COVID-19 UPDATES:

Initially, I would like to bring your attention to two documents that have been released by the Department of Education as guidelines for reopening the schools next month. Please find the links to both documents below:

Opening schools and educational settings to more pupils from 1 June: guidance for parents and carers

Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for schools and other educational settings

The first document details guidance for parents on sending children to school.

The second document is a guidance for schools. I would like to bring your attention to page 8 onwards as this sets out what the school day is likely to look like.

I am meeting with Governors tonight to discuss how to proceed, to ensure the school is Covid-19 secure for pupils and staff. I am also in regular contact with our locality Headteachers’ network group which includes Primary and Secondary schools in Burgess Hill and Hassocks to seek wider views on the school reopening.

As always, please be reassured that my primary concern is for the health and safety of our staff, pupils and the school community which will be at the heart of all our decisions.

Kind regards

Miss D Bailey

Head Teacher

Monday 11th May 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

I’m sure like me, many of you will have watched the Prime Minister’s address to the nation last night.

The Prime Minister indicated that the government may be in a position to implement a phased re - opening of schools, starting with Foundation Stage, Year One and Year Six from 1st June 2020. This strategy formed part of the government's conditional plan which it says will remain under regular review.

I am sure over the coming days, parents will have many questions regarding this approach which at this stage I will not be able to answer. Myself and our governors are waiting to receive more information from the government about what this re-opening means for our school.

I hope to provide further information in the coming days and weeks when I am able to do so.

As always, the health and safety of pupils and staff is paramount at Manor Field and is a key factor in all our decision making. It is worth sharing with parents that if the national guidance (once known) cannot be safely applied at Manor Field, myself and the Governing Body retain the power to make decisions about school reopening, based on our own risk assessments. Therefore, this may ultimately mean that we are not in a position to increase our pupil numbers as indicated on 1st June 2020. We will of course be working hard to ensure we can open as quickly and safely as possible.

Please be mindful, that in the short term, nothing has changed and we are currently open for key worker children only when parents are at work.

Thank you as always for your continued support and I do look forward to when we all meet again.

Kind regards

Miss D Bailey

Head Teacher

Monday 27th April 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Learning at home during school closure

As time goes on, the governors, staff and myself fully appreciate the challenges you are facing at home , particularly in regard to home learning.

Firstly, you will have read the recent letters from the Local Authority regarding online teaching learning, 22nd April 2020 – Updated guidance- Safeguarding and online learning and 22nd April 2020 - Learning during Covid-19- Letter to Parents. Both were shared with parents on Friday 24th April 2020 and are available on the website.

Hopefully, the first letter, 22nd April 2020 – Updated guidance- Safeguarding and online learning, will inform and reassure parents why we have taken the decision not to use social media platforms such as ‘zoom’. There are considerable safeguarding processes and procedures that need to be explored and policy agreed by the Governing Body before we introduce any new online platform. Risk Assessments and new policies need to be in place in order to safeguard both staff and pupils.

The letter clearly states: ‘Where online learning is set, it is recommended that schools utilise platforms they have previously used and are familiar with.’ To that end, staff at Manor Field agreed to use our current online learning platforms - Class Dojo, Big Maths online and google drive where children can share their work with their teachers.

Moving forward, I have had several requests for video contact with teachers and this is an area the staff and myself are currently investigating with a view to agreeing upon a whole school approach. Please note, this will not be a lesson taught by the teacher but possibly the class termly reading book and other stories being read by the teachers and staff.

Also, as a google school, all governors, staff and pupils have google accounts. If children would like to contact each other, they can easily do so using the google hangouts feature or google chat feature on the front page of their gmail accounts. They can chat and video chat.

The second letter, 22nd April 2020 - Learning during Covid-19- Letter to Parents states, it is important to remember that it is not possible to replicate for any child a ‘school experience’ at home.’

Parents have been advised by staff to create their own daily timetable that fits around your family - they will all be different and there is no wrong or right way. It’s whatever works for your family.

Parents are quite rightly concerned about progress as children are missing a significant amount of full time education. As the school closed on Friday 20th March 2020, teachers, subject leaders, middle and senior leaders agreed upon what learning would be most beneficial for children to learn in order that this would ensure rapid catch up and accelerated progress upon school reopening.

We agreed upon the following, which has since been revised and updated as new resources became available. Taken from our ‘Revised List of Home Learning’ document shared with parents and added to our website on Friday 24th April 2020.

Please note all home learning advice is shared on the website: Curriculum, Home Learning.

Please be reminded that as a school, the only expectation is that learning sent home via Dojo is done. It is not expected that children complete all the Dojo work, but do as much as is manageable at home. This work will help children to make progress, accelerated progress if necessary, when they return to school.

Basic Key Learning Skills

The key learning, set by your class teacher on Class Dojo will include:

Daily reading and/or Phonics ( This will significantly help accelerate progress, not only in reading but also in writing. Children's vocabulary will also expand.)

Spellings set weekly alongside year group key spelling list (Learning to read and spell the year group spellings and weekly spelling patterns set, will significantly improve their writing and teachers will not have to cover previous terms or year)

Talk for Writing Home Learning Booklet. This booklet includes reading, creative activities and a writing task. They are very child friendly and children should be able to work independently. If not, please select the previous year booklet to build confidence. Each booklet covers two weeks of learning. (These booklets are new and will help with reading, writing, grammar and punctuation. They are designed to cover two weeks of learning. There is no need to print the booklets, children can write their answers in their exercise book)

A ‘My Maths’ task and A ‘Big Maths’ task - this will help children secure basic year group number facts, including multiplication. (Children knowing their year group number facts will allow teachers to provide children with reasoning, problem solving and challenges.)

A piece of learning from the Home learning grid (one piece from each subject area over the course of the half term). This is project-based in which the children can choose how they want to present their work.

A supplementary resource to use at home:

The Government funded, ‘The National Oak Academy’ website is a good resource. Each day comprises Maths, English and one other subject. Children can complete these tasks independently and recent feedback from parents has been very positive. There is no sign up & no log in, so it is very easy for children to access.

For additional subject learning, please refer to the Theme overview ( on the website under: Curriculum, Year Groups) which covers all other subjects. Whilst these subjects will provide variety and children to follow their own interests, the above Basic Key Learning Skills will have the greatest impact on your children making progress when they return. The National Oak Academy website has very good lessons for all subjects on the Termly Theme Overviews.

As I receive information from the Government, the Department of Education and the Local Authority, I will keep parents informed and updated of the schools response and actions, in particular reference to the free laptops and G4 routers to vulnerable and disadvantaged families.

Whatever challenges come our way, we will meet them and we will be together again.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards,

Miss D Bailey

Friday 24th April

Dear Parents/Carers,

Thank you for your patience and hard work during this difficult time. We have some important updates for you attached to this email regarding home learning:

Revised list of home learning resources -

As lock-down continues and our pupils continue to be educated at home, we have updated our home learning resources list. The revised list focuses on the key websites and resources that we, as a school, are using most. Hopefully this will support you at home to focus the children’s learning, and to prevent it from becoming overwhelming.

You can also find this information on the 'Home Learning' page of the Manor Field website by clicking HERE.

Safer Online Practices -

This information from 'Safeguarding in education' clearly explains why Manor Field will not be using zoom, or any other platform that has not been used at Manor Field before. The introduction of using such platforms has always raised considerable safeguarding and GDPR concerns.

Safer online practices WSCC SIE team guidance for school leaders

WSCC - Learning during Covid 19 -

An update from Paul Wagstaff, the Director of Education and Skills for West Sussex County Council.

Learning during Covid-19 Letter to Parents

For really good daily online lessons from teachers, please use the Government's backed 'The National Oak Academy' website which provides three daily lessons which the children can use independently. Feedback from parents have been very positive with one parent stating 'he has even put pen to paper'. I cannot recommend this site highly enough.

Thank you for your continued support as always and stay safe.

Kind regards,

Miss D Bailey

Headteacher

New Foundation Stage Parents - September 2020

We welcome our new Foundation Stage children and parents who have been offered Manor Field Primary School from September 2020.

Please note that a letter will be sent to you tomorrow which will include details about our Foundation Stage 2020 induction day, a school place acceptance form as well as details about further information that will be coming to you over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, please feel free to browse our website to see what life at Manor Field is like.