Coronavirus School Closure
The school remains closed until further notice, except to vulnerable children and the children of Key Workers. Please see the GOV.UK website for more information.
GOV.UK – Closure of educational settings: information for parents and carers (opens in new tab)
Grange Park Infant School is ready to support families if care is required. If your child comes under the Government’s Vulnerable category, or you or your partner are a Key Worker and you require support during the holidays including the two Bank Holidays then please email the school at grangepkinf@gpin.school to request support for your child. Please contact the school by 1.00 pm the day before you need the care in order to give staff notice and arrange for the school be opened, otherwise the school will remain closed. Staff members are aware that they may be required to come into work if your child needs support.
Here is an extract from the Government Guidelines, which you can read fully by following the link below:
Where possible, parents must keep their children at home. Early years and childcare settings are closed except for children who are vulnerable, and children whose parents are critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and cannot be safely cared for at home.
All educational settings remain safe for children, but fewer children making the journey to educational settings, and fewer children in these settings, will help to protect the NHS and save lives by reducing the risks of spreading the virus.
GOV.UK – Coronavirus (COVID-19): early years and childcare closures (opens in new tab)
Letter from Mrs Thapar, 21st April 2020
Head Teacher’s Letter dated 21st April 2020
Dear Parents
I hope this letter finds you and your families in good health. It has been just over four weeks since the school closed to the majority of children, and in such a short period of time we have all had to adopt to a new way of working and learning. We appreciate the challenges parents are facing during these difficult times with adopting to on-line learning and remote learning. Children were sent Homework Packs on the last day they were at school and they had enough work supplemented with many activities on line via our school website. We were very careful to tailor and select specific websites for the children’s home learning activities.
Before going on to talk about some of the new initiatives launched by the Government to support home learning I would like to draw your attention to the school website https://www.grangepark-inf.hillingdon.sch.uk/ Please make yourselves familiar to the website as this is where you will receive most of the information to support your child’s home learning.
Today our Website Co-ordinator has created a direct link to new resources and has created a page for each class so that the teacher can place the latest Home Learning Activity for the children in their class each week. This will be found in the ‘MY CLASS’ tab.
So what is new on the website? Over the weekend Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary announced that schools will remain closed until the scientific advise changes. In order to support schools the Government has launched the Oak National Academy on Monday 20th April.
The online classroom at the Oak Academy offers free access to great teachers, delivering video lessons, quizzes and worksheets. Available for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children, it covers a range of subjects. All of the lessons are ordered so your child can learn along a clear plan just as they would if they were at school. The Academy will provide new lessons and resources each week.
We would like all parents to follow the timetable created by the Oak Academy. The teachers of Grange Park Infant and Nursery School have carefully evaluated the activities offered by the Oak Academy, and they feel the activities are of a high quality, easy to follow according to the age of the children and the pace of the lessons is appropriate. So we urge parents to access this excellent free resource to ensure your children continue to learn during the time the school is closed to the majority of children.
The BBC have also launched it own education package across the TV and on line – BBC Bitesize which is another free learning resource that was launched on Monday 20th April.
I want to reassure you that while the school is closed the teachers, support staff and particularly the school office are all working tirelessly to ensure that we adopt to this new way of working to benefit the children who we are all missing and want to make sure that they not only keep up with their learning but are also safe and happy.
I also want to reassure you that we are maintaining a high level of communication with all our vulnerable families and thank all our Key Worker families for their tremendous hard work and dedication.
In order to maintain contact with the your child and yourselves you will be receiving a telephone call from your child’s teacher between the time of 10.30 am onwards on a regular basis. Please lookout for this call as it will come up as ‘No Caller ID’.
I am very conscious that you are being given a lot of advise that is why we have been very careful to choose approved and educationally sound websites for you to visit. You have a lot of choice still within what we have recommended
We recognise that you as parents are doing your best to help your children and support their learning while dealing with other demands therefore just do what you can in your own individual circumstances.
Thinking of you all, please stay safe and happy.
Kiran Thapar
Head Teacher
Activities and resources
We have compiled a list of resources and activities for the children to do at home, which can be found at the link below.
Activities for Children (opens in new tab)