Good afternoon,

On Wednesday, it was the Epiphany of Our Lord and children in Year 2, who are in school, joined in virtually with the Mass celebrated by Father Lamb. This marked the end of the Christmas season and commemorates the visit of the three wise men to Jesus in the stable.

The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek epiphainen, a verb that means "to shine upon," "to manifest," or “to make known.” Therefore, the feast of the Epiphany celebrates the many ways that Christ has made Himself known to the world, mainly the three events that manifested the mission and divinity of Christ:  the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12), the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11), and the miracle at Cana (John 2:1-11). During this lockdown, let us all take time in our daily reflections to draw closer to Christ and let Him be known to us.

I thought I would share today’s reflection from our ‘Walk with Me’ booklet which seemed particularly appropriate for today:

 Are you a ‘glass half-full’ or a ‘glass half-empty’ kind of person? Do you look on the bright side or the dark side? Can you see the good in any situation before you see the bad? Do we really have a choice? Faith teaches us that we do – we can strive after hope over despair, love over hate and light over darkness. In Christ, the cup isn’t half-empty or half-full but overflowing with God’s grace and goodness. God makes very blessing, every gift, every grace available to us. This is at the heart of every invitation of Jesus when he says: ‘Come, follow me!’ He leads us to the cup of life which is overflowing.

We pray,

Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for blessing me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual grace. Amen.

Thank you for your patience and bearing with us this week; as you can imagine a lot of arrangements were needed to be put into place following this week’s announcement of the immediate closure of schools. 

Remote Learning Update

We have ensured our remote learning arrangements cater for those vulnerable children and key worker children who are attending school, as well as those children who are learning remotely from home. We are delivering a blended approach. Through Microsoft Teams children will:

• have the opportunity to meet their class teacher daily
• receive daily direct teaching sessions delivered by their  teacher
• be provided with learning activities created and chosen by their class teacher. These will be assessed by the teacher and children will receive feedback
• have the opportunity to undertake learning which will supplement and complement our school curriculum.

We have started to receive feedback from children and parents and we will continue to make changes and support families. For this reason, please share any ideas and ways you feel we can support you further. I can't wait to see everyone back in school together as soon as possible. Remember to check the class pages every day for an outline of the day.

In the event of bad weather, please check to see if the school is open before travelling to the school. There are a number of ways to confirm whether the school is open or closed.

• Our School Website
• Via a push notification
• The TAPP Facebook Page
• Worcestershire Council Website

If the school is closed, we will try and make a decision as early as possible and we will intend to re-open as soon as we can.

Your child should have received a letter explaining about registering for ParentPay. This is a service that will allow you to make secure online payments to school for trips, mufti days, music lessons etc. The letter contains your unique login details for your child/children. Please can we ask that you access this and speak to the school office if you have any issues.

Year 1 letters were not distributed and so will be posted out next week.

Latest update on testing and isolation periods.

• If a child or member of staff tests positive, they now have to self-isolate for at least 10 days, even if they feel well.
• If they are NOT a known contact of a confirmed case they can return to school if the result is negative, providing they feel well and they have not had a fever for 48 hours.
• If they are a contact of a confirmed case, they must stay off school for 14 days isolation period, even if they test negative. This is because they can develop the infection at any point up to 14 days after being in contact a confirmed case. This would apply to pupils and staff who have been in a bubble with a positive testing child.  School Leadership will decide which members of staff have come into close proximity with the bubble and therefore also need to self-isolate for 14 days.
• Please be aware that anyone admitted to hospital is likely to receive a test for Covid, whether they are showing symptoms or not.  
• Covid symptoms are now being classed as: a persistent cough, high temperature, and/or loss of taste and smell.
• No action needs to be taken as a school until a test result is shared with us.

Please also note that we cannot request test results, parents have to approach us with results.

If you would like your child to begin or continue with online music lessons provided by Severn Arts please follow the link below to book your child a place for the Spring Term.

As we are unable to hold face to face meetings between teacher and parents we have set up year group email addresses for you to communicate with staff. Please note that emails received after 6pm will be answered the next working day and none over the weekend.

General enquiries: office@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Reception: Reception@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 1: year1@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 2: year2@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 3: year3@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 4: year4@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 5: year5@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Year 6: year6@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk

Applications for Reception Class 2021 have now opened and must be completed online by 15 January 2021. We welcome applications from all families of all or no faith. If you know of any families who are presently applying for a school place please encourage them to contact school. Again, if you have any queries regarding applying please do not hesitate to speak to us.

Kind regards,

Mrs Brocklesby.