Dear Parents & Carers,

Well, we’ve all made it to the end of a long term, well done everyone! Although very different, we have enjoyed the run up to Christmas – the children have enjoyed their Christmas dinner, class Christmas parties and we have been able to share some singing within year group bubbles.  In addition, each class has been working on a little festive surprise for you.  As we have been unable to do our normal Reception and KS1 nativities, or our KS2 Carols evenings, the children have been busy making some Christmas videos for you to enjoy from the safety of your homes.

For Years 1-6, we have saved these on our Microsoft Teams shared spaces. Microsoft Teams is the platform we have chosen where we can continue online learning. Each child has their own login, which is located in the back of their reading record.   You can access Microsoft Teams using a smartphone, tablet or computer.  Simply download the app or visit the website and log in.  The Christmas video will be saved in the 'General' 'Files' of your child's class team.   Videos are not to be shared in any social media.

For more information about Microsoft Teams, how to log in and our provision for remote learning, please see our website.  For children in Reception, you will be able to access their festive offering through the 2Simple platform that you are already using.

You may have noticed few new faces that have joined our Linden staff team and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr Luke Thompson, who is our new site supervisor and Miss Ashleigh Winters who is teaching in Year 3.  I would also like to take this opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to Miss Helps who is leaving us this term.  I am sure that you will join me in wishing her the very best of luck in her new school.

Lastly, as I reflect on a crazy 2020, I would personally like to thank you all for you continued support.  We look forward to welcoming you all back on January 5th (after a bit of sleep and rest!)  I hope that you all have a fantastic and safe Christmas!

Best wishes

Lucy Collins
Headteacher

You may be aware that the Government has placed a responsibility on school leaders to be available for Track and Trace purposes into the school holidays. We have been careful to follow Department for Education and Public Health England advice throughout the pandemic and their advice around the Christmas period is that all positive cases involving children that attend this school should be reported to us up until six days after we close for the holidays.
 
To help us manage this situation, please can we ask that where a pupil receives a positive test result for Coronavirus between the 18th - 24^th December that you inform the school by ringing Mrs Collins' work mobile phone number:

07951606121

Should any positive cases be reported, Mrs Collins will have the responsibility to track and trace pupils through our normal systems and ask pupils to self-isolate. This reporting system will be in place until 24th December 2020 and the phone will be checked between the hours of 8am and 4pm.
 
After the 24^th December, Public Health England are asking that any positive cases are reported directly to the NHS Coronavirus testing service by calling 119.
 
If your child has been asked to self-isolate via the Track and Trace system, these will be dealt with under our usual procedures when staff return on 4^th January (INSET day), so please report your child’s absence in the usual way.
 
Can we remind you that should pupils or any members of their household be displaying symptoms of Covid-19 at the start of January, they should not return on Tuesday 5th January and follow the Government’s Stay at Home guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection
 
Your cooperation throughout this pandemic has helped to keep many of us safe and we appreciate your ongoing support.

TT Rockstars

The efforts of children across KS2 on TT Rockstars have continued to wow us throughout the term. We are happy to celebrate the amazing work in our TT Rockstars display, with lots of names in our '100 club' (children who have played a hundred games in a week) and our '1000 club' (children who have scored over 1000 correct answers in a week). We look forward to adding more and more names to the lists over the course of the rest of the year. Since our last update, the standout performances have come from Abi in Class 14 (313 games and over 14,000 correct answers in one week) and Denit in Class 9 who has played over 100 games on a weekly basis throughout the year.

Year 6

Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed reading 'The Nowhere Emporium' this term and we had mixed emotions when we finally got to the end last week. Thank you and well done to all the children for their amazing work, some of which you can see displayed in the attached picture. Mr Brown, Miss White and the rest of the year 6 team can't wait to get stuck into a new novel after Christmas.

Huge congratulations to: 

Isabella Shore

Denit Joseph

Cassius Cunningham 

Prithvi Kher

Mila De Souza

New Time Tables Olympians!

The Value of the term was perseverance

"Perseverance is the ability to keep doing something in spite of obstacles. People who persevere show steadfastness in doing something despite how hard it is or how long it takes to reach the goal".

Those that have shown true Perseverance are:

Linden's Stars of the Week ending 4th December are:

Linden's Stars of the Week ending 11th December are:

Linden's Stars of the Week ending 11th December are:

A message from us to the Friends of Linden

A huge THANK YOU to Friends of Linden for donating money for each of the class parties - we really appreciate all that you have done for us this year with fundraising and in particular the Cauliflower Cards gifts and cards you arranged for us.

A message from Ribston Hall

We would really like to share the Ribston Christmas Concert with your pupils, whether that be in class in the New Year or via a link to Parents / Carers. https://clickv.ie/w/qzcp

Happy Christmas!

We hope you were pleased with the Christmas Craft Decorations your children made.  We sent all those that we received a payment for via Parentpay home with your child. 

It's not too late to make a payment, but please be aware these decorations will not be sent home until the New Year now.  Please remember that ALL the money goes towards games and activities for your child's class.

Christmas Cards 

Thank you to everyone who ordered Christmas Cards and Mugs.  Despite the logistical challenges faced this year, all completed orders were handed out by the beginning of this week. It was lovely to see the wonderful designs created by the children and we would like to thank the staff for all their efforts with this.  Over £250 was raised through this project. 

Gloucester Feed The Hungry

Thank you to everyone that generously donated this year.  Hash has distributed the items to local worthwhile causes.

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  

Friends of Linden 

As you are aware Covid has affected our ability to fundraise this year which is why we are pleased to be working in conjunction with a local business Dixie Dot Crafts.

Dixie Dot is based in Quedgeley and offers a wide range of gifts and lovely things, from personalised pottery painted items to bath bombs to craft kits. For every order that is placed through the website (www.dixiedotcrafts.com) between now and 31^st December 2020, 10% will be donated back to our school to kickstart the fundraising into 2021.

Our Unique code is LINDEN2020. Please do share this with all your family and friends so they can purchase Christmas gifts and craft projects through Dixie Dot while helping our school. Thank you in advance for your support!

Here is the Lin-Diner menu for the new term:

and as a PDF document to download:

Lin Diner Menu 2021.pdf

More information will follow about these dates

More information will follow about these dates