Dear parents and carers,

We hope that everyone is safe and well, and that you’ve enjoyed the summer break.   Please read the following information which details our plans for the return to school for all pupils on Wednesday 12^th August.    In order to follow local and national Covid-19 guidance, we have had to make changes to our routines.

START OF DAY

In line with local guidance we ask that only the parents of P1 and P2 to come into the playground. This will mean that you may have to make arrangement with your children about where to drop off and meet after school.  It is important that all adults adhere to physical distancing guidelines, we politely ask that adults leave the playground as quickly as possible.

• 8:45 School gates will be opened, not before, so please do not send/bring your children any earlier.
• 8:55 School begins. All children will go to class – no lining up.   Information about which door and path to class will be shared by teachers on Class Dojo.
• Children must wash their hands as they arrive to class
• *Aug 12^th – 21^st we are offering a ‘Soft Start’ to all children so that they can arrive anytime between 8:55 and 9:10. On arrival they must follow the same arrangements as above.

THE SCHOOL DAY

• We will be running staggered playtimes and lunchtimes. Please see further information about lunches below.
• Playground will be partially zoned for groups of children to use.
• Regular handwashing will take place throughout the day.
• Enhanced cleaning procedures are in place.

END OF DAY

• 2:45 P1 and P2 only, can be collected from designated collection point, which will be shared by class teachers on Class Dojo.
• 3:00 P3 – P7 school finishes and children will be dismissed from class. If needed, please consider making arrangements to meet you child(ren) away from the school gate e.g Ice Bowl.
• Outside the school grounds, parents must socially distance. Please adhere to the Government’s guidance and the school safety arrangements outside the school grounds.

WHAT TO BRING

We need to keep the items being brought into school to a minimum. Everything that your child brings will need to be in their bag and be hung on the back of their chair.  Storage space is not available.  Please only bring the following:

• School Bag: Large enough to hold all of the items your child brings to school, including any snack/packed lunch.
• Coat: Children will spend as much time outside as we can provide.
• Water Bottle: Labelled and filled. This must be taken home at the end of the day to be cleaned, for reuse the next day.
• Pencil Cases: Children are allowed to bring their own resources in a single pencil case but they must NOT share or swap.  We will provide resources for those who don’t bring one with them.
• Snack: Children can bring a snack for break time.  We are not able to offer Tuck Shop at this point.
• Children are allowed to bring their own labelled hand sanitizers but they must not be shared.
• NO PE Kits. We will let you know when this changes.
• NO unnecessary items such as toys or Pokémon cards.
• Mobile Phones We are unable to store mobile phones securely at this time and so can’t take responsibility for their safe keeping.  We ask that you encourage your child to leave their phone at home unless absolutely essential.

LUNCH TIMES

• School lunch will initially be ‘Cold Meal Provision’.
• P1-3 are still entitled to free school meal.
• Packed lunches should be brought in a disposable container/bag where possible, they will be stored in your child’s school bag.
• We will continue to have 3 sittings for lunch, however we are introducing designated seats.

MEDICATIONS

• All required medication must be in school from the first day.
• Please contact school to discuss any concerns.
• Mrs Muir will contact all families who we know to have current medication needs, over the next few days in order to complete necessary records.

COMMUNICATION

• Information will be shared on Class Dojo, School App for Parents and Laurieknowe School blog, we may also use email and Group Call as necessary.
• We will keep you updated with information and any changes to our plans, to help us to do so, please ensure that we have up to date contact details, both telephone and email where possible.
• Parents and Carers are able to contact school through email or telephone. You can contact both Deputes through the main office or on Class Dojo.  Class teachers can be contacted in the same way.  We will endeavour to respond as quickly as we can.
• If communication is urgent or confidential, please call school: 01387 252604

Please use the link to see the guidance issued to school by Dumfries and Galloway Council:

https://supportdg.dumgal.gov.uk/article/21014/Re-opening-of-schools

We hope that this information goes some way to reassuring you about the return to school.   We appreciate the challenges that the changes to some of our routines will cause, however at this time we must ensure the safety and well-being of all members of our school community.  We appreciate you support in adhering to this guidance.

We look forward to welcoming our children back on Wednesday.

Headteacher

Please see the attached letter with further information from Gillian Brydson.

20200630 Director Letter to Parents & Carers

Please see the attached letter from Gillian Brydson regarding the opening of Nurseries and ELCC.

Letter to Parents – Early Learning and Childcare

Please see the attached letter from Gillian Brydson, Director of Education and Learning regarding the opening of Nurseries and ELCC.

Letter to Parents – Early Learning and Childcare

Good morning everyone,

‘W’ is for Wednesday and it’s also for wish! If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for? 🌟

Click on the link below for the ‘Resilience Alphabet’ which contains a variety of activities and ideas to help your child build inner strength and explains the importance of developing resilience. These suggestions can be used in a way that suits your family to learn, having fun along the way.

Enjoy your day.⭐

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/scotland-learns/health-and-wellbeing-activities/resilience-alphabet/

Mrs McLellan wants to share this information from Edinburgh Council, which she hopes will help our families.

Mr Newlands has been training the staff football team which he says is not any easy job. 😁 Looks like they have some impressive skills to me!

Can you spot who is busy training in this picture? All answers will be shared tomorrow.⚽🏆⚽

Team Laurieknowe are continuing to work on perfecting their sporting skills in a range of different sports again today!

Can you spot who they are and what sport they are doing? Keep a note and we will reveal the answers at the end of the week.⭐

                                                                                              It’s day 3 of Laurieknowe Sports Week and we look forward to receiving your family sport poses today.😁 What else might you try? Today’s activities include star jumps, slipper toss and the keepie uppy challenge with a toilet roll!

It’s great seeing what you have been doing so far. Photos have been posted on class pages and a selection from across the school have been shared here- have a look at both to find out what challenges people have been doing.

Remember some activities can be completed inside if needed and you can improvise if you don’t have suggested equipment.👍

Enjoy your day!

Click on the link below to see the Learning Grid for this week.

Laurieknowe Sports Week

Good morning everyone,

We hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed some of the beautiful weather that we are having.🌞

Today is the start of our ‘Laurieknowe Sports Week’ and a Learning Grid with a selection of activities has been shared on the school Dojo page. This grid has a wide range of activities- there’s something for everyone!

Please make sure to take lots of photos and send them to your class teacher.🥇🏆🥇

Have a great Monday!

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you may be aware, from announcements made by the First Minister and from the Scottish Government’s Routemap out of lockdown, staff will be returning to school in June (although there is no set date yet for this to happen) in order to begin planning and preparing for the reopening of school for the new academic session in August.

As you can imagine, this will be a time-consuming task.  To assist in the work that teachers will be doing in preparation for return, we need to make some changes to the way we are working online to support home learning.   We will still be available to help and will continue to provide support for tasks, challenges, and ideas. It will just be in a different format.

• Firstly, from the 8^th of June, teachers will work in teams to provide learning grids for year groups rather than for individual classes. Learning Grids will continue to provide you with a range of suggested ideas and activities which will continue to support learning at home and cover key areas of the curriculum.

• Secondly, although teachers will still be available to ask for help and will continue to review the work that you share with them, they will not be able to do this as frequently as they have been doing since they will be required to be in school too.

As deputes, we (Mrs Loughran and Mrs Rogers) will continue to oversee home learning across school and to respond to messages relating to your child’s learning. Mrs McLellan, as Headteacher will continue with the strategic and operational running of the school taking account of Scottish Government and Local Authority guidance as it continues to evolve and deal with any safeguarding concerns which have arisen since lockdown began.

As part of the transition, we are having a special themed week next week 1^st-5^th June, which is for the whole school to take part in.   In line with other schools across the region we are having a ‘Laurieknowe Sports Week’.   A Learning Grid for the whole school will be posted on Monday which has a range of activities all related to our annual Sports Day.  We hope that many of you will take part in the suggested activities and send us photographs of what you have been doing.  Families will still be able to access all the activities and challenges that teachers have set up till now, including things like Sumdog etc.

We appreciate that any change can cause concern, so please get in touch with us (Mrs Rogers or Mrs Loughran) if you have any questions relating to your child’s learning. Our whole staff will continue to offer you as much support as we can, and we very much appreciate all that you have been doing in helping Laurieknowe stay connected in addition to the home learning over the last few months.

This is a link to further information for parents about the reopening of schools

www.parentclub.scot/articles/reopening-schools-faqs

Mrs McLellan will advise us all of return dates and next steps for you as families, once she has that information.  Until then, please stay safe and a huge thank you from the whole staff team for your continued support in these very challenging circumstances and do keep in touch.

Mrs Rogers and Mrs Loughran

Depute Headteachers.

Good morning.
Welcome to Monday, we hope you’ve had a good weekend.

Please check in with your teacher by sharing a photo, sending a message through Dojo or connecting by sending a Glow e-mail.

We will post information later today about the ‘Collection Station’ for extra resources which we will set up at school this week.

Have a good day!⭐

Thank you for all your great Sports Day pictures. I will continue posting them so if you have one, send it to me today.

There are lots of suggested activities on your class Dojo pages for you to do. It is always nice to see the activities that you have been doing with your teachers on your class pages so keep sharing.

Enjoy your day!

Good morning!

Hope everybody had a good weekend and welcome to a new week of learning. We are online and ready to support all of our learners and families at home.

As in previous weeks, we will have some staff working in the Hubs at various points throughout the week but there will always be somebody who you can get in touch with if needed.

Have a good day and we look forward to hearing from you.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Morning!
Well done for all your hard work completing activities and challenges this week and thank you for sharing this and keeping in touch by sending messages.

Please remember to keep sending pictures of your rock art and mini books from this week’s whole school challenges through Dojo.

Have a great Friday! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hello!

Please know that for Primary 1-7 we are using the app Class Dojo as our main method of communication, support and advice as well as for Home Learning and Remote Teaching.  So please log in to Class Dojo, you’ll find us there!

Teachers are online every weekday as are Mrs Rogers and Mrs Loughran, so if you need any help, advice or have a question, we can be reached through Class Dojo.

Parents / Carers and children can all log in to Class Dojo.  The information to do this was sent in the Home Learning Packs on the last day that school was open.  However, if you need help to log in, just let us know.

You can let us know by contacting school by email, or leave a comment on this post or contact us on twitter.   Calling school won’t work at this time.  Someone will pick up your message and be in touch.

Good morning everyone,

First of all we hope that everyone is well and enjoying the amazing weather that we’ve been having.

We want to let you know that our teachers are all back online from this morning, ready to support you and our learners at home.   Please log in to Class Dojo, at some point today, to connect with us and each other.

Please be aware that there will be days over the forthcoming weeks, when our staff are working in the hubs and so the class learning for that day will be led by  Mrs Rogers or Mrs Loughran.

We look forward to hearing from you!   Have a good day.

https://youtu.be/EH4zJo_cPls

Good morning everybody, I hope you are all keeping well. I have loved looking at all the fantastic things that you have been doing at home- your work has really made me smile!

The Gregosaurus pictures yesterday were amazing, well done!

In your learning packs we shared Pobble’s non-screen activities. If you would like to join today’s challenge, have a go at number 8 and make a puppet using an old sock. No rush to have it finished today just send a picture when you can so we can share your creations. As always have fun!😊
Here’s mine…

Good morning! I hope that everyone is feeling good and staying safe. I have loved looking at all of the photographs of your home learning and decided I’d set the whole school – teachers too – a challenge. Its an arty one, but don’t worry it’s pretty easy. Rob Biddulph is an author and illustrator who is doing online drawing lessons on youtube. Follow this link –    https://youtu.be/bhyCxVPb1qU .

I’d like you to have a go if you can and send in a photograph of your work. Good luck. Have fun. Here’s mine …

Good morning,
We hope that everyone has had an enjoyable break this weekend, making the most of the lovely weather on their once a day outing.
Class teachers are online, sending out home learning challenges and are available to support you at home. This week we want to make sure that we have contact with ALL of our families and we are doing that through two main routes:

Important Information – through School App, Twitter and Blog.

Supporting Home Learning – through Class Dojo

As of this morning we are missing 45 connections on Class Dojo, so if you are one of the families who has not yet joined, please do so today.  Using this app, teachers have been sharing ideas with their learners and families, then families and learners have been able to share their work and get in touch with their teachers – it has been working brilliantly.   So if you can, please sign up.    Details on how to do so were sent home, but if you need the information again, please contact school by email and we will get back to you ASAP.

Thanks everyone – please share this information.
Have a good day.     Stay safe.

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to parents, pupils and staff who have been playing their part in overcoming the challenge of Home Learning.   This last week has been a steep learning curve for all of us, so well done for making it to Friday.

On that note, and as we come to the weekend, please make sure that you step away from the school work so that you can come back to it on Monday, ready to overcome some new challenges led by our teachers.

For now I want to wish everyone a happy weekend, please stay safe and look after each other.

Mrs McLellan

Dear parents and carers,

We want to remind you that if your child is entitled to Free School Meals, then a lunch will be provided for them.  Lunches can be collected from Dumfries Academy between 12:30 pm and 2:00 pm, Monday to Friday.

Please contact us if you need any further information.

Thank you.

11am Thursday 26th March

Miss Morton is currently in first position followed by Mrs Rogers, with Lucy from P7M in third.  Come on kids, you’ve got to beat those teachers!

Good morning!

We hope that everyone is doing well and keeping safe.   There has been lots of communication between families and school using Class Dojo and we can see lots of our children are logging into the learning platforms like Sumdog and TTRockstars.  Its been brilliant to see the many different ways that the children continue to learn at home.  You should all be very proud of yourselves for what you are achieving in very difficult circumstances.

However, there are still a lot of people that we’ve not yet heard from.  If you are one of them, could you please encourage you child to log into one of the platforms or you can register and send us a message on Class Dojo.  The information about how to do this was sent home in the Learning Packs.  If you can try to do this at some point this week it would be a huge help.

In doing this, we will be able to see which families need alternative support because they don’t have online facilities at home.   We want to be able to support everyone in our school community.

Please remember that you can get in touch with school via email regarding support for home learning.   We will try to get back to you as quickly as we can.

Thanks everyone and please share this message, we don’t want to leave anyone struggling on their own.

Dear Parents and carers,

We are putting this message out to all Academy Cluster parents.

In order to make the childcare for Key Workers  more efficient,  children who would have attended Dumfries Academy should now report to Dumfries High School.  It is imperative following the Government announcement last night that this service is only available to the children of critical category one key workers.

Please note that this is a decision taken by all Dumfries  Burgh Head Teachers until a we have a longer term plan for all young people entitled to supervision at this time.

Staff will be deployed to manage the small numbers of pupils we have attending. Appropriate activities for children, depending on their age and stage, will be provided.

Free School Meals may still be collected from Dumfries Academy

We will continue to update on arrangements for children entitled to supervision and free school meals.

Thank you for your patience and understanding

Dear parents and carers,

In light of this afternoon’s statement by the First Minister we would like to stress that it is absolutely crucial that children stay at home.  Laurieknowe is closed.

Places for childcare in our area are for key workers who are “PROVIDING CRITICAL SERVICES IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19” and who have no alternative care options.  We ask that you carefully consider your needs, to find alternative plans where possible, which will allow us to provide childcare for those who need it most.

We appreciate that this is a very difficult and challenging situation, as it is for all of us, however in this situation we must work together, doing our best to ensure that everyone stays safe.

We must follow national guidance.

Please follow D&G on all social media platforms to keep up to date with current local guidance.