Primary School Staff Show children that ‘we’re all in this together’

Primary School Staff Show children that ‘we’re all in this together’

Staff from Brighton Avenue Primary School have made a video dancing to the High School Musical song ‘We’re All in This Together’ as a way of trying to put a smile on the children’s faces whilst they are not in school.

The school has made communication with families a priority while the school is closed to the majority of children. This has been through weekly welfare checks where staff can speak with children and their parents. Alongside this staff are updating the school website daily with learning tasks for the pupils to complete. These tasks can come in the form of curriculum work, games and links to educational websites with Reading Eggs and Times Tables Rock Stars being two key resources as the school holds a subscription on both. The school has also encouraged parents and carers to email any photographs of the children working on their learning tasks from home. Jacqui Kevan, Deputy Headteacher said ‘we have been overwhelmed with the response. it has enabled us to stay connected (at least virtually).’ 

As the staff members did not get the chance to say goodbye to the children due to the urgency which the announcements for school closures happened the staff team were left feeling deflated and missing their pupils. Year 1 teacher Nicola Jackson came up with a plan for how the staff could make contact and have some fun whilst doing it: ‘we were discussing over email as a staff team how much we were missing all of our gorgeous children and the idea of making a video to cheer them up popped into my head. It’s something we do every Christmas for the children so I am certainly not solely taking credit for the idea!’ All the staff were enthusiastic about the idea and they all did their part of the song and sent it to the ‘technology whiz’ and year 6 teacher Simon Burns to cut all of the video together who said ‘it was the least I could do during such unprecedented times. I just hope it brings some enjoyment to our community.’ 

The reaction from parents has also been positive with one sending to the school ‘Aww I’ve watched and shared the video that you and the staff made. Not gonna lie, it made me cry twice over.  Riley and Amelia loved it. Stay safe, best wishes and love to all the staff. We have the best school staff and pupils ever.’