Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
-
Reception Balanceability
Fri 25 Jun 2021Our Reception children have had a wonderful time this week doing 'balanceability' on pedal-less bikes and then progressing to riding with pedals and NO STABILISERS!
-
Year 6 Bikeability Level2
Fri 25 Jun 2021Year 6 Bikeability has gone really well this week. Great to see the enthusiasm and fun alongside the children experiencing the benefits of cycling and learning about road safety.
-
Happy Chicks
Thu 24 Jun 2021We have had chicks in school over the last couple of weeks in Reception, Year 2 and Year 5. It has been such a fantastic experience! Take a look at the adventures of the chicks in Year 5...
-
Derby Book Award
Tue 22 Jun 2021Our Year 2 and Year 3 children have done some wonderful work for the Derby Book Award.
Click here to see some of the children's work. The final stage of the event was a special assembly where the winning book as voted by the children was shared!
We are extremely proud of what every child has contributed towards the Derby Book Award. The whole event seems to have been a big success with the children, so it is certainly one we will be looking to be involved in again in the future.
Mr Gallagher
-
Our Global Family Project
Fri 14 May 2021I am so proud to share the children's work about 'Our Global Family' project with you. We are the PIONEER school for the project which is a joint programme between Derby College, Derby Book Festival and Derby University and now...... Borrow Wood!
-
THE BIG ASK - Government Survey to seek views of children about their futures
Thu 22 Apr 2021Get your child’s voice heard and make a difference
The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, is launching a once-in-a-generation review of children’s lives.
It’s called ‘The Childhood Commission’ and it will identify the barriers preventing children reaching their full potential and propose policy solutions to address them.
At its heart is ‘The Big Ask’ – the largest ever consultation held with children.
In this survey the Children’s Commissioner is asking children and young people what they think is important for their future and what is holding young people back. The Children’s Commissioner will use what children and young people tell her to show the Government what they think and what they need to live happier lives.
It’s an exciting opportunity to help us think big and it’s a chance for every child in England to have their voice heard.
-
Easter family activities programme
Thu 25 Mar 2021Derby City Council have put together a programme of Easter Family Activities. Please click here to find out more. -
Bluebell Ice-cream Nominations for Borrow Wood
Mon 08 Feb 2021THANK YOU TO THE WONDERFUL BORROW WOOD COMMUNITY FOR NOMINATING US FOR THE BLUEBELLS ICE CREAM GIFT!
We are chuffed to pieces to be awarded this. Over the last few weeks I have been forwarded many of the uplifting, supportive messages that have been sent to Bluebells about the Borrow Wood Team from special mentions to The Early Years team, individual teachers and teaching assistants and also some truly lovely comments recognising my role in managing and leading the school.
Although it is currently below freezing and we started today clearing snow and gritting the site, the ice-cream really will be very much appreciated by the whole staffing team - it may have to stay in the freezer until we all warm up!
-
Remote Education Update Feb 2nd 2021
Tue 02 Feb 20212nd February 2021
Dear parents/carers,
We are now in our fifth week of delivering remote education to our children at home alongside providing in school teaching to vulnerable children and children of critical workers in school. I think it would be fair to say that the last few weeks have presented us all with a range of challenges, which we have been working hard to overcome.
First and foremost, the message presented by the media that schools are ‘closed’, is both frustrating and misleading. At Borrow Wood we currently have about 40% of our children in school, who are working mainly in year group classes. Contrary to the images being presented on the news, this means that classes are generally almost full. We continue to operate our systems of control and protective measures throughout the school day by keeping bubbles separated; insisting on handwashing; following the ‘Catch it, Bin it! Kill it’ mantra and cleaning high frequency touch points throughout the day. Despite these measures we have had a number of positive COVID cases in school since returning in January, some of which have led to bubble closures.
Last week we started Lateral Flow Device testing of all school staff, which will help us monitor and manage any possible COVID cases amongst staff in school. Although not pleasant, we see it as a positive step in identifying any possible positive cases amongst staff early.
Over the last fortnight, we have undertaken a review and evaluation of our remote education offer. Thank you to those of you who completed the survey sent out by Miss Sargison. We have also consulted with teachers to find out their views of providing remote learning whilst also having to liaise with colleagues in school.
Parent/carer responses to the survey have been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know the positives alongside suggestions for further improvement. It is a fine balancing act to get provision right for everyone. The Department for Education has been clear in their guidance to schools about their expectations of what schools should be offering. We have worked hard to quickly develop our provision through Microsoft Teams including daily live sessions for Years 1 to 6. Our monitoring of these, shows high levels of engagement and where we have identified concerns, we have contacted families and offered support – including technical support and offers of devices, SIM Cards and BT hotspot codes to enable access to the internet.
There is strong evidence from parents that live sessions are very effective and support the children with their learning as well as providing a routine and familiar structure to the learning day. Feedback acknowledges that parents/carers have also been on a steep learning curve to become familiar with Microsoft Teams and assignments. An unexpected positive is that our IT skills have made rapid progress!
Feedback also tells us that some children at home find it difficult to focus and engage with the learning without a lot of adult support, which presents challenges when parents/carers are working themselves. There is a need to recognise that our children at home need to be rewarded and praised for their efforts to keep them motivated and focussed, and teachers are making a conscious effort to reward children for their learning on submitted assignments and within live sessions.
One of the issues we are trying to balance in school is teacher workload. Remote education provision has increased this significantly and one of the decisions we are making to reduce this is to move entirely to Microsoft Teams to teach, set assignments and give feedback. Up until now we have posted the same work on the school website thereby doubling the workload for teachers. We will, therefore, not be uploading work for Years 1 to 6 onto the website from the week beginning 8th February unless there is an issue with Microsoft Teams. Should that happen, teachers will upload to the school website the work children need to access for that day/period of time only. Please contact your child’s teacher for advice and support on Microsoft Teams this week if you are unsure how to use any aspect of Microsoft Teams. For our Reception and nursery children the school website will continue to be used to upload ideas, activities and phonics videos.
We have also considered the following:
- The need for a ‘social’ live session to enable all of the children in school and at home to come together each week. We are still trying to timetable this around live sessions which have been set to enable households with more than one child to access these key times.
- Reward and praise systems for children at home – children should have a reward card equivalent to the one in school that they can colour in in response to teacher praise and feedback. When they come back in to school they can transfer these rewards to their charts in school.
- We will also be sending ‘surprise’ postcards home to celebrate children’s contributions and efforts.
- I have also ordered a very special batch of badges linked to remote learning but I am still waiting for these to be delivered – some things are still taking longer to arrive!
There are some other tweaks and improvements we are addressing as we go along to continually improve our offer.
Needless to say, there will be times when you have to pick your battles, take a deep breath and come back to something later.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can support you with. Teachers and teaching assistants are making 1:1 video calls on a daily basis to support children with their learning. Phone calls home are also being made to check in on specific children – if you feel you would benefit from one of our safe and well calls, please let your child’s teacher know. We do not have a magic wand to sort this out but we will try our utmost to offer advice and support in whatever way we can.
To finish I would like to say thank you for your ongoing support, your positive comments about remote learning and your kind emails. Sharing what you say with my staff has been a pleasure.
Kind regards and take care of one another
Zoe Fletcher
-
MONDAY 25TH JANUARY 2021 BORROW WOOD CLOSED DUE TO SNOW
Sun 24 Jan 2021Borrow Wood will be closed on Monday 25th January 2021 to ALL pupils. The combination of the adverse weather conditions and the 'bubble' arrangements means that we cannot safely redeploy staff to cover staff who are unable to safely travel to school.
All children should engage with remote learning provision which can be accessed via the school website. Click here and then select your child's year group.
