22nd April 2020
Dear parents
As we are now in week five of school being closed we would like to thank all families again for staying safe and staying home. I know that many of you have asked if we know of a date that school will be open again for all children. As Gavin Williamson, the current Secretary of State for the Department of Education, school are not currently going to reopen and they do not have a date for when this will happen. Once a decision is made about the re opening of schools and any arrangements then we will of course let you know. It is very likely that we will find out at the same time as you with any national announcements that are made.
FSM Vouchers have been emailed from Edenred to families who are entitled. Please check your emails to ensure you redeem the vouchers. You will have received vouchers for three weeks and it appears that they all have an expiry date of the 17th May 2020. It is very important that you redeem these as soon as possible to ensure you do not miss out. If you have any issues regarding the vouchers, please call the Edenred helpline number.
Teachers continue to call children for a catch up and to see how families are doing at this tricky time. It has been lovely to hear from the children and to find out what they have been doing. If you have changed your number or your phone is not able to receive calls please contact school with an alternative number so we are able to speak to your child.
Teachers continue to add activities on line on Times Table Rockstars, Education City, Purple Mash and Mathletics. They are also adding activities and ideas on the class pages of the school website. The BBC have also added daily lessons on https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize and the National Oak Academy have launched a website https://www.thenational.academy which has daily lessons from a range of subjects.
Please continue to look after each other and stay safe. We look forward to a time when we can all be back at school together again but in the meantime stay at home and protect each other and the NHS.
Kind Regards
Mrs Harris and the SLT team.
Dear parents, carers and children,
We hope you are all well and have had a lovely Easter weekend in the sunshine, whilst keeping to the social distancing guidelines.
School remained open over the bank holidays, and although we didn’t have as many children as we have had on previous days, it meant that the parents that did bring their children were still able to go to work themselves. As a school we would like to extend our thanks to the keyworkers who have continued to go to work throughout this very challenging time.
Many of you have been coming to school to collect breakfast bags, we would like to say a big thank you to Magic Breakfast who have continued to deliver breakfast supplies, allowing us to offer the bags to families. We would also like to thank Dawn our dedicated kitchen manager, and her staff for putting the bags together and handing them our families as they come to collect them.
The free school meal vouchers for Birmingham have been sent out to entitled families and we have just ordered the DFE vouchers from Edenred. These vouchers will come to entitled families by email as soon as the order is processed. Thank you to all families who sent us their email addresses when we requested. This will hopefully make the process much more straight forward. Although we are being told that these vouchers are taking a little while to be sent out so please watch your email for the vouchers.
Staff continue to come into school on a rota basis and are working with the children who are in whilst observing social distancing guidance. Teachers have been calling all children in school to check families are ok and have a catch up with the children. We know that the children are very excited to speak the teachers and teachers are thrilled to hear how our children are doing and how hard they are working at this difficult time. We have had difficulty in contacting some families so we would ask that if you know that you have changed your number or your phone is not working that you call school with your new or alternative number.
Children have access to the different school apps we have registered with, and came home with passwords when school closed. Please keep checking the apps as teachers will be setting work again once the school holiday is over. They have also been setting lots of activities on the class pages of the website, giving you lots of ideas of things to do at home.
Whilst we are asking children to work online we should also be considering their safety. We have added below links to websites that will be useful for parents and children to have a look at, with ideas about how to keep children safe online.
https://www.internetmatters.org
We have had parents asking when we are expecting to return to school but we have no further information than the updates each evening from the Government. If we were to receive any further guidance then we would contact you all to advise you of this. As it stands school is remaining closed for the foreseeable future.
We would like to send our Easter wishes to everyone and ask you to stay safe and stay home.
We look forward to seeing you all again once school is able to open.
Kind Regards
Mrs C Harris and the Senior Leadership Team
We are going to send the national FSM vouchers out next week. If we have not yet had your email address and you are eligible (Not universal FSM R-2) then please call the office or email
fsm@timberleyacademy.bham.sch.uk
It is really important we have your email address to enable us to send them to you.
If you have already emailed please do not email again- we have not replied to all emails individually but will have recorded your email address ready for use.
Please be aware that the national vouchers are taking time to be distributed.
We sent out by email, a first of the FSM voucher codes from Birmingham City Council, at the end of last week. Parents were then called or text with the codes if we did not have your email address.
Birmingham are due to send out the second code to schools tomorrow to cover FSM for next week. These will be sent out to families as soon as we are able to.
The national voucher scheme is also being rolled out to schools and so from next week you will receive your codes from Edenred. These will be sent out to families, who are entitled to FSM, at the end of next week and then weekly from then on, until we are back in school.
It is much easier for us to email the codes to you so if we have not yet sent in your email address then please email
fsm@timberleyacademy.bham.sch.uk
with your child's name and DOB.
Please remeber that these are only for children entitled to FSM, not the Universal FSM offered to all recpetion, year 1 and 2 children.
1st April 2020
Dear Parents/Carers,
We hope that everyone is safe and well and observing the lockdown rules and social distancing measures currently in place. We all know the importance of following the government advice and the impact that our actions can have on the spread of COVID-19 at this time.
As we enter the second week of school closure, we hope that parents/carers and children are well. We are pleased that everyone is pulling together and doing their bit to protect the NHS and other key workers by staying at home. We have seen that lots of children have put up rainbows in the area to show their appreciation for the NHS. They look lovely.
We expect that in many households, the first week of school closure may have seemed more like the start of a holiday. However, if children are not to get bored and fractious, as they often do by the second week of the summer holidays, some sort of routine and structure is important and is needed during home learning. Please log your children on to the different packages we subscribe to and they will know what to do next.
Although school is currently closed to the majority of children, we are providing emergency child care for some families where both parents are key workers. Some parents who originally asked for child care have made alternative arrangements and have been able to keep their children at home. We thank those parents who have put arrangements in place in order for their children to remain at home. As a result, we have fewer children attending our emergency provision than we first though. This in turn is helping protect school staff by allowing many to work at home.
We want to say a huge thank you to everyone staying at home during this lockdown situation. You are definitely helping to save lives. However, teachers still want to make sure that their children are well and safe. Over the next two weeks, your child’s teacher or another member of staff known to them, will make contact to ensure that home learning is going well and that you are accessing all the resources provided on the school website and the packages we subscribe to. They also want to say hello to the children. Please be patient, this contact will take place as regularly as we can and when teachers are in school.
We have been replying to parents of children who are entitled to free school meals to send them the codes needed to access the shopping vouchers sent through from Birmingham City Council. If your child was entitled to free school meals before the closure (not the universal free school meals for reception – year 2) then please email
fsm@timberleyacademy.bham.sch.uk
Keep safe, enjoy the sunshine and treasure this quality time with your children. Make new memories, work on fun things together, help them with their learning and listen to them read.
You already know that your children are fantastic little people. These are strange times, however, we now have time to spend with our children. Children grow up so quickly, but we can enjoy special moments during these unprecedented times.
Stay safe everyone. Stay indoors, protect the NHS, and save lives.
Kind Regards
Mrs C Harris and SLT Team at Timberley Academy