Changes to Timings

From January we are changing the drop-off and pick-up times at the start and end of the school day. This is essentially for 2 reasons:

1. It will increase the amount of class time in the afternoon, which this term has prevented classes being able to share a class story at the end of the day and has cut down on effective learning time.

2. The vast majority of children have been dropped off and picked up within a 10 minute window this term so we are simply shortening it to make it officially 10 minutes as this has worked well in terms of staggering the start and end of the day.

From Monday 4^th January the new drop-off and pick-up times will be:

• Drop-off F2 to Y6 will be from 8.45 – 9.00
• Pick-up Y1 to Y6 will be from 3.00 – 3.10

Nursery drop-off will be from 8.45-9.10 in the morning and Nursery and F2 pick up will be 2.55-3.05 at the end of the school day. This should give families with the youngest children time to get to pick up older siblings

Track and Trace

We have just received guidance from the Department for Education about Track and Trace over the Christmas period.  For the first 6 days after teaching ends – up to Christmas Eve, if a pupil or staff member tests positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), having developed symptoms within 48 hours of being in school, schools will need to support with contact tracing by contacting families of children who may have been in contact with the infected person.

If your child does test positive please email office@watercliffe.sheffield.sch.uk  and we will get back in touch with you for more information.

The new Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum becomes statutory in England in the summer term 2021.  

We want to gather some feedback from our families before the end of this term and intend to run some focus group sessions for interested parents in the spring term, whether we are able to do that face to face or will need to do it virtually.  We have set up an email address for you to respond to with any questions or to let us know that you would like to be part of the focus groups in the spring term.  We have sent a letter home with the Green ‘Un tonight with further information.

If you have any questions about the new RSHE curriculum and how we will implement it at Watercliffe Meadow, if you have suggestions for ways in which we can enhance the understanding of cultural aspects in our curriculum or you would like to be part of the ‘focus groups’ in the spring term then please respond to this letter through the 

RSHE@watercliffe.sheffield.sch.uk email address.We value your feedback and want to utilise this as an opportunity to enhance what we already do. 

What is Online Harm? 

Simply put, it is any behaviour online that causes harm; this could be physical, emotional or sexual. 

Access to phones, social media and
the internet means that young people can communicate with others without those caring for them knowing and this can make it difficult when we want to keep them safe. 

The Marie Collins Foundation (MCF) and the National Working Group (NWG) have launched two new resources on how to respond when it is discovered a child has been harmed online:

The Online Sexual Harm Reduction Guide is aimed at professionals; 

How Can I Help My Child? is aimed at parents and carers. Both are downloadable from https://www.mariecollinsfoundation.org.uk/news/marie-collins-foundation-mcf-and-the-nwg-network

As you are probably fed up of hearing, today is the first day of a month lockdown for the whole country.  The main difference this time round is that schools are remaining open for everyone.  This is the main message from the Government: 

We will continue to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of our children and young people and will not be closing early years settings, schools, colleges or universities. It remains very important for children and young people to attend, to support their wellbeing and education and help working parents and guardians. Senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be, and so they should continue to go to school.

We have been advised to continue following our normal absence procedures and to expect all children to attend school.  We will provide learning at home but only for children who are self isolating due to closure of a bubble, children tested positive or self isolation after exposure to someone who has tested positive.  If you have any questions please email office@watercliffe.sheffield.sch.uk

Rays of Hope for a Brighter Future

The last 2 weeks have all been about ‘togetherness’ in school and we have been taking part in a project called ‘Rays of Hope for a Brighter Future’.  The weeks explore our feelings about lockdown and the positives that have come from it – our creative responses will be a positive way to always remember what we all went through.  The class blogs will share what each year group has been up to.  Our learning has been supported by artists and we have really enjoyed expressing our thoughts and emotions through art and different media.

You should now have received your letter to book a parents’ evening online.  We are having a few teething problems with the system linking to our SIMS in school.  If you are struggling please email office@watercliffe.sheffield.sch.uk and one of the team will get back to you.

On Monday 28^th September 2020 we joined over 1,000,000 students and educators and watched  The Big Anti-Bullying Assembly 2020! If you would like to watch it, follow the link on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0_1Z0CAZiE&t=290s or search for The Big Anti-Bullying Assembly 2020.  We all took the pledge to work together to stop bullying and what we can do to help.   We spoke about who would be in our support network if we needed help.  We will follow this work up in November as we do every year by taking part in the anti-bullying alliance anti bullying week.  The theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2020 is: United Against Bullying. Anti-Bullying Week will happen from Monday 16th – Friday 20th November and will start with Odd Socks Day to mark the first day of Anti-Bullying Week.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome everyone back to WCM for the start of a new school year.  Well, who would have thought  back in March what the last term of the 2019/20 year would have in store for us? 

We would also like to welcome any new families to the school, if there is anything you need to know, just ask, staff will always be happy to help.

It has been so lovely in school over the last few days.  Having all the children back and listening to the times and experiences they have shared with families has been a delight. 

We want to make WCM the best place possible for your children to attend but we can only do that with your help and support.  We recognise that not being able to come into school with your child is one of the most difficult things that we have to put in place.  It is hard but following the guidelines to keep everyone safe if something we know you will support us with.  

Keeping communication open between home and school will be essential if we are going to support your child’s learning.  If you can’t catch the class teacher at the start or end of the day there are several ways you can get in touch:

• Ring and leave a message
• Call to the office and leave a message
• Email office@watercliffe.sheffield.sch.uk
• Send a message on Messenger
• Catch Mr Read, Mrs Bradley or someone from the office outside in the morning.

We recognise that for many families this is a difficult time and we want to do all we can to keep everyone safe and rebuild and repair the damage done when COVID came to town!

The report from OfSTED was sent out with the Green Un and there is a link yo it above. We are very proud of the report and especially proud of your children who showed just how amazing they all are, the way they spoke about their learning warmed our hearts. If you have any questions about the report please call in to ask us. Attendance was discussed in detail and we know this is something we need to improve on. If you have any ideas to share around this please call and see Claire Bradley. We will also continue our work around Read Write Inc, this has had an enormous impact but we want to get better still and make sure every child at WCM is able to read fluently.
Thank you to all the families, there were so many comments that were very moving and extremely supportive. Together we can make the children who walk through our door reach for the stars and truly show them that “the world is theirs!”