Keeping in Touch

This page is now closed - it holds messages and examples of work from our families during the first Covid-19 lockdown 2020.

Pond building during lockdown

We thought it would be nice to share with you the pond Jamie made at the start of lockdown. We collected frog spawn and put in it and local pond plants. The pond is now thriving and the frog spawn is now tadpoles that are starting to grow legs. We feed them with boiled white fish and boiled lettuce. They seem to really love it.

Jamie is really enjoying watching how it is evolving. 

My son is back in school in Hedgehogs 1 and is SOOOOOO happy to be back!!! The school have done an absolutely outstanding job in making a safe environment for the children to come back to!! The individual big hula-hoops for them to sit in for Year R was a genius idea!! I have subtly (and not so subtly!) been bragging to friends and family about how incredible Balksbury Federation have been throughout this entire pandemic; from the moment it started. Miss Thompson has been such a strong leader, who we all have 100% confidence in and a legend with writing letters to the children throughout lock-down. I know a lot of my friends with little ones at other schools sadly do not feel the same about their Head Teachers.

A lovely poem by Emma

My poem

 

I will put in my box

A stare, from the deadliest werewolf,

A blazing, lava red feather from a kinda hearted Phoenix,

And a twilight shy of twinkles from a fairy.

 

I will put in my box

A powerful roaring shark, erupting from a waterfall,

A gentle, twinkling snowflake from Mount Everest,

And an angry, devastating volcano.

 

My box:

A glistening cube made of sparkly seashells, and perfect pearls, The background sprinkled with the finest sand.

A Massive Thank You To The PTA

Thank you so much to the PTA who sent hampers of goodies for all the staff yesterday to both schools.  What an amazing selection of treats.  From all the team at the federation we thank you enormously for your kindness.

A Forest Adventure

An expedition to the forest where we talked about colours, what lives in the forest and which animals are nocturnal. We then found lots of branches and built a den and decided one was a broom stick and she was the witch from Room on the Broom. We did lots of counting while building too.

Thank you from the team here at Balksbury

Thank you for all your messages of thanks and support this week, we have been swamped.  All your words are much appreciated.  Here are just a few examples:

We appreciate all the hard work you have all put into getting the children back

I know you're all swamped so I'll keep it short .... thank you for, well, EVERYTHING

Well done for all the work that has gone into getting the children back to school safely

Thank you to all the staff for the support you have given us parents during the closure - we couldn’t have done things these past few months without it

We have been really impressed on how Balksbury Federation has been really positive and upbeat about  children returning

A message from a Year 6 parent:

Dear Miss Thompson, The Leadership Team and Teachers,

 I just wanted to say a big thank you for keeping us as parents informed and up to date with information and developments. It is clear that there has been a huge amount of thought, consideration and careful planning to try and keep the children and teachers safe while getting them back in to school at this time.

I think the children have been well supported with work and activities should they wish to engage, there has been regular communication issued to parents and a dedicated email address for us to communicate; the whole situation and process has been brilliantly managed. 

So from one happy parent, thank you to the whole school team.

Kind regards

Thank you to everyone who has shared work this week. We have loved receiving emails from you all and we look forward to receiving more next week. If you haven't shared work with us yet, please ask your parents/carers to email your work to closure@balksbury.org so we can share your work with your teachers and also, we can put your work on the website for others to enjoy and be inspired by! 

Have a lovely weekend!

The Fairy Garden Grows

Hi Miss Thompson

I went with Mummy and my little brother to see how our fairy garden was doing. Look how much is there now!  I'm really proud of myself because it's making lots of people happy! I've even seen that some of my friends from school have visited it which has made me feel really good.

I hope you're ok

Congratulations

Josh in Year 5 received an email a few weeks ago telling him his 500 word story had made it through to the next round. The BBC received nearly 135,000 entries from which they selected 5,000 that were sent to the Reading Agency for judging and whittling down to a final 50. Unfortunately, we had an email today to say his story didn't make it any further, but to have been one of the 5,000 out of 135,000 entries is an amazing achievement I think! Attached is his certificate for the first round of the competition. We're very proud parents!

Myself (Leighann), Emma, and Hayley (her brother edited the video) have been organising a video for you teachers and the students at the school to say thank you for all your hard work and thank you for all you do. I know all the children are really missing you all and us parents are so greatful for all you do and we cant wait to be back to normality. As parents we can't thank you enough for the support and the constant communication and reassurance for the children

Here's a message from the Year R children and families to make you smile. We would love to say a massive thank you and miss you to the teachers of Year R in particular. They have been so sweet sending videos - very emotional to see! So we would like to return the favour and make them smile.

Big hugs and best wishes. Stay safe and we will all be back together soon.

Leighann (Joshua & Faith's mum), Emma  (Ashleigh mum) and Hayley  (Lola mum) xx

I have to say I have always admired teachers and the way you teach different years/age ranges but in the time we've had at home, I have a whole new respect for you all.  I really don't know how you do it with the amount of children and different abilities.

Thank you so much for the music video with pictures you uploaded.  It was very moving.  What a fab morale boost.

Staff Video

We had just watched the video from the teachers which we loved and really wanted to express our thanks with the way the federation is responding to this very difficult time. We appreciate all the hard work that is being done to ensure our children are still able to learn even though it is remotely.

Rainbow Mobiles

These rainbow mobiles were made by key worker children in school.  They collected sticks, and painted them.

Thank you for your efforts in keeping the website loaded with content. We are managing to have variety in our tasks each day.

Thank you for keeping us all up to date with developments and to the teaching staff for putting together resources and tasks, it's a real help and most appreciated.

Learning About America

Great effort with making totem poles  

Lego Bugs

Dear Mrs Farrell

I made Lego Bugs because you sent me Bug Science animal sheets.

Bye!

Art Set by Year 5

This collage is to share with Mrs Conner, Mrs Gynn and Mrs Wilkins.  It was made using different coloured cardboard cut up and is of a Sloth.

Home Schooling Teddies

Creating a Fairy Garden

Thank you to Jeremy Board and his staff at Waitrose and Partners who sent in key worker children and staff Easter eggs last Friday to brighten up everyone's day in these challenging times.

It certainly did that, thank you.

Good Afternoon to all at Balksbury.

Thank you for your letters over the past couple of weeks, both Oliver and Evie loved listening to what Miss Thompson had to say to all the children. Is lovely to know they are all still being thought about during this time. We found the jokes very funny by the way!

To all the amazing teachers and staff

I just wanted to say from the bottom of my heart thank you for opening Balksbury and looking after key worker's children.  It is such a brave and remarkable thing to do.

Hello Balksbury

And a special hello to Miss Nield and Mrs Morgan. 

Thomas is missing his teachers and his friends very much but is definitely enjoying showing mummy and daddy how clever he is with his school work. 

Hello to Balksbury

Just to say home schooling has been going well in particular we have loved that they can access new books on the Collins Big Cat site! Def thumbs up for that. The work on the year group pages are brilliant too and have kept the girls interested and wanting to continue to work. Thank you for everything you’ve been doing and thank you for giving me the opportunity to stay at home and keep my family safe.