Latest News | Drapers Mills Primary Academy

FREE Online Books for Children

Wed 25 Mar 2020

Schools and libraries may be closed but it doesn't mean that your child has to stop reading. The amazing people at Renaissance Learning have created a bank of online books for children which can be accessed FREE by all.

You can find everything HERE.

Support services for mental health -

Wed 25 Mar 2020

For Parents

Young Minds Parents Helpline. Tel: 0808 802 5544

Website: youngminds.org.uk

Family Lives Helpline. Tel:0808 800 2222

Website: familylives.org.uk

General information on managing anxiety and looking after your mental health can be obtained from:

Mindforfamilies.org.uk

Mind.org.uk

childline.org.uk. (The website has a calm zone with tips for reducing anxiety)

Relationships

relate.org.uk

Online safety

Thinkuknow.co.uk

Helplines

Samaritans.org.uk

Tel 116 123, email : Jo@samaritans.org

For Children textlines and helplines

Shout, text CONNECT to 85285

Childline helpline. Tel 0800 1111

Mindfulness

freemindfulness.org.uk

Free Home Learning Resources from the YOUTH SPORTS TRUST

Wed 25 Mar 2020

In these unprecedented times the Youth Sport Trust want to be able to support schools, teachers, parents and carers in understanding the importance of continuing with Physical Education (PE) whilst children and young people are inevitably going to be schooled in the home environment.

You can find their resources HERE.

EAST KENT support groups

Wed 25 Mar 2020

Please find below details of support groups within East Kent to help families through this difficult period.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS - Email Scam

Wed 25 Mar 2020

We have been informed some parents have received an email stating:

‘As schools will be closing, if you're entitled to free school meals, please send your bank details and we'll make sure you're supported’.

This is a scam email - do not respond, and delete immediately.

WE WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR BANK DETAILS.

FREE audio stories from David Walliams

Tue 24 Mar 2020

A personal message from David Walliams

Those stuck at home with their kids may be able to relate to ‘The World's Worst Children’. I’ll be releasing an audio story every day for the next 30 days for free. First up is The Terrible Triplets! Enjoy. xxx

Click here to listen https://bit.ly/AudioElevenses

FREE SCHOOL MEALS

Mon 23 Mar 2020

Arrangements have now been made for those children who are entitled to receive a FREE SCHOOL MEAL from the school.

For this week only, we have arranged for food parcels to be made available to eligible parents and will contact you as soon as they are ready to be collected from school.

From next week, we will arrange for food vouchers to be sent directly to you by post. A member of staff will shortly be in touch to confirm your address and to answer any questions you may have.

Best wishes.

Mr J Manclark

Headteacher

SCHOOL CLOSURE - Key worker definition

Fri 20 Mar 2020

We have now received further guidance from the Department for Education, regarding the definition of key workers, and which children are eligible to come into schools, whilst they are closed.

Key workers are those who are maintaining essential public services during the Covid-19 response.

• Health and Social Care. This includes doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, home carers and staff required to maintain our health and social care sector

• Education and childcare. This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who will remain active during the Covid-19 response

• Public safety and national security. This includes civilians and officers in the police (including key contractors), Fire and Rescue Service, prison service and other national security roles

• Transport. This will include those keeping air, water, road and rail transport modes operating during the Covid-19 response

• Utilities and Communication. This includes staff needed for oil, gas, electricity and water (including sewage) and primary industry supplies, to continue during the Covid-19 response, as well as key staff in telecommunications, post and delivery, services and waste disposal

• Food and other necessary goods. This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution and sale, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (e.g hygiene, medical etc)

• Key national and local government including those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response

The most important message is that children should be kept at home as a matter of urgency and the aim is to keep the number of pupils coming into schools to a minimum to support the Covid-19 response.

If you fit into one of these categories and would like your child(ren) to continue attending school, please contact the school office before midday today (20.03.20) on (01843) 223989 or via office@dmpa-tkat.org

Children who do not fall into any of these groups should remain at home.

Mr J Manclark

Headteacher

SCHOOL CLOSURE - Access to education whilst not at school.

Thu 19 Mar 2020

Dear parents/Carers

Your child will shortly receive a learning pack that contains a number of learning activities for your child to complete during any period of self-isolation and/or school closure.

Our aim as a school is to ensure the safety of our pupils, whilst maintaining access to their education.

In addition to this pack, teachers will ensure work is regularly added to the class pages on the school website: www.drapersmillsprimary.co.uk

If you have any queries about the learning, or how to access certain websites then teachers will have an email address that you can contact them on and they will respond to you as soon as possible.

Please see the relevant email address for your child’s year group.

Nursery - office@dmpa-tkat.org

Reception – reception@dmpa-tkat.org

Year 1 – year1@dmpa-tkat.org

Year2 – year2@dmpa-tkat.org

Year3 - year3@dmpa-tkat.org

Year4 - year4@dmpa-tkat.org

Year5 – year5@dmpa-tkat.org

Year6 – year6@dmpa-tkat.org

Shooting Stars – shootingstars@dmpa-tkat.org

Rainbow Room – rainbowroom@dmpa-tkat.org

Please feel free to attach any completed learning to an email if it has been carried out on a word document or powerpoint as teachers would love to see this learning and could give feedback via email. It would be lovely to see some photos as well. Teachers will also monitor RockStar Maths to see how much children are using it and how well they are doing with their times tables.

We do recognise that your child may not have any access, or regular access to a computer or device.therefore the pack will provide some activities that are paper based. In the absence of any internet access I would recommend that your child engages in practical activities that will help them to practise basic skills such as cooking, art activities, craft activities, story writing, handwriting practise and multiplication times tables.

Equally, I believe the BBC will be putting on programmes that support children with their learning during this period of school closure so it will be worth keeping an eye out for these.

Please be aware that during the official Easter holidays period, teachers are not expected to respond to emails or provide additional work.

Hope this is of some help and we wish you all the very best of health.

Yours faithfully,

Ann Evans

Deputy Head

SCHOOL CLOSURE - Update 19.03.20

Thu 19 Mar 2020

Dear Parents,

As I am sure you have been made aware the Government has taken the decision to close schools as from Monday 23rd March to all pupils except the children of "key workers" and vulnerable pupils. We need to get an early indication of the number of pupils for whom we need to keep the school open. Although the Government has not yet produced a list of key worker jobs, they have suggested that it is people who work in the NHS, the emergency services or the supply services such as supermarket delivery drivers. When we get further details we will let you know.

If you consider yourself to be a "key worker" and would like your child to attend school over the next few weeks to enable you to work, please either call or email the school ( office@dmpa-tkat.org ) telling us the full name and year group of your child/children and your occupation - please title your response "Key Worker". If your occupation fits in the "key worker" category to be defined by the Government we will be in contact with you about arrangements for next week. School will run normal hours (8.45am to 3.15pm), however, the work your child will do will be different from normal.

Please send your reply by 9:00am on Friday 20th March.

We will be in direct contact with parents of vulnerable pupils to discuss arrangements for next week.

We will also be issuing details of how pupils not in school will be continuing their education.

We will be posting and updating all information that we have on the school website ( https://www.drapersmillsprimary.co.uk/ ) and we urge you to look here before contacting this school with any questions you may have because, as I am sure you appreciate, we are working hard to ensure that school remains a safe place for pupils and staff and that there is minimum disruption to the learning of pupils not at school.

It is a privilege that the Government has called upon schools to play their part in combating COVID 19. I know that with your support, we will be able to look back on this crisis and say that together we played our part.

Yours faithfully,

Mr J Manclark

Headteacher