St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School

Start and Finish times - A reminder

Keyworker/Supported children in all year groups: Monday-Thursday 8.30am-3.00pm

                                                                                       : Friday 8.30am-12.15pm       

RT: Monday and Tuesday 9.15am-2.15pm

RH: Thursday and Friday 9.15am-2.15pm        

Year 1: Monday-Thursday 9.00am-2.30pm

           : Friday 9.00am-11.45am       

Year 6: Monday-Thursday 8.45am-2.45pm

           : Friday 8.45am-12.00pm       

Thursday 25th June     

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-online

 Wednesday 24th June - Updates and Staffing for 2020-2021

Dear families of St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School,

I hope this post finds you all safe and well. As we move through the phases of easing lock-down, it presents us all with a glimmer of hope but also with the challenge to ensure we keep safe. We know from all the Gospel readings at mass over the past few weeks that God is always with us, especially through His Son Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. It is up to us, in these difficult times, to show the power of love and kindness to each other that God always has for us all.

We cannot tell you how much we miss all the children that are unable to attend school and want you to know that you are always in our thoughts and prayers. We really want to thank you all for the hard work you have been doing at home by completing tasks in the Learning Packs sent by post or sharing your work online on the DB Primary year group forums. We have all been absolutely amazed by the quality of work you have been producing whilst at home - demonstrating great creativity in writing, history projects, artwork and mastery in your maths. When you put your growth mind-sets to it, you can really shine in all you do! Keep on working hard and logging on to DB Primary as the teachers look forward to seeing your work and responding to your emails - we all do! If you are having problems in receiving the learning packs or logging on to the learning platform or other websites suggested by your teachers, please do get in contact with the school by phone or email the office. The teachers are also really enjoying catching up with you in their fortnightly conversations by phone.

The government, this week, announced the further relaxing of social distancing measures to 1 metre plus, in certain situations, to start on 4th July. The school will wait for further guidance from the Government, Diocese, Local Authority and unions before reducing the 2m social distance measures further and will inform you in advance if there is any change. Please kindly keep to the 2m social distancing rule whilst on the school grounds unless the school announces otherwise.

We are very sorry to be saying goodbye to Miss Hamilton in class 6E at the end of this academic year. She has been an excellent teacher, respected by all who meet her and we will be really sad to see her leave. The commute to Eastbourne has proved problematic for Miss Hamilton and she has managed to secure a teaching post much closer to her home. We wish her the very best of luck for the future - she will be a great asset to any school she goes to!

We welcome Mrs Murphy and Mrs Osborne-Walker to the team as both take up teaching positions at the school from September 2020. Mrs Murphy will be class teacher with class 3C and Mrs Osborne-Walker will be with class 6. Please see the table below informing you of your child's new teacher for next year. All teachers and TAs are working closely together as year group teaching teams and have produced a letter of introduction with photos for your child. These will be placed in the next learning pack due to be sent out at the end of this week.

Preparations are also underway to ensure identified Reception children return to school from next week to complete government guidelines on their phased return with Year 1 and Year 6. The school is now running very much close to capacity. Again, we would love to have all families back at school and hope to see you all back in September - unless there are any government guidance changes before then we will make sure we keep you informed and any actions the school will need to take.

Packs have been sent today to all our new Reception children joining the school in September. Although we are unable to follow the usual meetings and 'play days' held to inform children and parents of the teaching, routines and facilities in the Early Years, the teachers have come up with great alternatives. Videos of welcome from the teaching team and virtual  tours are being posted on Tapestry and families will be sent account details to log on to this learning platform.

More than anything, we cannot thank you enough for all your kindness, patience and resilience during this difficult and uncertain time. You, like your children, have been amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you for bearing with us. May God's love help us through the remainder of this pandemic and see us all through safe and sound to the other side, when we can all return to school in September, reunited as one happy school family (government guidelines permitting!)

Please remember, if you do have any queries or concerns do not hesitate to contact the school and we will try to ensure we resolve these or put you in contact with someone who can.

With the very best of wishes,

Paul Beverton

Attention Year 6 parents

Dear Year 6 parents and carers,

We recognise that the children have had an unusual end to their time at St Thomas a Becket school and we would therefore like to provide the Leavers Hoodies this year as a gift for each child as a way of remembering all the great memories and experiences they have had as part of our school community.

In order to allow us time for these to be ordered and produced, we ask that you email the school - office@stthomasbecket.e-sussex.sch.uk no later than Friday 19th June.

Unfortunately, it will not be possible for the hoodies to be tried on nor returned if they do not fit perfectly, so we advise that you check the measurements very carefully before submitting your order.

The child sizes are as follows: age 7/8 (30"), age 9/11 (32"), age 12/13 (34"). Adult sizes are: Small (36") and Medium (40").

Please email the school office with your child's first name and the size you would like.

Many thanks

Summer Reading Challenge

Keep your children reading this summer! East Sussex libraries are offering lots of ways to help! Children and their families can  join East Sussex libraries online and have their library cards posted to them. They will also get a temporary membership number to use until their cards arrive, so they can start using all the fantastic online resources straight away. This includes access to over 7,000 e-books,  with over 1400 e-book and e-audio book titles for children to choose from. Some of our e-books for younger children also have a ‘Read-a-Long’ feature, just look for this feature under the title of the book. You can see our full range of children’s titles here: https://eastsussexlibrary.overdrive.com/library/kids 

There is also information about how to borrow e-books and e-audio books on their website: https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/online/ebooks-audiobooks/ebooks/

Families may also be interested in our free e-magazines and newspapers available through Press Reader: https://www.pressreader.com/catalog You can find out how to get started here: https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/online/emagazines-and-newspapers/newspapers/

Join the fun this summer with East Sussex libraries Summer Reading Challenge and meet The Silly Squad!! Fantastic reading fun for children and the chance to get rewards, play games and earn badges as you discover awesome books to read this summer! 

Click on https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ for full details of how to join. 

Also visit their Facebook page on https://www.facebook.com/SummerReadingChallengeUK

Monday 15th June 2020

Dear families of St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School,

We hope this post finds you all safe and well. Over the weekend we were reminded, in the mass celebrating The Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, how connected we are with God through His son Jesus. We were also reminded by St Paul that we are one body connected to God and each other through His love. It may not feel like it right now, but we are also one body, one community, and we are constantly thinking of you all, despite the barriers. 

Ensuring that children and staff are safe through preserving social distancing in classes with limited staff is making it difficult to bring children back into school. Following government guidelines, we are focusing on critical worker families whilst at the same time trying to get Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children back to school. 

A number of Year 6 children have returned and we are sending out letters and inviting Year 1 and Reception children (who initially wanted to return in our surveys) over the coming week. Given the number of classrooms we have, the EYFS and Key Stage 1 classes are small in size and open plan which proves a problem in stopping groups from mixing. Unfortunately, due to the barriers of maintaining social distancing, classroom sizes and staffing mentioned above, we are unable to accommodate Years 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the rest of the academic year. We wish, as one community, that you could all return and look forward to the day that will happen.

We aim to remain as inclusive as possible for all children remaining at home. Teachers will be making fortnightly telephone calls, as well as continuing to use email on DB Primary to keep in contact with the children. They will also make sure that online learning is updated weekly and send out learning packs fortnightly during term time.

We are still unsure about what will be happening in September and await further government guidelines and advice on this. Rest assured, as soon as we know we will inform you immediately of our plans.

Paul Beverton

Headteacher

St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School

4th June Updates from Mr Beverton

Whole School Information

Year 6 Return

Critical Workers and Vulnerable Children

St Thomas a Becket One-Way System

A message from all of us here at St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School...

School Privacy Notice

Staff Privacy Notice

Volunteer and Governor Privacy Notice

Whole School Curriculum Intent

At St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School our intention is that our curriculum extends opportunity, raises aspiration, opens children’s eyes to Jesus and God’s love and the world beyond their immediate environment, enabling them to live happy, healthy and productive lives and inspire them to become lifelong learners.

For full information please follow this link:  Whole School Curriculum Intent

Address: 3-7 Tutts Barn Lane, Eastbourne BN22 8XT
 Tel: 01323 737221