Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• STATIONERY PACKS

  Mon 23 Mar 2020

  We are providing stationery packs from pupils who are staying at home while schools are closed. These will include pen, pencil, rubber, sharpener, highlighter, glue stick, scissors, crayons/felt tips and a selection of paper. We wanted to give them for free but School Money doesn't enable anything to be ordered without cost so they are 1p each. You can order 1 for each child that attends our school. 

  You will need to wait a few days as we will need to order the resources into school. Please order online at School Money by the end of Tuesday 24th March so we can get these ordered.

• FREE SCHOOL MEALS DURING SCHOOL CLOSURE

  Mon 23 Mar 2020

  The Government announced that during school closures, pupils eligible for free school meals (NOT Universal free school meals offered to all Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils) should continue to receive these during the period of school closure to support these families.

  Schools have several ways of providing this service:

  1. Preparing meals daily onsite if kitchen is still open and enabling families to collect.
  2. Preparing food parcels and enabling families to collect.
  3. Offering vouchers for Supermarkets.

  At present, we have a working kitchen so each day packed lunches will be made for all pupils who have requested this. If you didn't request this and have now changed your mind, please contact: headteacher@anthonybek.derbyshire.sch.uk. We will prepare these each day for the families who have requested them unless you inform us you no longer want them. Please ensure you confirm the day before or by 9am if you don't want a packed lunch on any given day.

   

  The Government are currently working on a voucher scheme, which I think will be a more popular option than collecting packed lunches each day. As soon as we receive confirmation about this, I will ask if you would prefer to change to vouchers or continue to receive packed lunches.

  Please bear in mind that we can only offer packed lunches while the kitchen is in operation. We would have to look at the voucher options anyway if the kitchen had to close.

   

  Please contact me if you have any questions.

  Mrs Johnson

   

• Thank you message

  Fri 20 Mar 2020

  I can honestly say this has been the most challenging time of my career and I'm sure it will continue to be so over the weeks to come. I know the decisions passed down to us by the Government in order to keep everyone safe have been/will continue to be very difficult for us all but I must thank each and every one of you for your support in ensuring that we can still open the school to those few who have no other options while at the same time minimising the risk considerably.

  I know how difficult this will be for you over the coming weeks but please be assured we are here for you. Staff will still be working either in school or from home and you can contact us whenever you need to. I will send further details next week about what we will be doing to keep in touch with you/your child/ren and how we will keep you stocked up with ideas and activities for the weeks ahead. I've sent my e-mail in several messages just recently but it's here for those who may not have it.(headteacher@anthonybek.derbyshire.sch.uk)

  I would like to sincerely thank everyone for the wonderful messages relating to me personally and to our fabulous staff (from the Facebook page) and for the letters, messages and cards received showing your appreciation of our staff team. Those few words really do mean the world to staff so thank you for taking the time to share them.

  Finally, no-one yet knows exactly what will happen in the next few weeks/months and I know many pupils (and parents) were upset today- fearing that this may be the end of the academic year but I am a firm believer that we will be back in school before that so we can end the year properly. This is particularly important for our wonderful Y6 cohort. Come what may, we will find a way to ensure they have the send off they deserve.

   

  Please keep each other safe and follow all guidance so we can beat this virus and get our country back on its feet.

  From a very tired, emotional but extremely thankful Headteacher!

• SCHOOL CLOSURE UPDATE PLEASE READ

  Fri 20 Mar 2020

   

   

   

  Anthony Bek Community Primary School closure update

  Following the most recent scientific advice on how to further limit the spread of Coronvirus, the Government have asked that Parents keep their children at home to limit the chance of the virus spreading.

  However, they have identified vulnerable pupils (those who have their own social worker and those who are on an Education and Health Care plan) as still needing to be offered a place. Parents do not have to accept this place if they can offer  safe place at home.

  They have also identified that during this pandemic/crisis, there are many parents offering critical services in the response to COVID-19. It is expected that many of these parents will still be able to ensure their child is kept at home and EVERY CHILD WHO CAN BE KEPT AT HOME SHOULD BE.

  This last part is crucial to the success of this period of the Government strategy. Clearly, many parents will fall into one of the categories below but if every parent said they needed the place for their child rather than finding ways to support them safely at home, we would have two problems:

  1. We wouldn’t be reducing the spread of this virus and therefore putting more people in danger.
  2. It is extremely likely that our school would be closed completely, therefore not offering places to any child regardless of their need due to not having staff to open safely.

  Therefore, before looking at the list below and deciding whether you meet the criteria, please ask yourself- CAN I LOOK AFTER MY CHILD AT HOME THROUGH ANY OTHER SAFE MEANS? We are a close community and need to do everything we can to support each other and the school during these extremely difficult times.

  Critical workers

  • Health and social care E.g. doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
  • Education and childcare This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.

  • Key public services This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.
  • Local and national government This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.
  • Food and other necessary goods This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).
  • Public safety and national security This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.
  • Transport This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.
  • Utilities, communication and financial services This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.

   

  If you feel you work falls within these categories AND you cannot make arrangements for your child to be looked after safely, you should confirm with your employer that your role is necessary for the continuation of essential public service.

  If this is then confirmed, please e-mail ‘headteacher@anthonybek.derbyshire.sch.uk before 1pm today including the following information:

  Child’s name:                                                             Child’s class:

  Parent 1 job role:

  Parent 2 job role (unless single parent):

  Why your role is critical to essential services (following confirmation from your employer):

  I cannot stress enough how concerned I am that by the end of today, I am going to be saying our school is closed to all pupils due to the large number of parents saying they meet the criteria and their child needs a place and me not having the staffing levels to ensure I can safely accommodate this so PLEASE only request a place if there are no other safe options for your child’s care.

   

  If it is the case that school has to be closed to ALL pupils, Parents/Carers of those children will need to contact the local authority to see if there are other locations in the area that can offer them a place. I firmly believe though that if one school is having difficulties offering this, then the same will apply elsewhere and for some parents getting pupils to these settings will be a challenge until the authority can help to organise transport.

  Children at home

  • School will continue to provide activities for your child to be completed at home (both online and in paper form for those who require it)
  • Teachers will keep in regular contact with families/pupils to ensure they are okay and to answer any questions.
  • You will be able to contact the school if you need any help or advice.

  A text message will be sent to all by the end of today to let everyone know the outcome of today and whether the school will be open to any pupils and if so, who they are. The school website will be continually updated.

• Residential visits

  Thu 19 Mar 2020

  Unfortunately our Walesby visit for Year 3 and 4 children has had to be cancelled. All money paid will be refunded and the children booked on the trip will be given first chance to go next year. The Year 4s (who will be Year 5s next year) can still choose to go to Walesby instead of Wales if they wish.

  The residential to Whitehall (Year 5 and 6)  has also been cancelled and all money paid will be refunded. The Year 5 children will get first chance to book on the Wales trip next year. Unfortunately there will not be another residential for the Year 6 children to go on whilst they are at our school.

• Residential visits

  Thu 19 Mar 2020

  Unfortunately our Walesby visit for Year 3 and 4 children has had to be cancelled. All money paid will be refunded and the children booked on the trip will be given first chance to go next year. The Year 4s (who will be Year 5s next year) can still choose to go to Walesby instead of Wales if they wish.

  The residential to Whitehall (Year 5 and 6)  has also been cancelled and all money paid will be refunded. The Year 5 children will get first chance to book on the Wales trip next year. Unfortunately there will not be another residential for the Year 6 children to go on whilst they are at our school.

• SCHOOL CLOSURE

  Wed 18 Mar 2020

  I realise you will all have lots of questions and concerns relating to the news announced today about school closures so here is what we do know at this time.

  You will have heard on the news tonight that ALL SCHOOLS in the UK will be closing at the end of Friday 20th March until further notice. This is to slow the spread of Coronavirus.

  Therefore as of the end of Friday 20th March, Anthony Bek will be closed to most pupils. The Government have asked schools to help keep key workers in their jobs by allowing pupils of those parents to still attend as long as they have the staffing to facilitate this. The scientific advice shows that our school would be safe for this small number of children to continue attending – but asking others to stay away will help to slow the spread.

  Anthony Bek will therefore be open to pupils who fall into the following categories- vulnerable pupils and pupils whose parents are key workers. If staffing concerns mean that we cannot offer these places, this provision will be offered by the local authority elsewhere. To reduce the number of pupils in school, where one parent is not a key worker, it is expected that this non-key worker parent would be able to care for the child. It is not compulsory for the pupils below to attend school, it is being offered as a service to help parents but parents can opt to keep these pupils at home if they choose.

  Vulnerable pupils (siblings of these pupils will be expected to remain at home to keep numbers of pupils in school low)

  • Children who have an Education Health and Care Plan
  • Children who are currently being supported by a social worker (on Child Protection)
  • Children who are in Care (foster care)

  We are already aware of who these pupils are and texts will be sent to confirm your child meets this criteria.

  Key workers

  • Parents who currently work for the NHS
  • Parents who currently work for the Police
  • Parents who are currently supermarket delivery drivers
  • Parents who are currently working in Social care

  We are expecting to receive a more thorough list from the Government on Thursday 19th March. We will then need to collate job roles (from both parents who care for the pupil) to identify which pupils fall into this category.

   

  Children who are currently self-isolating

  At the end of their self-isolation period, these pupils can return to school IF they meet one of the criteria above. If they don't they will stay off school until further notice.

   

  Walesby and Whitehall visits

  I have contacted both centres to enquire about our bookings and what may happen should schools not be reopened by that time. I will update you with their feedback once this is received. Please be aware that I expect them to be extremely busy at this time so you may not get an immediate answer to this. Please continue to make payments in accordance with the payment plan so we don't lose our booking. If we have no choice but to cancel, you will receive a refund so please don't worry about this.

   

  Free School Meals

  The Government has announced that pupils eligible for free school meals will receive vouchers to use in supermarkets to help fund dinners during the period of school closures. I expect to hear more about this tomorrow so will update you once this is received.

   

  Learning at home

  Each child will receive a pack tomorrow (Thursday 19th March) which will contain activities to complete over the two weeks before the Easter holidays. Pupils have also been given a login for Purple Mash (an online education website) which is full of activities to do. Their teachers will put activities in their 'to do' folder each week but they are free to do any activity on there. (We do appreciate that not everyone has access to the internet, hence the paper pack too.) There are also links on our website  (Parents tab- Helping your child') for other websites offering educational activities. Class teachers may also put activities on their class pages so please look out for these. Of course, you may ask your child to do any activity which would be beneficial to them educationally, such as reading a variety of texts, writing a range of texts or practising number related activities (as appropriate to the age of the child).

  Assuming school closures continue after Easter, teachers will continue to create work packs which last 2 weeks for those who cannot access the internet. You will need to let us know if you would like this so we can organise how to get this to you.

   

  Assessments

  The Government have announced that there will be no Primary Assessments this year. This includes Phonics for Year 1 pupils, SATs for Y2 pupils and SATS for Y6 pupils.

   

  After school provision and breakfast club

  It is not yet clear if these provisions will be offered. If they are offered, it will only be for the pupils who meet the criteria above. More details will be shared before the end of school on Friday 20th March.

   

  We will continue to send texts and keep you updated throughout the period of school closures if anything changes.

   

   

   

   

   

• NURSERY CLOSURE

  Wed 18 Mar 2020
  Please be aware that our Nursery (both morning and afternoon sessions) will be closed from Thursday 19th March and should re-open on Monday 20th April.

• Swimming gala

  Thu 27 Feb 2020

  Yesterday we took 8 of our older children to Clowne swimming baths to take part in a gala. We were expecting to be out swum by the other schools who seem to have a lot of children who swim for the County but that was not the case!

  Each race was 25 metres and every child completed 2 individual races and 3 relays so that was 250 metres at break neck speed.

  To say we were proud of our children was an understatement - their determination, stamina and teamwork was a pleasure to see. We actually came joint third out of 10 schools which we were over the moon about. The children were fabulous and it was a lovely morning.

  

• Spring Disco

  Wed 26 Feb 2020

  Great fun was had by all at the  end of term Spring disco, which raised a fantastic £270 for the school!

  The children danced their socks off and particularly enjoyed the musical statues game where they had to hold their partner off the ground, resulting in some hilarious positions!

  Thank you to all parents who brought their children to the disco, baked cakes or stayed to supervise, your support is very much appreciated.