Good afternoon,

This week is the first week of the Summer term, and in any 'normal' circumstances your children would have been in school and having lots of summer curriculum fun. We really are missing the children and are excited to bring back our school, piece by piece but in the safest way we can. I thank you all for working with them on their home learning over these last weeks. Home Learning Plans will continue to be on the website for your children to access and we hope our revised layout is easier for you to work through each week. If your son or daughter is not yet back at school, staff will aim to telephone you at least every other week to support you with home learning.
Following the Government's announcement, I wanted to plan for a progressive and sustainable approach to a wider re opening. The planning for the return of the Year 6 has been risk assessed and decisions about phasing, timing and management have been made based on the outcomes of risk assessments. 

Thank you to everyone for following the new school procedures, everyone in school has felt comforted by your understanding and support. If you are visiting school to collect a pack or change reading books please see the procedure outlined below.

Procedure for visiting, drop offs and pick ups:

• Please stick to your allocated drop off and collection times adhering to 2m social distancing rules. If you miss your time slot you will need to wait until ALL other time slots are finished.

• Enter school on foot via the school car park gate and queue along the pathway using the marked out 2m spots.

• Exit school via St Ambrose Church pathway.

• Only one adult is permitted to drop off and pick up on each occasion - please keep younger children with you at all times e.g. holding their hand.

• During your time slot you will be asked to wait for your child to come to you and will not be able to enter the playground or school.

If you need any assistance with drop off or pick up times we are here to help, please call school to make arrangements.

Please take time to watch the fabulous video that Hagley has put together of their community singing and playing along to “Times like these”. 

I think you will all agree that it is a wonderful and uplifting video not only showing the amazing talents of Hagley pupils but also showing how the school community has remained united.

Father Lamb will be continuing to say Mass every day next week at 9am via a live stream from the Prayer Room. You can celebrate Mass with Father by following the link below and selecting the 'Live Stream Masses' tab from the menu on the left hand side.

Back in March, the Birmingham Diocese set a vocations competition for children to create a Bible lego scene.

They had lots and lots of entries and although our children weren't winners with the Diocese we think that they did a wonderful job and we are very proud of what they created. So, we deciced to have our own competition and the entries are below.

We are pleased to announce that the winner is Ted M from Year 2 with Archie M Year 5 and Luke C Year 6 close runners up.

Well done!!

Ted M - Year 2.

Jesus on the cross.

Archie M - Year 5.

Luke C - Year 6.

Luke writes:

In the feeding of the 5000, Jesus asks his disciples to go out to the crowd and see what food they can find. There were only 5 loaves and 2 fish which is not enough to feed 5000. Jesus is asking us to trust him. He was able to feed everyone. Anything is possible when we follow out vocation to love Jesus.

 We have listened carefully to parents who have highlighted concerns over the quality of our jumpers and how they wash. For this reason, we have made the decision, from September, to seek alternative products and suppliers and have decided to have a v neck sweatshirt or a cardigan (made from sweatshirt material) not a woolly jumper. We are keen to minimise expense for our families; therefore, we are not expecting children who already have jumpers that fit to change to a sweatshirt jumper or cardigan in September. Currently our uniform supplier is MG Sportswear but from June 22nd you will also be able to order uniform online from Hagley Sports. Details on how to order from Hagley Sports will be sent out to you the week beginning 15th June.

I hope the advance notice of this new requirement will enable you to plan your purchases for the new academic year.

Please continue to share your views by joining Mrs Wallace for her virtual teapot time next week. If you are free to join on Tuesday please email office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk and the meeting details will be emailed to you

Dan and Emily from One Life Music are kindly continuing to record a weekly liturgy for schools and home. It is such a wonderful way to bring us together as a community of prayer and I am sure that we will all be strengthened by it.

Weekly Worship & Song Week 9 is now available:

The school nurse team are putting out daily tweets and information for parents and young people to help with their activities and emotional health during lock down.

Please see the link below for information and activities to share with your children.

https://twitter.com/SN_Kidd

Please click on the below PDF leaflet sent from West Mercia Police regarding online safety for your child.

Thinkuknow is an education programme from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command.

Since 2006, Thinkuknow has been keeping children and young people safe by providing education about online abuse.

Thinkuknow aims to ensure that everyone has access to this practical information – children, young people, their parents and carers and the professionals who work with them.

We're excited to tell you that our third #OnlineSafetyAtHome pack is now available with new activities for parents and carers to use at home! Access them here: 

You can still find all of our previous home activity packs on our parents and carers website. These can be downloaded at any time you choose.

Worcestershire County Council have launched a new public campaign called Here2Help. Please follow the link below to access their website.

http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/Here2Help 

The types of additional support available to people through Here2Help is as follows and the aim is to prevent families/households getting to crisis points:

This is a useful link for us all as also on their webpage they have a keeping kids entertained section and five ways we can look after ourselves and others.

Please see the link below that will take to their webpage with links to a number of activities and educational support links.

Please see the useful documents below detailing how to reduce stress and anxiety for you and your child during Covid-19.

These are worrying times for anyone but it can be particularly hard for children, some of whom will struggle to comprehend why they can no longer see their friends at school.

With schools across the UK closing and people being urged to step up social distancing, communities are rallying round to bring a little brightness to young ones amid the gloom.

Please brighten your community by displaying the beautiful rainbows in your windows at home.

Send us a photo of a rainbow in your window to office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Though many of our half term plans may have been put on hold, let's hope that the sun keeps shining and we can enjoy a 'staycation' at home! 

Kind regards,

Mrs Brocklesby.