Good morning to our wonderful Home Learners!

It has been lovely to see so many of you today, joining in on Teams as part of the live lessons.

We are in the process of posting out Home Learning packs with contain a few worksheets and an exercise book.  The book will be an essential part of Teaching and Learning during this lockdown.

The children will use it to record the work set in their online lessons as well as complete work that teachers have set on the individual class pages.

Remember that if you cannot access Teams and the online learning, children can use this exercise book to complete any other work that they might do such as a lessons from the BBC or Oak Academy as well as things that you may set them as a parent such as cooking, handicrafts, sport, art, DT etc.

What is essential is that children complete daily:

• Daily reading which can be recorded in the Blue Reading Record.
• Number bonds (KS1) and Times Tables
• Writing of some kind - this may be a diary or writing a story or poetry as well as some non-fiction writing such as a set of instructions/recipe or an information leaflet about something that interests them.
• If you cannot join in with daily collective worship online, please find time as a family to continue to pray together - the children can plan, organise and lead this for you!

The exercise book is expected to be returned from ALL HOME LEARNERS when they return to school after lockdown so that staff have a record of what they have been doing whilst at home and can address any problems and close potential gaps in learning.

We hope that you will find this book helpful so that children are not having to scrabble around for paper each day.

Remember that staff are here to support you and your children during these uncertain times so do not hesitate to ask and we will endeavour to get back to you.

In the meantime, please stay safe and well and we look forward to the time when we can reunite as our wonderful school family once more.

God Bless

Mrs Finnegan and Team OLSK xxx

Free School Meal - Food Hampers

Despite the current lockdown restrictions, your child is still entitled to receive a Free School Meal for weeks commencing 11th January 2021 to the 12th February 2021.  We have therefore arranged with Dolce to provide you with weekly food hampers.

If you wish take up this offer, you must email kevin.collett@dolce.co.uk by the no later than 12pm tomorrow (Friday 8th January 2021) with your child's full name and their class. 

If you do not advise Dolce by 12pm on 8th January, then you will be unable to take advantage of the food hampers.  However, if you decide that you no longer want a food hamper, in order to avoid unnecessary food waste, please advise Kevin by email. 

The food hampers will be available for collection from the green school gates between 11:00-11:30pm on Tuesday 12th January 2021. 

From week commencing 18th January, food hampers will be available for collection on Mondays between 11:00-11:30pm from the green school gates.  

Dear Mrs Finnegan & all the Mini Vinnies,

I hope that the end of this year finds you and your family in good health and good spirits. 

I believe that you are aware that, in recognition and appreciation for your school's great efforts in supporting Tabitha during our recent campaign, funds for a water well in Cambodia were donated in honour of your school. The well has now been completed, and attached please find a picture of that well. (Apologies that the lighting is not optimal!)

It strikes me as important to explain the context of the well picture, as it may be interpreted as "just a pipe sticking out of the ground."  The funds for creating the well go toward digging deep into the ground to the water table and completing the well with a pipe up to the surface. That is what the picture shows.  In order to access the water for drinking and/or irrigation, a (petrol-powered) pump is needed.  This is a separate expense that the villagers bear, and it is common for villages to share use of a single pump which is moved between several wells.  The pump is not shown in the picture.  Sometimes a hand-pump is used as well.

A gift of water is often called the "gift of life" due to its huge impact on the daily life of villagers.  The first well in a village often means eliminating a several-hours-long walk to the nearest water source.  And it goes without saying what having clean drinking water and water for irrigating crops year-round can do in improving health and self-sufficiency.

In any case, please let me close by once again thanking you for your support of Tabitha.  We wish you all the best for a happy and healthy 2021.

Warm Regards,

Jeff Spaeth - Chair, Tabitha 

The wait is finally over! Key Stage 1 and 2 Nativity performances are now available to watch at the links below. Our children and staff have worked so hard on these performances and we really hope you enjoy them as much as we have. Merry Christmas everyone! 

KS1 Nativity - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5xohbhvZQ&feature=youtu.be

KS2 Performance - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Dli2jW9-A&feature=youtu.be

This Sunday is the annual Carol Service at St Chad's Cathedral - access is via live stream only this year.
 

All are welcome to watch the service online at 5pm this Sunday 20 December. Sing along from home:http://buff.ly/2KyyYk5 #ChristmasCarols2020 #livestream #StChadsCathedral

A Christmas Message from Archbishop Bernard: His Grace has recorded a short Christmas message for schools to be shared with the children, staff and all their families.

It is a lovely, simple message that even the youngest children in our schools will be able to understand.

The YouTube link is here https://youtu.be/lYVkU9cYa38 and you can also download it here..... from https://wetransfer.com/downloads/19d65fcb7efbb6e03e03ec4126ebe02820201215092656/a4fa35ffb18ee47b028fa3270d2d78ba20201215092656/5a80d8