Over the past few weeks, we have all had to get used to new ways of working and adapt to having all of our lessons online. Everyone has done a wonderful job of dealing with the change and we appreciate the efforts of all the children, parents and staff. It has been lovely to see children in Google Meets, joining in with lessons and posting work to the class blogs and everyone should be proud of the resilience that has been shown. However, we acknowledge that there is a downside to all the online learning in that it needs children to spend a lot of time staring at a screen. This can mean that children are missing out on some of the other opportunities that they would get in school. Next Friday (12th of February), we intend to mix things up a bit and offer the children a ‘Screen-Free Friday’. The purpose of ‘Screen-free Friday’ is to allow the children to have a day of broader experiences that are not restricted to being in front of a screen and to give them an opportunity to to explore their more creative side as they would in a ‘No Pens Day’ kind of set up.
Although children will still be expected to log in to their morning and afternoon registration Meets, there won’t be any live or recorded online lessons that day. Instead, children will be provided with a range of tasks and activities to keep them learning without the need to be staring at a screen. These activities will differ by class and year group but more details will come from the class teacher this week so that you have plenty of time should you need to prepare anything. We hope that it will provide the children with a welcome break from screen based learning and we look forward to hearing about what they’ve been up to.
Next week, on Tuesday, it is also Safer Internet Day. This year’s theme is about having an Internet that we can trust. There are lots of materials and resources available online that explore how children can be sure that they can believe what they see and hear online. It is about helping children to become more discerning users of the Internet and to make sensible judgments about the information on websites. This is a really important skill as we seek to keep our children safe online. Your child will be hearing more about this next week but if you would like to find out more visit the website at https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2021
