LITTLEMILL PRIMARY and EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRE

Here are some suggested online resources as featured in the Doon Valley Gazette this week.

East Ayrshire Council is currently updating our Anti-bullying Policy and Dalrymple & Littlemill Primaries are creating an Establishment Statement to help address bullying. The aim of the policy and the establishment statement is to ensure that we provide a range of supports to staff, parents and pupils to improve their knowledge and confidence in promoting respectful relationships and addressing bullying behaviour and its impact.

Please can you complete the questionnaires by following the links, one for pupils and one for parents/carers:

Parent/carers

Pupils

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our pupils, parents, carers, their families and the wider community of Littlemill and Rankinston, well during these unprecedented times.  Since lockdown we have had to get used to not only a different way of learning, but of living.  There are many changes we have had to get used to – some of them are welcome and some of them are not!  Please be assured that the sacrifices we are all making right now are making a difference to the wider difficulties faced by many in our society.  Your commitment to staying at home and observing the lockdown and social distancing will have contributed to the saving of a life or lives – that is something both honourable and humbling to reflect upon.  No doubt these circumstances have caused us to reconsider what is important in our lives.  I was reading this quote from John Lennon – for the young, he was a very famous singer/song writer – who said,

“When I was 5 years old, my mum always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

Whilst we are in the business of educating our children and young people, this crisis has thrown into perspective the need to ensure the wellbeing and happiness of each and every one.  We do want you enage with our online learning and activities, but we want you to be happy most of all.  We want you to learn for life and to make sure the relationships you have right now are valued and sacred.  Please take care of yourselves over these next few weeks, and if there is anything we can do to support you further then please do not hesitate to get in touch with any of the staff team here at Littlemill PS & ECC.

Thank you and stay safe

Mr Simon Leitch

Two great apps available to download for free, today only!! Hairy Phonics 1 and Hairy Phonics 2 will help children with their spelling and reading with lots of fun activities. Download the apps today!! https://t.co/Hu13TaYd5C https://t.co/q1mDO18Xbm

— Littlemill Primary School & ECC (@eacLittlemillPS) April 29, 2020

Click here for link to live Financial Education from RBS.

Hope you have all had a restful Spring Break.  Just a reminder that school work begins again with teachers setting tasks for you as from Monday.  Access the tasks the same way you did before the break.  As this photo collage says. “Reach for the Stars…FROM HOME. Stay Safe, #TeamLittlemill”.   Can you name all the adults in the picture?

In a more positive note in these troubled times there are lots of free resources around to help.   Here is a link to David Walliams site where you can hear Audion Stories for free.  We hope you enjoy.  If you know of other free or useful sites to help just now please contact your teacher to share them.

https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/

Dear Parent/Carer

Thank you for working with us in ensuring that we could provide childcare for our most critical key workers today.  It has been enormously helpful that our advice to use our schools as a last resort has been heeded. Having ascertained the number of young people attending our schools and ECCs and are now in a position to revise this further and re-organise according to most needed areas and we will move to a “hub” provision with effect from tomorrow, Tuesday 24^th March 2020.

If you wish to access any of this provision you will require to fill in our e-form so that we have your details logged in advance of your child’s arrival.

If you wish to access any of this provision you will require to fill in our e-form here:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKWcF6bVSsANAmvUItgCuaeBUOFNBNFdENzhVR0xIQUVINlBJUDgwNzRSSS4u

Once more, no child will be turned away on the first day of this revised provision, providing they have been registered.

A colleague will get back to you if you do not qualify for a keyworker place in these revised provisions.

The available hubs across the authority are as noted below, and meals will be provided to those pupils on site.  All school transport is also now withdrawn given the hub model in place, and the low numbers attending our schools and centres today.

Parents and carers should therefore ensure that their children are transported to the appropriate location.  Provision will run from 9am-3pm, unless otherwise guaranteed by an ECC provision.

Many thanks for working with us on this, such that we can continue to provide childcare at this time for our critical keyworkers.

Kind regards

LINDA McAULAY-GRIFFITHS
Head of Education

Sent

Dear Parent/Carer

We appreciate fully that many parents are concerned about keyworker status.

The guidance we have received from the Scottish Government is that “if one parent is a key worker and the other is not, the non-key worker should normally be expected to provide childcare. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.”

Having checked the UK Government guidance, it is different and says that if only one parent is a key worker, they can send their children to school if required.

In light of this contradictory position, we will deal with each case on its merits. If there is no other childcare option then we would look for confirmation of this.

We want to do all we can to support key workers. We need them to look after those who are going to get sick and to keep our vital services running, but we also need to avoid social contact so, if key workers can make any other arrangements for their children, we ask them to do so.

Head Teachers will not turn away any child on Monday, but will need to seek some form of confirmation of key worker status for future attendances. Going forward we will need to keep matters under review with staff absences rising as more of our staff require to self isolate and we know parents will understand.

Remember we need to reduce social contact, and even if you are a key worker, please only send your child as a last resort and if you absolutely need to.

Kind regards

Linda McAulay-Griffiths
Head of Education

Sent To You By East Ayrshire Council

Dear Parents/Carers

A further reminder to all parents/carers to please understand that our emergency provision is absolutely only as a final option.  We are sure that our parents/carers will understand and respect this to help keep our pupils, staff and families safe.

We are still encountering some questions regarding emergency provision from Monday.  Clearly all adults in the child’s household must be keyworkers to access the service.  Where this is not the case, the other adults are expected to provide care.

Please refer to the website for the key worker categories:

https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/Coronavirus/Schools-ecc.aspx

Kindest regards

Linda McAulay-Griffiths
Head of Education

Sent To You By East Ayrshire Council