Good afternoon,

Dear Parents and Carers,
At the end of our first month of remote learning, I have been so encouraged by your messages of support for the provision offered by the school. As we have got fully up and running this month, we have already been able to review our provision and I think both the children and teachers alike have adapted well to working online. We have been continually reviewing and working hard to enhance the provision for online learning, and I couldn't be more proud of or grateful to our teachers, pupils and parents for your dedication.
Thank you too to all parents who have, I know, made so much effort to support the children's learning. I understand how demanding it can be. However, I would say that you can only achieve what is feasible for you as a family and the most important thing is that the children are engaging in their learning and completing the work they can. We do not want them to feel under any pressure about being unable to complete tasks on time.

We are so impressed with all the learning that is taking place in school and remotely at home. The following children will be receiving a certificate for their fantastic efforts this week. Children in school will receive their certificates on Monday and children at home will receive theirs in the post. Well done everyone.

Please see the letter below from Suzanne Horan regarding the lateral flow testing for staff.

Please click the link below to access this week's Wednesday Word.

On Well-Being Wednesday, 3rd February, we will be focussing on developing our life skills and the focus for this half term is future careers.

Each class will have an activity to complete in the afternoon relating to their focus with details provided on your child's 2Do on Purple Mash. We can't wait to see the photos of what you get up to.

This Wednesday, we celebrated the life of Saint Nicholas Owen who is blue house team's patron saint. The children were challenged to: play hide and seek; create a treasure hunt for someone in their family; go on a walk and spot things that are blue, create a fact-file about Saint Nicholas Owen or design their own secret hidey hole. Once again, we were really impressed with the creativity of our children, especially the hidey-holes made by our Reception children.

Father Lamb also recorded the following for us to learn about the life of Saint Nicholas Owen:

This half term, we have been focussing on the virtues grateful and generous. We have been growing to be grateful for all our gifts, developing them to the full so that we can be generous in the service of others. On the last week of term, we will be celebrating those children who have demonstrated these virtues at home or in school. Please do let us know if you child(ren) have shown these virtues at home so that we can reward them with a certificate and a mention on our newsletter. Please email the Miss Holtom: year6@st-ambrose.worcs.sch.uk with the name of your child and perhaps a few words about what they have done that has impressed you. Thank you.

On Monday 8th February, class teachers will contact parents of all children who are working remotely. Appointments will be via telephone or Teams and can now be booked via the SchoolLife app. Appointments for children who are working in school will be on Monday 22nd February and again can also be booked via the app.

Change4Life have created recipes and shopping lists for families which can be used to create lunches for around £15 each week. Please click on the link below to access this information.

Please click on the link below for the winter edition of Raring2Go.

Our remote learning arrangements are reliant on children having access to appropriate IT devices at home. Please contact the school office if you would like us to provide you with an appropriate device.The Government has issued information regarding data and routers available to support pupils who are struggling to get onto the remote lessons due to not having access to the internet. If you require more data or a wireless router please contact the school office.We will then register the pupils that require further support with the DfE and obtain the extra data or routers. Next week staff will share with all children a code of conduct to follow when using Teams.

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.

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

Kind regards,

Mrs Brocklesby.