Ms Forrester and Mrs Giles have taken these lovely photos of the robins.  The have nested in the toy trolley in the KS1 playground last week and have now hatched.  Nature has taken over!  Click here to see the photos on the school Photo Gallery.

 

https://www.marshgate.richmond.sch.uk/robins-in-the-playground/

Please click on the link below for information regarding the local support available for those affected by domestic abuse during Covid-19. 

 

Domestic Abuse Support during Covid-19

Whole school message

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

The school will be closed from today, Friday 20th March.

 

All staff have worked extremely hard over the last weeks to set up remote learning resources for all our children.

 

Of course we all wish our children’s learning to continue.  Please read the following information carefully.

 

School remote learning will begin on Tuesday 24th March. This will give teachers one day to finalise all systems and load with resources. Teachers will be working daily, during school times as normal. School holidays will occur as normal.  Remote learning will stop.

 

Key Stage Two: Teachers and pupils will be using:

• Google classroom for teaching /learning resources
• “Meet” for group video conferences with pupils (one group per day at a set time)
• Email for parent / teacher contact, questions. Teachers will be teaching, preparing resources so responses may not be immediate (within 24 hours)

 

Key Stage One: Teachers will be using:

• Daily emails with children’s work
• “Meet” for group video conferences with pupils (one group per day at a set time)
• Email for parent/teacher contact, questions. Teachers will be teaching, preparing resources so responses may not be immediate (within 24 hours)

 

Reception: Teachers will be using:

• “Seesaw” for teaching/ learning resources
• “Meet” for group video conferences with pupils (one group per day at a set time)
• Email for parent/ teacher contact, questions. Teachers will be teaching, preparing resources so responses may not be immediate (within 24 hours)

 

Your class teacher will email to help with instructions, how you can access all of the above, with contact emails, and timetables for the “Meet” video sessions. These sessions are for the children, NOT the parents, so while you should help your child access them you must not join in.

 

PLEASE read see the Learning from Home document for some other suggestions.  Please, please also be patient with any glitches that will happen.  We will all be working in new ways over the coming weeks. Together, I am confident we will ensure all children are happy, secure and learning.

 

I am already looking forward to welcoming the children back. See you all at the other end and keep well.

 

Parent Mail and parents@marshgate.richmond.sch.uk will also continue as normal so do email if we can help in any other way.

 

Ms Jackson

Head Teacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

As the regulations are changing daily I wanted to summarise where we are at the moment.  Please keep checking the link below for information:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

 

Children’s absence

If your child or anyone in your household has any of the below symptoms the whole family (all brothers and sisters) must stay at home, not come to school for 14 days.

• A cough
• A high temperature (37.8)
• Shortness of breath

 

Those children who were absent on Monday 16th March must now comply with this 14-day absence requirement. Any child sent to school who has had any of these symptoms or presents with these symptoms will immediately be sent home.

If you are following the self-isolation fourteen days guidance, please contact the office to inform them if you child’s/children’s absence on day one (this can be done on absence@marshgate.richmond.sch.uk – please put your child’s full name and class in the message).  You do not need to contact the school on a daily basis.  If, after the fourteen days, your child is still not well enough to be in school, we ask that you contact us with an update.  Please continue to inform us of any new developments with your child and family.

These absences will be authorised and coded with a Y which means “Unable to attend school due to exceptional circumstances”.

 

Staff absence

All of the above applies to school staff as well.  We have a number of staff off at the moment due to this. None of these have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus but have family members with coughs etc. Therefore, they will be off for 14 days. At the moment we are able to cover all classes with our internal experienced staff. Should staff absence increase, it may be necessary to begin partial closure of the school.

 

Home learning

Teachers are working full time / all day teaching classes so therefore at the moment it is not feasible to provide extra and additional work for multiple individual pupils. Please be assured if / when schools close we will provide work for whole classes.

 

In the meantime, if your child is at home use the curriculum summary (previously sent and on the website) and use your child’s online access to the computer learning programmes they already have for homework.  As we always say reading is the key to all learning so enjoy lots of lovely extended reading sessions.

We are trying to keep everything very calm for the children at school and would ask you to do the same at home.  We do not want any child worrying.

 

Updates on Coronavirus developments will be emailed regularly and also put on the Latest News section on the Marshgate website.  This can be translated into over one hundred languages by using the translate button at the top right hand side of the website, please do take a look.

 

Thank you for your wonderful co-operation and all the lovely emails of support.  Keep well.

 

Ms Jackson

Head Teacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Please be reassured the school is following all Public Health England and Department for Education advice.  Please see the link and follow the same guidelines at home.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

 

All of the above advice applies to children as well as adults, so if your child has any of these symptoms you must keep them in isolation at home and NOT send them to school for seven days.

• A fever 37.8 +
• A cough
• Shortness of breath

 

Should your child present with these symptoms in school, our safe protocols will be implemented, you will be called to collect and again your child must not return to school for seven days. These absences are authorised (exceptional circumstances).

Measures taken for day to day Safe Practise

• Organised class handwashing five times a day (please ensure your child washes their hands thoroughly before entering school)
• All assemblies have been cancelled
• No visitors in school / anyone entering required to hand sanitised
• No sharing of salad bar at school dinners (salad and bread will be served from the hatch).

 

Possible School Closure

Current advice is that schools do not close unless directed to do so by Public Health England. There may be a case of closure or partial closure (if a high number of staff are absent) in the future.  Partial closure means classes or year groups may be asked not to attend.  As ever the welfare of pupils and education are central to our arrangements.  In the case of closure, the staff are currently working very hard to set up remote access and learning for the pupils, (more to follow).  In the meantime, it would be a good idea to ensure your child has access to a computer or tablet so they can access this.

 

School trips

I am acutely aware that we have the Year 4 Sayers Croft residential trip coming up and the Year 6 residential trip to France in June/July.  As of today with all schools open, there are no changes to the plan for this.  I will inform you if any change to this arises.  Day trips and outings for other year groups will not go ahead in the near future.  Please make any outstanding payments as per normal requirements.  If these trips are cancelled you will receive a refund. 

 

With best wishes.

 

Ms Jackson

Head Teacher

The PSA will be trialling a new tool called Classlist over the spring and summer term.

 

Please note, Classlist WILL NOT replace Parent Mail.  Parent Mail is a tool used by Marshgate Primary School that will continue to provide all official information about class/school related information like class trips, curriculum content, initial information about PSA events and any other activities the school is responsible for.  This should be your first point of call for school information.

 

Communications is a huge challenge for the PSA currently.  Currently, there are at least seven different ways we communicate information about our events and activities.  We have been investigating ways we can improve communications over the last 6-8 months and after doing a lot of research and talking with other local schools, Classlist was the best tool that would fit our needs as a PSA as well as a school community.

 

We want Classlist to be our ONLY "go-to" tool for all communication in relation to PSA events and activities.

 

So what can Classlist do for us?  At a high level, it can support the PSA with:

 

• Event Communications and ticketing (current tool: pta-events)
• Sign ups to help get volunteers with events (current tool: Sign-up genius and in some cases, pta-events)
• Communication about PSA related activities (current tools: numerous including Parentmail, Email, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.)

 

So ultimately, the capability within Classlist can take many of the great parts of the 7+ tools we currently use to communicate and consolidates it into ONE!  So now, when you want to know about events and PSA activities, buy tickets, sign up to volunteer, you will go to Classlist and nowhere else.

 

We will still send ONE Parent Mail for each of our events so we can ensure the entire community knows about all our amazing activities and events, and of course, all PSA events will continue to be part of the Marshgate school calendar and newsletter.

 

In addition, Classlist is FULLY GDPR compliant, giving YOU the choice of what information you want to share with people AND how you want to be notified, but not have to miss out on important communications.

 

Classlist can also support other class social activities beyond the PSA to help build a community.

 

The added benefit of Classlist is that it isn't just a PSA tool, but can be adopted by classes to also replace all current channels of communications they may use (such as email, text, WhatsApp, etc.).  Some things it can do to support class communications include:

 

• News feed style posting area for classes to communicate (current tool: Emails and What's App for most classes)
• Sign-ups for school Party Day food and refreshments (current tool: Sign up Genius)
• Creation of open groups to help build a community (as an example, you can create a 'Book Club' group and make it open to the whole Marshgate community to get others that may be interested in joining you)
• Create a 'Private' event for class get togethers or even for your child's birthday party

 

We believe not only will Classlist make it much easier and reduce amount of work for the PSA, Class Reps and parents/carers to communicate with one another, but also makes it clear where parents can go to get the information they need.

 

Your Class Rep will contact you about this and give information about how to sign up:

1. Download the app onto your phone from the appropriate app store
2. Register on Classlist!
3. Once you register, you will be approved by your Class Rep (this is to ensure we have parents/carers that are part of our community on the platform only, keeping it private and secure!)

If you have any questions, a group has been set up named 'Classlist Questions' as well as 'Ask the PSA'!

 

Thanks so much!

 

Stacy, Katy and Laura

Your PSA Team

Information for all parents and carers

 

I am contacting you to let you know there is a vacancy for a Parent Governor here at Marshgate Primary School.  This is to replace Joanna Gluzman-Laukkanen who has served for two terms as a Parent Governor at Marshgate Primary School.  We are very grateful for all her support over the years.

Being a Parent Governor is an interesting way you can get involved with Marshgate.  We are looking for people who can bring their enthusiasm and skills to the Governing Body.  Parent Governors are elected on a four yearly basis.  If you would like to know more about the role of a Parent Governor then please feel free to come and have a chat with me, Ms Jackson or Miss Rosina Robson (Chair of Governors). 

Governors need not be experts in the field of education.  What they do need is an interest in the school and in the welfare of our children and the time and willingness to get involved.  Governors also ideally need the ability to be able to build relationships with a range of people, to work as part of a team, to question, and to make connections between different types of information. There will be some budget reports and data on school standards to get to grips with.  Being a Governor can be a great way to learn new skills.  All decision making of the Governing Body is collective; there is no individual accountability.

Parent Governors serve for four years from the date of election and are not required to stand down if their child leaves the school. The usual time commitment during an academic year looks like this:

• Attend four Full Governing Body meetings in the academic year (held in the evenings starting at 6.30pm)
• Sit on one of the Committees and attend the meetings (these are held every half term, two committees meet at 8.00am and the other meets at 2.00pm)
• Help out at the Summer Fair on the Governor stall
• Attend a selection of school/community events

In return, our Governing Body commits to:

• provide Governors with a structured induction
• provide access to quality training via the Local Authority
• provide you with an experienced Governor as mentor

For further information about the role of governors visit Governors for Schools or contact Governor Support on 0208 547 6548 / 6970 / 6947 or email governor.support@achievingforchildren.org.uk

On the Governor page of the school website we have articles written by previous Governors which have featured in the school newsletters which you may find of interest.  There are two parents who are currently on the Governing Body.  Gabriela Vinader is a Parent Governor and Sunil Sehgal is a Co-opted Governor.  Either would be more than happy to talk to you about their role should you be interested.  I can put you in touch with them.

At Marshgate we aspire to make our governing body representative of our whole school community.  Just so you are aware there is a fund to cover the cost of child care at meetings.  Full support and training on being a Parent Governor will be available for you from the Governor Support Team at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

Please see the timetable which was sent out about the election process via Parent Mail.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Mrs Cox

Clerk to the School Governors

We had a wonderful day on 15 June.  Please take a look at the Summer Fair photos by clicking here:

https://www.marshgate.richmond.sch.uk/psa-summer-fair-june-2019/

 

Nine intrepid parents from Marshgate Primary School set off on Friday morning to cycle 160 miles from Richmond to Brugge.  The cyclists are raising money for Marshgate PSA and have nearly reached their fundraising target of £3,000.  They were waved off by a big crowd of parents, staff and children from Marshgate.

 

Led by Andy Jones, using pedal power, the group will make their way to Dover covering almost 100 miles of hilly terrain. With a brief stop-over in Dover, the group will then finish the 60 miles to Brugge where the terrain will be a bit flatter!  The cyclists are being supported by two parents following in a back-up vehicle who are tracking their movements on a special app.

 

To see the more photos click on the link here:

https://www.marshgate.richmond.sch.uk/psa-brugge-cycle-ride/

    

 

We had a wonderful day on Thursday for World Book Day.  Please take a look at the photos here:

https://www.marshgate.richmond.sch.uk/world-book-day-march-2019/