26th March 2020

Dear Children, Parents and Carers

I hope that you’re getting into some sort of routine at home and that your internet connection isn’t getting too hammered due to multiple devices all trying to access things. Once the Plumcroft Distance Learning Portal is live from next Monday 30th March, please try to work out a plan so your children can access it each day - it should be okay but you may need to give Netflix, Amazon, PS4, Xbox and Nintendo a break for a while (does anyone still play Nintendo Wii – I used to love the tennis ??).

As always during this time, it’s your choice to decide when, how and if you want to use the Plumcroft Distance Learning Portal – remember, ‘You are in Control’.

As a parent of 4 boys, I fully understand that it rarely feels like we’re actually in control but hopefully all our children will help us think we are... come on Plumcroft Kids, give your parents a break and before you go to bed tonight, tell them they are the Boss !!!! All together now:

“You are the Boss !!! (keep a straight face when you say it),

I can’t hear you, what was that ??

“You are the Boss !!! There we go, that wasn’t so hard, was it ??

Before you get started on the rest of this important email: Here’s my song of the day if you have a chance, open the window, breathe in the fresh air or go for your daily exercise and sing along – I bet you know the words (songs like this seem to have extra meaning at the moment)

If you’re under the age of 12 and go to Plumcroft Primary School then when it says on screen: “Awesome Singing”, remember your singing workshops with Ms Shepherd and Go for it !!!

When it says: “Cool Instrumental”, remember your music lessons with Kay and all the other great musicians and

Go for it !!!

Even if you haven’t yet had a music lesson or you’re over the age of 12 and don’t even go to Plumcroft Primary School, we can Sing and all play the Air Guitar, so let’s
All Go for it !!!

Ok – that was your exercise for the day – now back to the awesome world of MyOn :)

 

Please bear with us over the next few days – we’ve had a LOT of MyOn Login Requests (200+ and counting). As we’re also creating accounts for every Nursery and Reception Family (almost 200 of them), the workload is high. Please don’t worry if you haven’t had a reply to your MyOn Login Request (nobody has yet !!) – none of the requests have been lost (they’re all in my inbox !!)

If you have a child in Year 2 upwards then they use the same login details almost every day in school to do their AR quizzes and when they do their half-termly STAR Assessments. Many children also use MyOn during each week – Their MyOn username & password are the same as AR (Accelerated Reader), so just ask your kids, they will know. All you/they need to do is go to www.myon.co.uk – always make sure you use .co.uk so you go to the UK site – I’d suggest putting it into your favourites (your kids will know how if you don’t) or save it to your home screen (ask your kids, they will know - you get the idea...) It looks like this:

Click on the MyOn Login button – top right corner as shown above.

You now need to start typing in the ‘School Name’ box – just begin with: ‘plum’ and our school name will appear (see below) you can just click on it and that’s the school selected:

Then just ask your child (Year 2 up + maybe some in Year 1) to type in their AR login username and password – they’ll know it.. You’ll now be able to share your child’s very own ‘MyOn World’ – it’s a great place to be.

This is my ‘MyOn World – I love dinosaurs (is it that obvious ??). I also love the current news tab (all carefully selected and age appropriate):

 

 

I really do need to Get Moving - Do you as well ? Help is on the way from Ms. Ings, Joe Wicks and Ms. Whytock. Go to the Plumcroft Distance Learning Portal and watch out for the “Well-being Activity Zone” – it’ll appear in the drop-down under the Headteacher’s Activity Zone – it might go above it as it’s more important (if you’re not sure where to look, ask your kids, they will know – isn’t it annoying how they seem to know everything and they’re not even 12 !!!)

Hope that helps everyone get started. Lots of children are already using their MyOn World to read books, take quizzes and keep up-to-date with the news... Just this week (and what a week it’s been !!!) your children have started reading 858 books on MyOn and they’ve completed 361 of them – truly amazing that our children are simply getting on with it – well done everyone !!!

Let’s see if we can get everyone reading or listening to a book by the end of next week (why not try it in Spanish or French? Just click the option and it’s there, you can also disable audio (if you’re not sure how... Just ask your kids - I’ll stop that now as I reckon you’ve got the idea). If we achieve that goal (or get close) then:

I will announce a major surprise on Friday 3rd April 2020 at 4pm – And that’s a Promise..

Don’t forget, you don’t have to wait for the Plumcroft Distance Learning Portal to launch next week, you can go to the Headteacher’s Activity Zone and watch a few videos, learn a song and if you have some time then maybe do one of the activities – I’ve had lots of responses in so far and they have been brilliant..

Remember, this is not about being first or being the best. If you have time and feel like it then take a look and have a go...

Regards

Richard Slade
Headteacher