Latest News

Changes to 'Free School Meals'

Wed 25 Mar 2020

Please note this information is only relevant to Parents of children that are entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) this is not applicable to those children that receive the Universal Free School Meal (UFSM).

Dear Parents/Carers,

Due to changes in government guidance and the fact that we are wasting so much food we are making the following changes to the provision of Free School Meal 'deli bags' as of tomorrow, Thurs 26th March.

Ordering - lunches will now need to be ordered by emailing admin2322@welearn365.com by 10am. If you would like a lunch to be provided every day then please just state this in your email and you won't have to email again. If you only require the lunch on certain days you will need to order each day by 10am. Please let us know whether you child would like ham or cheese.

Collection Point - collection will now be via the staff entrance (in the school carpark) the deli bags will be named and left on a trolley for you to collect.

Collection time - this will be reduced to a 30 minute slot 12:00 - 12:30pm. If for any reason you are running late then please just ring the bell and someone will collect the lunch and bring it to you, but please do try and come in the stated 30 minute slot. If you arrive early please ensure you observe a 2 meter distance when our kitchen staff bring the trolley out.

If you have any questions please email admin2322@welearn365.com

Many thanks

School Office

Government Key Worker Guidance

Fri 20 Mar 2020 Mr Watson

Government Key Worker Guidance

As a country, we all need to do what we can to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. That is why the government has given clear guidance on self-isolation, household isolation and social distancing. And the most recent scientific advice on how to further limit the spread of COVID-19 is clear. If children can stay safely at home, they should, to limit the chance of the virus spreading.

That is why the government has asked parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible, and asked schools to remain open only for those children who absolutely need to attend.

Schools are, therefore, being asked to continue to provide care for a limited number of children - children who are vulnerable and children whose parents are critical to the Covid-19 response and cannot be safely cared for at home.

Vulnerable children include children who are supported by social care, those with safeguarding and welfare needs, including child in need plans, on child protection plans, ‘looked after’ children, young carers, disabled children and those with education, health and care (EHC) plans.

We know that schools will also want to support other children facing social difficulties and we will support head teachers to do so.

Please, therefore, follow these key principles:

If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.
If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.

If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision:

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 distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

Education and childcare

This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the 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, and 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 COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, 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 COVID-19 pandemic), 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

This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems 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 COVID-19 response, as well as 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 and waste disposal sectors.

If workers think they fall within the critical categories above they should confirm with their employer that, based on their business continuity arrangements, their specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.

Please can you let the office know by emailing admin2322@welearn365.com by 1pm today as to whether you fall into the category of key worker and that you have no other alternative for childcare. We will then make arrangements to have your children from Monday.

Matthew Watson

Headteacher

Westgate Primary School

School Closure Letter 19/03/2020

Thu 19 Mar 2020

Dear Parents & Carers,

As you will have heard yesterday afternoon, Westgate Primary School will be closed from the end of Friday to all children except those of our key worker parents, such as NHS staff, police and delivery drivers and those who have an Educational Health Care Plan. We will run provision in school to make sure that parents in these front line professions are able to continue to work. Please note however that as we have yet to receive clarification of key workers form the government, this list is subject to change.

Arrangements for sending home work

Children will be sent home with a “home learning book” today in which to complete work. Class teachers will then set work weekly, which the children and yourselves will be able to access through their class pages on: https://www.westgateprimary.com/. To access the class pages please click on ‘menu’, then ‘Children’ and then ‘Class Pages’, or click on the class numbers on the homepage.. These pages can be accessed by computer, tablets and smartphones. The work the children are expected to complete will be contained within the weekly “home learning packs”;

Below is a quick summary of weekly tasks to be expected:

Reading - one reading comprehension or phonics activity and at least 20 minutes of daily reading (usernames and passwords will be provided for Accelerated Reader for children in Year 2 and up)
Writing - One longer piece of writing or several shorter pieces
10 spellings
Grammar – one piece of work
Maths – daily Times Tables Rockstars for older children (usernames and passwords will be provided) or topmarks maths for younger children; daily Corbett Maths 5-a-day for older children (links will be provided) and one piece of longer learning
Topic – one piece of work

Keeping Active:

@Sport England have created a great page of useful resources and links for staying active while you're at home – (for children and adults). https://www.sportengland.org/news/how-stay-active-while-youre-home

Free School Meals:

Further information will follow for the parents of children who received free school meals. The education secretary Gavin Williamson yesterday said the Government will put in place a national voucher system for children eligible for free school meals. We await the details of this scheme but will let you know as soon as the plans are finalised.

Communication

Communication during possible school closures is very important to us. Teachers will be available via email during the working hours of 9:00am to 3:15pm. There may not be an instant reply, but the class teachers will respond to your emails. The following email addresses are for your classes:

Reception – adams.b@welearn365.com – Miss Adams

Year 1 – tyrell.s@welearn365.com – Mrs Tyrell

Year 2 – sampson.a@welearn365.com – Mrs Sampson

Year 3 – townrow.j@welearn365.com - Mr Townrow

Year 4 – allen.p@welearn365.com – Mr Allen

Year 5 – clewes.j@welearn365.com – Mr Clewes

Year 6 – lingard.c@welearn365.com – Mrs Lingard

Whole school matters – head2322@welearn365.com – Mr. Watson

We would like to stress that these emails are only to be used in the event of school closures and emails at other times and for enquiries outside of learning should be directed to admin2322@welearn365.com, as per usual.

Children of key workers, such as NHS staff, police and delivery drivers:

If you are a key worker and you wish for your children to be in school from Monday 23^rd March could you please email admin2322@welearn365.com as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary arrangements. We require the following information:

Your Child’s name & Class
Which key service you work in and confirmation that there is no other adult in the household to care for your child/children.
Which days you need your child to be in school.

Thank you again for your patience this week. I appreciate that everyone has wanted to know what was going to be happening and it has been a challenge to find the balance between giving parents enough information about our plans in case of closure to reassure them that we were prepared, without overwhelming parents with too much information which wouldn’t have been relevant at that point in time. I hope that we have managed to tread that tightrope successfully.

Thank you to the wonderful Westgate staff for spending time preparing materials and resources so that the children can continue with their learning away from school. We hope that the mixture of activities and exercises will engage and enthuse the children as we try to replicate (as much as is possible) a normal week’s worth of work.

The government has given no indication of how long the closure of schools will last and, therefore, we will continue to set work each week on the website (with the exception of the Easter holiday weeks) until we are told that children will return to school.

Please look after yourselves and those in your community. The Westgate Family has shown itself to be incredibly strong this week with so many parents and children talking to me about the fact that they are looking after their neighbours and making sure that they have the necessary food and essentials. You really are the most amazing ‘family’.

Matthew Watson

Head Teacher

Home Learning 18/03/2020

Thu 19 Mar 2020 Mr Watson

Wednesday 18^th March 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

There are a number of our families who are now self-isolating so we have put together some online learning links. We will send home more detailed home learning guidance and activities if the school becomes completely closed.

Reading – please continue to read daily and ask questions about what you child has read. Children can log into their accelerated reader account (year 2 – year 6) and take quizzes on books they have read, including own books from home. The web address for AR is: ukhosted79.renlearn.co.uk/1896670

Writing – Choose an image from this website: http://www.pobble365.com and write your own story/sentences/description based on the image.

Maths – practice times tables and other maths facts using the following websites:

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games

http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/

Topic - Use the internet to research an aspect of your current learning topic in school (see topic letters on the school website if you are not sure of the topic). Create an information page about your topic.

General learning and activities

Twinkl is widely used by teachers in school to support teaching and learning. They have enabled free access for parents to their resources for 1 month. Go to www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and enter the code UKTWINKLHELPS

Websites to support phonics and reading

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

www.starfall.com

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

http://www.literacyshed.com

http://www.twinkl.co.uk

Websites to support computing

http://code.org/

http://scratch.mit.edu/

http://https://www.codeclubprojects.org/en-GB/

Website to support topic work (games and quizzes)

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/category/play-and-win/games/

https://world-geography-games.com/

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/

https://blockly.games/?lang=en

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Watson Sarah Tyrell

Headteacher Deputy Headteacher and Curriculum Lead

ITV News cameras visit Westgate

Fri 19 Jul 2019

We were visited by an ITV news team to see how the children were using a new road safety app. Westgate Primary School was selected as the first school in the country to use the app and as a result we were visited by Michael Ellis MP, the Minister of State at the Department for Transport. The Year 3 children were a credit to the school and received praise from Michael Ellis and Kate Castle from the Warwickshire Road Safety team.

Westgate Primary School Pupils Bury Time Capsule in Westgate Arch

Fri 05 Jul 2019

Children at Westgate Primary School have buried a time capsule in Westgate arch this week. The following items were chosen by the School Council and buried by the Year 6 house captains.

Photograph of Westgate Primary School buildings
Photographs Warwick
A review of the school year 2018-2019
School newsletter items related to the time capsule project
Top 10 newspaper stories of 2019
Coins/bank notes that we use in 2019
Photograph of Queen Elizabeth/ the Royal Family
Photograph of the Prime Minister
Pictures of current technology
Predictions for 2119
School Council badge and a gold star badge – awarded for high-quality work/behaviour
LEGO bricks to represent toys played with in 2019
Map of the world / map of the United Kingdom
Newspaper from the day that the capsule was buried
Sweet packets / food packets
Our favourite books
Pack of seeds
Top 10 children’s books
Top 10 films
Top 10 songs
The population of Warwick and of the UK
Film posters
Top 10 musical artists
Cards showing major London landmarks in 2019

We hope that these items remain intact until they are unearthed and cause great excitement when the eyes of our future look at what life was like for Westgate Primary School children living in Warwick in the year 2019.

Matthew Watson

Head Teacher,

Westgate Primary School

Women Cycle Race Visits Warwick - Year 3 Chidren are 'Podium Pals'

Fri 28 Jun 2019

When the Women's Cycling Tour visited Warwick, the children in Year 3 were invited to be 'Podium Pals' and present the cyclists with a mascot and have their photograph taken with the competitors. The whole school then lined the street to cheer on the cyclists. We all had an amazing morning!