Welcome to the News section of the website. I hope you find it interesting and useful in keeping you informed of the many events that happen in Victoria Park School.

• Letter from Mrs Gourley 27/3/20

  Fri 27 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

  Hello everyone,

   

  We’re at the end of our first week. I hope you’re all continuing to keep well and not finding the Home Learning too stressful-yet! As a staff, we’re all still well, thankfully, and keeping safe. These are very strange and challenging times for us. I’m sure some of the children are finding this difficult as most need the daily routines and structure of school. Parents, you too have been thrown in the deep end with home learning.

   

  P6, those considering AQE, we would have been starting our tests this week. Please keep trying to get as many of the practice papers done as you can, balancing this between the Revision activities on the website and practice at completing papers, aiming to reduce the time given as you go along.

   

  As we come to the weekend, make sure to take a break. As these days all roll into one, we must keep perspective of weekends and take time to have a break from learning - pupils and parents. Try, whilst keeping within our current restrictions, to do something a little different as a family this weekend, even in a safe area of your local park as your daily exercise, to give the children in your immediate home, a break and some fresh air.

   

  Please, be careful that the time spent in front of screens and play-stations does not rocket! Set a daily limit on this.

   

  At the minute, it’s probably a bit of a novelty doing the Home Learning for pupils, but it will be challenging for many as times goes on.  For those pupils who attend Victoria, she should already have been in contact with you this week and will continue to do so. If others begin to find days ahead difficult, contact us, as we have other outlets that we can refer you to, to try and support you and our children through this.

   

  Next Friday is the start of the Easter holiday fortnight. Please take a break for these two weeks and enjoy the holiday period as much as you can. It’s certainly not the Easter we were looking forward to.

   

  My staff will not be sending work for these two weeks. They will however, work on a day or two, again, as we’d planned, to prepare ahead and have the next week of work ready to be uploaded for Monday 20^th April, what should have been our return to school date. This is your return to Home Learning date.

   

  I’ve really enjoyed seeing your photos of your activities at home this week. Keep them coming! They really do cheer us up and the staff miss the one to one contact with the children too. Most of us are in the same boat as you, at home, struggling to keep children in, learning and occupied, so we know how stressful this is.

   

  As we seem to be approaching a time where this virus may increase rapidly, I hope you continue to keep safe and well. Keep up all of the communication with us, and with friends and family that you can.

   

  Take care,

  Andrea Gourley.

• School Closed

  Fri 20 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

  Dear Parents,

   

  These are unprecedented and worrying times for all of us and in accordance with the announcement from the Department of Education and NI Executive, Victoria Park PS closed today at 2.00pm, and will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

   

  Staff within school have prepared extensive online learning materials to assist you with your children at this time and to aid their continued learning.  The Learning Zone will go live on Monday morning, accessed via the school’s website as previously outlined. Further guidance and instruction will be on the website Learning Zone. Learning materials will be updated every week by all members of staff for as long as their own health and family situations allow.

   

  Throughout this period, you can contact your child’s teacher with any queries related to learning or the materials. Staff emails will be available within each year group and staff will respond during school working hours. (9.00-3.00pm) 

   

  May I send you my thanks, as well as thanks on behalf of my staff and governors for your continued support and encouragement this year but particularly through this difficult time.

   

  I wish you all, as part of our Victoria Park family, good health, and ask you to look after one another, follow the advice issued and keep safe until we can join together again in the future.

   

  God Bless,

  Andrea Gourley.

• UPDATED LETTER

  Thu 19 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

   

  Thursday 19th March 2020

   

  Dear Parents / Carers,

  Supporting Children of Key Workers in Primary School

  At approximately 5pm this evening, the Minister for Education in Northern Ireland, Peter Weir MLA, made a statement outlining how schools will close from the end of the school day tomorrow, Friday 20th March, however, will open with skeleton staff on Monday 23rd March to support identified Key Workers.

  Many principals in East Belfast have agreed to follow a coordinated response to ensure that we support the children of key workers in a similar way across our schools. Some schools may be in a position to provide more support, depending on the numbers of staff still available to work.

  Firstly, it is vitally important that schools are aware how many children of key workers will be attending school on Monday morning.

  With this in mind, if you are an identified key worker, please make contact with school by 11am on Friday 20th March to inform us if your child will be attending. This can be by phone or e-mail.

  Before contacting school, please pay particular attention to the following points. Schools will not be able to operate a ‘normal’ school day. Many of our schools are already operating with a significant reduction in staffing and this will probably continue to get worse over time.

  Points to consider

  • A list of key workers, issued by the Department of Education is listed below.
  • If only 1 parent is a key worker the other parent would be expected to look after the child so as to reduce the number of pupils attending school.
  • In single parent families, the individual parent MUST be a key worker.

  • If possible, alternative childcare arrangements should be sought before deciding to send your child to school. For example, with other family members, friends etc. Please try and use schools as a last resort. This is to try and limit the number of children and adults together in a small space in line with recent social distancing guidance.

  • School will not have wraparound services available.
  • Normal opening and closing time will apply.
  • Children attending will be required to wear their school uniform.
  • Please be advised that schools will be performing childcare duties, rather than teaching, as not all teachers are currently available to teach specific year groups and teachers must also be available to provide online / remote learning for pupils not in attendance.

  We would ask that you pay attention to the points outlined above before deciding to send your child to school. Obviously, it goes without saying, if your only option is to send your child to school, we will look after them in order to support you in your important role.

  Yours sincerely,

  Mrs Gourley

   

     

  LIST OF KEY WORKERS AS OUTLINED ON DOCUMENTATION ISSUED TO SCHOOLS ON 19TH MARCH 2020 Please work with us to ensure that schools operate with a limited number of children and staff.

  • Health and Social Care. This includes doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, home carers and staff required to maintain our health and social care sector

  • Education and childcare. This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who will remain active during the Covid-19 response

  • Public safety and national security. This includes civilians and officers in the police (including key contractors), Fire and Rescue Service, prison service and other national security roles

  • Transport. This will include those keeping air, water, road and rail transport modes operating during the Covid-19 response

  • Utilities and Communication. This includes staff needed for oil, gas, electricity and water (including sewage) and primary industry supplies, to continue during the Covid-19 response, as well as key staff in telecommunications, post and delivery, services and waste disposal

  • Food and other necessary goods. This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution and sale, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (e.g hygiene, medical etc)

  • Key national and local government including those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response.

• Confirmation of Closure - Friday 2pm for all pupils.

  Wed 18 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

  A Follow-Up Statement from Mrs Gourley

  
  You will all, I’m sure, have heard  the recent announcement on the news and I’m sure you’re as confused as we all are re closing on Monday.
  
  I know those whose children have remained in school are concerned at the length of time schools have remained open.
  
  To alleviate confusion for us in Victoria Park- I will confirm that  school will close to children at 2.00pm on Friday unless you chose to keep your child at home before this.
  
  As I have an exceptional closure left for this year, if the Department of Education instruct schools to be open on Monday, this will be a staff only day.
  
  I hope this clarifies the assembly lack of clarity and your concerns to close the school.
  
  I continue to keep in contact with you and keep you up to date.

   

  Andrea Gourley

• HOME LEARNING

  Wed 18 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

  Dear Parent/Guardian,

   

  RE:  COVID-19 HOME LEARNING

   

  We understand that this is a very difficult and concerning time for all within our school community.  Pupils, parents, staff and families are all naturally anxious about what the next few weeks could potentially hold.  At Victoria Park, we put the safety and welfare of all our pupils and staff at the forefront of all that we do.  As indicated by the First and Deputy First Ministers this evening, school will close on Friday afternoon at 2pm for all pupils and remain closed until further notice.  We will continue to provide education for our pupils through a home learning strategy which we have provided some more details about below.

   

  This will take the form of our Home Learning Zone, which is accessible through the school website, under information for parents section, or using the link at the end of this letter.  At the moment, only the structure of the zone is there, but be assured that staff have already begun compiling a wide selection of resources, that will then be uploaded to the relevant year group pages on this section.  This zone will become live on Monday and will be updated with work for our pupils on an ongoing weekly basis.  All teachers will be working from home and we will be providing you with contact details for them for the duration of the closure, as well as providing technical assistance to parents as much as we can.

   

  During the instructed closure, teachers will be updating work weekly to their relevant year group pages.  Within each year group, this work will further be organised into your child’s normal learning groups.  This work will include Literacy activities, Numeracy activities, weekly spelling and maths facts or tables, Bug Club reading, Maths with Parents activities, World Around Us activities and a section on activity, health and well-being.  There are also further links that parents may wish to allow pupils to explore. 

   

  Daily Routine

  A daily routine is vital for pupils during the closure.  Each day some time should be given to academic work, physical activity, being in the fresh air and being creative.  As every household is totally different, how you structure this will depend on your situation.  We would suggest that generally pupils should;

  • complete one Literacy task and one Numeracy task a day, in addition to their spellings, maths facts and reading. 
  • complete World Around Us activities or learning as instructed by the class teacher. 
  • have time to be physically active each day and as far as is possible and safe, to have some access to fresh air. 
  • be encouraged to be creative each day.  This might be through art or craft activities at home or through the Using ICT section of the home learning zone, exploring coding opportunities. 

   

  Whilst we appreciate that to provide ease of access to all, we will be using our school website to communicate this work, we would suggest that other screen time is limited, and that work on digital devices is broken up with regular brain breaks and time away from screens.

   

  Teachers will still be contactable throughout the closure.  These details will be shared at the relevant time.  Parents should ensure that they have registered within the School App, by clicking the link previously sent by school.  If you haven’t done so already, please contact school so we can sort this for you.  Teachers will be communicating through the School App.

   

  We trust that you will find all these plans helpful as we all navigate through this unusual and difficult time.  Please be mindful that these plans could change moving forward, based on either government advice or the health of our staff.  Throughout the closure we will be using the school website, School App and social media to keep parents up to date as much as we can.

   

  We trust that all these strategies will prove useful for you and your family, and will help to ensure your child will be able to continue within their learning.  Through close partnership, we will endeavour to do our best for all pupils and families within the school community. We do hope that you and your family stay safe and healthy in the coming weeks, in what continues to be a very difficult and worrying time.

   

  www.victoriaparkprimaryschool.co.uk/home-learning

   

   

  A. Gourley             J. Bleakley

  Principal                ICT Co-ordinator

• Updated Letter from Mrs Gourley

  Wed 18 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

  Mrs Gourley Letter - 18 March 2020

   

  Dear Parents,

  It was great seeing some of the children today. For those already self-isolating I hope you’re looking after each other and keeping safe.

  Today we had less than half of our children in class. I have also lost some staff who are self-isolating. None have symptoms, but have high risk health conditions themselves, are pregnant or have health risks within their own homes.

  From tomorrow, due to numbers, the children will double up, going into one class within their year group.

  Thanks you for adhering to requests re schoolbags etc. As we have so many children off, I have plenty of fruit and milk, so don’t worry about bringing any in, we’ll give it all out rather than having to throw it out at the end of week. If your child prefers something different, feel free to still bring your own.

   

  We are anticipating an announcement today for possible closure on Friday.

   

  Home learning

  My staff have been preparing for this and have a full online facility set up which will allow home learning for the full period of closure. Some classes were shown this today. As closure may be for considerable time, no paper copies will be sent, all will be accessed through our website and updated on a weekly basis.  (Subject to the on-going health of my staff).

  Further information will follow today and this will be live from Monday.

  P6 AQE.

  We should have been starting Transfer papers next week in P6. AQE packs will therefore be available for P6 pupils who are considering entering this for grammar school entrance tests in November. These will be given out on Thursday. Any absent children can collect the pack from the school office before Friday.

  Symptoms

  Please continue to adhere to recommendations that no child is sent in with any symptoms nor any who have been out of Northern Ireland recently.

  Any child showing any symptom will be sent home immediately.

   

  Outstanding items

  As we are planning to close for a long time, we are trying to gather in a lot of outstanding items. If you have any library books, reading books and wallets, football kits, past P7 trophies, P1 Easy Readers or KS1 Activity Packs, can I ask you to try to return these to school before Friday, or ask someone to drop them in.

  A crate will be in the entrance hall for you to drop all items and we’ll send to their relevant places.

   

  Please continue to watch the news and I will maintain contact with you in the event of any further news.

  Thank you for your ongoing support during this difficult time for all of you and our Victoria park family.

  Continue to take care and keep safe,

  Andrea Gourley.

• School App

  Mon 16 Mar 2020 Mr Hutchinson
  Have you registered on our Victoria Park School App? If you haven't done so already, we would strongly recommend that you do as it will be one of our main channels of communication with home if the school does close. Please contact the school office, your child’s teacher or email our ICT technician Mr Hutchinson (dhutchinson194@c2kni.net) and let them know which contact number and name you would wish to register. As well as downloading the app, it is essential that you have registered within the app as well. This will have been sent to you in the form of a text message which asks you to verify your number. If you haven’t registered, again please contact one of the above so we can send out the verification code. A test message will be sent out now so you can check if you can currently receive notifications.
  
  If you need any help or assistance, please just let us know. We are continuing to work to ensure that we are able to keep you updated with all the necessary information regarding school, especially at the current time. Don’t delay…register today!

  

• Contact Telephone Numbers

  Mon 16 Mar 2020 Mr Hutchinson
  Please can you contact the office if any of your contact telephone numbers have changed since the start of the school year. It is especially important that the first contact number is correct as this is the one we use if we need to get in touch and it is also the one we use if send a text message to all parents. There have been a few occasions recently when we have been unable to get in touch with parents because the number isn't correct.

• Statement from the Education Authority:

  Mon 16 Mar 2020 Mr Hutchinson

   

  We are aware of inaccurate information circulating online about school closures.

  Any official notification in relation to school closures will be sent directly to school from the Department of Education.

  Schools remain open.

  Please continue to monitor our website for latest news and updates.

• Covid-19

  Sun 15 Mar 2020 Mrs Gourley

  A letter from Mrs Gourley

   

  Dear Parents,
  
  It is our aim in Victoria Park to provide a safe environment for your child. I wish to advise you that we are taking all possible steps to ensure the health and wellbeing of the pupils and staff from the effects of Coronavirus (Covid-19).
  
  My staff have been following the advice of the Public Health Agency by ensuring effective hand-washing takes place and my cleaners continue a heightened level of sanitising all areas of the school every day.
  
  According to recent ministerial announcements, schools will close sometime soon.
  
  To date:

  • There have not been any positive cases reported to me.
  • No school staff have displayed symptoms as outlined by PHA guidance
  • Schools will remain open until we are directed to do otherwise.

  
  However, as a precaution and in preparation for a rapidly changing situation:

  • As a school we have already significant preparations in place for an online Learning Zone for all pupils which can accessed through our website. Details will follow.
  • Staff will continue to update this throughout the closure.
  • AQE Practice folders will be sent home with P6 pupils wishing to prepare for this.
  • There will be no educational outings or visits.
  • Unplanned visitors will not be allowed in the school.
  • Parent interviews planned for week beginning 23rd March will be postponed until a later date.
  • There will be NO teacher-led after school clubs this week to allow staff to prepare work for pupils in the event of closure. Waiting Club only will go ahead. There will be no Monkeynastix, tennis or clubs led by external visitors.
  • There will be no visitors or external agencies allowed in to lead assemblies.
  • There will be no swimming until further notice.
  • Pupils are asked not to bring school bags, book bags or any unnecessary items to school. Only packed lunch will be required for those who don’t take school dinners.  Homework will therefore also be cancelled.

  
  Please note:
  Unless informed otherwise by Government / Dept of Education, school will reopen on Wednesday 18th March.
  
  Pupils displaying symptoms should NOT be sent to school.
  Parents of pupils with underlying medical conditions should consider if they wish to send their child to school - a special code will be used to approve absence.

  
  Parents who are concerned about infection being brought home to high risk family members and elderly relatives may choose to keep their child from school  - this code will also be recorded if you contact school.
  
  Thank you for your understanding at this difficult and very worrying time.
  
  Andrea Gourley

  Principal