Dear parents and carers of children in Year 6.
Following yesterday’s email - as well as reading some conversations on social media, I thought I would add further clarification regarding our Year 6 class.
Our Year 6 children are a lovely group of children. The majority of time they are polite, hardworking and respectful. I am currently sitting in class with them and they are working hard in Science. However recently we have had to deal with regular problems at play and lunchtime; some serious, most are not; but all are causing anxiety, disrupting learning and taking our focus away from the real work of the school. Most of these issues are children who are normally friends, arguing. Contrary to comments on social media, this action did not take place because of one incident between two children.
To address this I have spoken to all Year 6 children explaining our frustration. In particular the problem is that too often children report problems to parents without informing staff in school. This is very frustrating as parents are often upset and we at school are frustrated that we have been unable to deal with the problem at the time. We would never ask children to not tell their parents. We just ask that we are told too (when the incident takes place).
To address this we have put children into groups at lunch and play to reduce the number of disagreements and upset. The children are in mixed groups which will be reviewed over time. Some children are even helping us plan the ‘Zones’ to make them as fair as possible - which is great. Both boys and girls have access to football on their allocated days - this was the case for girls yesterday although some children may have said something different when they went home.
Comments have also been made online about our staffing levels. We are very lucky to have a much higher adult/pupil ratio than most schools this size. Recently we have struggled with staff absence due to illness - this is obviously an issue for all schools.
It is a shame when we have to restrict what any group of children do, however I hope you understand that the actions we take are hopefully short term and designed to give our children a calm, safe and stable environment to learn in. I hope that being open about these issues gives you all the confidence that we are making the best decisions for your children that we can.
Can I also take this opportunity to remind parents about the danger and negative influence of social media. Many of the negative issues take place online and outside of school. I know that many of you have a good understanding of these risks - and have acted accordingly to protect your children. Please can I encourage you all to closely monitor your children's use of technology.
Thanks very much for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to a calm and happy end of the week and weekend for you all.
Yours sincerely
Matt Condon