Newsletter – Monday 11th January 2021

Dear Friends and Family of Crossmichael and Gelston Primary Schools,

I hope that you are well and that you are managing to keep safe as Covid-19 numbers increase in Dumfries and Galloway.

Remote Learning

Today pupils begin online learning. Teachers have shared a learning grid with you via email and on class Facebook pages. These grids have also been put into pupils’ TEAMS folders in GLOW (their online learning platform). A new learning grid will be uploaded each week. The grids contain activities for different curricular areas and provide links to online video clips or resources where appropriate.

If you have any difficulties in accessing the learning grids then please contact your child’s class teacher for support.

We understand how daunting this can be so please try not to put to much pressure on yourselves to cover everything. We understand that families often need to share laptops/ iPads and that some families have difficulties with Internet access. Not all learning has to be completed online.

Please contact your child’s teacher if you would prefer paper copies of the work and we will make up packs for you to collect from school.

Class Group Meetings on Microsoft TEAMS

It is our intention to meet with classes/ groups once per week using Microsoft TEAMS.

Scottish school children (P1-7) have a GLOW account which is a secure intranet system which comes with the Microsoft Office 365 software and can be downloaded free of charge on to home IT equipment. This includes Microsoft Teams which is the only platform we are allowed to use for virtual meetings.

We used TEAMS for meetings last time but could not use the video function. Scottish Government has since agreed to enable pupils and staff to see each other so it will be great to catch up with you all! We understand that it may be challenging to get pupils online at the same time but we will try our best and discuss how to make improvements as we go along.

Here is a help guide providing instructions on how to access GLOW and TEAMS:

Glow-Teams-Guide-for-Learners-Parents

Our P1-3 pupils will need help to log in as they will not have used GLOW in school. Teachers have provided each child with their GLOW username and password.

Internet Safety and Safeguarding
Within Teams there is an option to record meetings but for data protection and safeguarding reasons the Council policy is that TEAMS meetings should not be recorded at home.

Stationery Resources

At this time of year we have limited supplies of stationery in school and as Lockdown happened quickly, we were unable to place and receive an order. Castle Douglas Rotary Club has kindly offered to help out by offering to purchase some additional resources.

If you would like a pack then please complete this form:

Keeping in Touch and Keeping Safe

Pupils and families should know that although schools are closed, we are still available if you need us.

You can contact the school office with general enquiries:

gw08officecrossmicha@ea.dumgal.sch.uk or gw08officegelston@ea.dumgal.sch.uk

You can contact class teachers via email:

Miss Drummond (P1-3 at Gelston) – gw16drummondnicole@ea.dumgal.sch.uk

Miss Reid and Mrs Maxwell (P4-7 at Gelston) –

gw08reidnicola@ea.dumgal.sch.uk gw08maxwellnorma@ea.dumgal.sch.uk

Mrs Marscheider (P1/2 at Crossmichael) – gw17marscheiderayesh@ea.dumgal.sch.uk

Mrs Burton and Miss Todd (P2-4 at Crossmichael) –

gw13burtonaileen01@ea.dumgal.sch.uk gw20todddominick@ea.dumgal.sch.uk