THE PRIMARY SCHOOL KEEPING BIRTHDAY MAGIC ALIVE

CLASSROOM BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS PROVIDE ‘POSITIVE MEMORIES’ FOR YOUNGSTERS

A PRIMARY school is doing its bit to try to soften the blow of the pandemic on its pupils – by hosting their birthday parties.

Suzanne Jones, head teacher of Woodcote Primary, Ashby, said the past few months had been confusing for the children and especially difficult for everyone as a member of staff died during the lockdown. Now they are back in the classroom, Ms Jones is determined that they should have some happy memories of school life.

“The wellbeing of the children has always been the main concern,” she said. “Through lockdown, it has been very different but we’ve been setting online work.

“Our teachers have also been doing weekly TikTok sessions and sending birthday messages.

“It’s been such a strange time for them and we wanted them to have positive memories because they’ll never forget this time.”

So she and her staff began brainstorming and one of the ideas was to have birthday parties for the students at school.

“One member of staff came up with the idea,” said Ms Jones.

“It’s such a shame that they don’t get to have their friends round to their house but they are sitting with them all day in their classrooms.” A letter was sent home to parents about the idea and Ms Jones said the response was overwhelmingly positive.

“The parents were really supportive and it’s brought us all together as a school community,” she added.

She said the birthday party idea has been a massive success.

“I stand at the gates every morning and give them their hand gel and you can tell when it’s someone’s party because they get so excited,” she said.

“They love it, we give them a choice. One class had an arts and crafts session and had a film on at the same time.

“The younger ones tend to just have dancing parties, proper discos.

“We just wanted to do something a little positive in a really dark time.”

A pupil was reported to have tested positive at Woodcote Primary early last month.