Head Teacher Updates
Latest Update
Update 31st March
Dear parents and carers,
As Easter arrives I hope that you, your family and your friends are well. Another very unusual term, and although there have certainly been difficulties it has definitely been a term which there have been many positives. The remote learning of January and February was certainly a challenge but one which was met well by the majority of our community. The teachers worked hard, the parents and carers became teachers and worked hard and the children worked very hard indeed. Of course, there were some children who, for whatever reason, could not do all of the remote learning and we are working hard to help them and other children to catch up.
Since we have returned to school this month it has been fabulous to see how the children have come back to school full of enthusiasm to meet their friends and get learning.
We have not seen too many of the problems and emotional turmoil which we feared and we are, of course, supporting those children who need it. We do realise however, that there might be children who have worries and anxieties but are hiding them. We have been encouraging them to talk to people they are comfortable with. Please encourage your child to talk to you about concerns and please ask us for help if it is needed after the holidays.
I recently read a book which said that the researcher who had written it believed that the gap between high achieving and low achieving children didn’t grow at school but during holidays. Those children who did well in the researchers sample were those who read at home, especially during the breaks. Whilst having some doubts about it being quite as simple as this, I think most teachers would agree that those children who read and are read to during breaks ultimately do better at school. If you can find 10 or 15 minutes a day to read with and to your child it will help them. I say this with absolute certainty and cannot over emphasise the importance of this.
I have attached the first (hopefully not the last) edition of our “Maths Newsletter.” We have produced this to try to raise the profile of maths across the school and to try to get across what we are trying to achieve in maths (or our intent as OFSTED would call it). There are some links to some YouTube videos which will guide you through some strategy games which will help develop thinking skills. They are easy and fun and much less complicated than chess- but teaching young children is great!!
Just to keep you up to date, we have identified spelling as a priority for development and a small group of teachers have been looking into how we can improve spelling across the school. Interestingly, we looked for a school which identified as a school that did spelling well so we could study what it was that they were doing so well… we couldn’t find a school! (We didn’t ask everyone but asked a fair few). So, we are hoping to buck this trend and do spelling well. One of the main changes which we will be making is the use of Sir Linkalot, a spelling app which helps make learning spellings fun. We hope this will be a big thing in the summer term—more to come in the new term.
Religious Education is often a source of concern for parents. Some of those who follow a particular faith can be uncomfortable with other religions being covered and some of those who have no faith can feel that their children are being encouraged to follow a faith. We want to make it clear that the children are never ever told that anything is true or that anything is not true. They are never told that one religion or belief is correct and another is not correct. Every time a religion is quoted or story told it is preceded by ‘Christians believe…. Muslims believe….. Hindus believe etc. I can absolutely assure you that we do not push any faith or religion. We have no reason to do this and we do not want to do this. Obviously, if you have any questions please get in touch and ask us.
Finally, have a great Easter break, thank you for your support during this strange time and let’s hope for a slightly more normal summer term.
Very best wishes
Chris
UPDATE 8th March
Well, you should all be proud of how well your children coped with the first day back after the lockdown. We fully understand that there will have been some apprehension for some children this morning, but this was not apparent when I walked round he school at , just after 10am. The school was really calm and lessons were in full swing. You have obviously been doing a great job over the lockdown.
Similar to last time there were crowds at the gates today. Can we ask that you try to get you child here during their 'slot' rather than before it as this will make the crowding less and result in a safer transition, thanks.
It was certainly great to see everyone this morning and from what I could see the children and staff were happy and one or two parents were edging towards euphoric.
Whilst some people had reasons to question what we were doing, I feel that the entire Goldstone community has pulled together in a very mutually supportive way and we have come through this latest lockdown pretty well. I know many teachers were happy with comments of thanks they received from parents today.
Lets hope things continue to go well so that our children can get the education they deserve and desperately need.
Best wishes Chris
UPDATE 5th March
Dear parents and carers,
Well done for getting to the ‘end of term’. I personally am very excited to be able to open the doors to all children from Monday. It has been a difficult time for many people, in many ways and we do not think that this is the end but it is, hopefully, the start of the final chapter of the pandemic story. The same protocols will be in place as at the end of the Autumn term. The only significant change to the risk assessment is that adults will wear face coverings in general areas like corridors and offices where they cannot guarantee to maintain social distance. We shall still be continuing the hand washing, bubbles and staggered starts and finishes. The year groups will be kept apart outside and in the lunch hall.
All staff have access to LFD tests and are being encouraged to do the tests twice a week, although they are not compelled to do them. You can now get tests (see attached letter), these tests are to spot asymptomatic cases but should not be regarded as being completely reliable especially for negative results.
Can we please remind you if you child is showing any symptoms at all they should be kept at home. Although the number of cases is significantly down from where it was at the start of the lockdown, we must remain vigilant as we could still find ourselves having to isolate children if there are cases in school.
We will support children to catch-up the learning they have lost and to make good, gaps in their social experiences which are so important. Getting the balance between distance and safety and supporting their emotional wellbeing is absolutely uppermost in our thoughts. Please make sure you let us know any particular concerns you or your child has, as we return to school.
Again, I would like to thank you for your efforts during this extraordinary time and would also like to thank the entire staff of the school for their efforts. A great deal of what has been going on during this time has been very much behind the scenes and although unseen, really important.
A reminder for Monday.
We shall be using the new staggered starts. Nothing has changed other than the class order.
Have a good weekend, see many of you on Mondays.
Best wishes
Chris
UPDATE 12th February
Dear parents and carers,
As we approach half term I thought I would give you an idea of how we want to move the school forward in the next 18 months. We have identified four broad areas to develop further. These are general and are not areas which are necessarily weaknesses simply areas which we can develop.
The areas are,
Develop teaching and learning in core subjects (this is a constant but we do need to develop maths in Keystage two and we shall be working on this particularly.)
Develop the foundation curriculum to meet the needs of the current OFSTED framework (this is something which is ongoing and we have been doing for some time as Ofsted have changed the emphasis of their inspections to look at more than just maths and English-which we think is excellent.)
Develop the role and impact of support staff (Goldstone has a high number of support staff, we have class based teaching assistants, specialist teaching assistants and individual needs assistants. It is very important that we keep ensure that we are making the very best use of these brilliant people.)
Develop equalities education across the curriculum (This is a hugely important part of our agenda. We must make sure that we are presenting a fair and balanced education throughout the school. Every child irrespective of their background, religion, ethnicity or any disability should feel that the education which they are receiving is as relevant to them as to anyone else.)
On top of all of these things we shall be making sure that we continue to develop children as resilient, confident and determined learners and above all, well rounded decent people.
Each of these areas has lots of smaller actions within it and quite a few involve keeping parents informed as to what is happening, and helping parents to help their children. Thus, will include lots of us asking you and also us informing you about what we are teaching, how we are teaching it and why we are doing things in that way.
In the spirit of this, I have attached a questionnaire about remote learning. It would be helpful if you could complete it, it can be anonymous if you would prefer but it would be good to know, to which year group your answers refer. In addition to the questionnaire we shall also be holding a parents’ forum on Thursday 25th February at 9:15am (I shall send login details later). At this, you can ask any questions or make any comments which you have. This will be an opportunity for us to find out if we have been providing you with help over the lockdown and hopefully, we shall have an idea about restarting school as the government are planning to make a statement about next steps on the 22nd of February. We shall also be trying to find out what you would like from us in order to help us give it to you, or explain why we cannot.
Hopefully, it will be a useful meeting and help us with our understanding of what has happened during lockdown and how we can be a better school moving forward.
I would like to say thank you again for your support during this time and thank you to the incredible staff who have worked so hard to make Goldstone work during the lockdown.
Something to do in the half term break..
One of our parents has contacted us with a lovely sounding idea. The Benfield Valley Project is an environmental project part of which is a half term survey of the wildlife in the Benfield Valley (particularly the birdlife). This link gives you more details, it seems like a lovely way to spend an hour over the holiday whilst having your outdoor, socially distanced, exercise.
https://forms.gle/ZKm5kfuiSiSqbYP18
I think it is such a great form we might pinch it to use in our grounds as we get lots of birds in our wild area.
Have a happy and safe half term break.
Best wishes
Chris
UPDATE 29th January
Dear parents and carers, I hope you and your families are well. We have reached the end of January and once again I want to thank you all for the huge effort you are putting in to support your children with their learning at home.
I want to reiterate that we do not expect all of our parents to be brilliant teachers. We also know that teaching your own children is very different, and more difficult, from teaching someone else’s. Although the teachers are doing a wonderful job supplying you with learning for your children we know that some of you, for a whole host of reasons, might not be able to complete everything. As parents, we all suffer from a range of guilt from what we feed them at times to the genes we have provided; there is absolutely no value in beating yourself up if you are doing your best. As I have said before, stressed teachers (at school or at home) produce anxious children and as a famous educationalist once said, “anxiety is the enemy of learning.”
Ideally, education and educating should be fun and happy experiences for all involved and whilst we know that this isn’t always the case, it’s a good goal to aim for. Please do not stress, do your best. If you would prefer sometimes do something that you think will engage, educate, enthral and entertain your children, give it a go, even if it isn’t on the plan. I know that there are lots of great activities being provided and the teachers are really trying hard to give you realistic activities but sometimes it just might not be possible, that’s fine.
A word on zoom sessions All of our children, right across the school, will have access to zoom sessions with their teachers, teaching assistants or nursery nurses. These are fantastic and we have all become more technically savvy during this time of covid. There are, however, some problems with how zooms are being used. Zoom is not the same as a teacher, especially for young children. To help with the impact and effectiveness of zoom sessions here are some rules which we would like to bring to your attention. There have been a few topless dads setting up laptops, a few times we have joined children at the breakfast table and I have heard a couple of unfeasibly ‘northern’ sounding voices saying, “Come on! Mr Pearson is waiting.” I’m sure no mocking was intended.
Zoom Protocols
1. Children should always have an adult with them
2. Children (and adults) should be fully clothed
3. Preferably, children should not be eating
4. Only the teacher or teaching assistant should share screens unless asked
5. Login details should not be shared with anyone
6. Children must be muted when they join and until they are asked to unmute
Whiteboards Thank you to all of those of you who have been in to collect whiteboards and pens. They are a small but really helpful thing. If you didn’t manage to get in to pick yours up, please feel free to come in; we still have lots left. They will not go to waste as they are always useful and we will use them when we are back in school when all of this is over.
IT access We have asked many times for people to get in touch with us if they are having any issues with access to IT. Many have and we have been able to help the vast majority. We are now waiting for another delivery of Chromebooks, if you have any issues please get in touch with us.
Just to ensure that everyone is informed. The school will not be open at all over half term. Have a good weekend.
Best wishes. Chris
UPDATE Wednesday 13th January
Dear parents and carers,
I hope this update finds you well and you are settling into this latest phase of the way the world is. Generally, things are working well across the school and certainly, the vast majority of our children are accessing online learning. There are a few people who are not using the resources on DB Primary and some people who are not attending the zoom sessions which the teachers are putting on each day. If you are having any problems at all, please, please get in touch and talk to us about what it is which is stopping you accessing these really important resources. If the problem is lack of a computer/laptop or tablet or is the lack of broadband, again, please get in touch because we may be able to help you. We have a number of Chromebooks which we are going to lend out to people. It is taking some time to get these sorted out because they need quite a lot of work doing to them before they can be sent out.
Last term some of you attended meetings with the council (remotely) at which they explained why they were planning to reduce the numbers of children at several schools across the city. Our view was that we felt it was not a sensible move to reduce a popular school in order to keep other less popular schools at the same size. I am sorry to report that the council has accepted the recommendation to reduce our school by one class per year from September 2022. This would obviously feed through so that by 2029 the school would be a two-form entry school. No children who are currently here will be affected, but as things stand from September 2022 Goldstone will only take a maximum of 60 children, rather than the current 90. The council are at pains to make clear that this is not a comment on the quality of education which any school provides. The Governors will have to decide what to do next, there is an appeal process which we shall no doubt discuss.
From next week, teachers will start offering telephone check-ups with your children. These will be like they were during the first lockdown. You will receive a form via Ping asking if you would like the phone call and asking you to add your preferred telephone number, as the one we have on file may not be suitable at this time. Please note, the objective of this call will be to talk to the children rather than as a pseudo parents’ evening. We shall be having a parents’ evening once we get back in school after the teachers have assessed how the children have fared over this really difficult period.
Finally, we have received a lot of thanks and positive comments about the work being offered during the first week or so of this lockdown. I have thanked the teaching staff (teachers and teaching assistants/inclusion mentors) for their efforts and I do so again. I also want to thank all of the staff who have kept the school going (putting themselves at risk), this includes the office staff of course, also the cleaners and Mick Munn, our site manager, who have kept things safe and tidy, doing extra shifts wiping the doors and cleaning the toilets. The Midday Supervisors have come into school for just an hour or so but are massively important. I want to thank the after school and breakfast club staff who have made it possible for key workers to do a full shift- even though there are not many children, and of course the kitchen staff who have a very different job than usual. They are not directly employed by the school but they are doing a great job.
Of course, thank you for your continuing support. Please contact me at any time if I can help.
Very best wishes
Chris
Update Tuesday 5th January
Dear parents and carers, Firstly, we are aware that some of you had some problems with DB Primary this morning. Hopefully, it is now sorted. We think that it was just a case of too many people from many schools trying to use it. We will continue to monitor the DB Primary situation and, as always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have problems.
We hoped that we would not be in this position again but here we are. I want to say from a personal point of view that I am grateful to Brighton and Hove for having the foresight and courage to go it alone and ask us to close. This resulted in us being able to give you better notice of the closure and allowed us to prepare so that we could ‘hit the ground running’ this morning. Again, I have had several positive emails giving me the impression that things are going smoothly in these early stages. I want to say a particular thank you to the office staff who have been so important at this time helping organise things and coordinate what the teachers are doing.
Please remember, no teacher has ever taught everything they wanted to, to everyone they wanted to. It can be frustrating when what you are teaching does not ‘go in’ and you cannot understand why they don’t ‘get it’. There can be lots of reasons for lessons not achieving their aim. One of the biggest reasons is that when children (or adults for that matter) get stressed, their brain stops working at its best. Stress (or threat) causes us to go into ‘fight or flight’ mode and so our more creative, thinking abilities diminish as we prepare to survive an attack. It is easy to underestimate the pressure that children feel when being asked the question about ‘what a word says’ or ‘what the answer to that sum is’, often a child who is incapable of reading a word or answering a question under pressure will do the same challenge without thinking when relaxed. Also, remember that they will probably want to please you more than wanting to please their teacher. If things are not going well, have a break, lighten the mood, talk calmly and if things seem relaxed (them and you) maybe have another go. I don’t mean to patronise anyone with this and if you feel patronised I apologise. I just know that having watched hundreds and hundreds of lessons, I can absolutely say that tension and stress are not common features of successful learning, fun and a sense of achievement are- both for the teacher and the learner.
As I said yesterday the teachers are available via email. If you don’t have an email address for them, all emails are available on the Website on the who’s who page. If you cannot contact them via email feel free to make a phone call to the school so that we can arrange contact, the office will be open 9am to 3pm. Despite having some DB Primary problems from this end, I think the teachers have worked incredibly hard to get work sorted for today. I have also had some positive reports for the early zoom sessions. Thanks again for your support. Best wishes Chris
UPDATE MONDAY 4th January
Dear parents and carers,
You may have already received a message from your child’s year group outlining the way things are going to be during this school closure. Hopefully, what we are doing will help you to help your child learn during the time they cannot come into school. There will be a lot of detail, if there is anything you do not understand or need any clarification about then please contact your child’s teacher.
In the early years (Nursery and reception) and key stage one (yr 1 &2,) each class will have a zoom meeting with their teacher each day. This will involve various activities as well as a story. They will also have activities set for them online via DB primary.
In key stage two (years 3 to 6) there will be two zoom sessions each day. The first will set the scene for the day the second will look over the work done and talk any points through. The teachers will try to address any major points with the class and generally get a view of how things have gone. There will also be work set and explained via DB Primary.
Teachers will be recording other videos to support learning as well as linking other online learning resources from other sources such as Oak Academy, Literacy Shed, BBC and White Rose. Some year groups will also be doing other activities with their children.
One teacher each week, from each year group, will be teaching the vulnerable and key worker group, the zoom sessions for that teacher’s class will be covered by another member of the year group. The teacher who is rota’d for the vulnerable and key worker group will change each week, if this goes on for weeks.
Please remember, the teachers are working and are available via email. If you have any issues or problems please contact the teacher so that they can help. You should have the teacher's email addresses.
We have tried to space out the zoom sessions so that families with more than one child will be able to access the sessions. You will be sent the zoom access/ login details by your child’s year group lead. I have attached an overview of the zoom meetings. (Please note that there may be some occasional slight changes to these times- your child’s teacher will inform you about any changes.)
Year Group Zoom meeting time
YR 1:30pm
YR1 10:30am
YR2 11:00am
YR3 9:00am & 3:00pm
YR4 9:30am & 3:30pm
YR5 8:45am & 2:30pm
YR6 10:00am & 4:00pm
These are stressful times for everyone and we are all (you and us) doing our best to help each other. Please, try not to get overly stressed in teaching your child. We know it is easy to say but we also know that it is not easy to teach our own children at home. Many of us teachers have struggled to teach our children in various ways over the years. Do your best, but if you are highly stressed your children will be stressed and stressed people find it very difficult to learn anything.
Breakfast and after school club for vulnerable and key worker children.
These will be as usual for the time being. Any changes we shall let you know.
Start and finish times for vulnerable and key worker children.
All children who are coming to school as a vulnerable or key worker child will enter school through the entrance which they have been using this year. They will start at 9 am and finish at 3 pm.
If you have any further questions about any of this please get in touch. Very best wishes Chris
UPDATE SUNDAY 3rd January
Dear parents and carers, Firstly, thank you for the messages of understanding and support which some of you have sent. I told you yesterday that we will be teaching remotely for the majority of our children from Tuesday (we had an INSET day already planned for Monday). I wrote to you, very shortly after receiving a letter from the lead of the council telling me that we should only open for vulnerable and key worker children. I thought it might be helpful to let you have a few more details about why the council has made this decision and what we have done since I wrote to you yesterday.
The letter which the council sent, outlined their concerns about rising covid infection rates in Brighton and Hove. They are working with their medical and public health teams and say that the pattern of increase in rates is very similar to those seen in Kent and East Sussex. They also say that the covid rate has increased by more than 500% in Brighton and Hove since we came out of lockdown in early December. So for these reasons the council has taken the decision to close all primary schools. They do not say at which point they will recommend that we re-open, obviously I shall let you know as soon as I know.
As to what we are going to do. I have been in contact with all staff and as ever they have responded brilliantly. The Senior Leadership group have helped a great deal, keeping their teams informed and putting initial planning in place. We have postponed our planned activities for Monday’s INSET day and shall dedicate this time to planning for remote learning and for organising provision for vulnerable children and keyworker groups so that by Tuesday we shall have things in place.
If you have a real problem with accessing online provision please get in touch with us as soon as possible. We will do whatever we can to support you and your children.
I have listened to people on the radio this morning, arguing about the rights and wrongs of closing schools. We have been told to close, so we shall. The only personal thoughts I offer here are that none of us, including the council and teachers’ unions, want to close our school. We have all worked extremely hard to keep education happening to the best of our ability and we shall continue to do this.
I want to thank everyone in our school community for their support and understanding. It is not always evident what toll the this pandemic and its strains and pressures are having. I hope that we can all continue to support each other and work from a starting point that we are all acting in good faith and wanting do the right thing.
Tomorrow I shall send more details and any other information we have received from the local authority.
Best wishes Chris
UPDATE SATURDAY 2nd January
Dear parents and carers, I have just received a letter from the council (received at 16:17 this afternoon)telling us to move to remote learning because of the rapidly increasing infection rates in the city. We were due to have an INSET day on Monday 4th anyway so we would not have been teaching at all on that day. It seems that all schools will move to remote learning from next week across the city. I have always tried to accept guidance from government in deciding what to do, but in the lack of specific B&H guidance from the Government, the council are clearly the best placed to give us advice. I know that this is terribly short notice, and that this will cause real problems for some of you, but I do not feel that I can make a decision against the council’s advice, which could result in more people becoming seriously ill. I shall of course try to keep abreast of what is happening and keep you informed.
As things stand please note; that we shall be teaching remotely from Tuesday 5th January. Vulnerable children and those who were eligible for places as key worker children in the first lockdown will again be able to be taught in school but as with the first lockdown only these children will be able to come to school. (further advice to follow). Please accept my apologies for this short notice and for the inconvenience caused.
Best wishes Chris
