St John Bosco Wow Moments

Both children and staff have been joining in and enjoying the daily PE sessions at 9am with Joe Wicks. We are trying to fix routines as best we can, to provide consistency for those children still attending. Thankfully, the recent dry weather has helped too, with the trikes in regular use! Thank you to all our school staff who are working hard to keep school open, enabling other key workers to do their vital jobs, whilst the children are being well cared for.

Jane Considine’s Super Sentence Stacker Sessions

Did you know that Jane Considine, author of The Write Stuff, is delivering FREE English lessons every weekday live from YouTube during the schools closures?

Thousands of pupils (and teachers) are tuning in to learn from the expert. Every day, Jane sets the pupils a writing task using her tried and tested methods and the children carry out that task. They then send the completed work onto her, where she selects her favourite sentences of the day, and knits them together to make a full story.

https://www.youtube.com/c/thetrainingspace

• https://www.themathsfactor.com/

• Daily story time with David Walliams

Elevenses with The World of David Walliams

• Daily PE with Joe Wicks (9am)       https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/pe-with-joe-1254.html

We have put together a list of websites and apps which you could use at home:

https://ttrockstars.com/

https://www.spag.com/   (Classes 5 and 6)

https://student.readingplus.com/seereader/api/sec/login   (Class 6)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/     (RWI)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm   (RWI)

Garage Band App (music)

Squeebles Spellings App

BBC Learning – http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/coursesearch/
This site is old and no longer updated and yet there’s so much still available, from language learning to BBC Bitesize for revision. No TV licence required except for content on BBC iPlayer.

Blockly – https://blockly.games
Learn computer programming skills – fun and free.

Scratch – https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/
Creative computer programming

Ted Ed – https://ed.ted.com

All sorts of engaging educational videos

National Geographic Kids – https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/
Activities and quizzes for younger kids.

Duolingo – https://www.duolingo.com
Learn languages for free. Web or app.

Mystery Science – https://mysteryscience.com
Free science lessons

The Kids Should See This – https://thekidshouldseethis.com
Wide range of cool educational videos

Paw Print Badges – https://www.pawprintbadges.co.uk
Free challenge packs and other downloads. Many activities can be completed indoors. Badges cost but are optional.

Tinkercad – https://www.tinkercad.com
All kinds of making.

Prodigy Maths – https://www.prodigygame.com
Is in U.S. grades, but good for UK Primary age.

Cbeebies Radio – https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio
Listening activities for the younger ones.

Nature Detectives – https://naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/
A lot of these can be done in a garden, or if you can get to a remote forest location!

British Council – https://www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources/find
Resources for English language learning

Oxford Owl for Home – https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/
Lots of free resources for Primary age

Geography Games – https://world-geography-games.com/world.html
Geography gaming!

Blue Peter Badges – https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/joinin/about-blue-peter-badges
If you have a stamp and a nearby post box.

Red Ted Art – https://www.redtedart.com
Easy arts and crafts for little ones

The Imagination Tree – https://theimaginationtree.com
Creative art and craft activities for the very youngest.

DK Find Out https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/?fbclid=IwAR2wJdpSJSeITf4do6aPhff8A3tAktnmpaxqZbkgudD49l71ep8-sjXmrac
Activities and quizzes

Twinkl – https://www.twinkl.co.uk
This is more for printouts, and usually at a fee, but they are offering a month of free access to parents in the event of school closures.

Finally, we hope that children can also take advantage of enhancing alternative skills whilst they are at home, such as cooking and gardening. Activities such as playing cards and board games are beneficial too. Please also try to include some form of exercise as part of daily routines.

What is the school currently doing to reduce the chances of the virus getting into school?

• We are closely monitoring the local and national picture.
• We are liaising closely with Sandwell Local Authority who are liaising with the Department for Education and Public Health England.
• We are teaching the children best hygiene practice and would encourage you to continue to discuss hygiene with your children.
• We have increased the cleaning on key touch points (handles, buttons, rails etc.).
• Every classroom and communal areas are already cleaned daily.
• We continue to use tissues for each class to ensure these can be offered out if a child has a cold, and we are reminding children to sneeze or blow their nose into a tissue and to wash their hands – “catch it, bin it, kill it!”
• We are ensuring that children wash their hands thoroughly before mealtimes and when they have gone to the toilet.
• We are monitoring any child or staff absence and are asking about any symptoms they may have and advising accordingly.
• We are looking at how we can adapt any activities which have an increased potential of the spreading of virus e.g. food tasting, assemblies.
• Reducing the number of people who enter the school building.
• Monitoring the risk of any upcoming events or trips and making decisions for each one individually.

What will the school do if there is a confirmed case in school?

• We will immediately contact the local authority and take advice from them, Public Health England and the guidance in place at that time from the World Health Organisation.
• The Head of School will liaise with the Chair of Governors to discuss the advice and decide whether we feel that is sufficient. We will then make a decision as to what needs to happen.
• We will ensure we communicate as promptly as possible and keep parents well informed (the text system will be used to communicate).

We had a fantastic time Friday afternoon over at Eaton Valley, taking part in a local partnership football festival to mark Sport Relief. It was an opportunity for a number of children to represent the school team for the first time, and they all played extremely well. They had great fun along the way and our results were very positive. Our ‘read’ team won 2, drew 3 and lost 1 – they finished 2nd in their group. Meanwhile, the ‘purple’ team won 3, and drew 3, which was good enough to win their group! Everyone came away with a medal and a smile! Well done all. It was all played in the right spirit too, and we look forward to many more events with these schools.

What is the school currently doing to reduce the chances of the virus getting into school?

• We are closely monitoring the local and national picture. 
• We are liaising closely with Sandwell Local Authority who are liaising with the Department for Education and Public Health England. 
• We are teaching the children best hygiene practice and would encourage you to continue to discuss hygiene with your children. 
• We have increased the cleaning on key touch points (handles, buttons, rails etc.).
• Every classroom and communal areas are already cleaned daily. 
• We continue to use tissues for each class to ensure these can be offered out if a child has a cold, and we are reminding children to sneeze or blow their nose into a tissue and to wash their hands – “catch it, bin it, kill it!” 
• We are ensuring that children wash their hands thoroughly before mealtimes and when they have gone to the toilet. 
• We are monitoring any child or staff absence and are asking about any symptoms they may have and advising accordingly. 
• We are looking at how we can adapt any activities which have an increased potential of the spreading of virus e.g. food tasting, assemblies. 
• We are continuing to monitor the risk of any external trips or visits.

What will the school do if there is a confirmed case in school?

• We will immediately contact the local authority and take advice from them, Public Health England and the guidance in place at that time from the World Health Organisation. 
• The Head of School will liaise with the Chair of Governors to discuss the advice and decide whether we feel that is sufficient. We will then make a decision as to what needs to happen. 
• We will ensure we communicate as promptly as possible and keep parents well informed (the text system will be used to communicate).

How to avoid catching or spreading coronavirus

Don’t

• do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean

Stay at home if you have coronavirus symptoms

Please keep your child at home for 7 days if they have either:

• a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
• a new, continuous cough – this means you’ve started coughing repeatedly

In an exciting game, we came away with a deserved 3-2 win over Bells Farm in the league. We were the dominant team for most of the game and could have won by more, but their goalkeeper was fantastic and we also had one shot hit the bar, then bounce on the line. Despite the closeness in the scoreline, the boys all did well, including several children who were playing for the first time. Special mentions must go to Mati for scoring a hat-trick and to player of the match Jacob. Thanks to Ms Roe for coming with us, and to Mrs Grubham, who brought Mascot Millie along to help us out!

Well done boys – we now have three wins and a draw with two to play. Things are looking good for the playoffs.

The Liturgy Leaders have been waiting patiently and finally their hoodies have arrived. As you can see they are extremely happy and proud to wear them. Check out the colour!

Our children enjoyed the boggy conditions and had fun in the mud as we took part in this year’s tag league competition. There were over 200 children involved from 21 teams, split into three groups of seven, meaning that all teams played 6 matches. The standard of rugby was high and I was really pleased with how our children performed throughout. We worked as a team, tagged well and always demonstrated good sportsmanship. Both of our teams had a record of won 3, drew 2 and lost 1. For our ‘yellow’ team, this was good enough for Runners Up in their league; while our ‘red’ team were a close 3rd in theirs. Well done to everyone – you are all really developing your skills. Thank you to Taz for helping us on the night too, as well as Miss Tariq, who did a great job leading our red team.