Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
I hope all is well at home and the children are working hard. Would you like to do something different today?
Well, at 10am, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be taking part in the country's largest ever school assembly, partnering with Oak National Academy. This promises to be an interesting watch and I know that it will be full of messages of support for us all.
Talking of inspiration and support, I saw the flypast to mark the 100th birthday of Captain Tom Moore, what a remarkable man who has certainly inspired me in these difficult times.
The staff have enjoyed the phone calls to you all, don't worry if you haven't heard from them yet they are working through their classes whilst also completing lots of other work. Again we would like to reassure you all that it is fine to pick and choose the activities which suit you best. We all enjoy seeing what you have been up to and would encourage you all to share some work or pictures of activities you have completed at least once a week.
I know that these are uncertain times for us all but we will continue to support our school community as best we can.
Stay safe
Good afternoon everyone,
I hope you are all keeping well? Personally I am pleased to get back to a 'weekday' as the weekends always seem a little more unusual to me!
Hopefully by now you will have been sent the Lincolnshire Virtual Athletics competition information. This is being run by the School Games Organisers and will allow the children to compete in an athletics competition against children from other Lincolnshire schools. I have also uploaded the information to the home learning section of the website.
Hampers will again be delivered tomorrow for those eligible parents who ordered one.
I know the teachers are busy communicating potential 'Home Learning' activities for you to be working on this week. I do however want to reassure you all though, that this time is about keeping each other safe and well. Please don't stress about what you are doing at home with your child or the progress they are/aren't making. That is for us to worry about when school reopens and we will be working hard to ensure they slot back into school life effectively and from then we can continue our learning journey.
I hope you all have a good week and fingers crossed we get some news soon as to when we can look to reopen school.
Mr Nicholson
Good morning everyone,
I can't quite believe it is Friday again, where has that week gone?
I hope you have a good week completing the various tasks and activities that you are doing at home, as I said yesterday I love hearing about the amazing things you have been up to. I have spoken to a few of your teachers today and I know that they are enjoying hearing from you so keep telling us what you have been up to.
As it's Friday its time to wish you all a lovely weekend, take some time to relax. Remember even these times are difficult and unusual we should still remember our school value of joy and make the most of everyday and the time we are being given to spend with our families. Remember the scripture we looked at which says " This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24.
Stay safe everyone and have a lovely weekend.
Mr Nicholson
Good morning all,
A message for all of the children . . .
It is yet another glorious sunny day, I will be out on my bike again later. Yesterday I took George on a long ride to Long Bennington, Westborough, Dry Doddington and Claypole! He was very tired by the time we got home and ready for his tea! I hope you are all getting outdoors as much as possible and making the most of the weather.
I have just spent the last hour looking through all of your work and messages on the website and Google Classrooms. It has really cheered me up seeing what you have been up to and you are certainly doing some amazing things. I have also been seeing what the children who are in school have been up to and the staff are certainly keeping them busy!
Remember keep in touch with your teachers, they are enjoying hearing from you and even speaking to you on the phone! It is also important for you to remember to do what works best for you, your teachers are providing lots of ideas of things you can do but if you find a resource you enjoy/benefit from more then please use that.
Finally, I though I would reflect on something which has blown me away. I have been enjoying hearing all about 'Captain Tom' and his remarkable fund raising efforts. On the TV this morning he was presented with a Pride of Britain award followed by countless messages from people praising his efforts. Throughout Captain Tom was simply repeating his message that he doesn't see himself as remarkable, purely a man trying to help. I won't lie I ended up with tears in my eye, but I think they were tears of joy. I reflect on our school values and Captain Tom is certainly living them out, remember when we talked about the value of service and we shared this scripture reference: "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9-10. I have learnt a lot in this period of isolation and I hope I will value what is important much more.
Stay safe everyone and remember we are here to help, if you need anything printing out or there is more we can do then please get in touch.
We miss you all very much,
Mr Nicholson
Good morning all,
Remember, as you begin the ‘new term’ and continue to support your child/ren with their home-learning the most important thing to remember is that you do what is right for you and your families.
The teachers are all providing daily tasks using the resources available to us which will hopefully provide some structure. Along with this we are also highlighting other resources which can supplement these tasks through the class pages and the home learning section of the website. We have provided all of these resources so that you have the opportunity to use what works best for you.
The teachers and I remain on-hand to support you through these times and we are contactable via e-mail, google classroom, PurpleMash and MarvellousMe. If there is anything at all that we might be able to help with then please get in touch.
VE -Day
Friday 8th May is VE-Day and we had planned to mark this is school through various activities. This week we will be sending out a short project the children can undertake and then we plan to put any of the work they produce together to enable us to celebrate VE -Day in an alternative way.
Stay safe everyone and reach out to us if there is anything we can do.
David Nicholson
As you will realise, Long Bennington CE Academy continues to be closed for the majority of our pupils, due to the national emergency.
However, the school continues to provide Emergency Childcare provision for those identified vulnerable children as well as children of key workers, so they can support the national effort. School is open Monday - Friday and we genuinely are here to support you with childcare provision.
If any parents do require the school to provide childcare for their children then we are here to help and you can contact us using the enquiries@longbennigntonacademy.co.uk email address to inform us of the days your child/ren will be in school.
Home Learning
Working from home We’re realistic about what pupils will be able to do during this period, and we want you to be too. You're not expected to become teachers and your children aren't expected to learn as they do in school. Simply providing them with some structure at home will help them to adapt. The following tips are designed to help you create a positive learning environment at home. See what works best for your household.
Create and stick to a routine if you can. This is what children are used to. For example, eat breakfast at the same time and make sure they're dressed before starting the ‘school’ day – avoid staying in pyjamas!
Involve your children in setting the timetable where possible. It’s a great opportunity for them to manage their own time better and it’ll give them ownership
Check in with your children and try to keep to the timetable, but be flexible. If a task/activity is going well or they want more time, let it extend where possible
If you have more than 1 child at home, consider combining their timetables. For example, they might exercise and do maths together – see what works for your household
Designate a working space if possible, and at the end of the day have a clear cut-off to signal school time is over
Stick the timetable up on the wall so everyone knows what they should be doing when, and tick activities off throughout the day
Distinguish between weekdays and weekends, to separate school life and home life
Accept that they'll probably watch more TV/spend time on their phone – that's ok but you might want to set/agree some screen time limits
Please don’t worry about your children getting behind with learning. Everyone’s in the same boat.
The class teachers are putting together a timetable of activities for the children to complete each day and these are being shared by the class pages on the website and other established forms of communication.
I would also like to highlight the 'home learning' section of the school website which has numerous links to other resources covering many areas of the curriculum. This morning I have also added additional maths and project resources to the class pages. All of these can be used to supplement the work set by the class teachers. I myself completed the BBC Bitesize maths activities with my children yesterday and then set them additional maths work using the White Rose resources. I didn't print the worksheets, they had the questions on screen and then answered them on a blank sheet of paper, this seemed to work quite well for us and the video resources were a useful guide.
Through all of this it is important to remember that you do what is best for you and your families at home and please feel free to 'Pick and Mix' the resources which work best for yourselves.
If any families are struggling to engage with the learning set then please feel free to contact us and we will do all we can to try and help/support in any way we can.
Remember, as you begin the ‘new term’ and continue to support your child/ren with their home-learning I would like to encourage you to try and ensure that the children or yourselves engage with their class teacher at least once a week.
This could be simply to:
Collective Worship
The children are used to the routine of Collective Worship and this does provide them with a moment in the day for some quiet time and reflection. The diocese of Lincoln have put together a useful pack of resources and these are available in the 'home learning' section of the website.
I have spoken to Reverend Harriet at church and we will be looking to put some additional resources together based around Collective Worship.
Reading Books
There are many ways to access on-line reading materials at home these include:
Access 330+ free KS1 ebooks from our primary reading programme
Go to Collins Connect and click on the Teacher portal and enter:
Username: parents@harpercollins.co.uk
Password: Parents20!
and click Login.
http://E Books - 7,102 FREE books available
https://stories.audible.com/discovery
Physical Activity and Healthy Lifestyle Challenges
As you know we work closely in school with the local charity Inspire+, the staff at Inspire + have been very busy creating challenges for the children alongside virtual competitions. These are all available to view on their website:
https://www.inspireplus.org.uk/
I will continue to provide a daily update which will be available on the latest news section of the school website. I know that these are uncertain times for us all but we will continue to support our school community as best we can.
Stay Safe
David Nicholson
As you will realise, Long Bennington CE Academy continues to be closed for the majority of our pupils, due to the national emergency.
However, the school continues to provide Emergency Childcare provision for those identified vulnerable children as well as children of key workers, so they can support the national effort.
If any parents do require the school to provide childcare for their children then we are here to help and you can contact us using the enquiries@longbennigntonacademy.co.uk email address to inform us of the days your child/ren will be in school.
Food Boxes
Food Boxes for those children who qualify for Free School Meals will be delivered to school on Tuesday 21st April 2020 and will be delivered to families on Tuesday.
Home Learning
In line with guidance from the Local Authority and the Department for Education we will continue to provide learning which can be completed at home. Unfortunately this will not take the form of 'live video lessons' as the safeguarding concerns around these are to great at the current time.
The teachers are working on a daily plan which will see 3 activities/lessons set for each day covering maths, English and one other subject. These will make use of a variety of resources and will be available to view on the class web pages as well as either Google Classroom/PurpleMash or Marvellous Me, depending on the communication method that has been established for the relevant class previously. In addition to this we will continue to set other activities and challenges which will also be shared via the different forms of communication.
To help with any queries or allow the children to interact with their teachers the staff will be available on PurpleMash e-mail, MarvellousMe or Google Classroom to answer questions/support learning at set times in the day which will be communicated by them. These set times are to ensure we can help you all with the learning being set, the staff will continue to interact at other times as well. We are working hard to adapt to the unprecedented situation that we find ourselves in and all of the staff are always here to try and support/answer questions as much as is possible.
We will continue to ensure that all resources are clearly signposted in our 'Home Learning' section of the school website.
Through all of this it is important to remember that you do what is best for you and your families at home and please feel free to 'Pick and Mix' the resources which work best for yourselves.
If any families are struggling to engage with the learning set then please feel free to contact us and we will do all we can to try and help/support.
Remember, as you begin the ‘new term’ and continue to support your child/ren with their home-learning I would like to encourage you to try and ensure that the children or yourselves engage with their class teacher at least once a week.
This could be simply to:
Collective Worship
As a follow up to the videos he produced around the Easter story, Mr Buckeridge has kindly offered to produce videos for the children to watch and enjoy as part of a time for quiet reflection. The link to his latest video which explores the story of the Good Samaritan is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2LDoL7hD00&feature=youtu.be
Reading Books
There are many ways to access on-line reading materials at home these include:
Access 330+ free KS1 ebooks from our primary reading programme
Go to Collins Connect and click on the Teacher portal and enter:
Username: parents@harpercollins.co.uk
Password: Parents20!
and click Login.
http://E Books - 7,102 FREE books available
https://stories.audible.com/discovery
Physical Activity and Healthy Lifestyle Challenges
As you know we work closely in school with the local charity Inspire+, the staff at Inspire + have been very busy creating challenges for the children alongside virtual competitions. These are all available to view on their website:
https://www.inspireplus.org.uk/
I will continue to provide a daily update which will be available on the latest news section of the school website. I know that these are uncertain times for us all but we will continue to support our school community as best we can.
Stay Safe
David Nicholson
Good morning everyone,
I hope you are all keeping safe and well and enjoyed your Easter weekend with your families. As we wait to hear more news from the government about any 'lockdown' extension I am writing this in school and it is very quiet without you all here and I know that all of the staff can't wait to get school back to normal.
This would have been the second week of our Easter holidays and it is important to ensure you take time to relax. I know that your teachers are continuing to provide you with some activities to try out at home via both Google Classroom and the school website. From Monday we will again be providing more formal learning opportunities and I know that the BBC are going to be providing lots of resources to help with this.
School will continue to remain open for those children whose parents are key workers and there is no alternative but to come into school. If anyone needs their child to attend school then please e-mail the school office on enquiries@longbenningtonacademy.co.uk this will enable us to ensure that school is staffed properly.
We will update you all when we have more news, enjoy the sunshine this week.
Mr Nicholson
Good afternoon,
Mr Buckeridge has filmed the final assembly in his series of Easter assemblies. The link to it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPe_7hfqo5U&feature=youtu.be
We are all very grateful to Mr Buckeridge for his efforts in providing these for us.
Mr Nicholson
Good morning all,
Here we are again at the end of another week, I wonder how you are all spending your Friday? This should have been the first day of our Easter holiday and I was meant to be going away in my caravan :( Never mind it is important that we all stay home and stay safe. Bearing in mind that the next 2 weeks are your Easter holidays make sure you enjoy spending this time with your families. George and Stanley are discovering toys they'd forgotten they had! As I write this, Stanley is building things out of Knex, he's loving it and had forgotten we even had Knex in our house.
We talk a lot at school about our Christian Values and how we can live these out in our everyday lives. Even though these times are unprecedented it warms my heart to see how people are rising to the challenge of supporting those vulnerable people who need a little bit of help. Did you join in with the minutes applause last night? We did and it made the boys really think about those people going off to work to help us out. I'm sure i've told you before that my mum is a nurse, she is now having to go to work in Mansfield to help out at Kings Mill Hospital, she tells me it is starting to get very busy with the people they are having to look after. Thinking of service and love though, it is so easy to do little things that make a big difference. We had a phonecall in school the other day to ask if we knew of anyone who needed support, apparently there are so many volunteers in Long Bennington they can help lots of people, how lovely is that? George and Stanley wrote a letter to their Nanna and Grandad on Monday and it arrived in the post on Thursday, they loved it and it really cheered them up. I think this is another example of living out those Christian Values.
Anyway I must go and plough through the mountain of e-mails I have got, Mr Korcz has been very busy sending lots out!!
Stay safe everyone and enjoy your weekend. Remember that we are here to support our school community, if anyone needs anything then please email us on our school e-mail address. Alternatively please remember that school will be open over Easter (not Good Friday or Easter Monday) and in the upcoming weeks for those children whose parents are key workers. Again to book a place please e-mail school.
Mr Nicholson