Dear parents and carers,
We would like to wish everyone a very warm welcome back to school. We hope that you all had a wonderful summer. It was
lovely to see everyone once again on Thursday, with lots of smiling faces and friendly greetings from all the children and
families. The children loved seeing their friends again, and they have settled back into the school routines really well. Some of
them may struggle with the long school day after not having experienced it fully since March, and we are mindful of that;
therefore, lessons are shorter, with lots of opportunities for physical activities, brain breaks and fresh air. In fact, lots of
lessons have been taking place outside to help with this. As part of the lessons planned, teachers and LSAs are identifying
where the children are with their knowledge, understanding and skills, and planning learning opportunities accordingly, to
enable children to close any gaps, consolidate any previous learning and address any misconceptions, as well as providing
further challenge where needed. If you have any concerns about your child’s learning and progress, please do not hesitate to
contact your child’s teacher.
There is also a big focus on wellbeing, both within everyday lessons as well as through specialised wellbeing and PSHE lessons.
We would like to introduce our new PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) programme called Jigsaw. As they state on
their website, ‘Jigsaw is a unique, spiral, progressive and effective scheme of work, aiming to prepare children/young people
for life, helping them really know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this everchanging world’.
This was introduced this week, by Mrs Aram (our PSHE/RSE lead) through two special Collective Worshipsessions (in our bubbles) in which the children found out about their class cat, the chime bar and the puzzle pieces. See if your
child can tell you about their class cat and what the cat’s name is!
As you know, schools have to put lots of health and safety measures in place to comply with the regulations and guidance
from the DfE. A risk assessment has been in place since the initial school closures in March, which is regularly updated
following updates from the government. The most up-to-date risk assessment will be on the school website by the end of
today (on the Covid page). However, please be aware that this will be updated when needed, according to government
updates.
Thank you for your understanding regarding the one-way system and the social distancing measures. We know that it is a
tricky time, and we are trying to make everything as manageable as possible for you while still ensuring that we follow
the regulations and advice. As mentioned before, we will monitor the arrangements and let you know any changes when
applicable.
I would like to say a big thank you to the BSA (especially Lucy Brodie) for organising the wonderful Round the Island Relay
Race, which is on Saturday 12th September. This takes place every year and we are very fortunate in being able to run it
this year (excuse the pun). This is a running race against Nine Acres Primary School, in which a range of parents, grandparents,
older children and members of staff take part, raising funds for our school. If you would like to sponsor the Brighstone Team,
please see Lucy Brodie or visit the BSA’s Facebook page for more information:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/brighstoneschoolassociation/?ref=page_internal
To be more environmentally friendly, as well as to reduce the amount of paper transferring between school and home,
thereby minimising the possibility of transferring the virus, we will be sending as many letters, newsletters, topic webs and
forms etc via email. These will also be available on our website. If you would like to request a paper copy of any of these,
please let the school or your child’s teacher know. We have set up new email addresses for each class; more information
below.
Before I sign off, I would like to thank you for all your kind words of support and congratulations – they mean a lot. We have a
fantastic team here at Brighstone, as well as wonderful children and families, and I feel very privileged to be the headteacher
of Brighstone Primary School.
Many thanks, and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Lennon and the Brighstone Team