Mrs Moore’s Memo, Friday 1 May 2020

Dear Children and young people,

First of all and without further ado, I want to say how FABULOUS you all are.  You are working so hard at home on your lessons and your teachers are very proud of you! Well done!

It’s not easy, I know, not seeing your friends and wider families AND still having to keep up-to-date with your lessons. So, please remember to give yourselves a pat on the back for getting through another week of lockdown learning!

I am very aware that you may be having ‘off days’ – I certainly do.  Poor Mr Moore knows when I have one, because he offers to fill the dishwasher, make dinner or simply goes off for a long walk on his own.  I am a people person and it’s getting really difficult sometimes to find new things to talk about with Mr Moore when I’m so used to chatting to all of you and all of your teachers.  I was always a bit of a chatterbox at school and was continuously in trouble for ‘day dreaming’.  My report in my last year of primary school (year 6) had comments like ‘she’s a chatterbox’; ‘she has great ideas, but doesn’t always commit them to paper’; ‘she prefers staring out of the window to looking at the blackboard’ (no we didn’t have interactive whiteboards back then). However, I managed to pass my exams and eventually become a teacher so I must have been doing something right!

I know that you would much rather be back in School and communicating ‘normally’ with your teachers and friends, but until that glorious day when we can all return to the Abbey arrives, we have to simply ‘Keep calm and carry on’ and look forward to getting back to normal.

I do want to know how you are coping though so please do not hesitate to contact me (or anyone that you feel you can talk to) if you are feeling a little down.  We have put a short survey on the VLE for you to complete this afternoon which asks a few questions about how you are feeling.  Please take 5 minutes or so to access that and be as honest as possible in your answers.  We simply want to know how you are doing as we know that some of you may be struggling a little from time to time.

I have heard from a few of you about some of the new skills you’ve been developing during lockdown.  Some of you have become chess champions, great gardeners and better musicians – so well done.  Others have been helping mum and dad around the house – tidying rooms and making cups of tea and lovely cakes.  I think I will look like a cake when I return to School as, despite of my daily 10,000 steps, I am sure that I’m getting too fond of the biscuit barrel and cake tin!  I don’t normally have time to graze when I’m at school as I’m much too busy, but the temptation at home is all too great!  As you know it’s FRIDAY!!! Yayy!! Fish and chips tonight!  I simply cannot wait.  However, before I can enjoy my favourite food, I will have to do at least 15,000 steps in the park to compensate for my over-indulgence!  Never mind, it will be worth it!

The weather hasn’t been brilliant over the past few days – which hasn’t helped me feel any better about missing school, but today is looking much brighter so I am feeling much better and am looking forward to our walk in the park later.

Oh – talking about the park, I haven’t spotted any more deer, but I am getting quite friendly with the ponies and the heron that has taken up residence at Little Bracebridge.  I also love watching out for the trains as they pass through the park, but always seem to just miss them!

I take my pocket kite out with me every time we go to the park in the hope of flying it.  We always walk across the ‘Arena Fields’ which is the huge meadow near the Jamboree Stone which some of you may know?  It’s actually full of cows at the moment so I have to be very careful where I step!  However, I have had little if any success in getting my kite off the ground – that is until last Tuesday when the wind suddenly became stronger and I managed to fly it for over 30 minutes – I absolutely loved it.

Here are a couple of pictures – one of me flying my kite and the other of the ponies having a drink at the pool.

Anyway, I need a drum roll now as I’m going to announce the house point results for the last two weeks of April – here we go:

Top students in U3 to L5 for house point totals for last two weeks:

House point totals for the two weeks:

 1st Lancaster 523

2nd York 430

3rd Tudor 429

Well done to you all – excellent results!  I am also awarding house points to children and young people who get in touch to let me know what they’re up to – so please get in touch and I’ll be very happy to award them to you too!

I have had some lovely poems sent to me about lockdown – see the website for details of one of them.  Don’t forget that chocolate will also be awarded once lockdown is over and we get back to school.  So keep your news coming!

Most importantly, however, please remember that we want you to stay safe and happy as well as being the excellent students that you always are.  I’m attaching below the ‘Meaningful May’ Action Calendar from ‘Action for Happiness’ which you can use to help keep you calm and happy during the lovely month of May.

Anyway, time is running on and I need to get back to my emails and admin if I am to get those 15,000 steps in before fish and chips time!

Please always remember how very special and loved you all are and how very much we all miss you (especially me).  Be kind to yourself and to others and let me or one of your teachers know if you need any further help or support – we are always here for you.  Finally, a poem for the first day of May:

Love and best wishes

Mrs M