Head Teacher Blog: Tuesday 14th April 2020

Date: 15th Apr 2020 @ 5:18pm

Happy Easter! I hope that you have managed to take a look at some of the activities
that were on my blog on 3 rd April from the Church of England and enjoyed doing
them together. Although it was a very strange celebration, I am sure that you all
managed to make it special in your own ways, whilst staying safe at home.

Home Learning
I hope that you have managed to catch up with the teacher’s blogs over the last few
weeks where they are continually adding an updating ideas for you to work on at
home with your children, should you be able to and so wish to do so. The
Department for Education have also produced a list of websites and activities that
you can us at home- please follow this link. This will be reviewed and updated over
time and details on how that will work will be provided in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, The Little Worship Company are providing free, weekly Bible-based
devotions for young families. These are easy, engaging resources to use with
families. Further information can be found on their Facebook page by searching
‘Little Bible Times.’

Free School Meals Vouchers
The government has recently introduced a national free school meal voucher
scheme to ensure that those pupils who normally receive a free meal in school still
receive the monetary equivalent during the school closure, including over the Easter
holiday.  This is for pupils who are eligible for free school meals, and not for those
who receive a free meal through the universal infant free school meals scheme.
Unfortunately, the new voucher scheme is taking longer than expected to get up and
running and there has therefore been a delay in distributing the vouchers.  This is a
national problem, with all schools seeing the same delay in distribution. Please be
assured that as a school we have done everything asked of us to order these
vouchers, and the delay is out of our control. The latest information that we received
this afternoon (Tuesday) is that emails should be sent direct to families by 8pm this
evening.

ITV Logo Designs
If anyone is feeling a bit creative at the moment, ITV are calling on the nation’s
children to get creative with their logo which you then might see displayed on the
television! All the information that you need can be found here and the closing date
is 19 th April – so get creating! I look forward to possibly seeing some of our gorgeous
children’s wonderful design popping up over the next few weeks!

Wake Up Wednesday
There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of Zoom. In the space of a month, it’s
become one of the most downloaded video conferencing apps in the world and has
quickly gained millions of new users. But as with any video conferencing software or
live streaming app, there can be a number of things to consider around security and
privacy. That’s why National Online Safety have created this guide to help parents
and carers understand exactly what Zoom is all about.

New Cheshire West Helpline
Local NHS Trust, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP), has launched a new
mental health helpline for residents of Cheshire West, Cheshire East and Wirral. It is
open 24 hours a day, seven-days a week, to people of all ages including children
and young people who need mental health support urgently.
If you are in need of urgent mental health help, please call 0300 303 3972 and the
dedicated local NHS staff will support you to access the help you need.
The helpline is now the first port of call for mental health help – it is operated by
people in your local area who will know how best to support you. If you call NHS111
you may have to wait longer for help and will be re-directed to this local service – so
call 0300 303 3972.
Please note, A&E and 999 are not the best places to get help for the majority of
mental health problems – call 0300 303 3972 to be directed to the best local service
to support you, but you should still call 999 or go to A&E if you have an immediate,
life-threatening emergency requiring mental or physical health assistance;
For non-urgent help and general wellbeing advice, the CWP website contains
information and links to resources to support people with anxiety, low mood, and
worries relating to the current Covid-19 pandemic www.cwp.nhs.uk
For children and young people there is also a dedicated website My Mind
Don’t forget that if you need any help from Over St. John’s during this unusual time,
we have set up a dedicated help@overstjohns.cheshire.sch.uk e mail address. This
is regularly checked and someone will get back to you when and if they are able to.

Take care,
Mrs E Snowdon

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