Ripon Cathedral School Update
Week ending Friday 5th June 2020
Friendship Message from Year 4
Year 4 Friendship Message
What a wonderful friendship message from Year 4! Don't they all look great! Thanks to everyone for their support in pulling this together, particularly Mrs Shawcross and Mrs Spencer. We really miss you Year 4 and look forward to seeing you again soon!
Wider Opening
Additional information, questions and answers and comments from children who have been in our key worker provision can be found on our school website under the 'Home Learning' tab on the Wider Opening page.
Year 1 Return
We were delighted to be able to welcome back our very first bubble of Year 1 children. They turned up on Wednesday excited and raring to go with their learning. We were very impressed with how quickly they settled into new routines and they have all tried really hard in all their subjects.
We asked them what they thought about returning to school.
'I like going back to school it helps you learn about things that you don't know yet.' Danny
'I like seeing my friends.' Isla
'I really liked seeing Mrs McIlmurray again.' Grace
'I like being able to play outside with my friends.' Scarlett
'School makes me happy.' Evelyn
'I like doing my work.' Ramsay
Amazing Home learning
Friendship Worship - The World
Open the Book - David the Giant Killer
Pray for the World - By laurence
In RE this week, Year 6 were challenged to research The Kingdom of God in action.
Laurence chose to look at Traidcraft and he designed this great poster to show how one Christian group helps to make the world a better place. Really powerful Laurence, well done.
School Wider Opening Update
Dear Parents and Carers,
This week it has been lovely to have more children in school and to see how excited they are about being back in classes, learning together.
These are unprecedented times and every school across the country is trying their best to address the government’s plans for wider opening. There are no experts in how this is to be done and I do ask for your understanding and patience as we try to navigate our way forward. I do expect that there will be bumps in the road, but our gradual, phased approach is helping us to learn and to adapt what we are doing so that we can best support families, respond to guidance and facilitate learning.
What has gone well this week?
- Children seem very happy and are well engaged in their bubble groups.
- Children have adapted well to new ways of learning.
- Organisation at drop off and pick up times has been effective and people have ensured that they have kept their distance.
- Lunches in the classrooms have worked well and ensured that bubbles don’t mix. (A big thank you to the midday supervisors and kitchen staff who have done a wonderful job).
- Staff are confident in how they manage children within internal and external allocated spaces.
- Outdoor spaces have been well used by each bubble for play and learning.
What do we need to improve?
- Ensure that key worker families (Nursery, Years 2, 3, 4 and 5) do not arrive at school without booking into provision.
- Parents and carers need to ensure that they adhere to communicated drop off and pick up times.
- As an increasing number of staff are now on site most days, parents and carers should not be using the car park when picking up and dropping off.
- We need to communicate with families about the organisation of learning bubbles.
What’s next?
- Next week we are really looking forward to welcoming children back to the first of our Reception and Year 6 bubbles. These parents have already been contacted and can access information about the organisation for their year groups by visiting our wider opening page on the school website. https://riponcathedralschool.org.uk/Wider-Opening/
- We will be communicating with the remaining parents in Year 1, whose children are not currently at school regarding their intentions and thoughts about sending their children back from the provisional date of Monday 15th June. We do understand that this is a significant decision and want all parents to know that there is no pressure on them to conform to the government’s expectations. It is for every family to consider what is right for them and we do appreciate that many parents and carers may wish to wait at this time.
- We will ensure that children have allocated spaces and learning resources.
- Bubbles will not mix together and will remain the same group throughout the week. Any changes that need to be made will be implemented over a weekend period.
- Key worker bubbles are limited to 10 pupils for Y2/3 and Y4/5 and up to 5 in nursery. Over the week these bubbles may have changes in children within the stated year groups as this is a bookable resource, however each bubble will not mix with other bubbles in the school.
- We cannot guarantee that your child will be in a bubble group with their class teacher.
- Children returning to school in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 are returning to full time education and therefore expected to be in school every day.
- We cannot guarantee that children will be taught in their usual classroom or with specific friends.
I know many parents are understandably anxious and may have concerns. We do try to ensure that there is regular communication with all our families, however if you do wish to speak to myself or a member of staff about anything please do email admin@riponcathedral.n-yorks.sch.uk or call the main office on 01756 602335 during opening hours and we will be very happy to have a chat.
It is good that we have been able to take our first steps forward this week in wider opening and I am really looking forward to the day when we can eventually all be back together as a school family, whenever that may be!
Thank you again for all your support.
Keep safe.
Steven Holmes
Headteacher
Friends of the School - Summer Fair
We hope this finds you safe and well.
A small update from the Friends.
We are busy planning from behind the scenes a VIRTUAL SUMMER FAIR.
There will be all the fun games we play like: pass the pea, balance 20p on a lemon in water and the bucket game. We have an amazing raffle, virtual duck races, guess the names of the cuddle toys and lots more!
The virtual summer fair will taken place over a week - Monday 29th June to Sunday 5th July.
Head over to our Facebook page: @RiponCathedralPrimarySchoolParentsAndFriends where more details for the virtual summer fair will be announced soon.
We hope everyone is well and we hope to see you all soon!
Community Announcements
Like us and follow us...
Email: admin@riponcathedral.n-yorks.sch.uk
Website: www.riponcathedralschool.org.uk
Location: HG41LT, United Kingdom
Phone: 01765 602355
Facebook: facebook.com/riponcathschool
Twitter: @riponcathschool