Learning for those Children unable to attend school
From Monday 20th April, every Monday morning at 10:00am children from each year group will be provided with the following resources:
- 1 story/literacy based video uploaded to our youtube account – It will be great for the children to be able to see all their teachers faces still!
- 1 maths related video uploaded to youtube.
- 1 Seesaw task set for KS2 children.
- 1 post from EYFS and KS1 on twitter with activity ideas for children and families to try at home.
- 1 page of paper based learning on the school website for parents to download.
- 1 Booklet for Maths covering each year group
- 2 booklets for English covering each year group
These resources can be accessed by the school website – on the home page, click the tab entitled ‘Coronavirus Remote Learning’ and then select the year group. Also on the website remote learning page are the email addresses of your child’s teacher.
Furthermore, please see this link below for our youtube account to help with remote learning.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELk8e27A7qnPK8YjLxfGCg/playlists
Our P.E. Specialist, Adam, is also preparing 1 post a week for either youtube or twitter relating to staying fit and healthy at home.
I have mentioned previously, these learning resources are designed to support families throughout this period. We hope you find them useful, but please use these resources as little or as often as you like. To reiterate, the purpose of the support from all at Lark Hall is to sustain a sense of school over what is perhaps a lengthy period of time.
Unfortunately, there will be a delay with the booklets being available. They will no be arriving in school on Monday 20th and will be available to collect from school from 12:00pm Tuesday 21st. Please contact the school on Tuesday 21st April to arrange a time to come into school to pick a pack up. Apologies for this delay.
As ever, to remind you that if you are using internet-based resources, please be mindful of safe internet usage. Below is a very useful link for families with regard to online safety. It includes most of the apps and games children might use.
Children Invited to Attend School After Easter Break
Just a reminder that the only children invited to attend schools after Easter break are Vulnerable Children (those with an Education Health Care Plan or a social worker) and children who have a parent designated as Key Worker.
We have already been in communication with all of our families with a Vulnerable Child. We will continue to be in constant contact over the coming weeks.
We have also already been in contact with Key Worker Families. However, if you have one of the Key Worker jobs, and have not already contacted the school, please inform the school via email or phone at the earliest opportunity. Please use this address: eligibleforschool@larkhall.lambeth.sch.uk. Once this has been confirmed, a member of school staff will be in touch with you. If you are not certain whether you are a key worker, you can contact the school and we can advise you.
Where key workers have a partner who is working from home or who is not working, we would not expect to provide school services.
For any parent of a Vulnerable Child or any parent who is a Key Worker, please inform the school if you intend not to send your child into school as this is be important information for us to know.
Please note that if you have chosen to keep your child (who is eligible to attend) at home during the period of school closures, but change your mind later on, you must inform the office who will provide you with a start date. You must not bring them in to school until you have received confirmation from the school.
Emotional Well-Being and Mental Health
As I have stressed previously, we recognise our families are having to deal with very difficult circumstances during this time of school closure. Please see the link below to enable families to access support with issues concerning mental health.
Free School Meal Children
I want to remind all of our families who are entitled to free school meals of the national voucher system. The details of this system are below.
You will be given the option to choose a voucher from the following supermarkets:
- Sainsbury’s
- Tesco
- Asda
- Morrison’s
- Waitrose (John Lewis)
- M&S Food
To redeem your eCode and place your order, follow these steps:
- Click on ‘Redeem your eCode
- Enter the 16 digit eCode number provided and follow the simple security checks
- Select your chosen supermarket and check out
- Please note, the eCode will expire after 1 month
If the link does not work please copy and paste the URL into your browser: http://www.freeschoolmeals.co.uk/
If you have any queries about the above please visit https://www.edenred.co.uk/reward-recipients/Free-School-Meal-Vouchers/ and click on the ‘I am a parent’ for Frequently Asked Questions
I know there have been delays with families accessing this system. The latest information we have is that all of these delays have now been resolved and all of our families should now be receiving these vouchers. If any family has still not received their vouchers please contact the school via email or call the school on 020 76223820.
Public Health England and Government Guidelines
I do want to stress two key pieces of advice for families during this period.
Stay at home
- Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)
- If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times
- Wash your hands as soon as you get home
- Do not meet others, even friends or family.
- You can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms.
Displaying Symptoms
The most common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are recent onset of a new continuous cough and/or high temperature. If you have these symptoms, however mild, stay at home and do not leave your house for 7 days from when your symptoms started (if you live alone), or 14 days (if you live with someone who has symptoms). You do not need to call NHS 111 to go into self-isolation. If your symptoms worsen during home isolation or are no better after 7 days, contact NHS 111 online. If you have no internet access, you should call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999.
That’s it from the leadership team at this time. I hope you are finding these weekly letters useful.
Please be assured that the school will be in contact with you whenever we have further information to share.
In the meantime, stay in, keep safe and we will be in touch again very soon.
Kind regards
The Senior Leadership Team