Hello everyone and happy new year.
We have had a busy return to school and nursery this week and it has been lovely to see our children return with such enthusiasm and happiness at being back in Netherlee for the new term.
As was expected, we have had a number of children, families and staff affected by the ongoing situation with Covid. Thank you for your patience and understanding as my amazing, conscientious staff worked hard to manage this, including the changes to isolation and testing procedures announced by the Scottish Government on Wednesday. This, as well as waking up to the heavy snow this morning which although beautiful, added another level of organisation to consider. Thank you so much to all staff who simply “mucked in” and helped out to ensure that everything was running smoothly for the children’s arrival.
Thank you to all parents/carers for your ongoing, and greatly appreciated, support with helping everyone to stay safe and well at drop off and collection times by continuing to wear a face mask, unless not required to do so, and also for socially distancing in busy areas around the school and nursery.
P1 and P2 Collection Times ONLY
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and understanding with the arrangements currently in place for the staggered collection times at the end of the school day for our P1 and P2 children. It is always our intention to keep our arrangements under constant review whilst following Covid mitigations and, as such, we are now in a position to be able to alter our collection times for P1 and P2. Therefore, as of Monday (10th), our P1 and P2 children will finish school at 3.10pm. This will reduce the waiting time at the end of the day, for those parents and carers with older children, from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. P2 children, with no siblings, will continue to exit from the front gate of the school building as they have been doing. To ensure the statutory amount of teaching time is maintained, the lunch break for P1 and P2 children will be increased from 45 minutes to 55 minutes (12.30pm until 1.25pm). We hope this new arrangement will help you and would kindly ask that adults and children leave the school grounds immediately once your child/ren have been collected. We know that you will understand the need to keep these arrangements under ongoing review, in line with any new mitigations that may come from the Scottish Government. We would kindly remind you to adhere to the current Scottish Government guidance regarding 2m social distancing and the wearing of masks as it is a priority to keep everyone as safe as possible during this time.
Please do get in touch if there is anything we can help you, or your child, with or if you would simply like to speak to a member of staff.
Mrs Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
