The children (and adults!) in Sherburn Village and Hill have been painting stones and leaving them scattered about the villages for the children to spot on their daily walk. There have been some wonderful creations and this is yet another way to bring the community together and provide a focus for the children during their daily exercise. Tesco have been so impressed they have been in touch with school and would like to create a rainbow/mosaic display outside of the store and have asked if the children (and adults!) would like to paint a stone to be part of this. Please leave your contributions outside of school on Friday 8th May before 3pm – there will be a box placed at the gates to collect these.
Online Safety Advice for Parents and Carers during COVID 19 Pandemic
Online Safety Advice for Parents and Carers during Covid 19 Pandemic
Many parents will be encouraging their children to make good use of technology during the coming weeks, including using social media to keep in touch with family and friends. Parents and carers will want to make sure their children are as safe as possible online; therefore we have attached some useful advice and guidance.
Parental Controls
Almost all devices allow parental controls to be set. These can be adjusted depending on the ages of the children. They can:
- Stop children putting new apps on a device until the parents approve them
- Reduce the chance of a child accidentally spending money on virtual goods
- Limit the time that children use a device without having a break
A good starting point is the Internet Matters website https://www.internetmatters.org/
Go to the SETTING CONTROLS section at the top.
Talking to your Child
Another effective way of keeping your child safe online is to talk to them regularly about how they use technology, which apps and sites they use and who their online friends are. Some children may have negative experiences online – for example sending or receiving hurtful messages. Parents and carers will be able to help guide youngsters through this difficult time. If children receive unpleasant messages, these can usually be reported. Each app or site will have a different way of doing this. Children should also be reminded to use strong passwords and not share them with friends https://www.o2.co.uk/help/nspcc/tools-and-tips.
Apps and Sites
The list of apps and websites children are using grows by the minute. In the UK, the NSPCC’s site, NetAware https://www.net-aware.org.uk/ explains many current apps and the risks and the benefits of their use. More apps are listed on the American site Common Sense Media https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ .
The following guide features what children do online, the threat of online strangers and how to ensure a healthy balance between Internet use, your children’s online privacy, digital security, and more on online safety to mention.
Activities for Children
ThinkUknow https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ is a website aimed at children and their parents set up by the National Crime Agency. It has lots of useful suggestions and advice on how to report issues. It also has games and activities including ‘Jessie and Friends’ for younger children and ‘Band Runner’ for older ones. It has recently produced some online activity packs to support parents during the closure of schools. Each fortnight, they will be releasing new packs with simple 15 minute activities you can do with your child to support their online safety at a time when they will spending more time online at home.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/home-activity-worksheets/
For young children, being tricked into sharing pictures of themselves can be an issue. LGfL has produced a child-friendly video https://undressed.lgfl.net/ which has some great advice and a very catchy song!
More Help
The NSPCC has teamed up with O2 https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/partners/nspcc-o2-online-safety-partnership/ to provide advice to parents, and has a free helpline: 0808 800 5002 offering support (you do not have to be an O2 customer to access this).
Since 2015, it has been a criminal offence for an adult to send a message with sexual content to a child (Section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015). If you are concerned that this might have happened, please preserve the evidence and contact the police – either by phone or on the Thinkuknow website https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ .
And finally, don’t forget that children can call Childline on 0800 1111 anytime for advice about anything that is worrying them.
Free School Meals Vouchers
We have had several enquiries from parents about the Governments school meal voucher scheme. We are busy setting this up and will be in contact with parents whose children are entitled to free school meals in the near future. Unfortunately children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 who currently receive universal free school meals will only qualify if they are eligible for benefits related free school meals.
Hand Wash Challenge Competition!
Medicspot is calling all primary school children to share their creative ideas to help encourage frequent hand washing – the best way to keep yourself and others safe from coronavirus. Find out how you can enter and win £500 for Sherburn Primary School here:
Key Workers and school provision
Please find below a letter from the Local Authority that we have been asked to share with parents.
Key Worker Survey
Following the Government announcement yesterday we are trying to establish what will now happen in school. We would appreciate it if you could complete the attached survey regarding parents who are key workers. As this is time critical could we ask that you complete as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued support at this difficult time. As soon as we have any further information we will update you immediately.
Please complete and return the attached sheet to school by Friday 20th March if you require school provision next week as you are a Key Worker. (We have just received this from the Local Authority late this afternoon)
If your child is currently not attending school, please email it to sherburnprimary@durhamlearning.net
Information Update
Due to the Government announcement at 5pm on Monday 16th March Durham Area Youth (Youth Club) have suspended their service with immediate effect. The School Sports Partnership have also cancelled all football matches (training is also cancelled as a result of this), after school clubs and the Dance Festival at the Gala Theatre.
They have been in contact with the Gala Theatre and in terms of refunds for tickets the Gala Theatre will contact people direct to arrange refunds. If people paid by card, the refund will be put directly back onto the card. If people went into the Gala and paid cash for tickets, the refund will be given by cheque. The Gala have kindly asked that parents/guardians should not ring the box office and wait for staff from the theatre to contact them.
In line with Government advice we are also cancelling our Mothers Day Assembly and Parents Evening.
We are implementing enhanced measures to keep your children safe in school. Could you please help us with this by avoiding coming to the school office unless absolutely necessary – please telephone or email. Could you also let us know if your family is self isolating so we can update our register and plan staffing. Breakfast Club, Tea Club, Lexia & Homework Clubs will continue as normal.
Please check our Facebook page and website regularly for updates as guidance and information is changing rapidly and we will be using these to advise you of any changes.
Thanks everybody, let’s work together and keep us all safe.
Read All About It!
Our Year 6 Children have enjoyed making their First Edition of our School Newspaper ‘Read All About It.’ Click on the link below to read it
Shadforth WI
The lovely ladies from Shadforth WI have visited school today to let us know that they are working together during February on climate change. They have made green hearts for Valentine’s Day to symbolise this and placed them on the school railings – please help yourself to one.
Student Survey
We are conducting a student survey about pupil attitudes towards school. We would appreciate it if you could use the following link to complete the survey with your child by Monday if possible. Thank you for your support
