Dear Family and Friends of Crossmichael Primary School,
I hope this newsletter finds you well.
On Friday we emailed you with ‘Covid-19 Schools Information for Parents and Guardians’ . This should help to answer any questions you may have about how we manage Covid-19 in school. A copy can be found here:
School Holidays
Please remember that schools close for two weeks for the October holidays from Monday 12th October – Friday 23rd October. I wish you all a restful break.
Covid-19 Related Health and Safety
We have 84 pupils in Crossmichael Primary School. We have tried to minimise contact between children and adults from different classes within the school building.
We have several measures in place to minimise the movement of pupils inside the school buildings. E.g. Each class stays within their classroom in the building. Pupils enter and exit from separate doors. They share toilet facilities but they wash hands before and after leaving the classroom. We have staggered lunches too.
Within each class, pupils do mix with each other in different groupings. They do not remain seated at their desks all day. We ensure regular hand washing before and after completing group tasks or before entering/ exiting the room.
Pupils can mix together in the playground although staggered lunch times reduce contact between pupils.
We have a strict cleaning schedule in place where the school is thoroughly cleaned at the end of each day and touch points are cleaned twice throughout the course of the day.
There have been implications for staff too with us trying to minimise movement between classrooms during one day and also between schools.
Attainment and Achievement
We have spent a considerable amount of time gathering assessment evidence to find out exactly where learners are and to identify their next steps in learning. The school closures have had an impact on learning but we are able to move forward now that we have the evidence required. Mrs Hermon, our Additional Support for Learning Teacher, has been helping to advise us on programmes of work for individuals.
In addition to this we have been supporting pupils with their health and wellbeing needs. We now have strategies and support in place to help those pupils who have really struggled with the transition back into school.
On the whole, we are delighted with how well our pupils have settled back in to school this term.
Additional Support for Learning
In Crossmichael, we have approximately 30% of learners with additional support for learning needs. We are very fortunate across our partnership schools that we have enough Learning Assistant hours to support pupils. In Crossmichael, we have the equivalent of two full time Learning Assistants and one part time Learning Assistant (3 days) – Mrs Stitt, Mrs Cowan and Mrs Jennings. Across the partnership schools, we also have a full time Learning Assistant, funded by Pupil Equity Funding, whose remit is to raise attainment through targeted interventions in Literacy and Numeracy – Mrs Clifton.
I meet with staff every term and we review and revise timetables to ensure that pupils are targeted appropriately and effectively.
Playground Developments
Our outdoor classroom is being built and it looks amazing! Our Portakabin is also fully operational after a slight delay.
Pupils are keen to develop our playground. Mrs Cowan (Learning Assistant) is working with two small groups of children who are leading this. Their focus is on nurture and developing resilience, team-building, cooperation and life skills. The children are documenting their learning in a Big Book. They had a meeting with me last week where they shared their ideas and showed me maps, drawings and letters outlining their ideas for the playground. They hope to reuse and recycle items as much as possible and are going to approach local businesses for donations.
We would like some parents/ carers to help us by applying for more grants to help fund some of the bigger items mentioned such as a pirate ship.
Finances and Resources
We bought a 12” x 10” wooden shed last year as we had little storage space. This cost £1800 and used up a huge chunk of our school funds. We now have very little money left in school to pay for school developments.
The First News literacy resource is proving to be very popular, particularly with our reluctant readers! Thank you to the Parent Council for purchasing our subscription for this excellent resource.
We are looking for funding to buy more ICT devices for school. I have contacted our Support Services Manager, Business Infrastructure to find out if we can source devices ourselves. We need laptops for pupils and a computer in the staff room for teachers. We had to put our staff room computer in the Portakabin. This means that teachers often need to return home to complete their paperwork due to lack of devices.
Pupil Groups
We have elected House and Vice-Captains who are responsible for a rota of playground games. We hope to reinstate our Pupil Council, Health Group, Eco-Schools Group and Blogging Group after the holidays.
Reporting to Parents
Teachers will be sending an email to all parents/ carers before the October holidays with a brief update of how your child is getting on since returning to school in August. Please contact your child’s teacher via email if you wish to find out more information.
Once again, thank you for your support this term!
Best wishes,
Mary E Lidstone-Scott
Headteacher
