Wider opening update – Monday 15th June 2020
Please find below a letter regarding the wider opening of Norton Infant School to Nursery and Reception children. Thank you
This Week in the Trust
Please see our school contributions to this week in the XP Trust.
Trust Statement
In light of recent events, we would like to send our heartfelt sadness and profound solidarity and support to our friends, colleagues and the wider community in the USA. The murder of George Floyd, alongside countless other black Americans, has once again highlighted to the world that racism is deeply rooted in all our institutions and communities. In light of this murder and other unnecessary acts of grievous and unconscionable violence, we are resolved to do more, as educators, to fight prejudice in all its forms, question our role in this and be determined to bring about positive change to eradicate racism and prejudice in all its forms.
Our curriculum is deeply rooted in developing community and building social equity and we have never shied away from facing and challenging what is unacceptable in our global, national and local community. We believe that the knowledge we acquire becomes powerful only when it is used to bring about positive social change so that we become better people and our world becomes a better place. As such, as a Trust, we feel it our responsibility to do more; not just to speak out against prejudice and injustice but be determined to do more to actively change the way we work, how we work, what we learn and how we affect positive change.
Our students already learn about racial inequality by studying the role of the British in the formulation of the slave trade and their part in the triangular trading of humans in the 18th century. We link this to the inhumane treatment of black communities in the USA in the 19th and 20th Centuries and their suffering at the hands of perverse attitudes and laws during this time. We study and celebrate the Civil Rights movement in the USA and the significant role it played, and continues to play, in fighting for equality and justice. Also, in Crew sessions across our Trust, there is a strong focus on equity justice and we constantly promote respect and tolerance.
However, we feel that we could do much more to highlight and change the systemic and institutional racism that exists in our own country by focusing more on how and why black people have been historically and more recently let down by our institutions and systems in the UK.
Therefore, today we pledge to review our curriculum at all phases, as well as our own understanding of racism, to integrate more consciously opportunities to educate our students about racial injustice. We will use experts to support us to challenge and confront racism and through this learning act to bring about more equity in our communities.
We stand with our friends who are fighting this injustice in the USA, in the UK and the wider world.
We stand with our friends and we pledge to act and do more to reflect on the history and actions of our own communities and institutions in the UK and how we can actively make them more socially equitable and more just for all.
This Week in the Trust
Please see our school contributions to this week in the XP Trust including a sneak peak at our ‘How can I be a Superhero where I live?’ product.
Extremely Random Reading
Check out all of the extremely random places we have been reading this week …
Thank you to all the children and staff who took part.
Update – widening our school provision from 1st June 2020
Across all schools in the Trust we are looking ahead to when we can extend the current provision and welcome more of our students back, in line with the current Government plans.
This will be bespoke, taking into account the needs of and numbers of students in each of our schools, their families and the wider community.
Our staff are already carrying out work within our schools to make them as safe as we can, looking at every aspect of school life from how we might work in small groups to where we eat lunch. In other words what a day in school will look and feel like in the weeks to come as we extend our provision.
Keeping the risks low, manageable and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of students and staff is our key priority and always will be.
We promise to continue to keep you informed and up to date, but as always if you have any questions please do get in touch with your school.
Information for parents about reopening of schools from 1st June 2020
Below is a link to the Department for Education guidance for parents and carers about the reopening of schools from 1st June 2020. This may help answer some questions you may have if you have chosen to send your child back to school. Further details will follow over the next week for those who wish to return.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/reopening-schools-and-other-educational-settings-from-1-june
Extreme Reading
This week the theme for our NIS video is reading in unusual or extreme places.
So make sure you send us in your photographs of you reading in a strange place … on your slide? In a paddling pool? Which bizarre places can you think of to read?
Send your photos to [email protected] before the end of Thursday – we have had some brilliant ones already!
Happy Reading
Survey to ascertain need for school places from 1st June 2020
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete the survey. The survey is now closed from 12noon Monday 18th May. We will now consider your requirements and use them to plan the next phase of our action plan. I will be in touch in due course. Please continue to stay safe.
This Week in the Trust
Please see our school contributions to this week in the XP Trust.
