Hello Year 5,

I hope you are all still safe and well at home.

All your form tutors have loved speaking to you on the phone ( if you haven’t heard from us, you probably missed our call but we’ll keep ringing ) and once you all got over the shock of hearing our voices it was lovely to hear about all the things you’ve been doing with your families.  The best thing to hear about was how you’ve been keeping in touch with each other, it’s fantastic that some of you have only known each other for 6 months but already have such strong friendships!

This made me think about our 5 Star quality of being part of our school community- it might be one of the hardest things to do at the moment. This week, take some time to reflect on how you have been joining in with our community, or perhaps what you could do to become a bigger part of it. Have you joined in with a school competition or gone outside to clap on a Thursday evening? Could you find a way of communicating with someone you can’t visit? Could you complete a maths or English challenge and share your efforts on the Facebook page?

Whatever you do, keep smiling and being fantastic Leighton Middlers.

See you soon,

Mrs Price,

with Mrs Waite, Mr Solomon, Mrs Schofield, Mrs House and Miss Holmes.

(Also please, please, please  keep reading and practising your arithmetic- you’ve all worked so hard this year, we don’t want you to forget everything!)

Dear Year 6,

This is only a quick “Hello!” this week as we have had the pleasure of talking to nearly all of you in the past few days! Thank you for being so talkative and kind, we have really enjoyed talking to each of you and hearing about the things you are getting up to! 

As well as doing bits of work here and there, you all sound like you are making the most of this strange time - we have heard of baking over video call with grandparents, playing in the garden with siblings, long bike rides and dog walks amongst many other fun activities! 

We are always thinking of you and hope you and your families are all well! Next week is technically half term so be sure to enjoy some of the lovely weather we have been promised! 

With our love,

The Year 6 Team

Miss Guy, Mr Cook, Mrs Solomon, Mrs Hatfield-Shaw, Mrs Ellaway and Miss Perry 

Xxx

To all in Year 7,

After listening to so much of the positive feedback from last week’s phone calls from the Year 7 form tutors, I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all the parents/carers for your continued support of school life.  The support you are providing for your children is hugely appreciated and we know that this is not an easy task when juggling busy home and work lives.  I’m very proud to hear how well you are all managing to cope with the home schooling situation and that you are able to balance this with following your own interests too. Remember your health and well-being are the absolute priority at this strange time so ensure you continue to spend time focussing on this.  We are so thankful for the sunny weather which continues to brighten up our days and I hope that you have been able to enjoy it whilst staying safe at home.

Friday 7^th May marked VE Day, commemorating 75 years since the end of World War II.  The day had been planned to be a huge coming together as a nation to celebrate the sacrifices of the generations who fought to protect our freedoms, who took the massive steps towards building the global community we are part of today.  I’m sure many of you celebrated with your families or participated in street parties, following social distancing rules of course.

The current challenging time has given us an opportunity to reflect and consider what it must have been like living through the years of war.  Whilst we all are currently adjusting and living in different more challenging ways, we have the power of communication to keep us connected, food on our tables to keep us fed and a vast array of entertainment tools to occupy our spare time. We have the power of modern medicine, an incredible global scientific community working together for solutions and support networks aiding the vulnerable; like the work Miss Benning has been doing in her local area.  It was the sacrifices of the generations before us that led to the creation of the world that we now enjoy and although we are in an exceptional time now, I believe we must take the time to be truly thankful and genuinely reflect on their sacrifices.

I also believe that we can learn from past generations and now adopt a bit of their spirit, both during the lockdown and the challenging times ahead that will come, as lockdown restrictions are gradually lifted over the coming weeks and months.  We will need to dig deep to find the extra energy needed to re-adjust and accept compromise when we realise that life will not return to our expected normality as soon as we would like. We must do all we can to help put the country back on its feet as quickly, and carefully as we can.  As a school community, this will require each of us to continue to commit and engage in the activities asked of you by school and your family. To try to give your best, even when you are distracted and feel disconnected. Remember that by taking this responsibility seriously, we are collectively helping to create a better world, not only for now but for future generations to come.

At this present moment in time, I’m unable to say when you will return to school, so in the meantime, please continue to ‘Stay alert, control the virus and save lives’.

Mr Herbert

Head of Year 7

Hello Year 8

What a busy week it has been. Although we have already phoned you, we are also posting this on the website to ensure that everyone can see it.  We want you to know that we will be checking our emails every day that school is not open to you, so if you have any news or home learning you want to share with us, it will be gratefully received. We can't wait to hear all of the interesting things you have been up to at home. In fact - it would be great if you were to keep a diary! This thing that we are all part of is living history - it will be talked about for generations to come. Schools are closed; sports are cancelled; people are quarantined on a global level.  So we would like you to keep a journal of this living history event.  In your journal, record day to day events - photos, drawings, writing, newspaper clippings, activities. Interview people, parents, grandparents (on the phone!). You will have created a primary source of your own history, to share with generations to come. 

Whilst you're at home, it's really important that you keep busy. Doing one task over and over - even something fun like watching TV or playing computer games - gets boring after a while! We’ve put work on the school website for you to do and you have packs of work to do, but don’t forget there are other things you can do as well, like reading, artwork, singing along to your favourite songs, writing letters and poems and stories. Now’s the chance to spend some time on the things you really love to do. 

Best wishes

Mr Bunting, Mme Perez-Rae, Mrs Purcell, Mrs Grace, Miss Darvill, Mrs Jeeves, Mrs Tooman, Mrs Winchester and Mrs Wimshurst.