At St Michael’s the health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff are our priority. We are taking all necessary measures to protect our community and to ensure that learning can continue.
We are following National Health Service, Public Health England and the Department of Education advice and guidance and in fast-moving circumstances will be updating our families by email and through this page.
You will find below links to emails sent to both Prep and Pre-Prep families, as well as links to online learning platforms. Please keep an eye on our Parents’ Portal, too, for further information.
We would like to stress that we understand that parents are themselves working from home in the current environment and we do not expect you to spend your mornings teaching your children, should the school have to close. Our teachers and teaching assistants will be working together to answer your children’s questions and to support them. We’d also like to emphasise that learning and skills can be acquired and applied in many activities around the home and that these experiences are also very valuable.
In the light of national guidelines, it has been deemed necessary to cancel the following events:
| Prep School Ski Trip | |
| Prep School Music Tour to Northern Italy | |
| All assemblies | |
| Wednesday 18th March | Sports matches vs other Prep Schools |
| Thursday 19th March | Nursery to Y2 Parents’ Evening |
| Y6 Parents’ Evening | |
| Sports matches vs other Prep Schools | |
| Friday 20th March | ISFA U11A Football Tournament |
| Reception Mother’s Day Assembly | |
| Y5-8 Sports Team photos | |
| Saturday 21st March | Girls’ Netball Tournament at Kent College |
| Monday 23rd March | Y1 Swimming Gala |
| Tuesday 24th March | Y2 Swimming Gala |
| U8 and U9 Netball matches | |
| Y8 Parents’ Evening | |
| Wednesday 25th March | All sports fixtures |
| Thursday 26th March | All sports fixtures |
| Friday 27th March | Y2 trip to Down House |
| Tuesday 31st March | Pre-Prep Easter Concert |
| Y7 Parents’ Evening | |
| Friday 24th April | Challenge Club visit to the British Library |
| The school production “The Little Shop of Horrors” has been postponed to the Trinity Term | |
| All ABRSM exams have been cancelled until further notice | |
Email to parents (Learning from home) 12th March 20.10
Email to parents 17th March 12.30
Email to Prep School parents 18th March 14.50
Email to Pre-Prep parents (Home Learning) 19th March 13.30
Email to Prep parents re Remote Learning 20th March 13.00
Email to parents re updated Key Worker status 21st March
Key Worker drop off and collection arrangements 23rd March
Remote Learning reflection from Mrs Bridges 23rd March
Remote Learning reflection from Mrs Bridges 24th March
Remote Learning reflection from Mrs Bridges 25th March
Remote Learning reflection from Mrs Bridges 26th March
Email to Key Workers re Easter Holiday booking form
Email to all parents from Mrs Bridges 30th March
Remote Learning reflection from Mrs Bridges 30th March
Email to Key Workers from Mr Wiseman 31st March
End of Day Reflection from Mrs Bridges: The Importance of Reading for Pleasure 31st March
End of Day Reflection from Mrs Bridges 1st April
End of Day Reflection from Mrs Bridges 2nd April
To read Mr Wiseman’s email about St Michael’s virtual assembly on 3rd April and for the link to join in, please log into the Message Board on the Parents’ Portal
In the event of school closure, Pre-Prep children will be sent home with an “Remote Learning Pack” for the first week and work will be shared online thereafter. Prep school activities for the week will be emailed to you at 8.30am on Monday morning.
The main learning platforms that we will be using are:
- Tapestry for Early Years and Reception
- Year 1&2 will have work shared on the Parent Portal and on Seesaw.
- MSOffice for children in Years 3-8
- SeeSaw for children in Years 5-8
We will also continue to use websites that the children are familiar with including Linguascope, Pearson ActiveLearn, Doddle, Espresso, RM EasiMaths, Planet Bofa etc.
Prep School Curriculum Overviews with links to resources are available on our Curriculum page. Please click here.
Pre-Prep Curriculum Overviews are available on our Pre-Prep Curriculum page. Please click here.
As mentioned in the email from Mrs Bridges on 18th March, we also recommend the learning resource packs from TTS, which you can access via the links below:
TTS Activity Book, 5-7 year olds
TTS Activity Book, 7-11 year olds
In these uncharted waters, collaboration is key to making online learning effective. By working together to resolve any areas which need smoothing out, we are confident that your children will enjoy learning in a different way
Online Safety advice whilst working from home
Over the coming weeks, pupils will be using a variety of technology from home to facilitate their learning. Therefore, now is an ideal opportunity for us to remind you how you can keep your children safe whilst online. The Thinkuknow website created by CEOP (Child Exploitation Online Protection) has produced a useful document, providing parents with advice on how to keep children safe whilst online. The link is:
Alternatively, should you have any questions or queries regarding Online-Safety, please email Miss Booth on: jbooth@stmichaels.kent.sch.uk
A few tips for children when using their PCs/Online platforms:
• Please encourage your children to set up a File Management system on their computers, especially, if other family members are using the same PC. E.g. Year 6 folder, then a folder for each subject. This is so they can easily retrieve files and work.
• When logging into O365 from home, children need to insert their password. For years 5-8, this is the same password they use to log into the school’s PCs. Years 1-4 will have had their passwords reset which have been distributed to parents via email (on Thursday 19th March).
• If using SeeSaw, pupils must remember to PDF their documents. SeeSaw is not compatible with MS Applications, therefore, if a piece of work is created in MS Word, it will need to be saved as a PDF before it can be uploaded.
Déjà vu temporary closure
Owing to the size of the second hand uniform shop and the difficulty in staying at a safe distance from each other inside, Déjà vu will be closed for the time being.
They will not be accepting donations for the foreseeable future.
