Christmas activities 2020

Monday 23^rd November 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

As we are sure you are aware, our Christmas activities this year will have to be very different. We have thought long and hard about how to keep the children safe and yet still give them some special experiences.

Christmas jumpers

The children will be allowed to wear their Christmas jumpers for school every day the week beginning Monday 14^th Dec (the last week of term.) Please ensure their names are in them and remember that they will still need to wear their P.E. clothes on their allotted P.E. day unless you hear different from their class teachers. There will be no charge for this.

Christmas cards

Many schools are not allowing Christmas cards this year due to the requirement to quarantine the cards but we have found a way to ensure this can still happen safely so if your child would like to bring Christmas cards in for their friends and adults they can still do this as long as these instructions are followed:

• Envelopes need to be labelled with the recipient’s name and class. Please remember to use a surname initial if there is more than one child with the same first name in that class.
• Cards should be brought in during the week beginning Monday 7^th December and taken to their OWN class (not the class of the children receiving them.) The last day to bring cards is Friday 11^th December as we need to quarantine them before they are given out.
• Staff in school will them deliver the cards to the correct classes and they will all be given out in the week beginning Monday 14^th December.
• The children will be asked to take the cards home and open them there.

Virtual Pantomime

This year we will all be watching a Virtual Pantomime of Cinderella which has been produced especially for primary aged children. This will be on Thursday 17^th December at 10am.

You have the chance to buy your child a “goody bag” for £1. This will contain crisps or popcorn, a mini bag of sweets or a mini chocolate bar and a drink. These are on sale now and can be ordered through School Money up until Friday 4^th December so we have time to purchase the contents. Orders after this date will not be accepted so please ensure you get your order in on time. Please do not send money into school as we will not be able to accept it. If you have problems accessing School Money, please contact Mrs Grant in the office and she will assist you.

Virtual Visit from Santa

If you would like your child to “meet” Santa via the Internet – this is still possible. We can connect our computers up to the North Pole Internet so that Santa can meet your child and have a one-to-one chat with them. He will also send a special gift to them by reindeer plane! Unfortunately, we won’t be able to take a photograph this year but I’m sure your child will tell you all about it.

This will cost £3.00 per child and will take place in school during the week beginning Monday 14^th December. Please order your Santa chat on school money by Tuesday 8^th December at the very latest. We will not be able to take late orders.

Bedtime bags

We are very lucky to have been given 9 bedtime bags from a family-friendly life insurance and savings company called Foresters Financial. These contain teddy bears, blankets, books, shower gel and other really lovely things.

We have decided to hold a free raffle in each class so they are distributed fairly. Watch our web-site as we will announce the winners on there and present these at the end of the week.

Hampers

The congregation members for St. Michael’s Church in Pleasley have kindly offered to create 3 hampers for our families. Again, we will hold a free raffle in school and distribute these in the last week of this term. We will announce the winners on our website.

Christmas Services

Usually, we would take the children to the Church for our Christmas service. It is not possible to do this but we are still going to hold services for each Key Stage with Reverend Karen Bradley using TEAMS. These will take place during school time on Monday 14^th December. We can’t sing inside at the moment so children may be signing along to Christmas songs or using musical instruments to play them or accompany them.

Christmas Performances

As you know, we can’t have our usual nativity performances this year, but we still want to be able to share something with each of you. Each class is doing some kind of little performance (maybe a dance to a Christmas song or singing a Christmas song in small socially distanced groups with all the parts put together, or acting a small nativity, playing a Christmas song using the instruments etc). Our staff have very creative ideas so I’m sure they will be special. These will be filmed and shared with you via links on our website. If we have time and circumstances allow, we may be able to create DVDs of the whole school’s performances put together as a special keepsake. We will let you know if this is the case.

Christmas crafts

All children usually take part in the Christmas Tree festival at St. Michael’s with each class decorating a tree to be displayed. Children are still making the decorations and the trees will be displayed at school (we may be able to display them outside school where the poppy display was for a short period if the weather permits). We will be sending photographs of each tree to the Church.

Children will still be making cards and calendars and each class will have some Christmas activities within their own class room. We know this isn’t like a Christmas party but we will make it as fun as possible. (You will not need to send in food this year.)

If you have any questions about any of the above activities, please get in contact with the office and they will be able to help you.

It won’t be the same Christmas as normal this year – but we will do our best to make it memorable for your children.

Many thanks for your continued co-operation.

Kind regards,

Mrs. Donna-Marie Johnson

Headteacher