Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Switch to Remote Learning
Fri 15 Jan 202115th January 2021
Dear parents/carers,
The Christmas break now seems like a distant memory given the last two weeks that you at home and we in school have had to deal with.
First and foremost, I would like to thank all of the staffing team at Borrow Wood for their commitment and support in planning for and switching to the dual demands of remote and in school teaching AND a huge thank you to all of you for your support and patience whilst we pulled this together with less than 12 hours notice.
We are now coming to the end of the first complete week of remote learning, with two 'live' sessions every day for all year groups from Year 1 to Year 6. The learning curve for teachers, children and adults at home has been steep. Mr Gallagher, Miss Sargison, our admin team and David, our technician, have done a remarkable job in dealing with and resolving a wide range of technical issues both in school and for families learning at home. Hopefully, next week will run even more smoothly as we settle into yet another new routine and way of working.
Our Early Years team are checking in with families at home to support with activities and ideas linked to early years development. Although there are no live teaching sessions for this age group, Mrs Tomlinson has pre-recorded phonics sessions and posted a wide range of other activities for our Reception and Nursery children to access from home.
The children attending school have adapted to the combined classes and teachers working on rotas to share in school teaching and remote learning. This generation of children are certainly having to learn about change, adaptation, flexibility and resilience.
Needless to say, if you have any questions, concerns or issues that you need to raise, please contact school and we will do our best to resolve them as quickly as possible.
On a final note, I would like to thank the many parents and carers who have contacted us with kind words and messages of support. It really is appreciated and makes a big difference to all of us at Borrow Wood.
Please take care, stay safe and look after one another.
Kind regards
Zoe Fletcher
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School Closure
Mon 04 Jan 2021School will be closed from tomorrow, Tuesday 5th January 2021, to all pupils with the exception of identified vulnerable pupils and children of critical workers who are unable to make alternative arrangements. Further guidance will follow tomorrow. Please avoid contacting school.
See link for critical worker list:
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Reverse Advent Calendar - Donations
Thu 10 Dec 2020A huge thank you to the Borrow Wood community for the donations to the Reverse Advent calendar so far.
The first collection was made today and will be distributed to those in need by the Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity charity.
Your generosity is much appreciated and so very important given the challenging times we are currently living through.
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Borrow Wood open Friday 18th December
Wed 09 Dec 202009/12/2020
Dear Parents/Carers,
I am writing to confirm to you that our last day in school will be Friday 18th December. The Department for Education sent its daily update out to schools at 2.15pm yesterday afternoon informing us that we could arrange an INSET day for Friday 18th December.
I have decided against this for the following reasons:
- For many parents, it is far too short notice and will cause childcare problems for many families.
- We have some fun events and activities happening next week, which we want to share with the children. All events are COVID-secure and will follow our current Risk Assessments.
- We have already had an INSET Day this week.
- Senior Staff have already put plans in place to monitor communications from parents/carers over the Christmas break should they need to report a positive COVID test result. (More information about this will be provided before the end of term)
Therefore, unless I am directly instructed to do so, Borrow Wood will be open up to and including Friday 18th December.
Thank you for your ongoing support
Kind regards
Zoe Fletcher
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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Fri 04 Dec 2020It's certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at Borrow Wood! We'd like to say a huge thank you for your generous donation of Christmas decorations. As you can see they have been greatly received and the children have been extremely excited about how 'festive' school is looking.
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Borrow Wood Leading the Way
Thu 26 Nov 2020Once upon a time before lockdown in March 2020, Borrow Wood was part of a project titled: 'How Student Stories Help Develop Empathy in Schools'.
The stories have been written by students at Derby College, who have recently arrived in the UK with little or no English from countries across the world. Many of them have travelled long distances to get here, leaving behind their homes, their families and their friends and have often faced great challenges along the way.
I am delighted to share the outcome of the Case Study that has been written by Derby University and Derby College as part of the Derby Book Festival project. The case study shows how important it is that our children learn about the lives of people living in their home city of Derby and develop empathy for those who have faced extreme challenges and adversity in their early lives.
We are already working with the Book Festival and Derby University to take part in this project again in the spring term 2021. Hopefully, this time we will be able to complete all the activities we had originally planned this year. In the meantime please click here to take a look at the case study to find out more.
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Maple Class Topic Homework
Tue 24 Nov 2020Maple Class Topic homework this half-term is brilliant. Take a look at these proud children showing their homework - either linked to the Romans history topic or the Animals and Habitats science topic.
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Year 5 Remembrance Art
Thu 12 Nov 2020I just wanted to share this lovely Remembrance themed artwork that our Year 5 children did on 11th November 2020 - Remembrance Day.
We would usually have had a whole school assembly to bring all staff and children together for a collective service of remembrance. This year we were unable to do this due to COVID-19.
All classes shared a short clip from the Festival of Remembrance showing the Muster and the placing of the Book of Remembrance. As this was playing, Mrs Maher and I walked around school and shared a few moments in each class. The children were moved and highly respectful of the moment.
At 11:00am, the whole school observed a 2 minute silence, during which the children stood beautifully showing their respects.
This year the Festival of Remembrance also recognised the significant contributions of the NHS and Care Workers, which many of our children can connect with.
Your children are a credit to yourselves and to Borrow Wood.
Thank you
Zoe Fletcher
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Join in the Derby Library Big Family Read!
Thu 22 Oct 2020Derby Library are running a 'Big Family Read' from 1st October to 30th November!
Rediscover the joy of reading, reading together and talking about what you have read! The book they have chosen is Let Sleeping Dragons Lie by Garth Nix and Sean Williams. Derby Libraries will have multiple downloads of both the eBook and eAudiobook available online as well as paper copies at all libraries to borrow.
We would love to see the children of Borrow Wood getting involved over half term and until the end of November! If you choose to join in, please send some pictures of you reading together to Miss Sargison at sarahsargison@borrowwood.derby.sch.uk
Click the link below to find out how to download your copy!
https://www.inderby.org.uk/libraries/news/the-big-family-read-2020/
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New Website launched
Sat 10 Oct 2020Our new website has finally been launched!
We were almost ready to move to this more user-friendly, modern website in March 2020! Then....... Coronavirus happened delaying this change over until October.
Our admin team are working hard to input the final few parental contacts so that the website app invites can be sent out. Once all parents/carers have downloaded the app, we will be using the app as the main tool to communicate with parents.
We are currently finalising our 'remote learning contingency plan' and will share this with you by half-term. Like all planning documents over the last few months, we know there will need to be changes as we try things out. As always, please bear with us!
