Cherry Garden

April / May Newsletter

What’s happening in school

We have 2 small key stage 2 classes and 2 small key stage 1 classes currently. Key stage

groups use separate dining areas and do not share soft play/hall in the same week. We

have several other measures in place to minimise the risk of infection.

The children are enjoying their new small classes and getting familiar with new

classmates and staff.

They have been accessing more outdoor learning particularly since the weather has

now improved and are enjoying Forest School activities in the tree area. We recently

had a car washing and vacuuming theme for some of the children and both adults and

children were very happy about this.

What’s happening at home

I’m sure you are all by now struggling to keep them entertained particularly if you do

not have access to a garden. We have a significant amount of children who are

vulnerable due to health needs and this places additional stress onto families.

Teachers have been doing a fantastic job of uploading lots of

activity ideas on Tapestry, Instagram, Twitter and by email. They

have been contacting you on a weekly basis to keep in touch and

you are all doing an amazing job in these extremely difficult times.

Please check out these links below (copy and paste onto your browser).

https://twitter.com/cherrygdnschool

https://www.instagram.com/cherrygardensch/

https://tapestryjournal.com/

Free School Meals

We managed to deliver food hampers for DFE eligible FSM families a few weeks ago in

partnership with AIP our catering company. This was greatly appreciated by parents.

We did this because we are experiencing great difficulty in accessing the national

school meals e-vouchers on Edenred. We are still continuing to

try to access the national scheme for pupils eligible under the

DFE for FSM.

Southwark provide FSM for all primary aged children in

Southwark so we also now have an account with Tesco and all

children who are staying at home will have now received these gift vouchers worth

£15.00 per week.

Playground Project

We are opening up the zipwire playground at the end of the day

for some families. This playground will not be used by pupils

after 12pm so will be safe to use (virus comes off surfaces in 3

hours in outdoors). After school slots are now booked up.

Meetings using via conference calls

We have had several staff meetings via Teams and Zoom and even managed

a staff quiz in the Easter holidays. We started annual review meetings with

parents last week and this has worked well and I’m sure will become much

slicker as times goes on. 6 monthly reviews for new children will not take

place for the vast majority of children but an updated IEP will be sent home in the next

few weeks and follow up by phone or video conferencing can take place if needed.

All children will also receive their Annual Report at the end of the academic year.

Government Guidance

There has been no change with Government Guidance, however many special schools

are closed completely. I believe we have taken the right approach for our school and

have built in appropriate risk assessments to ensure risks for pupils and adults are at a

manageable minimum. This does mean that we have only been able to take a small co-

hort of children thus far. Any possible increase after half term will need to be fully risk

assessed to ensure we are able to continue to minimise risks and I strongly suspect there

will only be a small increase in pupils after half term.

#Keep Calm and Cherry On

Best wishes and Stay Safe,

Teresa Neary