Noticeboard
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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
