We have been working very hard in the garden this half term. The Block girls were joined by Sheila and Richard from Grow Together, a local organisation who are encouraging people to share and grow more food. The girls have been shown have learnt lots of new skills including planting, weeding, transplanting and thinking about garden design. They have worked so hard to make the garden and the school surroundings beautiful. Parents and pupils have also joined us in the garden during Saturday sessions and we have built two new raised beds and a garden arch this term. We are…

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Our Easter Assembly Review – By Amy H On Wednesday 31st March 2021 we had an Easter assembly led by Mrs. Chapman. It was a fun and went better than I thought it would!  We held the assembly on Teams so that was the first thing we overcame!! We played Pictionary over Teams too and had different people from all the years doing a bit of the assembly so that was either speaking or drawing.

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Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), Welcome to the new academic year at Alfriston. As you are aware, we have had to make some changes to the way in which we operate in order to keep our pupils and staff safe. There has been new guidance from the DfE and from Public Health England to help us with our planning, and we are following this in the context of our school. Please be aware that some of the guidance that you may hear or read in the general media may not be applicable to our special school setting. The DfE have published resources to…

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20th July 2020 Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), We’ve come to the end of the academic year, and plans are in place for September 2020.  What a year!  Despite the unexpected and unplanned situation, we have had many moments to celebrate and new lessons learnt.  I hope that you were able to join with us for the virtual sports day last week to enjoy the challenges.  It was good to see so many girls taking part, showing their usual determination and spirit. On Friday we held the final assembly of the year, and I was delighted to be able to hold this in…

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8th July 2020 Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), I hope that you and your families remain well.  The DfE have now issued guidance to all schools on re-opening for September.  The plan is that all children and young people, in all year groups and setting types, will return to education settings full time from the beginning of the autumn term.  The guidance outlines the measures that need to be in place to create a safer environment, and we have used this to inform our own risk assessment for Alfriston and to inform our plans on how we need to operate for September.  The…

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Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), I hope that you and your families remain well.  The “new” routines in school are becoming more familiar and I’m very pleased that so far we have been able to offer everyone who wanted to return the chance to do so, albeit for just a short time each week.  Last week we had nearly half the school attend over the course of the week, and I am hoping that a few more will return before the Summer holidays. As explained in previous letters, the curriculum and usual routines have been put on hold in response to the current…

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15th June 2020 Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), I hope you are all well.  Last week we welcomed back a few pupils from each year group as the start of putting our phased re-opening plan into action.  This went well, and although some of the girls were a little anxious at first, they soon settled into the new arrangements and seemed very happy to be back in school.  Social distance is tricky, as their natural draw to one another is strong; however, increased hygiene practise, staggered timetables and restriction on pupil group sizes all help to reduce the risk. In light of this…

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2nd June 2020 Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), I hope you are all well.  We are now into the first week back after the half term, and have begun to put our phased re-opening plan into practice.  This week we are carrying out a trial run of the wider re-opening to test out our plan, with a social bubble per year group being introduced once a week.  Staff are attending this week as per the rota, but the pupils will not be admitted until next week.  We are restricted to keeping the groups to a maximum of 8 to allow for social distancing…

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14th May 2020 Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), I hope you are all well.  It seems such a long time now since we moved into lockdown but our sense of school community has remained strong, and it has been heartening to see such support being given to one another in so many different forms. There has been a flurry of activity since my last update, with responses from school leaders and others to the government announcement on Sunday regarding the phased re-opening of schools.  Not surprisingly, there is much concern being expressed by both parents and professionals alike.  I want to reiterate that…

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11th May 2020 Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s), I hope you all managed to enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend, and are keeping well. You will have heard the Prime Minister last night indicating that the government believes it may be in a position to implement a phased re-opening of schools from 1 June, starting with pupils in reception, year one and year six.  This is part of the government’s conditional plan which it says will remain under regular review.  We are now waiting to receive more information from government but in the short-term, nothing has changed. At Alfriston we are keen to start…

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