123 Club will be re-commencing on Wednesday 1st September, and is open to any children from P1 - P3 who wish to attend.
Further information is available on our 123 Club page in the 'Parents' section of the website, where you can also find the booking forms.
Information and arrangements pertaining to the P4 - P7 classes returning to school on Monday 22nd March can be found by clicking on the link below:
On Friday 26th March the children will be finishing school at lunch time for the Easter holidays. In order to facilitate this, and to avoid too many people exiting the building together, the following pick up times will apply:
P1 & P2: 11:40am
P3 & P4: 11:50am
P5, P6 & P7: 12:00 noon
If you have children in different classes you can collect them all at the earliest applicable time. Please send in a note to your child’s class teacher if you are collecting anyone earlier than the time shown.
Buses will be available on Friday to take the children home, as usual. Please note that the Ballyvea bus can only take children from the P4 - P7 classes, due to a lack of space.
It has now been confirmed that schools will remain closed until after the half-term break in February. Therefore, most children will be engaged in remote learning for the next 5 weeks. As a result, we have put together answers to a range of questions that parents may have about school, lockdown and home learning.
Please visit the 'Parents' section of the website to access the Covid Lockdown FAQs page. If you have any further questions that are not addressed on this page, please email Mr Peacock and he will be happy to help with your inquiry. His email address is bwps@btconnect.com.
The quick link to the COVID Lockdown page is below:
https://www.bwps.co.uk/covid-lockdown/
Instead of a pre-Christmas Book Fair, this year we will be operating a Scholastic Book Party over the next three weeks, whereby parents can choose to buy from a wide range of books, organised by age.
Please visit the 'Parents' section of the website to find out more, and view all of the books on offer.
The Education Minister has now provided guidance around the closure of schools for the next two weeks. As you know, the week beginning 26th October had already been designated as our half-term holidays, which means that the children will effectively be missing one week of school due to this new directive.
The Minister has stated that next week will be classified as "an extension of the half-term break, and it is not intended to be used for remote learning." As a result, this will not be the same as the previous period of closure and no additional work will be provided. It appears that there is a strong desire for schools to re-open on 2nd November, and we will be planning on that basis.
This is a situation very much beyond our control, and we very much hope that this school closure will not last beyond the two weeks specified. Children will attend school as normal on Thursday and Friday, after which the school will remain closed until Monday 2nd November.
Following the announcement from Stormont this evening, all schools will be closed from Monday 23rd March onwards. This means we will remain open to pupils for the next two days.
Folders of work for each child will be available for collection from each class teacher on Friday, and these contain work for the children to do over the next two weeks.
Further work will be provided thereafter, and we will inform you of the arrangements for this in the near future.
Dear Parent
We appreciate that this is a time of great worry and uncertainty for everyone, given that we are in uncharted territory as a community, and as a nation. As has always been the case, our pupil’s health and safety is of paramount importance, and we will continue to keep this at the forefront of our minds in all that we do.
Currently we are not in a position to close the school, as we have been told by the Education Minister to remain open until advised otherwise. However, please be assured that we are doing all that we can to limit the spread of possible infection within the school, and are seeking to follow the PHA guidance. We must stress that if your child displays symptoms, such as a new, continuous cough or high temperature, they should remain at home.
We also understand that many of you may be uncomfortable with sending your child to school, particularly if they, or other family members, have underlying health issues. Given the current situation, I can assure you that we fully support those parents who wish to keep their children at home.
In light of this, each teacher has prepared a folder of work for any children who are not currently being sent to school, and these folders can be collected from your child’s class teacher. Please be advised that these folders are only for children not currently attending school.
These folders contain activities that cover the next two weeks in school, and you can complete this with your child, at your own pace. More work activities will then be provided from Easter onwards. We suggest that 2-3 hours a day should be sufficient to spend on school work (dependent on the age of each child). We would also encourage children to read as much as possible during any time off school.
When schools are advised to close, each class teacher will be providing work, on a weekly basis, for children to complete at home. This will continue until the children are able to return to school. This work will be made available on the Class Pages on the school website, via email, or through collection at school - whatever suits you best. Further information will be provided about this when we close.
For now, if anyone is keeping their children at home, folders of work can be collected from your child’s class teacher at your convenience. Thank you for working with us as we seek to navigate through this very challenging time.
Yours sincerely
M J Peacock (Principal)