Dear Parent/Guardian,
The government has extended the national lockdown and associated closure of schools for at least another three weeks.
Communication
I will continue to update parents via email at least weekly. All information emailed is also posted on the Covid-19 section of our website. Having the main school phone line open each day requires me to have a member of staff on-site and given the stringent lockdown this is not possible. Please do not phone school whilst the lockdown is in place. We continue to monitor all emails, including the main info@plashet.newham.sch.uk so please do use that where possible.
Free School Meal Vouchers
Those parents of students in receipt of free school meals will know we are using the government’s Edenred evoucher system. This web portal is struggling badly with the volume of transactions it is required to handle and crashing constantly. We are frustrated with this national system. Our School Business Manager will continue to closely monitor the site and endeavour to search for our transactions and order a further three week’s vouchers.
Our Virtual School
It has been a quite a learning curve for parents, students and staff as we have attempted to adapt our tried-and-tested methods to distance learning via Google Classroom. I continue to pass feedback received on to teaching staff who are developing new ways of setting learning so that it is manageable. Lots of families have been grateful for there being plenty to keep Plashet students busy, but I know that for some families the work set has caused some anxiety, especially where they have other pressures to juggle as well. Our principle has been that we would rather Plashet girls have more than enough rather than not enough to get stuck into, so that parents who really want to ensure their daughter does not get behind have lots to get them to focus on.
Please do not worry, though, if your daughter does not manage to complete everything that has been set. In lessons in school, teachers make judgements every day about whether to push an individual student on, or to stop for now, but we are not able to do that from afar. At the moment you are in the best position to judge what your daughter is be able to manage, and so please do so. Girls should not be doing school work at the expense of their emotional wellbeing or mental health at this time. As parents, please do let us know if you have any concerns about your daughter’s wellbeing.
Having said this, for safeguarding reasons we will continue to monitor whether students are engaging with the tasks being set, and submitting work if this has been requested. Our pastoral teams will be doing virtual wellbeing check-ins over the next week or so and we will contact students and/or parents to follow up where we have concerns that students are not engaging with school during the closure period to see what we can do to help.
I have attached a ‘Parents Guide to Coping with School Closures’ given that the lockdown has been extended for at least another 3-weeks. I hope this may offer some further support.
Look after yourselves and your families. Stay at home and do not take any risks. You, our ever supportive parents/guardians, together with your wonderful daughters and all of the Plashet community, mean the world to me. My heartfelt best wishes go to all of you.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs Rachel McGowan
Head Teacher
Plashet School