Edgeborough kicked off the Spring Term in a really upbeat and encouraging fashion, despite the lockdown news, and we have been overwhelmed with positive support from parents for our online provision. Children were excited to interact virtually with their classmates and teachers, and the expanded provision of live lessons has been key in helping the children successfully navigate and try to enjoy the new term.
It is not easy, however, for any of us to settle into Home Learning. Pupils and parents are still very much part of the ‘Edgeborough Community’ and it is important to try to keep this special spirit alive in these challenging times, with pupil wellbeing the ultimate priority.
With this in mind, Edgeborough is starting a school-wide ‘Thought for the Week’ that aims to focus on wellbeing to engage the children, staff and parents in discussing ideas around a distinct topic such as resilience, kindness, being thankful, positivity, trying your best, honesty and asking for help. Each week a quote will be selected relating to the theme and the idea is to talk about it, share similar positive messages and support those who might be having a more challenging day. Tutors will explore these thoughts during form time and each ‘Thought of the Week’ will be placed on social media so that parents can also get involved.
Headmaster, Dan Thornburn, comments: “We are very pleased at Edgeborough to have received fantastic feedback from parents for our online learning provision. I am acutely aware, though, that none of us want the children to be learning in this environment. There has never been a time when we have valued the school community more. Our children have never missed the school so much and our teachers have never wanted to be physically teaching more! We must be aware of any anxieties and worries and identify how to provide support for those who find lockdown difficult. Through the implementation of this ‘Thought for the Week’ concept it is hoped that the children, staff and parents are able to open up and unite in the discussion of some of the issues that are affecting us all in these strange times. In our first staff meeting of the year, I offered up this quote from a popular poem by Damian Barr, which helps us to think of the fortunes of others as well as ourselves. I am pleased to share this as our first thought for the week:
“We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm.
Some of us are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar.”
Image by Barbara Kelley.
