Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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World book day letter 1/3/21
Mon 01 Mar 20211st March 2021
Dear Parent(s)/Carer,
This year, World Book Day is on Thursday 4th March 2021 and to celebrate we will be running events throughout the week.
This year, we can’t wait to see pictures of you sharing stories in celebration of reading together and World Book Day 2021. We know how precious time with your book is and we also know there are lots of brilliant ways you can enjoy books so we’re inviting everyone to join in with our SHOW YOUR SHARES competition.
A story share could be: reading at home with your family, reading in your favourite nook, reading in an unusual location, sharing a story with your pet, reading a book dressed as your favourite character, and more!
Books That Make You LOL – what makes you chuckle! Your favourite funny reads, or you sharing stories in a silly way. Are you reading dressed as your favourite funny book character or giggling over your favourite comic?
Bringing Books To Life – show us how you bring your favourite books to life. Are reading together with a potato or wooden spoon transformed into your favourite book character, or with your favourite book in a bottle or shoe box? Or, are you reading dressed up like someone from a book? Let your imagination run wild! To get you inspired, we have fun dress-up ideas that will let you embody your favourite character with costumes that you can easily make together at home.
Books And The Real World – take your book on a journey and share where you got to! This could be when you’re out for a walk or out in your garden. Or, show us your favourite books that capture the real world for you from stories about far off lands to your favourite non-fiction reads. Remember game books and pop-ups, audiobooks and magazines too!
Sharing Books Together – showcasing the people that make stories magical for you. This could be your grandma on a video call, your brother/sister at breaktime, your parents at the end of the day or even your pet! Show us your most special reading time with a loved one who brings your books to life with you.
Spending just 10 minutes a day reading and sharing stories with children can make a crucial difference to their academic outcome and it’s fun for all involved. You can read together anywhere and everywhere, from breakfast to bedtime! In the park, on the train, on the sofa, on a plane – reading and sharing stories can happen anywhere at any time.
Email your pictures to your child’s class teacher or upload them to twitter @EastcroftPark and use the hashtag #WorldBookDay.
A brilliant way to encourage reading for pleasure and celebrate World Book Day at the same time is the Reading Stars challenge. It’s super fun and easy for everyone to play! The game has been created to encourage children and young people to enjoy books and reading together at home and all the exciting ways you can share stories – not just at bedtime!
From reading a book that makes you giggle to finding the most unusual place to share a story, children will have fun reaching all their stars! See the attached Reading Stars challenge attached to this letter.
Return your completed sheet to school next week or email the completed sheet to your child’s teacher to be in with a chance of winning a prize. Don’t forget to email/upload photos to your child’s teacher or tweet us @EastcroftPark.
This year there are some extra special FREE digital events. You can watch them LIVE at https://www.worldbookday.com/events/ or the WBD YouTube channel – and they’ll remain on YouTube for you to watch back time and time again!
The exciting line-up includes:
- Books that make you LOL
- Words & pictures: bringing books to life
- Books & the real world
Each event will last approximately 30 minutes.
This year your £1 book token will be digital and emailed to you by your class teacher. You can redeem them in the same way; you can print them out and take them to your chosen retailer or you can show the voucher on a device/smartphone at the time of purchase. For this month, vouchers will also be on Happy Meal boxes and in some children’s magazines. This year’s £1 books are viewable in the images of the letter attached.
Finally, for a bit of extra fun, staff at Eastcroft Park are taking part our own version of The Masked Singer....We proudly present
"The Masked reader"
Throughout World Book Week, videos of staff reading a book or poem or talking about their favourite book will be uploaded to Twitter and the school website. Children will be invited to guess who’s behind the mask! J
We look forward to seeing the children participate in this annual event with their usual sense of fun and enthusiasm!
As always, thanks for your continued support.
Mrs G Hudson
Deputy Head teacher/English Leader
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Return to school letter 1st March
Mon 01 Mar 20211st March 2021
Dear Parents / Carers,
Following on from the Prime Minister’s announcement, I am delighted to be able to welcome back to school all children from Monday 8 March. The timing works well for Knowsley as we continue to see transmission rates reduce, good engagement with SMART testing centres and large amounts of our most vulnerable vaccinated. Together, our community has done really well, and we are all grateful for the contribution each and every one of you have made.
The timing may also feel right for you as it brings to an end the long period of home education you have all been delivering! It has been great to see so many of you post your achievements on the school Twitter pages and I have very much enjoyed seeing such a variety of work posted and celebrated! I have been truly amazed at the wide range of activities provided, from cookery to art to PE to Maths – all of it has been brilliant – well done and thank you to you all!
Thanks also goes to all of those working in our schools; Throughout this pandemic, they have worked hard to stay open in a COVID safe way. This means they have continually reviewed their risk assessments to provide safe learning environments, kept themselves up to date with a wealth of government and public health guidelines, and changed their roles and routines to keep children and young people accessing education safely. Many have also worked hard to keep in touch with you and check that you have what you need to keep home education going! I think they have done a remarkable job.
As we get closer to the 8th March your school is once again working hard to make sure all arrangements are in place for the safe return of students. Please make sure that you make yourself familiar with their COVID-secure arrangements and support them in the work to keep us all safe.
Remember that the plans that your school has in place are designed to make the school environment as COVID secure as possible. Schools are well placed to make decisions about staggered start and pick up times, playground rules and lunchtime arrangements and bubbles. Each school will take a unique approach to these things, but all will make their decisions based on what they believe to be the best thing to do for you and your child. If you are concerned or anxious about the return to school, or uncertain about the arrangements in place, please contact your school directly. I am sure they will be happy to work with you to ease your anxiety.
Our schools will also be encouraging your child to regularly hand wash and socially distance. They will be once again asking you to wear a face covering when on school premises, not to congregate when dropping off and picking up and reminding you to maintain social distancing at all times. I know you all understand the reasons for this request and trust that you will follow the advice carefully.
You may have read about testing being introduced in schools for pupils – this does not include primary school children. Staff in primary schools will continue to have access to home testing kits to help keep them safe and well and remember that our community SMART testing sites are still available around the borough for many of you as well.
Finally, please remember that even as we see an increase in the number of people accessing a vaccination, and our transmission rates decline, it remains vitally important that all of the public health measures outlined in this letter remain in place. It is only by all doing our bit that we can meet the government’s targets, exit the lock down and enjoy the summer holidays in the way we all hope to do.
All school staff are very much looking forward to seeing everyone on 8 March. I wish you all well in your return and look forward to seeing the ‘back to school’ pictures online.Thank you once again for your continued support and co-operation it is very much appreciated.
Yours faithfully
J. Albertina
Assistant Executive Director Education & Early Help
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Free school meals vouchers
Mon 22 Feb 2021Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s),
Free school meal vouchers have been ordered for the period Monday 22nd February – to Friday 5th March. The voucher is for the amount of £30 ( 2 weeks ) and they are for children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. If you require any further information please email eastcroft@knowsley.gov.uk
Mrs Lynskey
School Business Manager
Eastcroft Park School
0151 477 8210
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Weekly meal plan under £15
Thu 04 Feb 2021This healthy meal plan (http://bit.ly/36KdjOf) is courtesy of Richard, the community colleague at Asda Huyton who wanted us to share their weekly meal plan with you, in the hope that it might be useful to families.The meal plan has been developed to help families plan a healthy and nutritious breakfast & lunch during lockdown for under £15 per child.
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Attacks on Kirkby buses
Wed 03 Feb 2021
Dear Parents and Carers,You may be aware of Stagecoach recently diverting buses in the Kirkby area. This is due to recent incidents and reports of vandalism and criminal damage caused by young people/children aimed at buses.
The most recent incident was on Tuesday 26 January and resulted in the arrest of a 17-year-old who was also accompanied by a younger child. Prior to this, on Saturday 16 January, a brick was thrown through a bus window resulting in a mother and her young baby being showered in glass.
In response to these unacceptable incidents Knowsley Council, Merseyside Police, Merseytravel, and Stagecoach are working together to identify those responsible. As the recent arrest demonstrates they are taking these issues seriously and will continue to work together to employ tactics to tackle the issues head on, including; police operations using both marked and unmarked police cars, Police Officers travelling on various buses, and making use of the extensive Council CCTV network across Kirkby.
As a Collaborative of schools we ask, do you know where your children are and what they are doing?
Particularly now when we are currently in a national lockdown with the advice to stay at home as much as possible, unless it is for essential reasons such as getting to and from work or school.
The actions of a minority has resulted in Stagecoach cancelling its services on occasions. This impacts on the wider community and those residents who are key workers and rely on public transport to get to and from work or to attend medical appointments.
There are a number of ways you can share information:
In an emergency call 999.
Alternatively, call 101 or report to Merseyside Police online - www.merseyside.police.uk
Via Twitter @MerPolCC or Facebook ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’.
You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously, on 0800 555 111 or via their website - https://crimestoppers-uk.org/
With your help we can tackle these issues together, help create better and safer communities, and we thank you for your ongoing support.
Yours sincerely
J. Withey
M. Hindmarsh
J. Maloney
A. Afflick
V. Roberts
J. Hegarty
S. Murphy
J. Ryan
L. Bowman
S. O'Keeffe
J. Mousley
S J Carroll
T. McGuinness
R. Conefrey
The 14 Headteachers of the Kirkby Collaborative of Schools
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Children's mental health week 2021
Sun 31 Jan 2021This coming week is children's mental health week. We know that lockdown and remote learning is really tough on children and their families (it's really tough on us teachers too!). Let's get through this & look forward to a brighter future. Here are some tips to support those children struggling during lockdown.
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BBC Children in Need fundraising total
Fri 29 Jan 2021A big well done to everybody - we have had confirmation that we raised the grand total of £218.90 for Children in Need! Well done!
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Remote education provision
Fri 29 Jan 2021Remote Learning provision
Dear Parents/Carers,
Following feedback from a few parent(s)/carer(s), I would just like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things about our remote learning provision.
As outlined by the education secretary on the 6th January 2021 (https://bit.ly/3iILR8i), schools are required to provide remote learning of between 3 & 5 hours per day (dependent on age) during this national lockdown. It must be provided through a digital platform (currently we use Seesaw) and must contain at least some learning videos (either school-led or from some other quality provider such as White Rose maths or Oak Academy). We are currently following this guidance closely in the remote learning we are providing. Although we recognise this is a large amount, we are simply providing the amount prescribed in the government guidance.
Despite the large amount of remote learning required by the government to be set, engaging with it should be considered as vital. Failure to engage fully with this remote learning despite it being set will put your child(ren) at a severe disadvantage compared to their peers as this is ‘new learning’ rather than practicing already learned skills. Additionally, failure to engage with remote learning would be an attendance issue and will be passed on to the attendance team. Planning and delivering these remote learning opportunities requires a great deal of effort from all our teaching staff and this effort must be matched by the pupils it is provided for and supported by you as parent(s)/carer(s). As such, difficulty in getting your child(ren) to engage must be overcome. We also understand that many of our parents are now working from home and that there is the need for you as parents to provide other learning and wellbeing opportunities to your child(ren), therefore, at times a trade-off must be found given a finite amount of time available. All that we would ask is that you try to prioritise core curriculum areas such as maths, English and phonics to focus on whilst remembering that opportunities across the curriculum must also be given.
Once again, if you are struggling to access the remote learning please ask for support. Many parents are still asking for paper copies of remote learning. These are good for practicing skills already taught, however, they are very unlikely to teach your child anything new. It is vital you engage the quality pre-recorded or live lessons provided by our staff and other professionals if they are to take new steps in learning. You may find it easier to record learning in books or on paper but it is vital that they access the learning videos so they understand these new concepts. We now have additional iPads that you may also loan from us to support remote learning. In addition, as we monitor the use of the devices already loaned we will be also requesting that the devices already loaned be returned to us if they are not being used. This is currently the case with several of the school devices. To request a device or support you can e-mail me (Mr Youngman)at reception@eastcroftpark.co.uk.
Finally, a big well done to those children (along with their parent(s)/carer(s) providing the support) who are making the most of the remote learning opportunities we are providing.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Youngman
Computing Coordinator & Remote learning lead
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Remote education: Top 10 tips for parents!
Thu 28 Jan 2021Please see the attached image for the top 10 tips for parents in engagement with remote learning. The document can also be downloaded here!
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Tutoring Programme Year 5 and Year 6 Pupils
Mon 25 Jan 2021Dear Parents/Carers,
You may be aware that some children have been invited to take part in the Catch-Up Tutoring Programme. The Government has allocated a small pot of money to each school to provide additional support for pupils. The aim of the programme is to identify any gaps in learning due to school closure and address this with small group or one to one tuition.
This is not a school place and it is not open to all pupils.
This term we have prioritised Year 5 and Year 6 pupils. Children will be allocated 2 hours of tuition each week initially for a 3 week period. Progress of pupils will be reviewed after half term and places will then be allocated to new groups of children.
Over the term we hope to offer additional support to all Year 5 and Year 6 children who we feel will benefit. However, as the advantage of this programme is that children get intense support in very small groups, we cannot accommodate all pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 at one time.
We have prioritised a group of children using a range of factors and looking at all abilities. This is exactly the same sort of process that we use to identify groups of children for additional intervention, in a normal school day.
If you have any concerns about your child please contact your child’s class teacher by email or Seesaw. If you would like to discuss the tutoring programme please email the school eastcroft@knowsley.gov.uk or contact me directly julie.withey@knowsley.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely,
Miss J A Withey
Head teacher
