Friday 27th November 2020
Dear Parents/Carers,
As we approach the end of the term, we are hoping to do as much as possible in relation to Christmas activities while following the government guidelines. This is what we have planned to do.
- Christmas cards and calendars which will be made by your child. They will be left in school for at least 72 hours before we send them home.
- Decorations which have been made by your child. They will be left in school for at least 72 hours before we send them home. Any decorations made by groups of children, eg, paper chains, will be disposed of in the recycling when we break up. There will be two prizes for the best-decorated classrooms - one in EYFS/KS1 and one in KS2.
- Thursday 3rd December at 9:15 am, Birmingham Methodist Church will be holding a zoom assembly for the school.
- Each class will be given the opportunity to take part in a Christmas linked activity, eg, singing a song (outside which is what is advised currently when singing), reading a poem, performing in a nativity scene, etc. These performances will be recorded and then each clip will be put together to make a video which each class will be able to watch during the final week of term. This will only be seen in school. It will not be uploaded to the website or Dojo.
- Unfortunately, Santa will not be able to visit us this year. However, he has agreed to record a special message for the children which we will be showing during the final week. He will send his reindeer to school to deliver a gift for each child which we will hand out for him. He has asked us to tell the children that he hopes to visit us again next year.
- Friday 11th December is Christmas jumper day. Children can wear their own clothes with either a Christmas jumper or other Christmas accessories. You do not have to buy something for your child; they can draw pictures, eg, Christmas trees, Santa, etc, and attach these to their clothes. We are asking for a £1 donation which we will be giving to Save The Children.
- A virtual pantomime of Cinderella. This can be watched live on Wednesday 16th December or Thursday 17th December at either 10 am or 2 pm. It lasts an hour and a half and can be watched by schools afterwards as well.
- The children will have a Christmas party on Friday 18th December. Unfortunately, we cannot accept food and drink donations from parents as we normally do. Instead, Dolce have offered to provide party food for the children which school will be paying for. The party has to be in classrooms instead of the hall; we cannot socially distance from each other, or keep bubbles apart, if we are all in the hall. We are hoping that the children will still enjoy the party.
- Friday 18th December - the children can come to school in their party clothes. Please remember though that it will probably be cold outside so the children will need to have something warm to wear. Also, the girls may want to wear sandals or high-heeled shoes; these would not be suitable for them to wear, especially in the playground.
- Friday 18th December - school will be closing at 1:30pm. Children will need to be collected on time. Children in Years 5 and 6 who normally walk home alone, can still do this.
- Monday 4th January is a staff training day - children do not attend
- Children return to school on Tuesday 5th January.
Thank you for all of your support this term. It has been a very challenging time. The children have adapted really well to all of the changes we have had to implement in school and considering the majority have missed six months of schooling, they have worked extremely hard to try and catch up. All the staff and governors at Deykin Avenue School are really proud of them.
Yours faithfully
Mrs Sharon Brewer
Deputy Head Teacher