Dear Children, Parents and Carers,

After another week of leading two schools, the one that’s working remotely and the one for a very small group of key worker children in school, I again want to pass on my thanks to everyone involved! I’m so appreciative of our staff who are going the extra mile every day and I’m also grateful to all our families who are helping to keep children learning in difficult times.

We’re really doing our bit collectively to bring down the covid infection rate locally and there’s a glimmer of hope that the numbers are plateauing. Let’s keep being determined to reduce transmission whenever we can by staying at home. Thank you to the key worker families who only send their children in when it’s absolutely necessary. I’m working at home today with a strong team in school that I can rely on and plenty of Zoom time and phone calls keeping me in touch across the community. It’s reminded me again of the circumstances of so many of our families, working at home and juggling different demands on our time; with my son and husband also using the internet all day, we have quite a complicated schedule! I salute you for being so determined to prioritise your child’s education. It must be quite a sacrifice.

Compared to so many schools, we’re glad that at HTPD every child has the technology to be online each day. This daily contact is proving to be very popular, with teachers, children and families finding it a great motivator. The children love to see their work shared with their classmates and they’re also being inspired to work hard when others are producing such super quality too. Keep it up everyone!

If you’ve followed the news in the press about the free school meals debacle, you’ll be interested to know that we made the decision to support our families in need with vouchers rather than food parcels. These will be issued to those in receipt of means-tested free school meals next week, and back-dated to the start of term. To me, this seems so much more respectful. Please do get in touch if you’re going through financial difficulties – we still have our hardship fund open for donations on Parentpay, and we’re able to help out. We really want to look after each other and make sure that none of our children go hungry.

For me, this week’s highlight has been sharing assembly with all the children from Year 1 to Year 6. Being able to see the school gathered together despite the distance between us, really gave me hope. Eventually, we’ll all be back together in the same place again and what a celebration we’ll have. Thank you for continuing to make connection with school a priority; it’s great to belong to such a vibrant, determined and loving community. Your support and encouragement to the teaching staff is much appreciated – we share that feedback every week and cheer one another along! Thank you for all your encouraging emails.

With love,
Clare

Thought of the Week: Love is eternal – who will love you forever?

Whole school notice

Opportunity to discuss ways to find hope
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been approached by families commenting on our school values bringing them comfort and hope. Mike Norris, one of our parents and part of St Saviour’s Church in Guildford, has offered to run a couple of online sessions exploring this and similar themes. See the attached flyer if you’re interested in taking part.

FOPS News

Hello everyone,

A quick note to say we will be having a PTA meeting next Thursday 21st January at 8pm - on Zoom of course! Details will be sent out via ParentMail next week.

We'll be discussing fundraising objectives for the rest of the school year and activities to support everyone during this current lockdown.

I hope to 'meet' you there!
Kate x

Dear Parents and Carers,

Little did I realise on Monday morning when we began our INSET day thinking about the term ahead quite what would be required of the whole school community in the 24 hours that followed! As a staff, we started the morning considering what were the most important words and attitudes that we hoped to teach the children as they moved through the school before finally leaving in Year 6. I think you’ll be glad to see the word cloud that resulted. It’s shaped into a bird silhouette to remind us all of the hope that we have to soar above whatever situation that we find ourselves in. The Bible reminds us that “those who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength and soar on wings like eagles”, Isaiah 40 v31. It was just what we needed to tackle the challenges ahead!

Thank you for your patience and encouragement as the week has gone on. It’s been amazing to see how many children have managed to engage so well with our online provision – and I’m so grateful to those of you that are making huge sacrifices to keep the numbers in school as low as possible. With both my daughter and husband working in the NHS, I take very seriously the challenge to keep people well and help prevent our health service being overwhelmed. For those children that do need to be in school, we are delighted to be able to look after them and support their families in this way.

One idea that was shared with me earlier in the week is worth passing on. If you have any old smart phones in a drawer (even without a SIM card), or a games console that connects to your Wifi, you can use them to enable children to access Zoom. This might be helpful, especially for families with several children all wanting to join in with remote learning, and for those juggling work demands at home too!

Do email your child’s class teacher, or a member of SLT if you need any support with home learning; we are so keen to continue looking after the whole school community. If your circumstances are challenging, just let us know and we’ll try to help and adjust our expectations accordingly. Remember too that Lucy and Bridgit, our home-school link workers are available if you need a listening ear (email lucyc@htpd.surrey.sch.uk or bridgitb@htpd.surrey.sch.uk).

On the theme of looking out for each other, our assembly series this term is based on St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in the new testament, in particular the words in chapter 13 about love. It will give us the opportunity week by week to think about different aspects of God’s perfect love, explaining to the children that love is patient, kind, not proud, selfish or rude and eternal. We’ll even be rewriting our motto for the term, from Learn to Live to “Learn to Love”. I’ll be leading the children in a weekly assembly a year group at a time; if you’d like to pause in your day and join us, you’d be really welcome. I think it will be a very helpful theme at this most challenging of times.

With love,
Clare

Thought of the Week: Love is eternal – who will love you forever?

Whole school

Online safety
With the children needing to spend time online to meet with their classteacher and their friends each day, we want to remind you to ensure their safety. Please do supervise their internet access, talk to them about what to do if they access inappropriate material on the internet and make sure they are chatting with school rather than on another app or website. If you have any online safety concerns, please let Tom Everard know; he is our e-safety lead and will be able to advise you with up to date information about children navigating the online world (tome@htpd.surrey.sch.uk). The following useful websites will also support you:

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/findoutmore/help-me-out-staying-safe-online https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

Closing date for primary applications - 15 January 2021
A final reminder that the deadline for applications to Year R and Year 3 for September 2021 is Friday 15 January. Online applications can be made via Surrey County Council’s website: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/admissions/primary-junior-and-infant/apply

Roadworks in Harvey Road
The work on replacing the gas mains in Harvey Road has been delayed and will now start on Monday 11 January and last approximately five weeks. Please note, the road closure on Chesham Road will now be implemented on Monday 25 January for approximately two weeks.

NHS Advice Line
Central Surrey Health have set up an advice line for questions re 0-19 year olds. This is a really useful resource for parents and is staffed by Health Visitors and Community Nursery Nurses. They deal with any questions relating to health (such as enuresis, development concerns), and also provide an advice line for professionals. https://childrenshealthsurrey.nhs.uk/services/advice-line

Guildford Family Centre virtual courses (January – February 2021)
The Family Centre is offering various advice sessions and virtual courses. All sessions are free. Bookings are essential, as places are limited. Telephone 01483 510570.

• Family Advice - one-to-one telephone session with Family Support Worker
• SENDsory Advice – concerns regarding children’s development (one-to-one phone session)
• Freedom – for women living with or who have left abusive relationships (11-week virtual course starting 24 Feb)
• Parenting Puzzle – nurturing programme to help get the best out of family life (4-week course from 21 Jan)
• Little Chatterboxes – concerns regarding children’s speech & language development (4-week course from 22 Jan)
• Welcome to the World – for new and expecting parents (4 week course from 19 Jan).
  

Emmaus Road, one of the churches in Guildford that love to support our school have put together a new resource for families. You might like to take a look at their YouTube page

INFANT

Shoes for Nicaragua and The Philippines
Thanks so much to everyone who sent in children’s shoes. We collected an amazing 9 huge bags! Janice, who volunteers for The Peace and Hope Trust, the charity responsible for distributing the shoes, was overwhelmed by the response. Your support will make an enormous difference to children who may not be able to access education if they don’t have shoes.

A message from Gillian Trumble
Thank you very much for the super Chilly’s drink bottle which will be very useful when day trips out are allowed again and also for the John Lewis voucher which I have put towards a reading lamp which has just arrived at my house. I’m looking forward to doing lots more reading now I am a retired lady! Many thanks for your very generous gifts.

JUNIOR

See Whole school notices above.

HTSC News

Happy New Year from HTSC. Thank you for your generous donations to our funds last term – the GoFundMe campaign will remain open until July. We’ll update you with our plans for later this term once we’ve settled back into balancing home school and working from home.
Take care and stay safe, HTSC.