Dear Family and Friends of Gelston Primary School,
New Enrolments
Two new enrolments means our school roll is currently at 40 pupils. We welcome our new pupils to the school
Remembrance Day
Each class chose how they would like to commemorate Remembrance Day. We had a two minute silence and an assembly that was live streamed into each classroom. P1-3 painted poppies on stones and learned more about the significance of this special day. P4 made a wreath from paper poppies and P4-7 wrote poems. P7 pupils read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae and Milly played the musical version on her chanter.
Covid-19 Related Health and Safety
In the event of a pupil or member of staff testing positive for Covid-19, it is likely that a class may have to isolate. To minimise the need for more than one class to isolate at a time, we have looked at existing measures and decided to minimise cross-over between pupils. We have zoned our playground into two sections with our P1-3 pupils playing at the right hand side of the school and our P4-7pupils at the left hand side. In the dining hall, P1-3 have lunch at 12pm and sit at one side of the hall. They go out to play then P4-7 enter the hall at 12.30pm. Tables are disinfected between sittings.
We have already minimised the movement of staff between class ‘bubbles’ and any Learning Assistants (LAs) who are working with individuals or groups from each class, must do so in another room and disinfect surfaces and resources between groups. We hope this would mean that if the LA tested positive then only the groups and individual children they worked with would need to isolate.
Covid-19 Recovery Teacher Appointment
We welcome Emma McDonald who has been appointed Covid-19 Recovery Teacher for CDHS Cluster schools. Her remit means she will be working across our partnership schools for a block of a few weeks between now and the summer. Her remit at our school will be to support pupils with their Health and Wellbeing needs – nurture groups, emotion works, building resilience, agency and supporting pupils to regulate emotions by providing strategies. We hope that she can start her new post in December.
Managing Expectations
Although schools are open, things are not ‘back to normal’. We try very hard to ensure that our pupils feel safe and happy in school so that they are settled and ready to learn. Everyone is used to new routines and is following protective measures.
Dumfries and Galloway Council is very supportive and has explained that we are following a ‘Recovery Curriculum’. This means that the focus is very much on pupil and staff health and wellbeing. Although we have a School Improvement Plan and we have identified areas that need developed within our schools, this is not to be a key focus at this point in time. This means that some areas of school development will not be a priority at the moment and some of the pupil groups and other activities may not be happening in the way that they were prior to the school closures. Nevertheless, our teachers are very committed and continue to develop programmes in Literacy and Language.
We are focusing on supporting pupils with their mental and emotional health and wellbeing. It is only now that we have started to see the impact of the pandemic on many of our children. Many of our children with additional support needs experience barriers to learning. This has been exacerbated with anxiety caused by the pandemic.
We have put many supportive measures in place to help individuals. Often, this has resulted in a larger volume of referrals to other agencies for support.
We continue to focus on improving attainment in Literacy & Language and in Numeracy & Maths. Teachers are spending time identifying and plugging any gaps whilst also ensuring that our more able pupils are challenged appropriately.
Mrs Clifton has just finished a block of work at Crossmichael providing targeted interventions with five pupils who have made good progress in their reading and spelling. She is now moving to Gelston Primary School where she will deliver the next block of work and will return to Crossmichael in February. She is working alongside Miss McNeill in order to build capacity.
Staffing
Unfortunately, Miss Reid (Principal Teacher – 4 days) continues to be absent. Therefore I will be spending more time here in order to support pupils and staff. We wish her well and hope that she is able to return soon.
Our Additional Support for Learning Teacher and I are very busy writing many pupil plans that are needed as a direct result of the level of need in the partnership schools just now. We are also ensuring that referrals are completed for those pupils who require extra support.
School Estate
At Crossmichael Primary School the Parent Council secured a £10K from Blackcraig Wind Farm Community Fund. This enabled us to build an outdoor classroom thanks to Iain Hall Joinery. We would love to have the same resource at Gelston Primary School so I will be consulting with our Parent Council at our next meeting. (Details to follow shortly.)
ICT Equipment and Infrastructure
Dumfries and Galloway Council is updating its ICT infrastructure. This should mean better broadband speed, upgrades to Windows 10, better access to WiFi and the ability for devices to access the school internet. More information should follow soon.
We are still having issues with internet connection to the Portakabin. Our stand alone (teacher’s) PC is wired up and receives internet access. I have reported this and hope that it is sorted out soon.
Please can I ask all families who were given one of the nine Chromebooks donated by Drax (during lockdown) to return them to the school as soon as possible? They are needed for use in our fourth classroom at Crossmichael.
Reporting to Parents
We are unable to conduct parental consultations via telephone or in person this term. Instead teachers will be sending an email to all parents/ carers before the Christmas holidays with an update of how your child is getting on. Please contact your child’s teacher via email if you wish to find out more information.
Christmas Magic
Christmas is not cancelled!! We intend to have our Christmas parties and Christmas dinner as usual although this will happen within our ‘bubbles’. Although we cannot hold a Christmas Service or carol concert, we will be thinking of new and unique ways of keeping the magic alive for pupils. We will create a video recording to share with you and plan to buy in an online pantomime so that children can watch this from the comfort of their classrooms. Our Parent Council has agreed to buy presents for pupils and to pay for the cost of the pantomime and refreshments. There will be Christmas decorations, Christmas jumpers and tinsel!!
Best wishes,
Mary Lidstone-Scott
Headteacher
