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Strandtown Primary School North Rd, Belfast

Keep Calm and Carry On

27th Apr 2020

Dear Parents, T

Today I have received many communications with regards to feedback/concerns/suggestions on home learning.  Thank you for taking the time to send these and please be assured every one is being considered by the Senior Leadership Team, we are daily reviewing our provision and practice.  

We are doing our best to give parents as much support as possible, however, I am aware that this has resulted in a number of resources/postings which can be feel overwhelming.  Some parents are requesting more information, others are requesting less.  Some parents are asking for flexibility in approach throughout the school day ,others are appealing for structure and scheduled contact with the teacher.  

We have restrictions with our scale also.  The home pack provided for the initial weeks took a whole staff body and 4 days of non stop photocopying.  We have neither the physical resources or the ability to assemble the whole staff at school together to produce something in this fashion every two weeks.  Additionally we cannot request parents come to school for 1000 pupil packs to be collected. That leaves us at the mercy of online learning.  

The first thing I would say is every household has very different challenges or demands at this time and you must only do what you can.  I feel the challenges of this acutely within my own house with  two adults working from home and two children needing home learning opportunities.  There is no guidance on how to do this right, we have to just do what we can within the finite hours we have in a day.  I can assure you that not every activity or website being suggested to me by my daughters' school is being completed or visited.

We are putting up suggestions for a week and we will endeavour to streamline their placement on the website and only use Dojo as a communication tool.  We are constantly considering how the documents can be accessed easily by parents and learning a lot ourselves about ICT as we go. Please be mindful that we have only been on this platform for four weeks and we are learning alongside you.    

In school the expectations for every child are different and that applies at home too. Our intention is to support and guide as you decide what your child can manage at this time.  

There are times when we just need to stop and put the devices down.  Please take time throughout the week as you need and know that every activities' completion is not essential. Pace this for your family and children in a way which will allow you to sustain the weeks ahead.  

When we return, every child will be taken from the point they are at and encouraged to progress from there.  Nothing will be lost that can't be recovered, retaught or relearned.  

In the meantime be assured that our practice will follow DE and EA guidance and that we are giving our best for our Strandtown families.    

Kind Regards

Mrs Hutchinson