CoronaVirus Updates

Please visit the Durham County Council website for the latest news and advice.

Looking After Yourself Looking after your children

Online Education Resources

The Government has released a list of online learning platforms that are offering their current provisions during Covid-19 for free. You may wish to access some of these to supplement your child’s learning during the school closure.

Covid 19 Update

On Sunday 19th April, the UK Government released the following information and advice for parents and carers on the DfE (Department for Education) website. You can access this information by visiting the Gov.uk website.

Coronavirus Book (for 5-9 years)

Axel Scheffler, illustrator of many Julia Donaldson books, has worked with the some other writers (Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson and Nia Roberts) to create a free book that explains the Coronavirus to children.

The book answers key questions in simple language appropriate for 5 to 9 year olds:

What is the coronavirus?
How do you catch the coronavirus?
What happens if you catch the coronavirus?
Why are people worried about catching the coronavirus?
Is there a cure for the coronavirus?
Why are some places we normally go to closed?
What can I do to help?
What’s going to happen next?

You can access the book by visiting the Axel Scheffler website.

Sports Resources

Link to our School Sports Partnership Resources:

Links from the School Sports Partnership for Online dance videos and activities:

Additional Resources

Safeguarding

Please see information from Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership:

Safeguarding Children Partnership leaflet

Online Safety

From Durham Constabulary’s Cyber Protect Team:

With schools now being officially shut because of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is likely that there will be an increase of internet use for families and children over the coming weeks. With that in mind, here are some great tips for parents on setting up the right controls and privacy settings to ensure their child stays safe online. You can find these in detail in our ‘Parents Guide to Cyber Safety’ advice booklet which you can view or download by clicking the links below:

The booklet looks at the following areas:

Smart Devices

They are a number of different ways to secure your child’s device within the phone settings. Some of these are turning off location settings, blocking inappropriate content and disabling app purchasing.

Broadband & Mobile Networks

Did you know you can restrict certain websites on devices connected to your home router? You can also use these settings to make the home Wi-Fi unavailable to a device after say 9pm for example!

Gaming

We look at questions to ask when buying a games console, such as if the console or games have chat facilities, is your child able to make purchases using their games console, or does your child’s gamertag reveal their identity?

Social Media

There are many features that you can put in place to ensure social media is safe for your child, like ensuring accounts are private not public, filtering out inappropriate comments and setting up two-factor authentication.

There are also a number of websites that give detailed advice on staying safe online, such as:

You can also contact the Durham Constabulary Cyber Protect Team Please be aware that their inbox is not staffed 24/7. Ring 999 in an emergency or 101 to report an incident.

Well-being Resources for Parents

Our children not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they may feel the tension and anxiety present in society. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off of school for an extended period may sound great to some children, they are probably imagining a fun time like summer break, not the reality of being at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the coming weeks, you may see an increase in some issues with your children such as anxiety, anger, or frustration that they can’t do things normally. This is normal and expected under these circumstances. What all children need right now is to feel comforted, loved and reassured. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cakes and paint pictures. Play board games and do a science experiment together are all good ideas. Start a book and read together as a family.

Learning is important and we are providing resources to support this at home. Included in this are the resources on well-being and exercise on DB Primary. Please do make use of these.

The following links from Durham County Council may also be of use: