Weekly Message 73 – 12 June 2020
12th June 2020
Weekly Message – Issue 73
This message concludes Week 12 of lockdown and school closure to most pupils. Feedback regarding home learning continues to be positive and it is helping us to address issues and shape further this provision.
Many of our pupils are accessing the home learning activities on the ‘CHOC’ learning platform and we encourage pupils who have not yet done so, to use the guidance emailed to them from Mr Charles, to familiarise themselves with the platform and its functionality.
Last week’s re-connection ‘Zoom’ calls between Year 10 pupils and their tutors were a huge success and they have helped us to offer additional support where it is needed.
All Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils have been offered a re-connection call with their tutor to take place next week and pupils, parents/carers have received full information about how to access this.
Parents and Carers of pupils in Year 7 2020 will be in receipt of a letter this week from Miss Haines and the Year 7 team about our planning for virtual transition. We are busy developing a comprehensive programme of videos and activities that Year 6 pupils will be able to engage with on 2 July 2020 and 3 July 2020 to get a real flavour of life at Cams Hill School.
Assemblies
The Heads of Year conclude each week with a short assembly to update, share information and to keep-in-touch with pupils in their year groups.
Assemblies for the week will be posted on our new Vimeo Assemblies channel by the end of every Friday: https://vimeo.com/channels/1579277
Key Worker School (KWS)
We’ve been carrying on the creative theme at KWS with some lovely plate painting and slightly messy, soap carving! As always – our appreciation of all those who are helping support this community are at the forefront of people’s minds and have influenced their designs.
Mr Purslow treated us to a scientific Escape Room which proved harder than expected … so we all needed a helping hand to get out, though our teams did a great job.
In Mrs Ellis’s session this week the children looked at ‘Black Lives Matter’ and different protests that have taken place recently and why people may protest. They came up with some initial ideas about the topic and wrote their responses.
Here are two examples:
Gathering together to make a change is imperative for today’s society. We need change. Everyday people in minorities are racially abused; this must stop. Even if you think that you’re not racist you may subtly assume certain things about someone, what do you assume about others? Eventually this will stop if we protest and make a difference. You must be more than not racist: you need to be anti-racist and make a change. Make a change.
H Cox
Joining together is important.
Whoever you are.
United we will stand strong; march as one.
Why do we judge by skin colour?
Endlessly quarrel for equality.
Take a stand because Black lives DO matter.
Poem by J Higgins-Cabo
The children tackled the topic with maturity, compassion and skill. Many people could definitely learn a thing or two from them!
It’s been interesting as our Key Worker School family grows … it’s been lovely to hear chatter in the corridors again and more people playing on the hard courts (when it’s not raining). As always, from all of us at KWS – we hope you are all well and we can’t wait for you all to come back.
Art Department
This week Mrs Farmer led an Art session at KWS where pupils made small Bumblebees using collage paper. They were inspired by images seen on Pinterest and utilised lots of scrap bits of gift paper, books pages and music paper which frequently get donated to the department for recycling.
The Art Department were busy in school this week putting together resource packs of art equipment for our Year 10 GCSE pupils to work with at home. The packs included acrylic paints, sketchbooks and other materials they would normally be using regularly in the art rooms during their lessons. We are really looking forward to seeing how pupils utilise these materials in their work over the coming weeks.
The Headteacher’s blog contains more informal reflections and is available here:
https://camsheadteacher.wordpress.com/