MVC EDUCATION
Little Hands Karen
U3A
PLAY SCHOOL NOTRE ECOLE PLAYGROUP
Education SCHOOL LITTLE HANDS PRIMARY
VILLAGE COLLEGE
01763 260964
Melbourn Playgroup Claire Armstrong and Jennie Riggs 01763 223459 07842 151512 Notre Ecole Janet Whitton 261231 Primary School Headteacher Stephanie Wilcox
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U3A (Univ. of Third Age) Chairman Tony Garrick 01223 510201 Village College Principal Simon Holmes
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Melbourn Primary School There is an African proverb that says, it takes a village to raise a child. Never has this quote held quite so much meaning as during the last 7 months. Faced with school closure in March, it feels as though we have literally had to re-invent ‘school’. We are proud of what we have achieved at the primary school, but this would not have been possible without the support of our parent body, governors, and local community. We were delighted that, despite school closure, we were able to open during lockdown for the children of our key workers, host 100 children in our ‘bubble school’ when partially open in June and then fully welcome back all of our children in September. Staff delivered learning to children at home throughout lockdown and kept in regular contact with families through email and phone calls. Our parents were incredible, juggling their own work commitments and supporting their children with their learning – I am in awe of how they have coped. Lockdown also brought practical challenges of ensuring all our families had enough to eat and could access the work that had been set. With this, the staff and community shone – delivering food parcels and learning packs to those who needed them. Despite the struggles, we still had fun – we delivered bacon rolls to our year six children on what would have been their SAT breakfast morning, held a virtual sports day and recorded ourselves in our ‘toilet roll challenge’ whilst also reading stories and delivering assemblies virtually for our children. Hopefully our children felt cared for and part of school – even from a distance. Then came re-opening and all of the new health and safety measures to be implemented. The children and staff have embraced all that has been asked of them. Our entire day is now punctuated throughout by handwashing. We are effectively running seven separate schools that never mix and we have timetables and rotas for everything! We have had to re-think and adapt almost all aspects of school. Most of these began as obstacles but with determination we have found new ways of working and overcome them. Being re-united with our children has been pure joy. Our children are as happy to be back as we are to have them. The smiles abound throughout school. The children’s wellbeing is our priority and we have all enjoyed reading the book ‘Here We Are’ by Oliver Jeffers to inspire work on melbournmagazine@gmail.com
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