12 February 202

Dear Parents

We hope you have had a good week and I am sure you are looking forward to a hard earned rest over half term.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our home learning feedback survey. Below is a summary of the feedback received from parents which was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for all of the positive comments received, they are so heart-warming and uplifting for the staff as a whole to read.

Are the home learning plans are easily accessed through the school website/app?

Over 98% of parents that responded said the home learning plans were easily or very easily accessed. If you have any issues in accessing the home learning resources on our school website, please contact the school office.

How are you finding the current workload that’s being sent out?

61% of parents that responded said that the amount of work provided was about right with 36% saying that too much work was provided. We would like to reassure parents that you can only do what you can do under the circumstances we are faced with. Families’ well-being continues to be the most important thing at the moment.

On an average day, how much time are you spending on home learning?

30% of families are spending between 1 and 3 hours on school work daily with 34% of parents spending between 3 and 4 hours daily and 36% more than 4 hours working on their home learning activities. Again, we would encourage parents to just do as much as they can do with reading and maths being priority areas to focus on.

On the whole, how difficult is it to encourage your child to complete home learning?

20% of parents said their children were easy or very easy to engage in their work with 55% of parents saying that the ease was varied. We would always encourage parents to contact their child’s class teacher via email if you are really struggling to engage your child at home.

Has your child participated in a Zoom chat with their teacher?

98% of parents that responded said their child had taken part in a Zoom chat with their class teacher.

Do you feel that your child has enjoyed/benefited from taking part in the Zoom chat?

95% of parents said that their child enjoyed or benefitted from taking part in a Zoom chat with their class.

 Please use the space below to provide any other feedback that you would like to give.

Thank you for all your hard work. It’s very much appreciated. The use of house points is brilliant, both children get very excited and feel proud of their work when they receive them. My youngest loves having recorded (verbal) feedback from her teacher as she can listen to them herself.

Thank you!

Home learning has allowed X the opportunity to become much more independent in his education which is great preparation for high school. He

X is highly motivated by the feedback he receives from his teacher. X has also enjoyed receiving post from her which has been such a lovely addition. We are very grateful for the time and thought she has put in to the learning she is providing

Lovely approach to children. videos with teacher at the beginning of the day reassuring. Pre recorded lessons or live lessons with teacher certain topics which may be more challenging (maths, grammar) would be helpful

Can't fault how the school has adapted and provided home learning for our children, amazing! Our home situation at the moment is making it far more difficult to complete all tasks set but we are managing to do some and school have been so supportive to us.

The children do find it hard to focus at times and X will sometimes say its more work than they do in a school day but then thats just because they don't have the same time playing with friends etc.... All in all you are all doing a wonderful job for the children of St Wulstan's. We are all very lucky to have so much support with our children's home learning. Thank you so much!

Teacher has been brilliant and has been available via email and seesaw and replies very quickly. The zooms have been great but our child has found them quite overwhelming.....both beforehand and during and at the last one wouldn’t have the screen or sound on.

Both parents are working and the workload is pretty heavy as our child will not do it alone and has to have mum alongside whilst completing despite being more than capable of completing alone. It has definitely become more difficult to engage them in work as the weeks are passing. I can’t fault X in anyway and would like to say a huge thankyou for all the effort and time that’s been put in!

suggestion Zoom meetings in morning time 10,11am or 1,2pm because I'm working afternoon so 2:30pm is  too late. Thank you

I feel as a working parent it can be difficult to fit a full days school work in, but having seasaw makes all the difference it’s easy to use as a parent but can be difficult sometimes for my child but when isn’t technology. It is easy to print from, submit work and add photos. Being able to print makes it easier so my child is able to do work while at their grandparents.

The interaction from X  is fantastic understanding, supportive and is there to respond when the children need help. I think as a school you are doing an amazing job and I am proud that my daughter is attending St Wulstans during these difficult times. Thank you all.

Very impressed. I've found the home learning so much easier with seesaw.

Once I figured out how to navigate Seesaw it worked well. The teacher videos and seemingly instant feedback is fantastic and definitely motivating for the kids. The teachers are once again doing a fantastic job! Thank you! As with the prior lockdown refusal to do school work at home is the biggest challenge.

Home learning is so much more accessible on seesaw compared to how the work was set last lockdown. My child loves receiving feedback on the work completed and the house points give extra encouragement. Thank you.

Extremely pleased with the home learning offered during this lockdown. The seesaw platform has made this much easier and I like that the work is set daily, instead of weekly. The regular feedback to children from their teacher once work has been marked is great as they get to look back over any mistakes and also look again to further expand a piece of writing. Thank you!!

 As a family we are all extremely grateful for all of the help, support and encouragement that has been provided during this period of remote education. During the last week, in particular, our children found working at home quite challenging. However the help, care and support that we received swiftly and positively, when needed, has been a great help and is very much appreciated.

 The workload is becoming harder to manage as time goes on and the children struggle to focus the longer lockdown lasts. The stress created in trying to teach the children new concepts while getting them to complete all the tasks is affecting the whole family. We’re all mentally exhausted. The children are already suffering mentally from being unable to leave the house for so long. The teachers are wonderful and supportive and we appreciate everything the school has done so far.

 I would prefer tasks that do not require much parental input, myself and many other are also trying to work and/or have more than one primary aged child.

Thank you to all the teachers for all their hard work and support xx

On behalf of all the staff I would like to thank you for the tremendous support you have given us with the Remote Learning, We do not underestimate the difficulties and challenges this brings. The children’s engagement and quality of work as a result has been fabulous. Hopefully we will know more about wider school opening in the week beginning 22 February when the Government outline their plans moving forward out of Lockdown.

Please keep an eye out on the school website, school life app messages, Facebook page and the weekly newsletter for further updates over the next few weeks. Again, we thank the parents that responded to this survey and value the feedback that we have received.

 Once again, your children’s photographs from home are a joy to receive and thank you for continuing to send them to us. We hope you enjoy them.

God bless and take care, from all the staff

Well done to all our children and have a lovely half term break.