You may have seen recent articles in the press about the return of free school meal vouchers for those children with free school meal entitlement who are not currently attending school. We have initially offered 10 day food parcels and many families have taken delivery of these in the last week. However we have made the decision to move to vouchers instead of food parcels from Monday 25th January.

 

The scheme will once again be administered by Edenred, so please look out for emails from them over the coming week as we have registered you all on their database. If your child is continuing to attend school during the lockdown they will still receive a free school meal as opposed to any voucher payment.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the school office or email office@marlandhill.rochdale.sch.uk

 

 

Dear Parents

Happy New Year!

I am sure that you, like the staff in school, did not expect this week to develop in the way it has, and I would like to thank you for your patience and support at this challenging time. Like you, we only found out about the Government’s intentions to close schools on Monday night, and staff have worked incredibly hard to put all the necessary measures in place to support school staff and yourselves to continue your child’s education. I appreciate there have been some teething issues, but hopefully these will reduce in number as the days go on.

Please can I clarify a few things:

• All children are expected to access daily home learning, ideally online. School has a limited number of laptops we can loan out, and are using the questionnaires you returned last term to help identify families who have no alternative method of accessing the work set. We are working our way through the list as fast as we are able to.
• Children need to submit the work they have completed – whether it be online or by returning paper copies to school. This is so the work can be marked, and next steps planned accordingly. Please support your child to do this – they have been shown what to do in school.
• For those children in school, we are still following the measures of bubbles, staggered playtimes and dinnertimes, and good hygiene. As part of this involves good ventilation in classrooms, which at this time of year means it can become cold at times, during lockdown, the children can come to school in their own clothes, but these must be appropriate and suitable for PE lessons.
• During lockdown, the school day timings will return to doors opening at 8.45, and children needing to be collected at 3pm – on both occasions from the usual doors.
• For those who feel their child is entitled to a key worker place, we are following the guidance on how these can be granted. Please do not request a place unnecessarily, as you are increasing the risk to your child and those in school. The safest place for your child to be is at home if possible. For those who have requested a place, please do not send your child to school until it has been confirmed that you have one, as we need to ensure the arrangements in school are in place before we can increase numbers.  Thank you for your continued support - Mrs Pridgeon.

Please log on daily to home learning. For Nursery, Reception and Year 1 please go on to Tapestry and for years 2 to 6 please go to Microsoft Teams and log on. Your child should have their log in details but if you need support, please contact the school and we will support you as best as we can.

School is now closed to all but key worker & vulnerable children. Telephone the school office in the first instance with any questions you may have. Thank you.

Dear parents and carers,

 

Please bear with us during this rapidly changing turn of events. Just to reassure you, we are currently working hard to ensure the education of your children continues as smoothly as possible. I expect we will need to send out various pieces of information over the coming days, so please keep checking emails/ parent mail for these updates.

 

As it stands, tomorrow we will only be open for the children of key workers [these key worker parents will have already shared confirmation of this with us] and vulnerable children [those with a social worker].

 

On Wednesday we will also be able to take children with an EHCP in school.

 

Remote learning will begin for all other children tomorrow. We have a list in school of those who need a device to support with this – we will be in touch with you to check if this is still the case, but please be mindful we only have a limited number of devices available.

 

We will confirm the situation around Free School Meals as soon as we are able to.

 

For those parents who are unable to work from home [currently only deemed to be key workers and construction workers], and who haven’t already notified us of this, we ask that you contact Mrs Mitchell in the office to log this with us. We will need evidence of this to support our provision and staffing in school, and will confirm when these children can come to school as soon as we can.

 

For those parents whose children will be attending school, please let me reassure you that we will still be following our risk assessment to ensure the school environment is as safe as possible for everyone.

 

Can I thank you again for your support during these challenging times. Please do not hesitate to contact school if you need any further support or help.

 

Please take care.

 

Mrs Pridgeon (Headteacher)

Thank you to all our parents and carers for your continued support over the last term. We appreciate how difficult things have been with bubble closures and sending children home.  We understand how inconvenient this may have been at times.  Please may we ask that you continue to bear with us in the new year, as we continue to follow the guidance. We hope things will soon return to normal for everyone and that we continue to work together to get through this difficult period.  We hope that Christmas will provide a welcome respite and that you all enjoy a happy and peaceful time with your families.  Please enjoy and please stay safe.  Merry Christmas and thank you!

 

Our Year 3 children enjoyed trying out French themed food this week.  They tried pain au chocolat, croissants and crepes to name a few.

 

Please note that homework has been sent home today by Parent Mail.  This is the ‘topic’ homework  that has been set for the spring term, and should be completed by February half term.  Thank you for your continued support.

 

A reminder that Year 5 Miss Tudor's Class will begin swimming on Tuesday 5th January. We already have the consent forms but if your child has any medical conditions that we are unaware of you must let the school know.  Thank you.

 

P.S.  Don't forget to send your child to school with their swim shorts/costume and a large towel!

 

 

If your child has a school meal (paid or free), the current school dinner arrangements will continue in the new year.  All year groups will be offered a  hot meal or a grab bag on alternate weeks (with the exception of our Reception children—who are provided with hot meals every week).  From Monday 4th January, the schedule recommences as follows:

Week 1: 

Hot meals Year 2, 4 & 5. 

Grab bags Year 1, 3 & 6.

 

Week 2:

Hot meals Year 1, 3 & 6.

Grab bags Year 2, 4 & 5.

 

PLEASE NOTE THAT MEAL ARRANGEMENTS CANNOT BE CHANGED UNTIL FEBRUARY HALF TERM.