Happy Easter everyone! 

I hope that you are all well and safe.  You have all been very much in our thoughts over the last few weeks.  We have seen some of you, but not all obviously and this has been hard.  It is the strangest of times, but we have remained open and have been proud to help those children who have parents who are key workers and who fit the categories that we are permitted to support.  It goes without saying that it is a privilege to be able to help and support in any way.  As you can see from the picture, we have been having lots of fun while showing our support at the same time!

We have not been in touch too much over the last few weeks as we wanted you all to have a break, but we are mindful that term would have started again on Tuesday.  Therefore, very soon you will find a new blog from your child's class teacher with a new style of home learning choice for you.  There is lots of choice out there on the internet now, and the Department for Education have also supplied a very useful list of resources that they recommend.  However, we would ask that you follow the framework that we have provided to ensure that we get as much of the right curriculum content in for your children.  The other resources are then helpful if you need more, or your child simply refuses to engage and you need more resources to try to tempt them to work with you.

We have changed the format to make the work easier to find and to complete.  There are grids for English, maths and curriculum and the resources are designed not to be printed.  However, if you do still need paper copies, please do get in touch.  We are open every day from 8.30am to 3.00pm and there will be someone available to answer the phone; if you do not get an immediate answer, leave a message and we will get back to you asap  Please also feel free to contact the class teachers directly via email as they can help too, although they cannot phone you unless they are in school.

Please, please, please remember that we do want your children to continue to learn, but this must not be stressful - we do not expect you to be teachers. Please also remember that we can offer emotional support too; just get in touch - we are here for you too.  As ever, reading and times tables are the biggest priority.

Look out on Facebook too - we are also planning a few fun things to raise a smile over the next week or two!

Have a wonderful Easter everyone - you have my permission to eat as much chocolate as you like and please do stay safe.  We miss you!

How to Access Work for your Child

Today has become a very interesting day and it will be one of those days where I think many of us will be saying, '... I remember where I was when the Prime Minister closed schools'. (I was in my office, watching avidly with Miss Hearnden and Mrs Burtoft!)

We have all been speculating what might happen in this very strange situation in which we find ourselves, so to some extent, while we are disappointed to have to close, we completely understand why.  It is our imperative now to support you as much as possible in the educational and emotional care of your children while they are unable to come to school.  We will of course wait for confirmation of how we will support vulnerable pupils and those children of key workers in essential positions, but once we know, we will communicate this to you as soon as possible.  In the meantime, it would be most helpful if you could only communicate with reference to ongoing absence.  This will enable us to spend more time preparing quality materials for you to use at home as well as continuing to teach those children who can still be at school until we close at the end of the day on Friday.

In the main menu section of the website, you will find the Class pages.  This is the page where we write class blogs for you.  They now also contain suitable materials for you to use at home.  The material posted now provides enough work to last until the end of term (27th March) and we will continue to post beyond that point.  We are sending a work book to write in for children who are still in school, and if your child cannot be here in the next two days, please use any suitable paper or notebooks that you have already.  Do not worry about any of this and we understand that for many parents who have more than one child and where you have to work from home for example, completing learning with your child will be difficult every day.  While teachers and staff who have been able to be in school have been focussing on the children in our care, the work on the Class pages for this week and next has been provided by those teachers who have been at home.  I would like to thank them for this as they have provided it very quickly and there is more than enough work for all age groups.  Once we are closed for the majority of pupils, the content on the Class pages will be provided by the class teachers.

Please remember that there are many other ways to learn.  Reading books, watching films and talking about them, playing traditional games such as board games, looking for bugs in the garden and then researching what they are, completing jigsaws for fine motor skills etc. are just as valuable as learning experiences.  There are also some amazing apps and websites that can be used in portions of time that can aid and progress learning.  Good examples of these that we recommend are Duolingo and GoNoodle as well as Mathletics and TTRockstars that you may already be aware of.  Please check the content of the class pages daily, especially from next week, as we will add more and more resources over time.  After the Easter break, we will change the format of the resources to give you more choice and flexibility with the learning that we will provide.

We will continue to send you emails and we will use Facebook to highlight new content. Feel free to email us during school hours if you have any questions.  Please do bear in mind that while some staff may be at home, they may also find it challenging to respond immediately, as they may be also looking after and caring for family members. We will always reply as soon as we can.  You can either email me at jwaring@looeprimary.co.uk, especially if you have a general question or comment, or if your message is about learning and content on the Class page for your child, please email the class teacher using their initial and surname followed by @looeprimary.co.uk (e.g. bhearnden@looeprimary.co.uk)

Finally, thank you so much for your patience, support and response to our increasingly challenging situation over this last week.  We have been overwhelmed by the positive comments and the children have been very calm, and interested in understanding the situation in which we find ourselves, even if they are a little fed up of washing their hands!  This is a difficult and unknown time for us all, so from our amazing Looe Primary Academy community, I send our best wishes and hopes that you can all stay safe, fit and well in the coming weeks and months.  If you have any photographs that you are willing to share of the activities you get up to when learning at home, please do send them to me and I may be able to add them to my blog; a great way to keep in touch and raise much needed smiles.

Kind regards
Janine Waring

What a Wonderful Scooter!

Over the last few weeks we have been working with Sustrans to encourage the pupils to think about how they get to and from the places they visit.  Obviously, a good place to start was how they get to and from school.  We will be involved in this project for a while but this week we have been doing our best to walk, scoot and cycle to school for the health benefits and to ease congestion around school. Despite the weather, many children took part in Active Travel Week.  For example, some of the older children were dropped off at Looe Community Academy and walked down the road to school and we saw lots more scooters in the cycle bays.  Each time a pupil showed that they had travelled to and from school in an active way, they earned a raffle ticket with a chance to win the prize of a new JD Bug Scooter. In addition, the class with the most raffle tickets gained got to keep the Sustrans teddy in their classroom for the week.  The winning class was Mrs McCormack’s EYFS/Year 1 class and the winner of the scooter was a Year 6 pupil who can’t wait to practice on his new scooter and share it with his brother.

We have all become very excited about this project and we know that there will be more opportunities to win prizes along the way.  It also really helps the school when children do not come to school by car, because sadly our car park is far too small to allow parents to park safely on the school grounds and this then causes lots of congestion when everyone is trying to get close to the school to drop and collect their children safely.  We are hoping that the children will continue to encourage their parents and families to come to school in a more active way and we would be delighted to see some parents and carers on scooters too! 

The next stage is to continue to promote active travel with ‘Walk and Wheelie Wednesdays’.  We can’t wait to see how well you all do and thank you to those families who have really embraced this project with their children already.

It has been an absolute pleasure this year to include so many children in our annual Nativity performance.  With nearly 70 children across the nursery, EYFS and Year 1 classes, it was quite some challenge ensuring that all of the children had a wonderful time.  A big thanks to all of the parents and families who contributed to costumes, but I think the teachers, TAs and volunteer helpers who worked so hard to get the performances ready deserve special thanks. 

The children were amazing and we had the usual round of laughs, tears and unexpected moments.  It never ceases to amaze me that such young children can remember so many words and songs, learning them in a very short space of time.  I am not completely sure that Mary and Joseph understood the importance of the birth of their baby, but that's what makes Nativity a time for making special memories for your child's first few years at school.  No school is complete without a Nativity performance!

Year 6 are currently exploring the questions ‘How can we make Looe a better place to live?’   One of the things the children were most passionate about on answering this question was reducing the amount of litter in and around Looe. So, with the help of the Looe Marine Conservation Society and Surfers Against Sewage, the children carried out a beach clean around Hannafore beach in Looe. The amount of plastic found was shocking and children were coming up with ideas at how this litter could be reduced if we recycled and reused our plastic waste. The children also took part in a rock pool ramble finding many exciting sea life from star fish to crabs! 

We work hard to cherish our environment in Looe and we are delighted that the children feel so passionately about where they live.

We are always excited to celebrate the achievements of our pupils and our Celebration Assemblies are a highlight of each week.  We also encourage the children to talk to us and to share the wonderful activities they take part in, out of the school environment.  I was delighted yesterday to receive some pictures from one of our pupils.  She is looking very proud of herself outside the White Lodge building in Richmond, London.  

She has been chosen to take part in a prestigious Royal Ballet School intensive week of study and this is a big achievement for her as there are only a small number of places offered to ballet dancers worldwide.  She will also be attending a performing arts summer school over the holiday and will then move on to Cardiff where she will be rehearsing for a performance of Swan Lake with the English Youth Ballet Company.  She will have a role as a cygnet and will be performing a solo.

By adding that to her numerous other activities, not least a role in an ITV drama, she is showing us that it is good to aim high and that the world really is her 'oyster'.  Well done; good luck for all that is coming up for you.  Thank you too for being such a role model to others at school; we are all very proud of you.  You can all let us know what you are up to!
 

After a very grey start to the day, Plaidy were able to celebrate their win of the overall Sports day competition in the sunshine.  It has been a while since Plaidy won, so there were lots of cheers and excitement.  It was a very close competition all day.  Plaidy won the Key Stage 2 competition in the morning and Hannafore won the Key Stage 1 competition in the afternoon; in the end, only 23 points separated all of the 4 four teams.  As the only member of school not in one of our houses (I might have said that a few times before), I was very nervous in counting all of the points, so it was very tense when I announced the results!

We value competition and fun at Looe Primary and Sports Day is one of the highlights of the year.  It was great to see the children supporting each other and helping out when things did not quite go to plan for some.  There were a few falls and tears, but we all knew it was about taking part and being there for each other.  Mrs Smerdon did a great job of organising the day again and the activities meant that everyone could take part.  We even caught PCSO Billings taking part in the Foundation egg and spoon race!

Sports Day here at Looe is all about family and friends, so thank you to those who attended; it was lovely to see so many of you out on the field for the picnic lunch.  Thank you too to the volunteers who helped to run the stalls and the raffle.  We have not finished counting yet, but we are confident that we will have raised over £400 to go towards resources for our children that we would not be able to buy otherwise.  Special mentions to Mrs Provost, Mrs Borlase and Mrs Ede for bringing it all together and thank you too you all for the wonderful donations of cakes, sweets and amazing raffle prizes.  Check our Facebook page if you have won a prize.  We are hoping to get our Parents and Friends up and running properly again soon, so if you can help in either a big or a small way, please let Mrs Juleff know.

This year's Sports Day did not disappoint yet again.  Looe Primary at its best!  Thank you to you all, but most of all to our fantastic children who never fail to bring joy and fun to our days at school.