Dear Parents/Carers,

I do hope that you are all well and staying safe. We value the regular communication that we are having with our Oaklands families, and enjoy receiving photos and videos of activities that children have been doing at home.

I am exceedingly grateful to all parents who have expressed their support for the school at this very difficult time. We are committed to keeping our school community safe and it is only through working together that we can do this. As you will be aware, we have not been able to avoid members of the school community catching the virus and we all understand how serious this can be. I am sure that many of you, along with our staff team, have had friends, family or loved ones who have contracted Covid-19, and in the worst of circumstances, we have lost them to this terrible disease. At this time of national lockdown, when we are all conscious of the risks to everyone around us, we have been grateful that you are supporting us by ensuring that contacts are kept to a minimum.

As we now seem to be approaching the height of this pandemic, I wanted to touch base with you all and assure you that our team will continue to work with you, supporting all of our Oaklands families, and responding to the individual learning needs of your child at home. 

Our teachers are keen to build on the remote learning activities that they have provided for you. During the regular phone calls with you, they are able to suggest ideas for activities that will best suit learning in the home environment, using resources that you may have at home, or for some learners, providing additional paper-based activities. There are now a wide range of learning videos on our school website in the Curriculum section that can be accessed daily, and where activities are repeated regularly, we know that skills and understanding are more likely to become embedded. Please do use these valuable resources to join in, sign and have fun at home alongside your child! We are not expecting parents to be teachers, and certainly do not want parents to feel any pressure, but simply explore the activities and enjoy trying things together.

If you require any support from our family support worker, Dhrupti Champaneri, she continues to provide advice to parents and can be contacted on 07842601349 (Wed/Thurs).

We are encouraged by the amount of people nationally who have already had a Covid-19 vaccination, as we all know that this will help in the long term to protect individuals and potentially bring the virus to an end. In the meantime, it is essential that we all continue to follow the NHS advice and socially distance.

If you have any questions about the vaccine, please do let us know and we would be happy to provide you with the information. We are able to contact Public Health to answer any questions that our school community have. There is more information about the vaccine on the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/  

Please do continue to check Weduc and the school website for any updates. If you have not yet joined us on Weduc, this is the key way in which we send out information, so please contact the office to help set that up; office@oaklands.leicester.sch.uk.

If you are not on Twitter, this is also a source of information and inspiration; there have been some wonderful examples of fun activities that our children have been involved in at home recently. You can find us at: @OaklandsSchool_

I would like to thank-you for your continued hard work and support during the pandemic. We hope you and your family remain safe and well,

Regards

Sarah

Sarah Osborne (Headteacher)