St Oswald’S Cofe Aided Primary & Nursery School

Please remember to log into the parent portal to accept your child’s reception place before 30th April. If you have any questions about admissions, waiting lists or appeals for St Oswald’s then please refer to our school website http://www.stoswaldsdurham.net/our-school /admissions/ or contact us by email stoswalds.ce@durhamlearning.net

Are you waiting to hear if your child has a place at St Oswald’s for our reception intake? Keep an eye out for the email or letter from Durham County Council. Any enquiries relating to admissions and waiting lists should be sent to stoswalds.ce@durhamlearning.net on or after 16th April 2020.

Happy Easter to our whole school community. Did you know that Durham Cathedral is holding online services? See here: https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/w…/sp ecial-services/easter

To our school community,
Happy Easter! We are thinking of you all on this somewhat strange Easter weekend.
We have put together a little message from all of us to all of you!
... With very best wishes from the staff at St Oswald’s.
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‪Elvet and Dunelm were unable to go on their trip to see the Little Red Riding Hood ballet but you can watch it on CBeebies! 9.30am on Good Friday (also on iPlayer catch up afterwards) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h479 ‬

We loved Axel Scheffler’s work with Julia Donaldson last week and here’s another thing he’s been working on. He’s illustrated a book about Coronavirus aimed at helping children understand what’s going on at the moment. Find out more on the Nosy Crow publisher page or use this link https://nosycrow.com/…/…/Coronavirus- A-Book-for-Children.pdf

Looking for some fun mugs activities? Find some here!

A poem by two of our Year 6 pupils, Emily and Maria.
When Corona came along, we were in the middle of Brexit, But now no one cares about the UK’s exit. Toilet roll is now priority one,... You better be quick before it’s all gone. The children are gaming and having a blast, The parents’ patience is running out fast.
Darn it, Corona! Why are you so rude? You interrupted our lives and took our favourite foods. Darn it, Corona! You made my dad bake, I ate one of his biscuits and it made my tooth ache.
My hair grew too long, so my mum gave it a trim, My beautiful locks have now turned limp. Parents think they’ve got great teaching skills, But for goodness sake keep paying bills. Because there’s no school I’m now boss, The only problem is, I can’t double cross.
Darn it, Corona! Please go away, All I want to do is to go out and play. Darn it, Corona! Please clear off, You even gave Boris a big, bad cough. Darn it, Corona, the only good thing ‘bout you, Is you show the good people who are faithful and true. Oh, silly Corona! See what you really do, No matter what the NHS will power through! So, give up Corona, You can’t win this fight. Clear of now, Go take flight!!
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The full set of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler‘s social distancing illustrations.

A message for our St Oswald’s School Community.
Today should have been the end of Spring Term and the start of our Easter holidays. Instead, most of you have already been at home for two weeks. The grown-ups at school are missing the children so much. We’ve been thinking about all of the learning we haven’t been able to finish in school and the teachers have been sending some ideas home. We’ve also been thinking about all of the fun that we are missing together.
Miss Windsor... set Elvet Class the task of making a ‘wishing jar’. The idea is to put things that you wish to do after social distancing into it. What would your child put in theirs? At home? At school? Mrs Hassall is wishing for netball games in the sunny playground! Mrs Middleton is wishing for some of Mrs Hughes’ cornflake tart! Mrs Ribchester is wishing for a Y6 treat day at Planet Leisure! Mrs Lang is wishing for arts and craft afternoons with Dunelm Class! Mr Handy is wishing for even more PE trips! Mrs Wilson-Smith is wishing to see everyone altogether singing songs in our hall! Miss Hadley is wishing to read a poem a day again to Kingsgate Class! Mrs Wass is even wishing to be interrupted in the office a hundred times a day by children, parents and staff!
We’ve set up a whole school wishing jar on our learning platform. Your child can post their wish for when we are all back together at St Oswald’s.
Stay home and keep safe this Easter.
With best wishes from everyone at St Oswald’s.
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Have you seen Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s new work aimed at explaining social distancing to children? We think they are great!

Have you seen BBC Bitesize?

Our school community has been tremendous in its response to government guidance regarding critical workers and ‘no other option’ childcare. Thank you for helping to keep our school and the much wider community safe. Our school leaders have found it incredibly difficult to have to divide the school community into those who can access the emergency childcare provision and those who cannot. We acknowledge that the withdrawal of your child’s educational provision and childcare ...is not easy for families and that many of you are having to juggle at-home-childcare with work commitments. We applaud you for what you are doing to keep others within, and beyond, our school gates safe.
Today school begins its closure period and this is until further notice. We are closed to all pupils except those with a confirmed place in our emergency childcare provision. This provision is not like normal school and is being staffed on a minimal level to protect all the staff working, the children who need to attend and the wider population including the most vulnerable to the coronavirus in our society and those performing critical roles/jobs.
Class teachers will keep in touch via ParentMail and other systems but some are working in the emergency childcare provision this week so thank you for your patience.
Mrs Hassall, Headteacher, can be contacted on our main email address stoswalds.ce@durhamlearning.net during the closure period.
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We cannot stress how important this is. Thank you to all of our families who we only using us as childcare as a last resort when there is no other option and parents are absolutely essential critical workers. See Gavin Williamson’s Twitter post below - Secretary of State for Education.

Today has been a very emotional day at our lovely school. We said a 'maybe goodbye' to our Year 6s as a just in case. They are a wonderful bunch and it seems incredibly unfair that their time at primary school may have ended so prematurely. We hope that is has not ended just yet and that they will be bounding back into school along with everyone else before too long. We will all laugh when we have to properly say goodbye to them AGAIN! Those Year 6s in attendance today g...
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As this somewhat strange day ends, we have to tell you that we are not yet in receipt of any update from the UK Government regarding school closure. We know you have questions and we hope to have some answers soon. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Dear Parents/Carers,
As you may be aware, the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education have announced that schools and childcare settings are to close to most pupils from the end of the day on Friday 20th March 2020. We have no previews of government announcements and hear these at the same times as the general public. We understand that it is an anxious time for families and will do all that we can to make sure that, as a school, we update you as soon as possibl...e. At the moment, we are awaiting communications from the DfE and Cabinet Office to confirm the list of key workers, amongst other things. Please look out for Parentmail communications from us tomorrow. Please note that Parentmail is used by many schools around the country and is sometimes overwhelmed by demand on their servers with emails taking a little time to be processed after we press send. Please be assured that we want to be open and prompt in our communications with our school community and continue to be grateful for your support and patience. So many of you have expressed this with kind words and it brings some lightness at a stressful time. St Oswald’s is a wonderful school community and will continue to be so!
We will be doing all that we can to prepare our school community for the upcoming changes. We kindly ask that you limit contact with the school office (and Sunshine Club) tomorrow morning to email and essential phone calls only. This will allow us to ensure that key staff are able to focus on key priorities while we also provide our usual high standard of care and education for the children in attendance. Messages regarding absence can be left as normal on the school’s voicemail system. Your support is so very much appreciated.
With kind regards,
Mrs Hassall (Headteacher) and Mrs Wilson-Smith (Deputy Head Teacher) on behalf of all of the staff and governors of St Oswald’s School and the Directors of Sunshine Club
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‪As a school, we are following government announcements. Mrs Hassall will update parents/carers as soon as she is able to do so and when the situation is made clearer. Thank you for your continued support and patience. ‬