Latest News

12 week shielding letters - clarification

Mon 18 May 2020 Julie Fardell

Thank you to parents and carers who have taken a very considerate and flexible approach to your responses about potential return of children to school after May half term.

Many of you have indicated your preference to keep children at home until the new school year starts in September.

Others have indicated they would like a part-time placement but would not want to take up a space that was needed more by another child. We should have all the responses back by the end of Tuesday 19 May and will then be able to determine how many places we can offer.

Some children received 12 week shielding letters from either the NHS or their GP beause they are deemed to be extremely clinical vulnerable to COVID-19. There has been some confusion about the date to which the 12 week shielding letters are in effect.

The confusion has arisen because some letters were accurately dated eg: day and month but others just said "April". Some others did not receive a shielding letter from the NHS but later received one from their GP. The beginning date of these letters was often unclear.

Dr Justin Varney, Director of Public Health Birmingham advised in a recent meeting of Special School headteachers and Birmingham City Council Education Department, that the 12 weeks is deemed to be until the end of June.

In order to carry out our duty of care to your children, we will not be accepting any children with shielding letters back into school before July, and that still depends on whether the shielding period is extended beyond the initial 12 weeks.

After May Half-term

Thu 14 May 2020 Julie Fardell

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week and early next week, teachers will be calling you to ask what your needs will be after May half term in terms of children returning to school. Special Schools have been instructed to continue prioritising children for attendance on the basis of vulnerability and need. Special Schools are not required to give priority to any particular year group. We are not able to open to large numbers of pupils as not all of our staff are available and we have to maintain social distancing as far as possible in the school. Therefore, it is probable that pupils needing to return may be offered part-time placement rather than 5 full days per week except for those children whose parents are keyworkers, and those who have the highest level of need to be at school. We will continue to provide home learning activities on the website.

The teacher you speak to will not be able to promise a place at school;they will pass all information on to the senior leadership team who will consider the applications and prioritise offer of a place after May half term.

I know that the last 7 weeks have been very hard and many are feeling anxious and vulnerable. Thank you for your flexibility in keeping children at home to keep them safe.

Judi's Sing and Sign

Thu 14 May 2020

Just a reminder to everyone, there are still new videos with Judi going on the home learning page! Don't miss out!

https://www.victoria.bham.sch.uk/favourite-songs/

Prime Minister's statement about phased re-opening of schools

Mon 11 May 2020 Julie Fardell

Dear Parent/Carer,

We expect that you will have watched the Prime Minister’s address yesterday evening. Further details are due to be released later today and we will be reviewing the guidance and its implications for special schools. At the moment, we have no further information and so currently nothing has changed and the school remains open only to the children of keyworkers and those who have been identified as being particularly vulnerable. We will update you as and when more information becomes available. In the meantime, we hope that you and your family remain safe and well.

MyOn Free Library

Wed 06 May 2020

To support all schools with a continued focus on reading, BEP is delighted to share a FREE resource to support children’s and young people’s reading at home.  The following link:  https://readon.myon.co.uk/ takes you straight to the resource.  It is called myON and for this time of school closures we have been given free access to this product.  The resource itself is excellent because the platform provides digital versions of over 7,000 books for pupils of all ages and abilities to enjoy texts and articles; effectively this is a library given to homes.

However, for this particular resource, there is also the functionality to hear the books and articles read aloud, tier two vocabulary is highlighted and there is a link to an online dictionary for easy reference.

Live sessions on Zoom

Fri 01 May 2020 Julie Fardell

Several of our teachers are about to start trialling "virtual" lessons, chats and assemblies using Zoom. Individual teachers will be in touch to let you know what is happening that is relevant to you and your child. It will be lovely for some of the children, staff and families to see and speak to each other in real time. Fingers crossed that all the technology works as it should.

Advice from Birmingham Health Department

Fri 01 May 2020 Julie Fardell

Our colleagues in health have asked me to remind all families that it is still safe to seek advice (by phone) from your GP and even to go to A&E if you or a member of your family is unwell or suffers an injury. They are concerned that some people may be putting themselves at risk by not seeking medical advice when they are unwell and encourage you to seek appropriate medical assistance as necessary.

Services for Education Online Learning Resources

Thu 30 Apr 2020 Services for Education

Dear Parents

We hope that you are well at this time. Services for Education’s Music Service have been busy putting together an Online Learning Platform for pupils and families to access.

This is a collection of videos to support all levels of learning covering every instrument and the voice. It will help those pupils who have whole class lessons in KS1 through to the upper-level musicians in secondary school and 6th form.

The following link, username and password should be used to log on:

www.sfeonline.co.uk

Username: victorias
Password: guFjuZDg

We hope you enjoy the resources and have lots of fun!

Speech and Language at home packs

Wed 29 Apr 2020

Speech and Language at home packs contain ideas based around play and daily routine to help develop your child's communication skills. They contain simple activity ideas along with some symbols to use together. New packs will be added weekly for as long as the school closures continue.

These can be found under the communication section of the home learning zone. CLICK HERE to go to the page.