Dear Families and Friends of Gelston Primary School,

Keeping in Touch

Good afternoon.  I hope that you are safe and well.  Once again, thank you for keeping in touch with us via email, telephone or class Facebook pages.

One of my responsibilities is to provide safeguarding for all pupils.  This can be challenging when staff are not seeing children every day.  Therefore, I have created a short and simple Microsoft Form questionnaire for pupils to complete.  It will tell me how your child is feeling, how they are getting on with learning activities at home, if they have done any exercise,  if they need a member of staff to contact them, and enables them to add any other comments about life during lockdown.

A weekly link to this questionnaire will be emailed to all parents.  I would appreciate it if parent/ guardians of pupils in P1-3 could complete it for each child by 3pm on Friday.  Pupils in P4-7 will be able to access the link to the questionnaire via their GLOW emails and should be able to complete it themselves.

 

Access to Internet and Devices

I enjoyed delivering Chromebooks to those families who said that they were having issues connecting to the Internet or had a limited number of devices at home.  I hope this has been helpful.  We are very grateful to the Drax Group for purchasing the seven laptops for our schools.

 

Dumfries and Galloway Council – COVID-19 Website

Dumfries and Galloway Council have created an updated COVID-19 information page that can be accessed here:

https://supportdg.dumgal.gov.uk/

There is a tab specifically for Schools and Childcare.

 

NHS Support for All

The NHS have a website dedicated to mental health and wellbeing and coronavirus.  There are also a number of resources available to support you in talking to your child about Coronavirus.  I have also attached resources to support you with mental health and domestic abuse.  Please find these resources below.  I will upload them to the Partnership Schools website.

https://www.nhsdg.co.uk/mental-health-and-wellbeing-and-coronavirus/

COVID-19 Resource Pack Unders – It’s ok to worry about coronavirus How to Talk to Children about COVID

 

Transition Arrangements

Normally, in May,  parents/ guardians of non-catchment pupils would receive a letter informing them if their child has been granted a space in their non-catchment school.  Parents/ Guardians of catchment pupils do not receive a letter and are automatically granted a space if the school can accommodate them.

We usually begin the P1 transition arrangements once these letters have been received by families.  This year, things are different because of the pandemic and it is looking increasingly likely that schools may not return before the summer holidays.

Transition arrangements will have to be done differently this year.  It is my intention to make up P1 packs to send out to pupils in June.  I will also be speaking to staff to think of ways of introducing pupils to staff, the layout of the school building and each other.  I have not yet allocated buddies to our new P1 intake but this is something that we will consider in the next few weeks.

Having a Portacabin at Crossmichael will enable us to have another classroom and teacher there.  Soon, I will be meeting with John Thin to discuss staffing arrangements for the Partnership schools.  Once I have clarity on this, it will be easier to commence with transition arrangements for pupils.

We will need to consider what the return to school will look like for our pupils as we continue to maintain social distancing.  The return to school is not likely to involve all pupils returning at the same time.  We need to think about the health and safety of our school community.  We are not yet in the position to be able to provide detail on what that may look like.

Our P7-S1 transition arrangements have also changed.  It is my intention to liaise with Castle Douglas High School to have our P7 pupils return to school for their Leavers Assembly.  We plan to continue with the prize giving at this time too.  We also hope to have a ‘Leavers Meal’ at some point.  This will be dependent on advice from Scottish Government.

I would hope that P7 pupils from other schools will have an opportunity to ‘meet’ each other via GLOW groups if they are not yet able to meet in person.  I am sure that our secondary colleagues will be in touch about arrangements in the next few weeks.

 

Thanks to Our Staff

It is worth noting that several of our teaching and non-teaching staff are doing two jobs at the moment.  They are planning learning for our children whilst also volunteering to work shifts at the Emergency Childcare Hubs in Dalbeattie and Kirkcudbright.  (These Hubs are open at weekends and over school holidays.)  Many of them also have their own families to consider and are juggling work and trying to teach their own children.

Mrs Clifton has also travelled to Dumfries to collect ‘Literacy Ladders’ resources, has made up learning packs and has distributed these to the pupils whom she has been supporting with the ‘Closing the Literacy Gap’ materials.  Thank you.

Our staff have gone above and beyond what is expected of them and I would like to thank them for everything that they are doing to support us.

 

 

 

 

As always, please get in touch via email (gw08scottmary01@ea.dumgal.sch.uk) or telephone (07741 686730) if you wish to discuss anything further or if you need someone to talk to.

 

Best wishes,

Mary E Lidstone-Scott

Headteacher