Dear Family and Friends of Crossmichael and Gelston Primary Schools,
I am delighted to report that Dumfries and Galloway are moving to Level 1 of Covid-19 restrictions on 1st June. We received updated guidance from D&G Council today. Please see the communication below.
Communication from D&G Council Regarding Covid-19 and End of Term Events
“Our Council’s Education and Learning department has been working for over a year to make our schools safe places for everyone to work and learn. Throughout this time, we have been interpreting the Scottish Government’s guidance, establishing safe ways of working, undertaking risk assessments and putting in measures in our classrooms that allow all our teaching staff and pupils to learn safely every day.
We are now starting to experience the reduction of some restrictions within our daily lives. Within our school communities, we are also starting to see the return to some normal activities. However, we have a planned and cautious approach to ensure the safety of everyone.
There are still COVID-19 cases within a number of communities within Dumfries and Galloway. Some areas have been hit hard and just this week, we have experienced large numbers of pupils and staff having to self-isolate and return to online learning at this time. This has been a sharp reminder to us just of how quickly the virus can spread and impact our communities.
Therefore, the decision has been made (in conjunction with our partners and our Trade Union colleagues) that school leavers events and end of year celebrations will not go ahead this year. We know that this will be disappointing but we hope that you understand our position. Our priority has to be the safety of all our school communities. By removing the need for individuals to come together, we can reduce the opportunity for the virus to spread and in doing so, keep everyone safe.”
Sadly, I can no longer invite our P7 parents to an outdoor end of term assembly as previously hoped. Although we are very disappointed by this, we do understand the importance of keeping everyone safe.
Crossmichael Pupil Wins Schools Competition to Name Bin Lorry
Huge congratulations to P7 pupil Ben who won a regional competition to name a waste refuse lorry. Ben came up with the name, ‘Binnie the Minx’ and did extremely well to come first out of 280 entries! CONGRATULATIONS BEN!!
Crossmichael Sports Day
We held our sports day last week and continued with races today. We are delighted to announce that the winning House was EAGLES! Well done to all children who did a fantastic job and showed real sportsmanship!
Please see class Facebook pages for more photographs.
Crossmichael Sponsored Walk
We participated in our sponsored walk last week for school funds. We had a lovely time! Thank you very much to those of you who returned your Smarties tubes filled with coins. We will let you know how much money we raised as soon as possible.
Dates for Your Diary – CROSSMICHAEL
| Wednesday 16th June
from 09:30-16:30 |
P6 and P7 pupils to the Galloway Activity Centre
The school will pay for your child(ren) to attend this trip at a cost of £45 per head. Further details will follow but we are asking for parents to transport their own children to and from the GAC today. |
| Friday 18th June | Primary 7 pupils to visit Castle Douglas High School
P7 pupils will be taken by minibus to CDHS in the morning and will return before lunch time. |
| Wednesday 23rd June
from 2-3pm |
End of Year Class Based Assemblies
Individual assemblies will be held in class via Microsoft TEAMS. |
| Thursday 24th June | Fun Day and Picnic
We plan to have a fun filled day in the school grounds with a picnic lunch (from home or school). We will have a variety of activities in place for all pupils to enjoy! |
Classes and Staffing for August 2021
Here are details of classes and teachers for Crossmichael Primary School:
P1/2 – Mrs Marscheider
P3/4 – Miss Drummond
P4-6 – Mrs Glover
P6/7 – Mrs Stevens
Mrs Burton is reducing her contract to three days a week and will be providing Reduction in Class Contact Time (RICCT) and Senior Management Time (SMT) cover.
Here are details of classes and teachers for Gelston Primary School:
P1-3 – Miss Todd (Mondays) and Miss Scott (Tuesdays – Fridays)
P4-7 – Miss Reid (Mondays-Thursdays) and Mrs Maxwell (Fridays)
Miss Todd and Mrs Bielinski will provide Reduction in Class Contact Time (RICCT) and Senior Management Time (SMT) cover.
In our schools we organise our curriculum so that all pupils are focusing on the same bundles of curricular experiences and outcomes at the same time. Pupils are taught according to which curricular level that they are working at rather than completing ‘P4’ work or ‘P6’ work. This means that there are no ceilings put on a child’s learning. Each child in our partnership schools is taught according to their own learning needs so that they are appropriately challenged. Registration classes are necessary because we only have capacity for 25 pupils to be in each multi-composite class. In our schools no child is ever ‘kept back’.
Pupil Progress End of Year Summary Reports
End of year summary reports will be sent to parents in the last week of term as previously mentioned.
P7-S1 Transition
Our Primary 7 pupils will be visiting Castle Douglas High School in the morning of Friday 18th June. They will also complete transition activities online this term. The traditional ‘moving up days’ were meant to be on 16th, 17th and 18th June but as materials will be provided online, we have a degree of flexibility which is why I have booked the Galloway Activity centre on one of these days.
N-P1 Transition
I have already been in contact with your child’s pre-school provision to find out more about them.
New P1 pupils will visit Crossmichael Primary School on Monday 14th June and Gelston Primary School on Tuesday 15th June. This will be carried out after school in staggered 10 minute intervals.
We aim to set up closed class Facebook pages but new security measures are making it harder to do this. If this is not possible then we will communicate via email.
Our pupils are making welcome video clips for new pupils and parents will receive a PowerPoint presentation explaining key information about the school and life in P1. We will also introduce pupils to their buddies.
As always, please get in touch if you wish to discuss anything further.
Best wishes,
Mary Lidstone-Scott
Headteacher
