Dear Parents,

I hope you are all ok and thank you for your support at this time. Fortunately, barring a few initial teething problems, the Google platform seems to have been a great success and we have received lots of really positive comments, from both children and parents alike. The constructive feedback that we received from you has been very helpful and has enabled us to make tweaks as needed. I would like to thank the Writtle Infant School team for the positive way they have embraced Google Classroom and for their hard work - whether that be teaching live lessons from school, or assisting with those learning remotely. As you know we will be in this position until at least February half term.

Please join our Google Meet sessions from the children’s Google accounts and, although it may be difficult, we would prefer that you are in the same room when your child is online. We understand that every family's circumstances are different and some parents have the time to support their child’s learning for the whole day, whilst others are trying their best to work full time from home, or look after younger children, as well as home-school. Please do what you can, we are here to support you, not to judge you. If you are finding things difficult, please let us know.

We will be without Mrs Pluck for the next few weeks, so please bear with us in terms of office support, as Mrs Capps and Mrs Duff will be covering her role while she is away. The best way to get in touch with us while the office staff are working from home is by emailing parents@writtleinfantschool.com. Please use this address rather than admin@. If you do call the school and the phone is not picked up, please leave a message on our answerphone.

I am delighted to say that we have had an application for the role of parent governor, following my appeal last week. If we receive no further nominations by Monday 18th January then we will duly elect the current nominee and we will announce details next week. Please email parents@writtleinfantschool.com if you wish to be considered, as if we have more than one candidate we will need to hold a parent governor election. We have also had a successful GDPR audit this week, which showed good compliance.

Finally, the deadline to apply for your primary school place, or Year 3 place at the Junior School, is TODAY. Applications can be made online via www.essex.gov.uk/admissions. It is absolutely essential that you don't miss the deadline, or you could lose out on a school place.

Stay safe

Helen Castell