Have your financial circumstances changed because of the COVID crisis?

We know that this is a tough time financially for lots of families. There are now 3 million more households receiving Universal Credit than there were at the start of the year.

If you are claiming one of these benefits you may be entitled to free school meals for your child, which could save you a lot of money.

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support from NASS (National Asylum Support Service) under part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (with no Working Tax Credit) with an annual income of no more than £16,190
• Working Tax Credit run-on
• Universal Credit

Bulletin September 2020 can be found on our Latest News Documents page.

What a treat it was this week to welcome Andrew Moffat from No Outsiders to Hillcrest.

He talked to the children about the philosophy of No Outsiders...

There are no outsiders in our school, we welcome everyone and whilst we’re not all the same, we are all equal.

No Outsiders provides an alternative narrative. We can’t control what our children hear outside the school gates but we can control what they hear inside our school. Our children can be bombarded with pictures, videos and news articles which cause them to ask questions, and quite rightly so.

But It’s about how we navigate that with our children, how we can make them feel safe in the world and how we constantly remind them that diversity is wonderful - Isn’t it great that we are all different and unique?

We’re saying to our children that no-one is left out and, particularly higher up the school, we discuss why some people in society may be left out due to racism, homophobia or other prejudices but that there are solutions if we work together.

You can learn more about the No Ousiders ethos here.

 

We hope that Andrew’s message will strengthen what we already do at Hillcrest and wanted to share with you some of the books which we will be using to reinforce this message and promote discussion.

 

We will also be promoting this message in class assemblies, using positive stories from around the world. Here is an example of this followed by the type of questions teachers might ask to stimulate discussion with their class. We will put one of these on Seesaw each week.

 

https://www.timesnownews.com/the-buzz/article/caught-on-camera-man-builds-a-racetrack-for-a-kid-cycling-on-his-driveway-kind-gesture-wins-hearts/644719

A man in Salt Lake City, USA, noticed a child every day riding their bike on his driveway. This happened every day and was being picked up by a motion alert on his driveway CCTV. Every day the man saw the same child zipping around his drive.

In the middle of the night the man drew a ractrack in pink chalk on his drive. The next day when he watched his CCTV he saw the child arrive. At first the child looked confused but then they zoom around the track. The track was washed away by rain so the man drew a different track the next day.

There is a brilliant 3 minute video about this on youtube here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xj-J0NUuk8

The story went viral and peole commented, “Almost every problem in the world has a solution”

 

-        How do you think the man felt when he realised a child was using his driveway without permission every day?

-        What does trespassing mean? Is the child trespassing?

-        What options did the man have? How could he have stopped the child?

-        Why do you think he drew a racetrack instead? Why did he do it at night?

-        How do you think the child felt when they first saw the racetrack?

-        Why do you think the man kept changing the track?

-        How do you think the man felt when he saw the child use the racetrack?

-        The video shows lots of different people using the track – how does that make him feel?

-        Why doesn’t the man put up a sign saying, “Boys only” or “for Amercians only”?

-        People watching the video have said, “Almost every problem in the world has a solution” what does this mean?

-        What can we learn from this man?

-        The video has had 12 million views, what does this show about people around the world?

-        Why is this about hope?