Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope everyone continues to be well and you managed to enjoy time with your family over the Easter Holidays.

As you know, all the schools returned last week and everyone is looking forward to returning to a more ‘normal’ way of operating during the Summer Term. We continue to follow all the measures in place and staff have access to lateral flow tests twice each week. Most of us through age, or by being put forward as key workers to the NHS, have received at least our first vaccination. This all helps to build confidence to ensure safety for each other and for you and your families using our service. The changes in guidance from 12th April haven’t really affected day to day operation in schools, but we anticipate possible changes on the next stage of the government’s roadmap on 17th May to such things as staff use of masks, how we operate bubbles and so on, but we will await further guidance. ...

Face to face provision on site in schools is the most effective method of providing the learning opportunities children need. I am sure you agree that all our staff did an amazing job of continuing to provide online remote education as well as providing for those children attending our schools, but we are all glad to have everyone back. We are aware we have one term left in this academic year to help the children to reach their end of year goals. Developing skills in writing was the most challenging aspect of working remotely and this has now become the focus from teachers and teaching assistants in all the schools. We will continue to use the learning catch-up funding enabling us to work in smaller focused groups with children. Whilst any extra funding is welcome, this will only provide 1 or 2 sessions per week. We will be adding to this money where we can give the children as much input as possible over the coming weeks.

We took the opportunity whilst the schools were closed in the Easter holiday to complete maintenance works at each school. They may not be visible from the outside, but 35 projects were completed during the holiday with a buildings team of 5 people. We are actively looking for 2 additional staff to join the team. If you know of anyone who may be interested, please email: hr@bridgeschools.co.uk for more information. Details can also be found on our Vacancies page.

The continuing professional development this term for our teaching staff is targeting training on ‘Closing the Word Gap.’ Studies have shown that children’s exposure to and use of words affects their overall performance in school. Language opens doors, helps children to articulate concepts, develop imagination and become creative learners. We want them to be skilled practitioners with a wide vocabulary which helps them with reading, but also enables them to choose words carefully which they can apply in their writing tasks. You can help us with this simply by spending more time talking with your children. This can be through the week with things you become involved with as a family; sharing a book talking through the pictures or plot; following a vocabulary list of words given to you by your child’s school or simply choosing your own words. We had one example where a teacher had shared the word ‘dilapidated’ with their class and was encouraging them to find sentences where they could use the word. The head teacher walked into the classroom and one child leapt up to say: “Mrs **** you are looking exceptionally dilapidated today!’ We will continue to support the children to find a wider vocabulary set to describe our heads!

Thank you for your continued support for Bridge Schools.
With all good wishes,

Adrian Massey and everyone at Bridge Schools.