Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• British Asian stars unite to dispel COVID myths

  Tue 26 Jan 2021

  British Asian stars unite to dispel COVID myths.

  This link will take you to an interesting article that has information from Asian celebrities about the COVID vaccine. Please take a moment to read the article and to watch the video.

  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55809355

• Remote Education Provision during Lockdown January 2021

  Sun 17 Jan 2021

  Remote education provision: information for parents

  This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

   

  Click here to visit the page and more information:

  Remote Education Provision during January Lockdown

• Following tonight's government announcement

  Mon 04 Jan 2021
  Dear Parents and Carers,

  Following tonight's government announcement, we will be closing WHA to ALL children tomorrow and will reopen for vulnerable and key worker children from Wednesday 6.1.21. 

  Tomorrow all children will be provided with online learning; this will be available from 10:00am via Google Classroom/website. 

  Year Team Leaders will be communicating tomorrow the plans going forward and expectations via the year group email.

   

  The list below is what the government categorises as Key Worker occupations. If you feel you fall into one of these occupations and would like to send your child to school, please can you contact us via the office by 5pm tomorrow. We will need evidence that your employment does fall into the given criteria; this could be a letter, payslip or ID badge etc. We will NOT be using the Key Worker list we used in the previous lockdown; all parents and carers will need to apply again.

   

  Critical Workers

  Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections.

  Health and social care

  This includes, but is not limited to, doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

  Education and childcare

  This includes:

  • childcare
  • support and teaching staff
  • social workers
  • specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response to deliver this approach

  Key public services

  This includes:

  • those essential to the running of the justice system
  • religious staff
  • charities and workers delivering key frontline services
  • those responsible for the management of the deceased
  • journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting

  Local and national government

  This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of:

  • the coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
  • essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), including in government agencies and arms length bodies

  Food and other necessary goods

  This includes those involved in food:

  • production
  • processing
  • distribution
  • sale and delivery
  • as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

  Public safety and national security

  This includes:

  • police and support staff
  • Ministry of Defence civilians
  • contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
  • fire and rescue service employees (including support staff)
  • National Crime Agency staff
  • those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas

  Transport and border

  This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure through which supply chains pass.

  Utilities, communication and financial services

  This includes:

  • staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
  • the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
  • information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response
  • key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services)
  • postal services and delivery
  • payments providers
  • waste disposal sectors

  Online learning will be available from tomorrow. However from Wednesday there will be Video Online learning from our teachers and a live Google Meet with the teacher in the afternoon. The purpose of the live meeting will be to address any misconceptions the children may have from the morning's learning and to have a daily catch up with the children. . 

  Since last Wednesday the national picture has been very fractured.  I would like to thank the parents who have shown continuous support to myself and the staff at WHA when there have been difficult decisions to make which haven't always been what some parents perceive is the best way forward. 

  My staff will be in regular contact with parents over the coming days. Take care. 

  Kind Regards,

  Coral Snowden

  Principal - Western House Academy

• Important Start of Term Update

  Sun 03 Jan 2021

  Dear Parents & Carers,
  Happy New Year to you and I hope you all had a good and safe Christmas.

  The Government made a decision on Wednesday to reopen most Primary Schools in England. Slough has not been listed as an area where we are required to delay the start to the term so WHA will be open to all children on Tuesday 5th January. Since June we have successfully operated in line with our Operational Plan and Risk Assessment and we will continue to do this.

  When we return, it will be mandatory for ALL parents/carers to wear masks when they enter the school grounds. If parents/carers do not wear a mask we will be asking you to leave your children at the outside gates and staff will lead them into school. Up until now I have left it to parents discretion, but with the new strain of the virus becoming more prevalent and some parents not able to maintain the 2M rule, it will now be compulsory for parents to wear a mask on school grounds. Moving forward, we need to all work together to ensure our school is the safest environment it can be for our staff and children.

  There are changes to the start and end of the day for most year groups. 
  Back Gate
  Reception - unchanged (8:30am start / 2:40pm finish)
  Year 1 - Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri 8:40am start / 2:50pm finish (Tuesday only: 3:30pm)
  Year 5 - Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri 8:50am start/ 3:00pm finish (Tuesday finish 4:00pm)
  Year 6 - Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri 9:00am start/ 3:10pm finish (Tuesday finish 4:15pm)
  Front Gate:
  Year 2 - (Unchanged)Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri - 8:30am start / 2:40pm finish (Tuesday only: 3:30pm)
  Year 3 - Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri - 8:40am start / 2:55pm finish (Tuesday only: 4:00pm)
  Year 4 - Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri - 8:50am start / 3:10pm finish (Tuesday only: 4:15pm)
  Nursery
  Unchanged. 8:30am / 12:30pm sessions begin
  11:30am / 3:30pm sessions end

   

  I look forward to welcoming all children back on Tuesday 5th January at the above times.

   

  Kind Regards,

  Coral Snowden

  Principal - Western House Academy