SCHOOL CLOSURE UPDATE

Spring Term 2021

Friday 15th January 2021

 

Blackheath Home Learning Letter	Click HERE
Deptford Home Learning Letter	Click HERE

Wednesday 6th January 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

Firstly, I hope you are all as well as possible as we once again find ourselves under the most difficult circumstances. When I wrote to you on Saturday we were hoping the current school closure would be only for two weeks. Now we are beginning to digest the Prime Minister’s announcement from Monday evening, I am writing with some updates. I apologise in advance for such a long letter, but there is a lot to cover.

Critical Worker and Vulnerable children provision

Thank you for understanding and respecting the strict criteria for this provision. Thank you too to those who have registered as requested and provided evidence. Whilst we don’t like to ask I know that you understand why we need to. Booking will now be weekly as it was in the first lockdown. A form will be sent each Friday. Whilst we understand needs might change at short notice, please ENSURE that you inform us of this so we can plan accordingly.

Home learning for children with EHCPs

We will be directly contacting parents and carers of children with EHCPs who are not attending onsite as vulnerable children by the end of this week about additional arrangements we are putting in place to further support your children.

Free School Meals

Apart from the government’s indication that food, rather than vouchers, should be provided at this stage we are still awaiting official information about how this provision will proceed during this lockdown. While awaiting further direction we are independently trying to organise food deliveries for those registered for Free School Meals who did not refuse permission. We hope these families will receive a food package this week. We will keep you informed as and when we get more information.

Remote learning

At the Government’s direction we will be reverting to our home learning provision, we are in a different position this time with the benefit of experience and hindsight! This week we have been working hard on further improving our provision within Google Classroom, as well as providing direct contact with teachers. You can expect a call from your child(ren)’s teacher before the end of next week to check-in with the children and also discuss how much contact you would like moving forward. In addition you will have the teachers’ email addresses should you have any questions for them.

For those of you who supported your child with their home learning in 2020, you will be aware of the system we used. The engagement from the children was brilliant and we were really pleased that the children managed to produce fantastic work while retaining contact with their peers and teachers. Please know that we do not underestimate how hard so many of you and your children will be working throughout this lockdown period. We are also very much aware of how difficult this can be for so many reasons and I’d like to say again that we understand that each of your individual family circumstances are different, and the implications of this.

We are not providing live lessons at Invicta for a range of reasons including equality of access as well as staff capacity during the pandemic in a maintained LA school providing critical worker provision as well as remote learning.

Google classroom provision

Our staff have worked very hard on this and the feedback from families has mostly been very positive from the outset. If you need a reminder of how Google classroom works please follow this link for a presentation. There is also a video on our Reception webpages that shows how to log on etc that might be useful as a reminder to anyone.

This might also be a good time to discuss online safety with children, and remember that young children especially should be supervised online. There is lots of advice on our online safety webpage, including how to set parental controls on devices which we highly recommend.

It is important that the children sign into Google Classroom as this is where the teacher will provide work for you and will also share messages. We will take a register based on whether children are engaged in the chat and submitting work. We will contact you if it looks like there is a problem.

● Every morning at 9am there will be a video wishing the children good morning. You don’t have to be there at 9am to see it though, you can access it all day

● Each day you will also see an English and Maths lesson uploaded on Google classroom. There will be a task set for the children to complete and it will be differentiated so that it is accessible for all. If your child is struggling, please email the teacher so that they can ensure the learning is accessible. It will follow a sequence so if you miss a day, you can always go back to catch up. Please submit the work through Google Classroom and not via email.

● There will be a weekly menu of lessons including Science, Art, Design and Technology History, PSHE, Mandarin or R.E - 1 per day.

● The teachers will be available online in Google Classroom to answer queries, make comments and help your child online between 10am & 11am and 2pm & 3pm every day.

● In addition, there will be P.E. with Mr Waller twice a week and Music with Ms Alexander once a week.

● Your teacher will not be available from 11am-2pm daily so that they can prepare learning for the next day. The teacher will also share a video (not live!) with storytime at around 3pm daily. Again, don’t worry if your child is not online, it will be available later.

● We will be looking out for good effort and hard work and will celebrate this in Special Mentions each Friday.

If you do any work, please submit on Google classroom, do not email this to teachers individually - they might miss it in amongst all their emails! You should expect your teacher to give feedback on any work submitted within 2-3 working days.

Google classroom organisation

The classroom is organised into the following topics:

● Home Learning- Daily messages, daily maths, English and other subject lessons

● Story time- Daily

● P.E. with Mr Waller - posted on Tuesday and Thursday

● Music with Miss Alexander- posted on a Friday

● Special Mentions - posted on a Friday

● Messages from the Head of School (Mrs. Cawte/ Miss. Gallagher)

● Holiday learning - during half terms / holidays only

Support

We recognise that many of you have children in more than one class and understand they may not be able to be online all at once, but please do try to enable your children to access their Google Classroom across the week at some of the times when their teachers are online. There is no pressure or expectation on parents/carers to do all the work every day, just what you can manage each day. Don’t forget there is a Google Classroom App that can be downloaded for phones and other devices, so access doesn’t have to be only on a laptop, chromebook or computer.

We have a limited amount of chromebooks that we are able to lend to families. We have been promised more by the Government but can not rely on these arriving in the near future. Please contact admin@invictaprimary.co.uk if you would like to borrow a chromebook and we will distribute them as fairly and as quickly as we can. If you are unable to access Google classroom for other reasons please speak to your class teacher, email us via admin@invictaprimary.co.uk or call the school office so we can discuss alternative access. In addition, we will contact you early next week if your child has not attended a home learning session or submitted any work by the end of this week. Can you help? If any families have an old laptop, chromebook or other device that is in working condition and has a charger that they would like to donate to a family who may need it please email us as these would be most gratefully received.

Thank you again, and in advance for your understanding and cooperation!

With my very best wishes,

Vicki Cuff

Executive Headteacher

Saturday 2nd January 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am sure you will have heard last night’s announcement that Greenwich Primary schools will remain closed for a further 2 weeks to all children except those who are vulnerable and children of critical workers. I am sorry and sad to be starting the new year by writing this letter to you, however the new strain of coronavirus and the alarming rise in numbers of cases call for such drastic measures.

Important information:

Online Learning

Given the lateness of the announcement, our full online learning provision will be in place in your child(ren)’s Google Classroom by 9am on Tuesday 5th January. A reminder of how to access Google Classroom can be found here. Families may choose to visit The Oak National Academy or revisit areas within their Google Classroom for online learning on Monday.

Free School Meals

We are currently arranging provision for children who are in receipt of Free School Meals and will be in touch with those families directly.

Emergency provision

We will be operating our provision for vulnerable children and those of critical workers. If you are a critical worker and have no other means of providing childcare this provision will be in place from Monday morning. We are not able to provide Breakfast or After School Club provision for the next two weeks. If you are already on our critical worker or vulnerable children list you will shortly receive an email with more information and a survey. If your circumstances have changed and you need to be added to this list please email: emergencyprovision@invictaprimary.co.uk with your request and critical worker evidence (we understand you may not be able to provide this immediately but request you send it on as soon as possible and thank you for understanding why we need to ask for it.) Similarly, if you are no longer a critical worker please email to be removed from the list.

At the moment it is suggested that schools may fully reopen on 18th January. I will, of course, keep you updated.

Best wishes,

Vicki Cuff

Executive Headteacher

Friday 17th July 2020

Dear parents and carers,

 

Well, when we began this academic year none of us had any idea about what was ahead and I can’t quite believe we’ve got to the summer holidays without being able to see you all. Thankfully that will all be put right in September!

 

September start date and information

Since my last letter, there has been a change in arrangements for INSET days this coming academic year. In light of the current pandemic, the school will be having additional training on the return to school in September so the start day for all children in Years 1-6 is now confirmed as Monday September 7th. We have written separately to EYFS parents about their start dates.

 

We are currently working on adapting our risk assessment and plans for the full reopening of the school. I’m sure you can appreciate this is a huge task with, as always, your children’s and our staff’s safety as a priority. Like all schools we are working within the government guidance which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools

 

We will write with full details in the first week of September, before the children return, but in terms of your own day to day organisation not much should change. We will have slightly staggered starts, however all start times will be within 8.45am and 9am and home times between 3.20 and 3.30 for children in Years 1-6 so please don’t worry about dramatic changes there. To maintain some social distance on arrival and departure, children will be asked to use different gates, and we will confirm your entrance point(s) when more information is shared before you return. In addition, there are some school office updates which can be found below this letter. 

 

It’s a long time since we’ve seen many of you, and if you have any information that you feel is important to share with the school or your child(ren)’s new teacher to support their return to school please email admin@invictaprimary.co.uk in the first week of September and we will make sure your message is shared with the right person or people. 

 

Invicta Deptford refurbishment

When you return to school at Invicta Deptford in September, you will notice some exciting new changes. Throughout the lockdown the refurbishment of our building has been completed…..we can’t wait for you to see it! Work to complete our outside space is beginning over the summer too. 

 

School streets at Invicta Blackheath

We are delighted that the Royal Borough of Greenwich has decided to make Invicta Road a School Street. We believe it contributes to our children's safety and reduces immediate pollution around the school. This means that since earlier this month Invicta Road is closed to traffic between 8am and 9.30 and again between 3pm and 4pm every school day.

It is also important to be aware that emergency services and blue badge holders have right to access and although residents have been encouraged to limit vehicular movement when the School Street is in operation, they are permitted to access or leave if necessary, which they arrange with the school.  Therefore it is extremely important to remain vigilant when using the road as traffic may still be present. 

More information about this can be found on our website and any queries or comments should be directed to schoolstreets@royalgreenwich.co.uk

 

Summer Reading Challenge

Don’t forget that we are running the Summer Reading Challenge, which invites children of all ages to challenge themselves to read as many books as they can from now through to September.

It takes minutes to create an account on the Summer Reading Challenge website which has hundreds of resources to suit children of all ages and reading interests. Greenwich Libraries are offering a range of ebooks and audiobooks on their website and you can find hundreds of free books to download on the Many Books website. In September, we will be celebrating the success of our most avid readers. We look forward to hearing all about their literary adventures!

Visit: www.summerreadingchallenge.org to find our more.

Young Greenwich Summer Camp 

Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) in partnership with the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Charlton Athletic Football Club are running summer camps for children who receive Free School Meals. Young Greenwich Summer Camp is a free weekly programme from 27 July-21 August combining physical activity with active learning and a youth club offer. For more information and how to apply for a place visit this website:

https://www.young-greenwich.org.uk/getting-in-contact/young-greenwich-summer-camp

 

Children with SEND

We have been so proud of how hard our children with SEND have been working throughout the lockdown both at home and at school. Miss Heath will be sending out individual transition books and social stories to those children who she thinks will need them. If your child has SEND and you have not received one by the first week of September and think it would help prepare your child to return to school, please email her directly: r.heath@invictaprimary.co.uk. Also please take a look at the Greenwich local offer for information on things that are happening during the summer holidays, including their short breaks. 

 

Year 6

This week we have said goodbye to your amazing Scull and Grainger classes. In their virtual leaving assembly yesterday, Miss Gallagher and I expressed our pride in their maturity and resilience in the face of an unusual and unpredictable school year. We have no doubt that they are ready for the new challenges that await them as they begin secondary school life. Good luck to you all -  and remember, whilst you are ready for the next chapter in your lives you will always be part of the Invicta family. We will miss you!

Watch out for their virtual leavers’ show, “The Lion King” on all of the Google Classrooms today!

 

Finally, as we end this most unusual of academic years, I’d like to say a huge thank you for all of your support, kind wishes, messages and gifts throughout this whole time as well as during this final week of the year. I know I write this on behalf of Mrs Cawte, Miss Gallagher and the rest of our wonderful staff too. 

 

I wish you all a safe and happy summer holiday, and we really can’t wait to see you all in September!

 

With my very best wishes,

 

Vicki Cuff

Executive Headteacher

 

School Office Updates

 

Thank you to all of our parents/carers for using our payment portal “Parent Pay”. Can we please ask for all outstanding debts to be settled before the start of the Autumn term.

 

School Dinner Charge

All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are eligible for Universal Free School meals, but all those in years 3-6 pay for their school lunch at £2.50 per day, which is £12.50 per week. For the first term 7 Sept - 23 Oct = £87.50. Please pay half termly in advance. The item is on parent pay for you to pay now.

 

Breakfast  Club

This is run in house by our own staff.

The hours are 7.45-8.55 for £6.50 per day (£7 for nursery/reception at Blackheath). The application form has been shared via text message. We are confirming places at the moment. Places will not be allocated to families until all outstanding debts are cleared.

 

Nursery  (inc. Reception wraparound at Blackheath)

We offer 15 & 30  hour nursery funded places, as well as privately funded options. Prices will remain as follows:

Breakfast Club £7.00

Morning or Afternoon Top Ups £25

Lunch & lunchtime care £5.50 (Care only = £3)

After school Club 1 hour = £8

After School Club until 6pm = £15

You can find more information and the application form on our website

 

After School Clubs

We will not be running in-house enrichment and sports clubs for the first half term.

 

Energy Kidz (outsourced provider) will start from 7th Sept, at both of our sites. Please see their website for more details.https://www.energy-kidz.co.uk/

 

Best wishes,

Kate Fry

School Business Manager

 

Friday 3rd July 2020

Dear parents and carers

 

As always, I hope you all remain well and safe during this strange time. I have lots of information to share with you again, so please bear with me!

 

Home learning

Once again I must comment on the work that so many children are managing to complete and hand in on Google Classroom. Please know that we do not underestimate how hard so many of you and your children have been working!  We are also very much aware of how difficult this can be for so many reasons and I’d like to say again that we understand that each of your individual family circumstances are different, and the implications of this. Teachers have started the phone calls home to all children who aren’t able to attend “real” school- don’t forget if you need an extra call, just drop your teacher a line and they will do their best to get in touch as soon as they can.

 

Huge thanks to everyone who has sent in a photograph (we have received nearly 200!!) which we will be using in our online photography exhibition. These photos have been an absolute delight to see and have given us an insight into how the children view the world in the moment. The children have really used their creativity and imagination to capture their experiences. A massive thank you goes to Vera Krämer-Smith, one of our parents, who is creating the online exhibition.

 

Wider opening

This week, despite not having any staff left to open new bubbles, we managed to welcome Nursery children at Blackheath into Reception bubbles by offering spare spaces. It’s been lovely to be able to give the children starting “big school” in September a chance to come in and see friends and teachers. We also did some bubble rearrangement- thank you so much to those of you affected for bearing with us. “Bubble organisation” wasn’t something we were taught at teacher training college and has certainly been a big challenge! Thank you for your understanding and patience.

 

Reports

You should have received your child(ren)’s reports by email on Wednesday. It is important to remember that this report was written mainly with teachers’ knowledge of your child up until school closure on 20th March. Please do reply to the teacher if you would like to. If you didn’t receive the report, please check your junk email and if you can’t find it please contact the teacher directly or email admin@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Transition

Next week we plan to share our transition newsletter with you as well as give the children a chance to “meet” their new teachers. Piecing together our staffing jigsaw is always one of the most complicated jobs of the year, so you can imagine how it has been this time! Again, thank you for bearing with us.

 

Summer holidays and September 2020

The Department for Education has now announced that schools will not be expected to remain open during the summer holidays. Therefore, as planned the term will end for all children (including those of key workers) on Friday 17th July. 

 

Following the Government’s announcements yesterday, we are now planning for September. Inevitably there will be some different arrangements in place, but the most important thing is that all children can come back to school! Once we’ve had a chance to digest all of the guidance and put our plan together I will write again with more information, including safety measures we will be putting in place. So, we are really looking forward to seeing all  Y1-6 children back on Thursday 3rd September. Arrangements will be different for our new Reception Nursery children (including wraparound care) and we are writing to parents and carers of these children separately about this. 

We are also aiming to reopen Breakfast Club within the guidelines and will be in touch in due course with more details.  Energy Kidz will reopen their After School Clubs too, and will be in touch directly. Alternatively, or to sign up for an after school place, please contact them via www.energy-kidz.co.uk.

 

It is important to remember that all plans are subject to change in light of any local or national COVID19 developments and further Government guidance. 

 

Free School Meals

Free School Meal vouchers support will continue during the summer. All eligible families (i.e. those who already qualify for free school meals) will be sent an e-code via email at the end of term (20th July) covering the summer period of six weeks and two days. The government has announced that the scheme will not continue beyond the summer holidays. If you have any queries please contact Kate Fry, our School Business Manager on Kate.Fry@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Chair of Governors

I hope you saw the letter from our new Chair of Governors earlier this week. The governing body and I are absolutely delighted that Jamie Hill has taken on this important role. Jamie takes over from Mo Wiltshire, who had been our chair since September 2018 and a member of the governing body for several years before that. Both on behalf of the school and also on a personal level I would like to say a huge thank you to Mo for all she has done for Invicta. Many people aren’t aware of how big a job the Chair of Governors is, and Mo fulfilled this role incredibly by leading the board in offering the perfect balance of support and challenge where necessary. Thank you Mo!

 

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

Vicki Cuff

Friday 19th June 2020

Dear parents and carers,

 

Once again, apologies in advance for such a long letter. I am trying not to send too many letters so information doesn’t get lost. I do realise it’s a lot of reading though!

 

Home Learning

As I have mentioned before, at Invicta we deliberately chose a wider opening of school model that means we still have the capacity to deliver high quality home learning to our children who the government didn’t prioritise for a return and the others who aren't able to come back to school just yet.  This continues to be one of our priorities and we are always looking at ways to make it even better.  You might have noticed that we have introduced a weekly quiz in Maths and English which is on Google classroom every Friday. We have added this because we understand that parents and carers are keen for feedback about how their child is getting on. This short quiz is to capture their understanding of what has been taught that week. Answers will be automatically revealed in the online quiz, or shared by teachers the following Monday and should allow parents and carers to see how well their child is doing. Teachers will monitor the results and adjust plans for the following lessons accordingly. All teachers will respond to any other work submitted within 2-3 working days, and this will be acknowledged, but please understand this can not be marked in depth due to current teacher capacity inevitably being somewhat reduced.

Phone calls

Our staff have been working extremely hard to support our children both in school and at home and to supplement this over the next two weeks the class teachers will begin to give fortnightly phone calls to all the children who are not in school. Please ensure you contact the school office if you have changed your contact details on admin@invictaprimary.co.uk. We hope that this will help the children who can’t come back for now to continue to feel motivated and reassured.  In addition, we are aware that some children are struggling more than others for all sorts of reasons, so please don’t forget our offer of getting in touch more regularly is still open- just let us know! 

Wider opening of schools and “bubble” queries

The first 2 weeks of our wider opening of the school to the government’s chosen year groups have gone really well and we are looking forward to children from Year 6 returning next week. The children have really enjoyed being back in school, despite it being quite different with the social distancing measures we have had to put into place. 

 

We have had a small number of queries with regards to working patterns and friendship groups. I am also aware that some of you may have similar questions, but took note of our decision about the alphabetical split. We are trying to be as accommodating to families as well as ensuring that we are prioritising the safety of our children, staff and community. Once we have all year groups in next we will assess the take up and then review placements where parents or carers have requested their child to be moved, as well as checking in with others about this. If you have a request or query along these lines please send them to admin@invictaprimary.co.uk and we will include them in decisions.  We will be in touch by the end of next week with an update. We will also be contacting parents and carers of children in nursery directly next week.

 

Essential Worker provisions

We have been delighted to have supported our key workers by being open every day but one since the lockdown, including Easter and May bank holidays. As the lockdown measures have eased, the demand has increased and we have now reached capacity in our key worker provision classes at Blackheath. With every staff member, who is able to be at school, already allocated to a bubble we are unable to open another bubble at the moment. 

Due to this high demand, please remember we are politely requesting that parents or carers who are able to have their children safely looked after at home do so. This could mean that an essential worker who doesn’t have care for their children can be helped.

We have opened a waiting list at Blackheath should someone not need the provision anymore. Please contact m.crescenzo@invictaprimary.co.uk if you would like to go on this waiting list. There are limited places left at Deptford. Please contact l.scott@invictaprimary.co.uk if you are an essential worker and you need this provision. These final places at the Deptford site are open to Blackheath essential workers’ children while they are on the Blackheath waiting list too. 

 

Nominations

Following the letter we sent out last week, we have had many suggestions of inspirational historical characters that we can name our classes after. Thank you to those who have sent them in! These name changes are very important and we don’t want to rush into any decisions. I would also like to make it clear that, as outlined in the original letter, this does not mean we will be removing Drake or Nelson from our learning as we continue to recognise their significant historical importance. It is because we want our classes to be named after people that all of us in our Invicta family can celebrate and who share the values of Invicta in the present time. 

So, we have decided to postpone the actual change until the Autumn term. This is because we hope we will all be back at school then, and we believe it is important that all of the children are involved in the learning around the why we are changing the class names as well as actively being part of the decision about what the new ones will be. 

In the meantime, we would like to officially open up nominations! If you and your child(ren) have a suggestion for one of our new class names please fill in this form: Class Name Nominations 

We will use your nominations to make a shortlist from which the children can choose in the Autumn term. 

 

Teachers for next year

Speaking of the Autumn term, we have been working hard on our staffing plan for September with just a few parts of the plan to complete. As always we will be sharing our Transition newsletter in July so everyone knows who their new teacher will be. We are also working on a plan to replace our traditional Transition Fridays, so that children have a chance to “meet” their teachers in some way... watch this space!

I have had many people ask what will actually happen in September.  As I have explained before, we hear the announcements at the same time as everyone else. I wish it was different! We have had no updates from the government yet, but everyone at school is desperately hoping for some sort of normality if at all possible. 

Have a good weekend and let’s hope we see a little bit of sunshine!

With my very best wishes,

 

Vicki Cuff

Friday 5th June 2020

5th June 2020

 

Dear parents and carers,

 

As another week comes to a close I wanted to write to you again with some updates. You will most likely be aware that last month the government chose some priority year groups for a return to school. Those of you with children in those year groups have received quite a lot of correspondence about this (for anyone else interested it can be found on our website in the “wider opening of schools” page in this School Closure section of our website). Thank you for completing the surveys, they are absolutely key to our planning. If you have not responded yet, please do. We are looking forward to beginning to welcome children back on Monday in Year 1 as well as those in our provisions for vulnerable children and children of key workers. 

 

For those of you who have children who are not in the returning year groups, I want to assure you that they are absolutely not forgotten and remain an equal priority to us! With full support from the school’s governors we chose a 2 day  week model for the returning “bubbles” of children. This is so that our teachers can still have the capacity to provide the same quality of home learning and continue to have interaction with the children who are still at home, either because the government did not prioritise them, or because their parents or carers have chosen for them not to return yet. As class sizes have effectively been halved, every single teacher and learning support assistant, who is able to, needs to be involved in the teaching of the bubbles of children (not just the staff who normally teach those year groups). It is very important to us that they are able to devote time during their working week to all of the children who remain at home too. 

 

From feedback we have received, the changes we made to the organisation of home learning within Google Classroom have been helpful to many of you. We continue to be delighted and amazed by the efforts so many children are going to with their work, and we do not underestimate the support so many of them are getting from their grown-ups. Nor do we underestimate the pressure on parents with their children learning at home. Please remember that we don’t expect everyone to do everything that is online every day and that we also understand that many of our families have children of all ages at home as well and that logging on daily just is not possible. We also know that many of you are trying to work from home at the same time as looking after your children (as many of our own staff have been doing too) and we do not underestimate these challenges. 

 

As always, I hope you are all well and safe within your own circumstances. 

With my very best wishes,

Vicki Cuff

Tuesday 2nd June 2020

Parents/carers of government's priority year groups for a return to school can find information under the "Wider Opening of Schools" page under the School Closure menu to the right of this page.

Wednesday 20th May

Dear families,

Information about wider opening of school and online learning update

 

Once again, I hope this letter finds you as well and safe as possible in each of your individual family circumstances. As the uncertainty around when children might return to school continues I would like to provide an update with regards to the proposed phased wider opening of schools and also our online learning provision, which we have reviewed and improved. 

I apologise for the length of this letter and the amount of information in it, however I feel it is very important to share all of this information at this time.

 

The phased wider opening of schools.

I wanted to give you all another update as it’s over a week since my last message which shortly followed the Government’s proposals for a phased wider opening of schools. As before I won’t be able to answer all of your questions but hope this letter will give some reassurance.

 

Some of you might have watched the Education Secretary’s briefing last Saturday, as well as reading a range of reports in the press.  Reporting in the media will have inevitably heightened a range of emotions in many of you, however the government message remains the same: that schools may begin the phased return to schools from 1st June, and this is dependent on meeting the conditional plan of the “5 tests”. My priority remains the same too- the safety of our children, our staff and our community. 

 

Over the past week, I have been looking carefully at the Government’s ambitious plan with the senior leadership team and school governors and thinking carefully about what this means for Invicta. We have been reading and digesting the guidance from the Department for Education and unions as well as talking to staff, governors, the Local Authority and other headteachers to consider what is possible for the Invicta community and what this might look like in practice, and we are continuing to do so as more advice and guidance is issued. We are working hard on creating a thorough risk assessment and robust plan for our phased wider opening..

 

Whilst I still cannot yet tell you or your children exactly when and how the school will be open to more children, what I can tell you at this stage is:

 

• The government has said that no final decision concerning the wider opening of schools will be made until 28th May when they plan to announce whether the five tests that need to be met before they consider easing the current measures. 
• Our governing body has agreed that the phased wider opening of Invicta will not begin before 8th June at the earliest, in order for us to make a safe and robust plan.
• Our plan will begin with the phased (gradual) return of the government’s priority year groups of EYFS, Year 1 and Year 6 with the order of these year groups to be confirmed.

 

In any planning and decision making, the school’s first priority will continue to be the safety of the children, staff and wider school community. As soon as the school has formulated the plan, I will write to you again. I know that some of you may be keen to get your children back to school, some may be reluctant and others may be undecided. We will also survey parents and carers in relation to this when we are clear on our plan and you can be clearer on how our phased return will work. 

Online provision and home learning.

We are constantly reviewing our online provision to ensure it meets the needs of as many children and families as possible. We continue to receive many extremely positive messages, and I thank you for these! We have also received some useful feedback and questions to help our review process and hope the following clarification and changes will further support you.

 

Home learning organisation

 

Our staff have been working really hard and we are really proud of our Google Classroom provision. We have noticed that with the amount of work posted it is getting trickier to navigate. For this reason, we have decided to organise the classroom into the following topics. This will be in place from today:

 

• Home Learning- Daily messages, daily maths , English and topic lessons 
• Story time- Daily 
• P.E. with Mr Waller- Tuesday/ Thursday
• Music with Miss Alexander- Friday
• Special Mentions - Friday
• Messages from the Head of School 
• Holiday learning- during half terms / holidays only 

 

Daily ‘Hello’ videos from teachers are also posted within maths, English and music lessons, Special Mentions or PE challenges .  The learning will continue to be posted on a daily basis so the children will see it on the ‘stream’ but should you miss a day it should be simpler to navigate through the ‘classwork’ tab and look for the topic label on the left hand side. 

 

Please see below for a link to the instructions sent at the beginning of lockdown for Google Classroom as well as video showing you how to navigate this new organisation.

 

How to access Google Classroom 

 

Please see below for a video which shows how to navigate the different areas on Google Classroom:

• How to view daily assignments/videos 
• How to submit work 
• How to comment 
• How to send a private comment 

How to navigate Google Classroom once you have signed in 

 

Half term online learning provision

You may be aware that the half term break begins on Monday.  One of this week’s challenges has been to organise online provision for the break that meets the needs of your children and you, as well as the wellbeing needs of the teachers. We are really lucky to have such committed staff in our school and, following consultation, they are very keen to continue with a modified online classroom. 5 cross-curricular activities will be posted for you to choose across the holiday, as well as the popular story videos.  Our nursery team will continue to upload their daily story videos.

Also, a teacher will be online daily (week days only) for 1 hour. In order to give our teachers a break, it will not be your child’s class teacher daily, but a teacher from their phase who they are familiar with (Reception, Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2). This time online will be for the children to chat with the teacher. Please be aware that they will not be able to respond to any previous comments.  

These are the times that your year groups will be chatting:

Reception: 10am- 11am 

Key Stage 1: Year 1 and 2: 11am- 12pm

Lower Key Stage 2: Year 3 and 4: 10am-11am

Upper Key Stage 2: Year 5 and 6: 11am- 12pm

We have tried to space out the timings for those of you who are sharing devices. The children do not need to be logged in every day, or for the full hour and they will be able to see the stream of chat at any time. Please note that teachers will not be online on Bank holiday Monday 25th May 2020.

Once again, we would like to reiterate that there is no expectation to do everything that is online every day (either during the break or during term time), but only what your child(ren) can manage each day- we do understand that many of our families have children of all ages at home as well and that logging on daily just is not possible and also know that many of you are working from home. The online work and presence is intended to be a support for your children and you, not to cause extra and unnecessary pressure. 

You may choose to take a complete break for half term, and that is absolutely fine too!

Feedback

We have become aware that some parents are not clear of the process for feedback. If you do any work, please submit on Google Classroom, do not email this to teachers individually - they might miss it amongst all their emails! You should expect your teacher to respond to any work submitted within 2-3 working days and it will be acknowledged, not marked in depth as this is not manageable.

 

‘Live’ lessons

In terms of online provision, our aim from the outset has been to provide not only educational activities but contact for your children with their teachers and school while we are closed, including during the school holidays.  Every school day the teacher is online to “speak” to the children and give support with any learning. We have carefully considered whether or not lessons on Zoom, or similar,would be appropriate and we have decided that it is not. There are a range of reasons for this including (but not exclusively) safeguarding children and staff; equity of access to the lessons (many of our families share devices and/or have limited access); consistency of teachers’ internet access and quality; the varied working patterns of teachers due to juggling their own home-working situations with, for example their own childcare or other care commitments or personal health. 

 

Support 

Our staff have been extremely proactive and are working extremely hard to support our children. Some children have struggled with the transition to home learning more than others, for all sorts of reasons. We are able to arrange for phone calls to the children to speak to them which has really helped some children feel more motivated and reassured. Similarly we can arrange a chat with parents who would find it supportive. If you would like support or feel your child could benefit from this then, please email admin@invictaprimary.co.uk and we can arrange this. Alternatively, a senior teacher is in the Deptford school office between 9 and 3.15 daily if you would prefer to call on 020 86929157.

 

Thank you again for your continued support during such a difficult time for all of us, it really is very much appreciated. I will continue to keep you informed and will update you by the 2nd June.  

 

With my very best wishes to you all,

 

Vicki Cuff

Executive Headteacher

Tuesday 12th May

Dear parents and carers,

I hope this letter finds you as well and safe as possible in each of your individual family circumstances. I am constantly conscious that this is an incredibly difficult and uncertain time for our community. I am writing to you about the Prime Minister’s announcement, which I’m sure that many of you will have watched on the television on Sunday night, as well as the further information that was released yesterday. You will have heard that some children might begin to return to school after half term, depending on the national situation. The phased reopening of primary schools may commence from 1st June, starting with EYFS, Y1 and Y6. This is part of the government’s conditional plan, which it says will remain under regular review. 

The new guidelines appear to open up as many questions as they answer. You probably have many questions of your own, most of which we will be unable to answer at the moment. What I can tell you though, is that the logistics of any phased reopening of schools during these unprecedented times will be complex and require careful consideration. We are working closely with the local authority as we plan our next phase of responding to the Covid – 19 pandemic.  Until any decisions are made, we will continue to provide our well received online learning provision as well as keeping our emergency provision open for our most vulnerable and key worker families at our Deptford site. 

With this in mind please be patient with us while we plan for the next phase. As soon as we have further information about how this might happen we will be in touch again and, most importantly,  please be reassured that any decisions that we make around a phased reopening will be based on the best interests and safety of your children, staff and our community. 

Thank you again for your continued support, it is very much appreciated. I will keep you updated. 

With my very best wishes to you all, 

Vicki Cuff

Executive Headteacher

Monday 4th May 

Please see our Wellbeing page (https://www.invictaprimaryschool.org.uk/COVID-19-Wellbeing-Support/) for our latest communication and more information which might help you support your child(ren) at this time.

Wednesday 8th April

FREE SCHOOL MEAL UPDATE

Families who are registered for Free School Meals should receive their voucher today or tomorrow. Please check your email account. After the Easter break School Meal vouchers will be provided by the Department for Education and will be sent out weekly. 

Parents who haven't previously applied but think they may now be entitled to FSM can contact Pupil Benefits at RBG on 020 8921 2530 or by email at pandsbenefits@royalgreenwich.gov.uk to make an application. 

IMPORTANT- children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 who receive "Universal" Free School Meals  (UFSM) are NOT automatically entitled to Free School Meals. If you think you are eligible you must apply directly to Greenwich.

 

Friday 3rd April 

Dear parents and carers,

 

Firstly,  I hope you are managing to stay well and as safe as possible during this time which is presenting each of us with different daily circumstances and challenges. Thank you for the many messages of thanks and support over the past two weeks, feedback from you has overwhelmingly indicated we are doing a good job in trying our best to keep our school running “virtually”. I have been asked many times about when the school is likely to open again, and the simple answer is that we don’t know. We, like you, hear updates on the news daily and as soon as anything changes I will update you. I do know we won’t be reopening in the very near future, so would like to give you an update on how we will continue in the coming weeks.

In terms of online provision, our aim from the outset has been to provide not only educational activities but contact for your children with their teachers and school while we are closed. As well as your feedback,  the response from children themselves within their Google Classrooms has been extremely positive. The government has passed emergency legislation stating that schools are not obliged to deliver the National Curriculum during the COVID-19 crisis, however we aim to maintain our online provision throughout.  

You may be aware that the two week Easter break begins on Monday.  One of this week’s challenges has been to organise online provision for the next two weeks that meets the needs of your children and you, as well as the wellbeing needs of the teachers. We are really lucky to have such committed staff in our school and, following consultation, they are very keen to continue with a modified online classroom. Each day there will be an English game, Maths game and story time posted. In addition, 10 cross-curricular activities will be posted for you to choose across the holiday, as well as the popular story videos.  Our nursery team will continue to upload their daily story videos.

Also, a teacher will be online daily (week days only) for 1 hour. In order to give our teachers a break, it will not be your child’s class teacher daily, but a teacher from their phase who they (Reception, Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2). This time online will be for the children to chat with the teacher. Please be aware that they will not be able to respond to any previous comments.  Please also remember that you can only login to our Google Classrooms using your child’s account. 

These are the times that your year groups will be chatting:

Reception: 10am- 11am 

Key Stage 1: Year 1 and 2: 11am- 12pm

Lower Key Stage 2: Year 3 and 4: 10pm-11pm

Upper Key Stage 2: Year 5 and 6: 11am- 12pm

We have tried to space out the timings for those of you who are sharing devices. The children do not need to be logged in every day, or for the full hour and they will be able to see the stream of chat at any time. Please note that teachers will not be online on Good Friday 10th April or Easter Monday 13th April as they are Bank Holidays.

I would like to take the opportunity to reiterate that there is absolutely no pressure or expectation to do everything that is online every day (either during the break or during term time), but only what your child(ren) can manage each day- we do understand that many of our families have children of all ages at home as well and that logging on daily just is not possible and also know that many of you are working from home. The online work and presence is intended to be a support for your children and you, not to cause extra and unnecessary pressure. 

You may choose to take a complete break for two weeks, and that is absolutely fine too!

For those of you who are accessing our provision at Invicta Deptford for children of workers critical to the COVID-19 response, you will continue to receive separate communication.

With very best wishes to you all,

Vicki Cuff

Executive Headteacher

Thursday 26th March

Coronavirus Update

 

Dear parents and carers,

 Our Blackheath school is closed, and our emergency provision is running out of Invicta Deptford (for key worker children only). If you have any questions please call our Deptford site on 020 8692 9157, or email admin@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Free School Meals

For children who are registered to receive free school meals, we will be sending out e - vouchers to the value £25 for a 2 week period. This is only for children who are registered, and not all of the children who currently receive Universal Free School meals. If you have not received  an email from Kate Fry detailing the voucher process, please email her on  kate.fry@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Communication and information

We will continue to contact you via text or this web page when there are any changes to the situation. We will also do this as we become more aware of support services for families who need help at this time. 

 

Children’s Services at Royal Borough of Greenwich are working on a coordinated response to the situation, including provision of school meals and other services for those of you in a vulnerable position.  Updates, including how to sign up for email alerts, directly from the Royal Borough of Greenwich can be found here. To sign up for updates from the Borough of Lewisham click here

 

Finances

Over the coming weeks, our finance officer will be looking to refund any credits (excluding childcare vouchers) to you. If you have any questions about this please contact the office on admin@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Safety

Information about how you can report concerns to Greenwich about a child’s safety during school closure can be found here

 

These are challenging and uncertain times for us all and we hope to reduce any sense of isolation for your children and you with our plan. Our contact details are below, should you need them.

 

Finally, thank you for the many messages of support and thanks during this time. People often comment on Invicta’s sense of community and during this difficult time we have been reminded again of how lucky we are to work with you all. 

 

We wish you and your loved ones the very best at this time, and hope to see you all soon. 

 

We will miss you!

Friday 20th March

 

Dear parents and carers,

 

As you know, the Prime Minister has advised all schools be closed until further notice, from the end of today. We have been preparing for this time and our programme of online learning will be available from 9am on Monday 23rd March. Our home learning plan is a combination of daily learning activities as well as providing the children an opportunity to have regular online connection with their teacher and class, which we think will be vital during the coming weeks.  

 

Free School Meals

For children who are registered to receive free school meals, we will be continuing a service while the school is shut. Please come and collect a lunch daily to take away between 12.00 and 1.00 from the school office. Children will not be able to stay at school to eat it though. This is only for children who are registered, and not all of the children who currently receive Universal Free School meals. Call the office if you have any questions. 

 

Resources for home learning

Children who were in school today have brought home a pack of notebooks, pencil and ruler along with this letter to our children explaining how their home learning will happen on Google Classroom while we are closed. For anyone who didn’t get a pack you are welcome to collect from school today or from the school office next week between 9 and 3pm. If you need a reminder of how Google classroom works please follow this link This might also be a good time to discuss online safety with children, and remember that young children especially should be supervised online. There is lots of advice on our online safety webpage, including how to set parental controls on devices which we highly recommend. 

 

We recognise that many of you have children in more than one class and understand they may not be able to be online all at once, but please do try to enable your children to access their Google Classroom across the week at some of the times when their teachers are online. Don’t forget there is a Google Classroom App that can be downloaded for phones and other devices, so access doesn’t have to be only on a laptop, chromebook or computer. 

 

Communication and information

We will continue to contact you via text or this web page when there are any changes to the situation. We will also do this as we become more aware of support services for families who need help at this time. 

 

Children’s Services at Royal Borough of Greenwich are working on a coordinated response to the situation, including provision of school meals and other services for those of you in a vulnerable position.  Updates, including how to sign up for email alerts, directly from the Royal Borough of Greenwich can be found here. To sign up for updates from the Borough of Lewisham click here

 

Finances

Over the coming weeks, our finance officer will be looking to refund any credits (excluding childcare vouchers) to you. If you have any questions about this please contact the office on admin@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Safety

Information about how you can report concerns to Greenwich about a child’s safety during school closure can be found here

 

These are challenging and uncertain times for us all and we hope to reduce any sense of isolation for your children and you with our plan. Our contact details are below, should you need them.

 

Finally, thank you for the many messages of support and thanks during this time. People often comment on Invicta’s sense of community and during this difficult time we have been reminded again of how lucky we are to work with you all. 

 

We wish you and your loved ones the very best at this time, and hope to see you all soon. 

 

We will miss you!

Vicki Cuff                                          Jodie Cawte                                                       Victoria Gallagher

Executive Headteacher                Head of Invicta Deptford                              Head of Invicta Blackheath

 v.cuff@invictaprimary.co.uk        j.cawte@invictaprimary.co.uk                 v.gallagher@invictaprimary.co.uk

 

Home Learning Letter to Children

Click HERE

 

Thursday 19th March 

You will have most likely heard that the government has instructed that all schools must close from the end of tomorrow, Friday 20th March 2020.

We already have lots of self isolating families who have been accessing the links we’ve uploaded to the Google Classrooms and on Monday our programme of online learning will be available from 9am on Google Classroom. If you are having trouble logging on please check out the instructions here. Remember Google Classroom can be accessed from phones and other devices as well as laptops or Chromebooks etc. We are also working hard to get home learning packs out to you...more information about that tomorrow. 

Thank you to everyone who has completed our survey to help us plan for provision during school closure, we will be contacting some of you directly too. If you have not completed it please do so now. 

We are working very hard on the organisation of our provision, having heard about closures at the same time as you last night. This planning is quite difficult as there was some lack of clarity in the information given, however the government will be giving more details, including a list of key worker professions later today so I will update you again tomorrow.

Finally, Lots of people have asked about how they can help. Greenwich has set up a system for people who want to volunteer.. If you’d like to sign up here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdOxKGTsLqSgM8fPTUE8dY0IoMDFLPo-HJ9EH110HZuNJsnZA/viewform

Best wishes

Vicki Cuff

Wednesday 18th March 

Everyone should have now received their Google log in. Please see here  for how to access Google Classroom. If you have any questions , please email your class teacher in the first instance. 

There are links to educational websites in everyone's Google Classroom for self isolating children and our programme of home learning will be provided if the school is required to close. 

Thank you for your continued understanding and support.

Tuesday 17th March

We are working hard to make sure life carries on as normal as possible for our children.

You may be aware that the Government guidelines changed last night, and now anyone with a persistent fever or cough should stay at home for 14 days. This measure also extends to anyone who lives with someone displaying coronavirus symptoms. Please take notice of this advice and note that we will call parents/ carers should we have concerns about the health of any children in school.

As from 16th March all school trips (including swimming and sports competitions) will be cancelled until at least after Easter.

Class assemblies for parents and carers are also postponed until further notice.

Thank you for your continued understanding and support. 

Friday 13th March

 

We are currently receiving regular updates from the Government and, inline with current advice from the Department for Education and Public Health England, our school is open as usual.

 

In line with current guidance, anyone with a new and persistent cough, and/or a high temperature should self-isolate and stay away from school for at least 7 days.  Further information from the Government can be found at the link below.

Stay at home guidance:

Click HERE

 Letters to Parents/Carers 

Friday 13th March 2020	Click HERE
Thursday 12th March 2020	Click HERE