Weekly Message 70 – 15 May 2020
15th May 2020
Weekly Message – Issue 70
Following the Government’s announcement on Sunday, stating that we may be able to welcome back more children to early years, school and further education settings from the week commencing 1 June 2020, we received further guidance to determine what this means for us at Cams Hill.
With a focus on pupils due to take key exams next year, we have been asked to offer some face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of our Year 10 pupils. Planning and scoping is well under-way and we sent a letter to parents and carers of Year 10 pupils to share this with them as well as to seek their feedback. Thank you to those that have been able to respond.
Now that we have a better understanding of what lies ahead and the likelihood that we will not see most of our pupils until September, we are busy evolving the home learning provision that has been available since the school closed. We have sent communication to parents/carers about this and further details will follow soon.
For other news and information, please read on……
Join in with a Design and Technology House Challenge
An opportunity to use your D&T skills to show your support for the NHS and Key Worker staff during this difficult time. The challenge is open to all pupils, staff and governors.
What do I create to enter?
Create a rainbow using any D&T medium:
- Food
- Paper and board
- Graphics
- Timber
- Plastics
- Textiles
- Recycled items
- Modelling clay
- Yarns or wools
How do I submit my entry?
- Take a photograph of your creation preferably in natural light (not direct sunlight as it will distort the colours)
- Take the photograph from above and any 3-D pieces should be photographed from 3 angles (front view, side view, above view)
- Submit your entry (jpegs or pdfs) to gallen@camshill.com complete with your first/last name, Tutor Group and House and include a list of the components used in your piece.
- Deadline 25 May 2020. Results will be shared w/b 1 June 2020 with prizes to follow.
We love sharing your work! So, if you enter this challenge it is likely that your pieces will be shown on our Instagram account cams_dandt. Do look at our account, to see the work that our pupils are producing and gain ideas for future activities.
Keeping in touch
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
Pupil Emails
We ask that pupils routinely check their school email inbox for useful information and messages from their teachers, tutor and Head of Year. If pupils are having trouble accessing their account and/or have forgotten their username and password we ask that they contact ITSupport@camshill.com
Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing
For support and guidance on how to manage mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus outbreak and beyond, please see the communication we sent out this week, which includes a booklet, some useful websites and apps as well as links to online courses.
Please also follow this link https://www.camshill.com/managing-mental-health-during-covid-19/ to our school website for further information and guidance from the DfE.
There is also the app ThinkNinja which is highly recommended and if you have Facebook, please do look at the Hampshire CAMHS Innovations and Events page which is incredibly useful and informative. Please remember though, that this information is advice and guidance only. If you have any serious concerns, please make contact with your GP or visit the Hampshire CAMHS website (https://hampshirecamhs.nhs.uk/) who can signpost you to the services you may require.
Celebration of Work
Art
The Art Department have been receiving some amazing examples of work produced during home learning. We are thrilled that so many pupils (and staff) have had the opportunity to be creative. In times like this Art really does matter!
We are on our third week of producing short 1-minute videos of a selection of work that is being sent in. This is shared every Friday on Twitter and the Cams Hill school Facebook page. We have been posting plenty of photographs of pupils’ work on Instagram, so please take a look.
Alongside pupils work you will see the department staff have been busy too.
Every Monday and Friday at 2pm Kathryn Coyle @littleredboots.co.uk posts a live one-hour watercolour painting tutorial via Facebook which she then uploads onto her YouTube channel and we have all been joining in!!
https://twitter.com/cams_creative
https://www.instagram.com/camscreative/
Finally, let us not forget the Camscreative competition that we launched at the end of April. The deadline for entries is 31 May 2020 and there are, as always, prizes up for grabs. Please contact your Art teacher if you have any questions, we are looking forward to seeing the results.
Stay safe and keep creating,
Mrs Oswald-Cutler and the Art team
Modern Foreign Languages
We have received some lovely examples of the extra tasks we have set, providing our pupils with the opportunity to be creative.
We have shared these in the department, congratulated the pupils and set rewards on the system. You will also find examples of pupils’ work posted on our Twitter feed @CAMSLanguages
We look forwarded to celebrating other examples in the coming weeks.
Key Worker School (KWS)
We’ve been working hard at KWS this week and doing our best to make the site look lovely for when our community returns. We were so pleased to receive donations from our local garden centre and have put them to good use. Hopefully they’ll be flourishing in the sunshine over the next few weeks.
Other activities this week included Cams Bestival on our field which included tent making, music and marshmallows on the BBQ. Luckily, we had the multi-talented Mr Atkins to help us on the tent front, as they are surprisingly difficult to dismantle!
It’s been another sunny few days and we are all looking forward to the weekend and enjoying a little more exercise and outdoor time. We hope everyone is well and staying safe.
The Headteacher’s blog contains more informal reflections and is available here:
https://camsheadteacher.wordpress.com/