Week Ending 17th July 2020
Dear Parents,
Here we are on the last official day of the school year and Team Rainbow 19/20 has sadly now come to an end. Back in March as we headed into Lockdown I don’t think any of us could have predicted what was ahead or really believed that Lockdown would go on for so long. We certainly didn’t, we thought we would be back after Easter. How wrong we were…….
As we look ahead to the summer I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you all for supporting Rainbow this year. We really have loved sharing time with your wonderful children and we really do appreciate the trust you placed in us when you chose Rainbow. For many of our families, you will be moving into Red and Blue Class but before we talk about Reception I’d really like to mention our families who are moving on to new settings. To Betsey, Isabel, Matthias and Aya your new settings are very lucky that you are going to join them and while we are going to miss you lots, we’re sure that you will have lots of fun and exciting times ahead as you settle in to your new classes and schools.
For our families who are moving into Reception, firstly I’d like to apologise that we haven’t been able to get all the information to you sooner. Organising admissions while navigating constantly changing government advice has proved to be a bit of a challenge. However, you will over the next few days be receiving an information pack through your door. Please excuse the fact these may arrive at random times but as the post continues to be quite delayed we have decided to deliver the packs ourselves to ensure that you have the information from the start of the holidays. We will also be sending the children’s learning journeys live so that you have access to photos and observations from earlier in the year. Please watch out for an e-mail from EY Log, if it doesn’t appear in your inbox then please check your junk mail and if it still doesn’t appear drop me a line on our rainbow e-mail and I’ll send the link again rainbow@malorees-inf.brent.sch.uk
While there have been many positives to come out of Lockdown, there have been things which we have missed out on, one of which would have been our family outing. However, we’d like to say that it has been postponed rather than cancelled. It would be lovely if we could get together in the new school year to give Team Rainbow 19/20 a fitting send off as we’re conscious that while we have been able to see you via our doorstep visits and our rainbow bubble, many of you won’t have been able to see each other and it would just be nice to have the opportunity to get together. So, please don’t be surprised if some Rainbow News pops into your parentmail in the new academic year, we’re not officially saying goodbye just yet……J
I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to catch up with family and friends over the summer break and that you can just enjoy some quality time as a family without the pressures of juggling work and home learning. Although I have to say from what we’ve seen in the Rainbow Bubble you have all done a brilliant job and it has been lovely to see the progress that the children have made. If you would like to continue with some home learning over the summer then do look back over our newsletters and go over things we have suggested. Repetition is good way of making sure that the children grasp key skills and ‘little and often’ is a good approach to take.
Before we end I’d just like to share some of my home learning with you over lockdown. One of my biggest challenges has been how to send a video message when armed with a phone and an arm that clearly isn’t long enough when it comes to selfie images and videos. My initial attempts were rapidly deleted as after weeks in lockdown my intention wasn’t to scare everyone and some of my attempts were quite simply shocking. Last weekend I was finally able to call in the family reinforcements and between us we were able to film the story of ‘ How the Crayons who Saved the Rainbow’. I apologise that I didn’t say hello to our current rainbow friends, I did intend to……..but at the point we made it through the whole story we were on the 3rd attempt as my special helper and niece Francesca decided in our first attempt part way through to announce that I really should tell you all that she is an auntie too and our 2nd attempt clearly wasn’t going very well as she announced that it may be better if I just let her read the story. By the 3rd attempt I could see her point as the wrong glasses were making reading a bit of a challenge but we got there in the end….
So for your entertainment and quite possibly your amusement here’s the link to ‘How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow’ by The Elliotts J
https://www.maloreesschools.com/docs/Online_Learning_2020/Infant/Other/Video/Hello_From_Rainbow.mp4
And on that note, I’m going to end by sending you all our very best wishes and by wishing you all a very happy summer ahead which I hope is full of fun times and special memories.
Keep looking for Rainbows and stay safe and well over the summer. I’m looking forward to seeing you over the gate in September J.
Linda, Ann, Ana and Alice