School Closure and Critical Worker Provision from January 2021

Laddingford is currently closed to the majority of children, inline with government guidance, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The school remains open for vulnerable children and the children of key workers where this provision is required. All other children are receiving remote education via google classroom.

The DfE guidance states that  children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can. It has been made clear that, in order to drive down rates of transmission as far and as fast as possible, parents should seek to make decisions ‘in the spirit of lockdown’ and only send their children to school if it is absolutely necessary for them to do so.

The list of jobs which fall under the critical worker entitlement is available here;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

If you are a current Laddingford Parent and you require a critical worker place, please contact Mrs Hitch; headteacher@laddingford.kent.sch.uk

Remote Learning on Google Classroom

For children who are learning at home, daily teaching is being provided, with a mix of live and prerecorded material available to support childrens learning. Please log on to Google Classroom for more details. 

https://classroom.google.com/

Children also have access to a range of other online learning platforms; mathletics, reading eggs and timestable rockstars. The links to all of these can be found here. If you have misplaced any of your child's log in details please contact the school office. 

Please be aware of the internet safety risks associated with your child accessing learning online. Children should be well supervised and more internet safety advice can be found here. If children are researching things online, we recommend they use child friendly search engines such as Swiggle and DKFindOut.

We know that you will be worried about the education your child is missing, but please try not to be too anxious, we will support children from wherever they are when they return to school. Each of your family circumstances will be different and it is so important that you do what works for you - not all of you will be able to commit to a full day of remote learning, and that is absolutely fine! It is also important that you and your children find opportunities to be active away from screens, you can find some fun ideas on our 'get active' page here.

Are you struggling to access remote learning?

We have so far provided 6 laptops to families struggling with devices and 11 paper based home learning packs for those who would prefer not to access their learning online, we have also applied for some 4G routers to support families struggling with internet access, we are still awaiting the arrival of these. If you are struggling to access remote learning, please do not hesitate to contact us, either by phone or email, to see what support is available. Do not struggle in silence! 

Free school meals and financial Support

Many families are experiencing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic, please come forward and ask for support if you need it. If you think you may now been eligible for free school meals then you can apply quickly online here, and once approved we can support you with supermarket vouchers during the period of school closure. Even if you are not eligible, if you need help - please let us know.

SEN Support

Mrs Lloyd is continuing to support parents and children during this time, she is working in school Tuesday and Wednesday and from home on a Monday. If you require any additional support please do not hesitate to contact her; lorna.lloyd@laddingford.kent.sch.uk

We know this is a difficult time for everyone, if you need any support in any way, please reach out and we will do our best to help you. If we cannot offer the support in school, we may be able to signpost you to other services. Some of these other services can also be found on our help and advice page here, in some cases you are able to self refer if you would prefer to do so. Our help and advice page also includes links to domestic abuse support. 

Prospective Parents

Laddingford is still accepting in year casual admissions, as well as applications for Reception in 2021. If you are interested in a place for your child at Laddingford, please don't hesitate to get in touch; 01622871270

Other home learning resources

There is no home learning hierarchy; from live lessons from your child's teacher to CBBC - it is all valid and it is about getting through the next few weeks whichever way works best for you. What works for you might not work for someone else and vice versa. As a school we are meeting the government requirement of providing 3 hours of home learning for KS1 and 4 hours for KS2. However, in my opinion that is a long time for young children to work at home, especially in the current circumstances - please remember that whilst we are governed by a directive to provide this, you have no such directive to complete it! May of you will be juggling competing demands and trying to work at home too, just do what you can. 

As well as what school are providing there are a range of other resources you can tap into, the list of links we provided in the last lock down can be found here, this includes things like where to find Joe wicks (if you've managed to avoid him so far!). The BBC once again has a great offer, don't be put off by it's presentation - it is designed to look fun, lighthearted and engaging, but the content is good. The Oak National Academy also has a wide range of lessons available that you can tap into at any time. I'll pop a few more links below.