Dear Parents and Carers,

I am writing to you with my weekly update.

I hope you and your family are keeping well. Below are a few updates that you may find useful.

Laptop Support

Just a brief reminder that we are able to offer the loan of laptops to families who do not have devices for their child to get on line. If you feel that you child needs a laptop in order to get online, please email Caroline Whitlock on cwhitlock@castle.w-berks.sch.uk

Online Learning Resources

As a reminder, remember that our webpage on home learning resources is packed full of things that you and your child can do whilst at home. There is lots there to use so please go and visit. We will also try and add a few more videos as we go of staff, including myself, reading stories, singing songs etc. Of course, if you have links you think might be useful to share then please email me. The resources can be found by clicking the link below.

https://www.thecastleschoolnewbury.org.uk/page/?title=Online+resources&pid=57

Any queries

In terms of any other questions you may want answered please speak to the Senior Leader of your child's Bubble. Below are their names and email addresses, just in case you do not have them:

 

Red Bubble - Kate Mason - KMason@castle.w-berks.sch.uk

Green Bubble - Caroline Whitlock - cwhitlock@castle.w-berks.sch.uk

Blue Bubble - Shannon Booth - SBooth@castle.w-berks.sch.uk

Orange Bubble - James Whybra - JWhybra@castle.w-berks.sch.uk

 

Can I once again thank you for being so amazingly supportive at this time. Home schooling is a challenge for all of us; something I can appreciate and empathise with, having two daughters at home at the moment. As I said last week, I very much appreciate the commitment everyone is putting in to supporting their children at home, allowing us to remain as safe as we can possibly be. I still hold out the hope that I wrote about last week – namely the increasingly speedy roll-out of the vaccine and also the reduction (albeit very gradual) in infection and positivity rates. However, the government have been clear this week that it is still too early to say when schools may get back to normal. There is much speculation about when this might happen, although I don’t find this to be hugely helpful and believe that we need the government to outline clearly what conditions need to be met be in order to ensure that schools are safe enough to welcome all pupils back. I, along with everyone else, hope that this comes soon.

I thank you once again for your support and in trusting that what we are doing has the best interests of every member of our community at the heart. 

 

Best wishes,

Jon Hewitt

Headteacher

The Castle School