Good morning Year 6,

I hope everyone is safe and well and enjoying the good weather safely and responsibly.

This week, Freemantle will be increasing the number of pupils on site by a small amount and, as part of that, Year 6 are being invited back should your parents and carers wish for you to attend school - it is optional at this stage.

It is really important that your parents or carers respond to the Parent Mail confirming whether or not you'll be attending school from Tuesday. I spoke to almost all parents last week or the week before and asked about this, but the Parent Mail form is an official confirmation of that decision to return or not. 

For those of you who will be continuing your learning at home, the weekly timetables will continue to be uploaded to the class webpage. However, the curriculum will move away from revision of the core subjects towards a broader representation of the curriculum. From this point onwards, the weekly timetables therefore will no longer make use of CGP books (except, sometimes, for maths). Instead, I will be uploading a timetable that reflects what will be taught in school. 

This means that the work will now include activities from a greater range of lessons. This week, for example, there is a focus on science and art, with a small amount of maths and reading. I will do my best to ensure the home learning timetables match the school timetables as much as possible but I understand if there are some lessons you are unable to do as some of them will now require resources you may not have. Where resources are required, I have tried to offer alternatives or keep them as simple as possible. If you don't have the resources, I don't expect you or your parents/carers to buy them! 

For those of you returning, it is really important that you understand what you are returning to. 

First and foremost, you are returning to our school and our family. It is going to be very different school, but it is the same Freemantle family. There will be lots of changes and I want to explain as many of them as I possibly can so you know what it will be like if you return on Tuesday:

• Below is a photo of the classroom, which has been designed now to ensure we are all able to safely social distance.
  
  
  
  You'll have your own table and your own stationery everyday (so lots of personal space to spread out in!) and we'll no longer be moving places on a Monday. You won't need to bring anything with you other than a bottle of water unless you are travelling by public transport, in which case you'll need a change of clothes as Mr Barnett explained in his Parent Mail to Year 6 parents and carers. You'll see the tables are now much more spaced out, right to the back of the class, and there won't be talk partners, though, of course, we will still be doing lots of talking - we will just need to be a bit louder than usual to make sure everybody hears (no problem for me!)
   
• Many of your teachers will be wearing personal protective equipment, which may include masks, gloves or face shields. This isn't something any of us want to wear - it's not very comfortable for a start and makes us look like the villains in the worst film ever made - but, like everything else, it is designed to keep you, and us, safe. 
   
• There won't be any assemblies as we can't gather with other classes.
   
• There will be the same level of rigorous hand washing as before we left! Hope you haven't forgotten the order :) 
   
• We are waiting to hear back from your parents and carers on how many pupils will be returning on Tuesday. If that number is higher than the number of pupils we are safely allowed to have in one class, there will be two Year 6 classes. The second class will be taught by Mrs Dobbin. I will do everything I can to make sure you are in friendship groups if there are 2 classes.
   
• There will be a real focus on some of the subjects we haven't been able to do, or do as effectively, whilst learning from home - in particular art, DT, science, PSHE, computing and reading. You will still have music and PE lessons, too, though these will be slightly different. I'm really excited to be able to get back and get creative and investigative! Parents/carers/children, as a result of this, please keep in mind clothes may get paint/glue on them so think carefully about what to wear each day.
   
• We will also, of course, spend time focusing on your transition to secondary school and celebrating your time at Freemantle! While this may not be how we have done so in the past, it will be an important part of our final half term together.

I hope this gives you a realistic idea of what school will be like when, and if, you return. Nobody wants our school to have changed so much, but your safety is the most important thing we have to consider.

Whether you are returning to Freemantle this week or not, there is a contact form at the bottom of this page which you can use to email me at any point about anything you like, whether that's to share or ask questions about the work, ask a question about anything or even just to say hello! Whether you're in school or not, I'm still your teacher and you are still Freemantle's wonderful Year 6 class. 

Mr Seymour