Dear Parents/Carers,

We apologise if there has been less communication this week as we spend a long time putting in place all the measures to ensure key worker children are hosted at school and other arrangements for things such as home learning are worked on. At present the office will only be manned by one member of staff and only between 8am and 12 noon. If you need to contact us please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. instead of the normal email addresses and someone will pick up your message and reply to you as soon as possible.

I wanted to say firstly that although we have handed out learning packs and uploaded lots of online work to our class blogs: https://www.phoenix-primary.kent.sch.uk/blogs/school-blogs you are not expected to be doing all of this work or worrying about being a ‘home teacher’. We were concerned about having enough work for those who wanted it but this is just what is available, not what we are expecting. There are a few tips for parents adjusting to the new circumstances:

·If you are trying to teach and work from home – STOP, you won’t be able to do this and keep sane. · Some routine may help keep your children happy and focused. For example ‘The Body Coach’ is running his PE sessions each day at 9am but they can be done anytime if you find his You Tube channel. Other things could be planned in for short periods at a time such as times tables or reading.

· If there is one activity you make time for every day – make it READING. This includes reading to your child, them reading to you, listening to audio books or watching someone read a story online. David Walliams stories are available as a free audio book and we will be putting up stories on the website that we read aloud to pupils via video – Year R have already started appearing and others should start appearing over the next week.

· Current advice is for exercise (only with your family) – make time for things like listening to different birds, looking at the cloud structures or learning life skills together like tying shoe laces and cooking.

We have also set up email contacts to your teachers in class. These would be good to share work your child has done or new skills they have learnt. You can also ask for advice or just keep in contact. I will ask teachers to check these through the days ahead. Please don’t expect a reply out of school hours as I want teachers to also be spending time with their families at these times.

Year R: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Year 1: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Year 2: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Year 6: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.