Dear Parents/ Guardians,

Headteachers across Dumfries and Galloway met online this morning with the Director to progress plans for children and young people to return to school after the summer holiday. The First Minister announced yesterday that it is expected that pupils will return to school on 11 August with measures in place to keep children and staff a safe distance from each other and make sure everything is kept clean and hygienic, so that children can return safely. The national information from Parent Club is available https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/reopening-schools.  Locally, there will soon be a Dumfries and Galloway webinar about our Local Authority plans for schools and nurseries– we will share this with parents when we have the details.

However, while the schools are reopening, they won’t be going back to the way they were before. The reason for this is to make sure that children and staff are in as safe an environment as possible.  This is likely to mean that not all children can be in school building at the same time – we will balance this with learning outside and at home.  This might mean that pupils will take it in turns to go into school for a few days or a week, and then learn at home for the rest of the time. Pupils will start to spend more time in school as soon as it’s safe to do so.  At the moment we are planning what this blend of school and home learning will look like, taking account of the needs of pupils and families, as well as practical arrangements like cleaning and transport.

We will be preparing a list of Frequently Asked Questions which we will put on our school website and I will share more detail as soon as I have more information available.  Until then, we will still be learning with you at home – keep in touch with me and your child’s teacher to make sure you and your child have the help they need.

Keep safe and well.

Best wishes,

Mary E Lidstone-Scott

Headteacher