Information Update - 17 April 2020

Dear Parents,
​
I have 3 important pieces of information to share with you today.
Firstly, a reminder about internet safety. It is inevitable at this time that you children will be spending a much greater proportion of their day online. However, it is important to continue to ensure that this time online is conducted in a safe manner. These are some basic requirements for safe internet use:

•        Primary age children should only access the internet in shared areas of the house where monitoring is possible, and never alone in a bedroom
•        Parental controls should be enabled on the highest setting. Beware of phones using mobile data. If possible ensure that where smart phones are being used, it is via home internet with parental controls in place
•        Children are instructed at school that they should only access sites specified by the teacher. It is important that you have this rule at home too.  There is information on our website about e-safety and it can be found here https://www.ivervillage-jun.bucks.sch.uk/home-learning-internet-safety.html

Secondly, you may have heard of the Government scheme to support families by providing vouchers for those children who receive Free School Meals. Vouchers are only being issued to those families who qualify for Benefits Related Free School Meals. Buckinghamshire Council provide the school with a list of children who qualify for this benefit and their families have been sent vouchers accordingly.  However, the system set up by the government to issue the vouchers has had some problems and there have been delays in the system sending out the vouchers.  We are closely monitoring the situation and if you should have received vouchers and haven’t done so by the end of the week please contact us at [email protected]

I am very aware that many families who did not previously qualify for this benefit, sadly, now do. We would like to start providing vouchers to more families as quickly as possible. If you think that you now qualify for Benefits Related Free School Meals because of a change in your financial circumstances, please urgently email
[email protected] with the following information:
•        Names of children who are pupils at our school
•        Full name of the main wage earner
•        Date of birth of main wage earner
•        National Insurance number of the main wage earner
We will use this information to check for eligibility. If you are eligible, your details will appear on our database of qualifying families and you will start to receive vouchers. Please be aware that there is time lag between you applying for additional benefits and us being notified that you are eligible. I know that you are juggling a lot of demands right now, but the sooner we get this information the sooner we can start the process.

Finally, this link takes you to a great website which can be used by all to make money spent on food go a little further during these difficult times: https://biteback2030.com/real-story/making-your-ps15-free-school-meal-voucher-go-further-home

My very best wishes to you all.
​Miss Digweed