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Parent Bulletin 05/02/21

Please see the latest bulletin from Mr Solly below...

Dear parents and carers,

I hope this bulletin finds you and your families safe and well.

We have one week of this half term left and I would like to pay tribute to the support our parent/carer community has provided for UCC students during this lockdown period. For those of you who are working from home, working on the front line in critical roles, and for those of you who are supporting your children with home learning, during such an unstable and unsettling time, my hat goes off to you. I know that sometimes it can feel incredibly difficult juggling all of these responsibilities, but you are doing a tremendous job by simply just being there for your children and supporting them in whatever way you can. There is a great quote from Dr Seuss: 

"sometimes you will never know the value of something until it becomes a memory" which I feel is important right now. I think that in years to come we will look back on these extended periods of time we were forced to spend at home with our loved ones and really value the time we had together, even if it feels tough now and even though the worldwide situation that has led us here is horrific. We are all dealing with novel circumstances and simply doing our best to get through a very difficult period of time. 

Despite all of this, however, there is so much to celebrate and be proud of. The levels of engagement across the school have been very pleasing. Students have been great with their engagement in online learning and as it looks like it will be March 8th at the very earliest that we are returning to school, it will be important to maintain this motivation throughout next week and after half term. I have been so impressed with the number of contributions to the UCC Road Trip project and it has been wonderful to see families using this as an opportunity to get out of the house and exercise together. I believe we arrived in Kiev, Ukraine today - if you haven't had the chance to look through the associated wellbeing activities on our website, the link is here. I have also loved seeing the photos from our recent Humanities and Science photography competitions/tasks - we clearly have some talented photographers in our ranks!

Below are a number of updates and links with further information for you:

Equipment - should any students require new exercise books, there is a stock held in Reception for collection. Please just drop in and collect what you need.

Parent Survey - please provide us with some feedback on remote learning from your perspective. The students will be issued their survey via Satchel:One on Monday morning. 

Updated remote learning guidance for parents from the Remote Learning section of the school website; we have refined our approach over the last few weeks and this document reflects the changes we have made.

Children's Mental Health Week - these 2 resources are linked to Children's Mental Health week, offering tips and support:

https://www.annafreud.org/schools-and-colleges/resources/advice-for-parents-and-carers-talking-mental-health-with-young-people-at-primary-school/

https://mindedforfamilies.org.uk/Content/talking_to_my_child/#/id/59c0f796928ba1116a891716

Thursday 4th February was 'Time to Talk Day', aimed at supporting parents to talk to their children about mental health and tied into Children's Mental Health Week. This leaflet supports the initiative: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/sites/default/files/Parent%20leaflet%20-%20FINAL%20%282%29_0.pdf

Year 11 parent: This link on our website provides details of sixth form and college information as well as apprenticeships. We are regularly updating this section of the website when we receive information from Post 16 providers.

There is expected to be snow over the weekend and we will make a decision on Sunday, whether or not the site will be open on Monday. This affects only the small number of children accessing our in school provision and we will communicate our decision as quickly as we are able to.

Many thanks for your continued support. Have a great weekend, take care and stay safe.
Mr Solly