Parent Messages of Thanks During COVID-19 Pandemic

During the coronavirus pandemic we have received a large number of complimentary messages from parents regarding our provision for home learning, our support of key worker and vulnerable children at school and our caring and helpful approach which has gone over and above the expectations of our parents. As a staff and a school family, we are incredibly proud to have been able to support our families through this challenging and unprecedented time.

I was asked to bring the whole staff team out to the playground at the end of the last day before lockdown for a rousing speech from a parent followed by a sustained round of applause from all of the parents on the playground for the calm, methodical and caring way in which we had prepared the children for the partial school closure. We were all incredibly touched by the act of kindness.

Matthew Watson.

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Good afternoon Mr. Watson

Can I take this opportunity to thank everyone at Westgate who has gone out of their way in order to provide care for my daughter and the other children during this situation. I am so very grateful.

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Hi Mr Watson

I've really appreciated all the work the teachers have done to set work for their classes. This has especially helped me as I'm having to work from home, so having the work all set has made things less stressful, I've just had to encourage and support them to do it. I hope you have a nice Easter, though I understand you've got to keep school open.

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Hello Matthew,

Thank you for all your support with the children and still attending, it’s been amazing. 

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Good morning! 

We finished our 2nd week of home schooling and I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to ensure that the children had a challenging learning time without too much pressure. We think the weekly tasks were balanced, challenging and entertaining.  Thank you again for the fantastic job

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Dear Mr. Watson,
I hope you and your family are well. I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you, teachers and school staff who are all working hard for the organization of all the weekly programs and more. Those 2 weeks of homeschooling have been very successful and ******* has shown lots of interest, concentration, and dedication. I am very pleased. How is your son, Mr. Watson, I hope he has now fully recovered and that he feels good too. Now two weeks of break, well deserved for all of us ...Enjoy Easter Break, Mr Watson. Stay safe and your family too!

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Dear Mr. Watson,

Thank you again for the work for the kids, it’s proving just the right amount and manageable.  I even shared the link with my friend whose school haven’t provided anything for their year 3 child.  Stay safe 

Many thanks,

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Good evening Mr Watson 

On behalf of myself and *******,  we just wanted to say thank you so much for everything you have done for us since you have been at Westgate school, we are proud to call you our head teacher, wishing you, Cameron and your wife a safe few weeks while we are all away from school 

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Mr. Watson,

I just want to say a huge thank you to the Westgate team. As a keyworker I had a particularly long and stressful day on my ward yesterday but I came home to find ****** had waited up to see me, and was excited to give me the lovely Easter card he had made for us and a windmill with everyone’s name on that he loves! He has been loving the days he has attended and it made me realize how fortunate we are. He won’t be having quite so much fun being home-schooled by me today! I hope all the families realize how much work goes into teaching our children and we have. I'm not sure how long this will continue but we appreciate the support, kindness and community spirit you are all showing. Hopefully you will manage to enjoy time with your own families over Easter,

Thanks again.

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Hello Mr. Watson,

Thank you for your lovely Email and taking time to reply to me. I hope you and your family are well and Cameron is on the mend from his operation. We have been thinking of him. And how you have such time and kindness for our children with so much going on in your own life I can’t say how thankful we are to have such a wonderful man looking out for our children.

Thank you so much!

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Dear Matthew,
I wanted to drop you a line to express my thanks to you and your staff for providing such fun and varied work for the children and all the useful resource links for us.

Thank you

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Good Morning Matthew

I hope you and your family have had a restful Easter and Cam continues to get better.

I just thought I'd say thank you for the lovely Newsletter last week. It was so wonderful to see pictures of the children doing their Home Learning and other activities too. I think that this unprecedented time has also led to lots of lovely things that we wouldn't always have time to do as a family. 

The boys are missing their friends and routine, but being able to keep in touch with their teachers is great as it adds meaning to their work.

Take care and we will hopefully see you soon

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Good afternoon Matthew, 

Hope you are well 

Thank you so much for all the goodies today, ****** and I are very grateful 

Huge thank you for the Easter egg from ******. 

Happy Easter to you and your family 

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Hello all at Westgate,

Thank you for the newsletter - I am so pleased that the children who are remaining in school are having such a wonderful time with you. I take my hat off to you all and hope you are able to have some downtime with your families this Easter weekend.

Wishing you all well. Stay safe!

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Hi Mr Watson.

I hope you and your family, especially Cameron are keeping well, and enjoying the Easter half term. Me and the girls have had so much fun, to be honest I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out but we've done and learnt so much. The girls have cooked meals, baked cakes, planted seeds and can both now make a mean cup of tea. Nobody in their wildest dreams could have predicted this but what an experience it's been. It's been crazy but such an adventure too. Please wish everyone at Westgate well from us. You're all doing an incredible job and we won’t forget it. 

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Good afternoon Mr Watson 

I hope you are well and keeping safe. I have attached a couple of the boys on a walk, doing crafts at home. Hope to see you all soon. Thanks for all your hard work

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Hello Matthew

Thank you so much for your help and time. You’re a very special person and headteacher I think that’s why ****** is so attached to you.

I hope you’re all well. Thank you for everything.

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Good afternoon

I hope you are keeping well. 

As well carrying out the tasks set in the weekly home learning sheets, during the Easter break she has also completed a project on plants, attempted a couple of the “draw along” tutorials, as suggested by Mr Townrow, and made her own ‘theatre’ complete with snack stall, signage and tickets.

I have been exceptionally proud of her ethic and willingness to learn (most of the time!) and I thank the school for providing the resources and ideas to enable ******* to continue learning during this time (and giving me enough space to continue to be able to work from home).

With kindest regards.

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Thank you again for a quick response and help Mr Watson.

Yes, we are both well and keeping safe. We are all coping in our own ways, I am sure everyone is so looking forward to get back to our usual lives. I hope everyone at home and Westgate is well too. 

The newsletters are amazing 🙂  Hopefully I will see you this Friday. 

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Great thanks Mr Watson for your kind words. Keep well and we are looking forward to see you soon!

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Hello again!

We've been doing the online lesson today that Mr T set on erosion and wanted to feedback to him how good it was! It was much easier to stay focused and had a clear structure with lots of variation that has kept us busy for hours today! It was nice to see him too!

Thank you,

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Dear all,
Can I also take this opportunity to thank you all for the videos online.  I think it’s helped normalise the home learning by adding some familiarity in the day.

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Hello, I hope you are well. The girls have used some pocket money that they had to buy the staff some cupcakes, to say a big thank you for all the hard work that they continue to do in these very difficult times, not just us but for all the families of Westgate school.

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Dear Mr Watson,

Thank you so much for the call on Saturday morning.

I am so very thankful for all your communications through this period and appreciate the time and patience you offer to each and every child's family unit explaining the current situation and putting their worries to rest.

As mentioned over call, no words can do justice to the various roles you are managing so well. Truly deeply appreciate all your and staff's support through these unprecedented times.

I will stay in touch with you, thank you for everything.

My best wishes to everyone around you,

Stay well and keep safe,

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Good afternoon Matthew,

Just wanted to drop you a quick email to thank you and your team for the kindness and support you have showed *** since his return to school.  He has thoroughly enjoyed his days in the provision and has not felt worried or apprehensive about attending school.

Have a lovely weekend,

Many thanks.

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Good afternoon, Matthew.

Thank you so much to you and all your staff for being so supportive and just amazing during this time. It has made a massive difference to us as I have had to work extra and without the childcare I wouldn’t have been able to. 

Not all schools have been like Westgate. You all deserve a big gold star 🌟!!

Many thanks again.

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Dear Mr Watson,

Thank you for today’s letter and I got to say I got very emotional ...
I am ever so thankful of all your efforts as well as teachers during this ever so life changing time for all of us ....

It is very good and highly reassuring to see all the set-up of the classrooms and all your detailed explanations... You are outstanding!!

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend and I wish you and all your team all the best for the final preparation for June the 1st.

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If I were a parent I would find the newsletter very, very reassuring. It is helpful, informative, sensible and non-judgemental.... not an easy combination in the current situation. 

I think that using the newspaper front pages was an excellent way of highlighting the current debate and your pictures showing preparations made for returning students so that parents can see how things would work would have given me a much better idea of how the situation can be safely managed.

You must have had to work very hard......thank you.

Kate Booty(Governor)

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Good afternoon Mr Watson & Mrs Sampson,
Stay safe and a massive thank you for all your efforts to keep the homework going 😉

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Thank you for answering my questions, yes we are all well & looking forward to some routine again next week. Hope you & your family are well too, thank you for having such clear plans ready for next week. The latest info you sent out was useful to myself & ********.

Will keep a lookout for the checklist tomorrow.

😊

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Hello,

Hope all is well with you and the family.  Just a quick message to say all the very best for tomorrow.  Please pass on my best wishes and great thanks to all the staff.  I am sure it will be brilliant and everything will go well.  I’m certain that the children (and parents) will get into the routine very quickly and if problems come up they will evaporate very quickly.  Please let me know if you need any help and support.

With warmest wishes, Reza (Governor)

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Good Evening Mr Watson,

Just wanted to drop this note to let you know how much that all your hard work and staff's diligent efforts is what keeps the children going above and beyond.

I am sure it was a tough day and I hope it ended on a positive note. Our best wishes to you and everyone in Westgate family. 

Sincere thanks for everything.

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Hello Mr Watson,
I thank you from our hearts for all you are trying to do to offer this for our children. 
Best wishes to you, your family and the rest of Westgate staff. I think you are all doing an amazing job in a difficult time.
 

Good morning, Mr Clewes

Thank you so much for your appreciation, you are always so encouraging! 

I wish you all the best, stay safe and be careful!

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Good morning Mrs Lingard 

Thank you for calling yesterday, I really appreciate it. Thank you for your fantastic work and your dedication. Thanks to the homework set for Y6, ********* works hard. Some of the lessons are more challenging than the others but he takes it very seriously and tries his best. The maths lessons are very interesting and Leonard enjoys them. We chose the gold maths sheets so it can be a bit challenging. The rest of the work, he does all the different levels. 

Leonard would like to attend the transition session in school and he is very excited about seeing you and his mates.  

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Thank you so much 😀 You are amazing and we really appreciate all you are doing 😃 

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Dear Mr. Watson, 

I just wanted to send you an email to say thank you so much for the provision that you have offered during these unprecedented times.  It has made it so much easier for me to remain at work knowing that ***** is happy and settled.  You have done a sterling job of keeping the children safe and ensuring the stringent guidelines that we are faced with are adhered too and for that I am really grateful. 

***** has thoroughly enjoyed the key worker provision and looks forward to coming into school.  He has particularly enjoyed his time with Mr. Allen and if you could please pass my thanks onto him, I would appreciate that.

I have some token gifts which I will being into school tomorrow to show my appreciation to the staff members, including yourself who have cared for ***** so well during this very difficult time.

I sincerely hope that you and the staff all take a well-earned break over the summer.

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To all the wonderful Westgate staff.

Before the Summer Holidays are upon us, a few of us families would like to say thank you for everything during this slightly crazy year.

You have been truly fantastic. How you have all approached this situation, from the communication, leadership, empathy and education of our children has been amazing. All of our children have been in in some form, whether as key workers or as the Year groups allowed to return. It's safe to say that they have all had a great time in school and have enjoyed seeing their teachers, whilst getting to know other members of staff too.

To show our appreciation, we have bought you lunch! So enjoy the pizza, it is so well deserved. We hope that you manage to have a restful Summer Holiday.

Verity, Peter, George and James Slatem

Lucy, Paul, Jake and Aiden Tremble

Sara, J and Arlie Evans

Jo, Dave, Leon and Laila Durham

Dear Mr Watson
As parents, whom like many want their children to have the best possible chance in life.  We would like to personally thank you for the excellent teaching by yourself and staff at a Westgate School. As the end of this term approaches and ***** is merely hours away from transitioning from primary to secondary school, it’s both a sad and yet exciting time for her (and us). It doesn’t seem that long ago when she was trying on her uniform for nursery at Lighthorne Heath primary and again when moving to Westgate.  Yet in just a week will be trying on her new blazer for Aylesford.

The time at Westgate has gone so very quickly, yet I’m sure she will take many fond memories of her stay at a school that really does put children first. As parents it’s been wonderful to be a part of her learning and growing up experience which Westgate school has helped provide.  We appreciate all that you and the staff at Westgate have done including all those little bits of extra help when it’s been needed most.

It’s been a challenging year for everyone and we know the extra pressures placed on the staff haven’t been easy.  Indeed, many are also parents equally worried for their own families.  Despite all this, the teaching has not once waned and managed to maintain the standard we have known to appreciate.
 

Very many thanks and enjoy and well-earned break.
 

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Good morning

Thank you both, for your lovely emails. ***** read them and was extremely happy and excited about the newsletter. 

I would just like to say, working in a school myself, I understand all of the added pressure and workload during this unusual time for all of your staff, that both teaching and support staff will have been faced with. 

I would just like to say a big thank you, as I know how grateful us parents and our children are, for all of your dedication and hard-work, as key workers ourselves during this tough time!

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We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and your staff for the care ***** receives at school. Your ability to adapt to the ever changing guidelines imposed upon the school and still provide *****, along with all the children, a sense of normality and a wonderful environment in which to learn is amazing.

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Hello Matthew. Thank you and Mrs Lingard and all the teachers for all your hard work over this very testing and trying year, hope You all have a lovely safe Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all in the new year.
 

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Dear Matthew,

Thank you for your constant and outstanding hard work! This year hasn’t been easy at all. And yet, you managed ever so well the situations – always finding the best solutions!

You and all Westgate teachers are education SUPERHEROES!

***** and ******* are happy and growing in confidence and skills. Thank you. We are very happy parents.

You are an outstanding, brilliant head teacher!

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We know that the first three months of the year are going to be tricky ones for the wider society, but this will pass very quickly and safely for everyone in school supported the Westgate way.  You have created a very special environment at school that is not only safe in terms of the staff and children’s physical health, but also everyone’s mental health.  With this in mind, the school is a very safe place to be and I am sure that many parents share these sentiments. 

And with that, all the very best and warmest wishes for the New Year.

Reza Ali (Governor)

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Dear Mr. Watson.

Amazing, thank you so much.  Your understanding and personal approach to this throughout has been so massively helpful.  You are making what is a difficult time so much easier.  Huge thanks to you and all the team.  Please pass on my thanks to everyone from teachers, TAs, kitchen staff, cleaners and Toby.  All their efforts have not gone unnoticed and the low rate of school positive cases is evident to your fantastic management and teams hard work.

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Dear Mr Watson and the teachers,
Just an email to say a Massive Thank you to you all Team Westgate Teachers for your constant hard work and even more now.
You are without any doubt OUR EDUCATION SCHOOL HEROES.
We parents are all ever so thankful of the load of work you are all taking ... it is just enormous.
Hats off and respect for that. Already in normal time there is lot BUT in this COVID time it is huge!
Again thank you all teachers YOU are outstanding !!

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Good morning Jo, 

I would just like to say Thank You to you Jo. You’re always on the end on the phone when I call, up-beat and patient. 

It’s not an easy job you have, dealing with frustrated parents, carers and guardians. Thank you for being there and for all your efforts too. You are appreciated, as much as the teachers at this time, I just wanted you to know that. 

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I just wanted to let you all know ***** has really enjoyed this week, he’s came back every day really happy, and has been able to remember a lot more then usual about his day, I think this is because of a small group and less distractions. Yesterday he came back and did a diagram of king Edward etc😄
Thanks to everyone that is helping him, I appreciate it.

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As ever we have been super impressed this time with the provision and speed with which home school was set up.  I add my best wishes to the pile

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We are very impressed with how hard the teachers are working to provide quality lessons. It all works very well.

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A massive thank you also to everyone at the school as well. You are all doing such an amazing job in these difficult times. I can't imagine how hard it is to coordinate with the small amount of notice you have had but you have gone above and beyond. I have been so impressed with the school since **** started and I'm so glad she attends Westgate.

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I keep hearing of the amazing efforts of heads to plug the gaps and look after the health, welfare, mental health, diet, education, connectivity and general well-being of their pupils and their families. You are doing a vital and excellent job in really difficult circumstances. Thank you.

(Kate Booty, Governor)

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Mrs, Tyrell. Thank you for coming over and dropping the laptop off. I was so overwhelmed by your kind gesture I forgot to thank you. This laptop will make a make a massive difference to us. We are lucky to have the boys in such a wonderful school and we really appreciate it. 

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Thanks for your email this morning- it is all very positive and that is certainly the approach to have.  

You are very well prepared as a school, and many of the plans you had in place can still be slotted back in which is fantastic.  You have a very safe environment, both in terms of Covid precautions, but also the wellbeing and mental health of the workforce which is great.  I cannot think of a school who have been so pro-active and supportive with the wellbeing of their staff and students and have prepared so well.

I know that many of the children will be looking forward to coming back and that many of the parents are fully supportive of you and appreciate all the hard work you are doing. 

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To all the wonderful staff at Westgate primary school,

Since September life has not been easy for the Jones children with my health not the best they’ve had to deal with things that children of their ages shouldn’t have to.

The support the school have shown is above and beyond and we cannot thank you enough.

The children return home smiling and happy and felt safe. We were happy that they were looked after whilst I was in the hospital and recovering at home.

So from the bottom my heart I just want to say a massive thank you for those who helped both ****** and ******* during this time. 

Have a wonderful break you deserve it and will see you after Easter.

Best wishes and warm regards as always.

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Good afternoon, Mr. Watson.
I’d just like to take the time to email to say thank you to you and all the members of staff that have been involved with all three of my children and made us all to feel very welcome in these hard times.
There’s just so many things I could say that I am truly thankful for.
You have changed my children’s experience and thoughts of school into something positive when they had so little confidence and never said a good word about their old school.

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Hi Matt,

 MANY THANKS FOR YOUR TIRELESS SUPPORT DURING THIS YEAR, MATT.

 We really appreciate, it’s been another difficult one.

 Have a lovely summer break with your beloved ones, as you really deserve it, indeed.