The school are delighted to announce that S6 pupils Amy-Lee McLachlan and Kori Turnbull have been selected as school captains for session 2020-21. Both Amy-Lee and Kori won a pupil vote and following an interview with Mr Gardiner, Depute for S5-6 and Head Teacher Mrs Rooney, where they discussed what the role of school captain involves, the skills and qualities they possessed in order to undertake the role, and finally how they could progress the role and school in their capacity as captains were successful. Amy-Lee and Kori are now looking forward to representing the school, being a role model to pupils, and working closely with the school’s senior management team and pupils to help solve issues that are important to the school community. Congratulations to both pupils.

The entire school community are working very hard to ensure the utmost safety of our pupils and staff now that school has resumed. During this unprecedented time all at Braidhurst are following the guidance for schools from North Lanarkshire Council and the Scottish Government regarding the safe resumption of teaching and learning. This includes: following a timetable of double periods to minimise pupil movement throughout the day, staggering interval and lunch times to prevent crowds and our outdoor areas now have zones which separate year groups during break and at lunch.

The school also has an enhanced cleaning process in place, including: wall-mounted sanitising dispensers placed at strategic points around the school for pupils and staff to easily access, a sanitising station in the school foyer which includes gels and sprays for everyone to use as soon as they enter the school building, furthermore staff and pupils are sanitising their desks and computers after each use.

We are grateful to staff for helping with these procedures and to our pupils who are willingly getting their hands sanitised at every opportunity – ‘skoosh hands, stay safe’ is our new catch phrase! All of these measures are in place to ensure that Braidhurst is a place of safety for our young people and staff and that risk is kept to a minimum. We appreciate the great support and co-operation of our entire school community in this new normal.

To all parents and carers

Common Cold and COVID-19 Symptoms

I understand these last few months have often been challenging, particularly for parents and carers. Now that schools and nurseries have returned I am writing to provide some advice where a child or young person in your care presents with symptoms of the common cold or similar bugs during this pandemic.

Following the return of schools after a prolonged break, it is common for colds and similar viral infections to circulate. In many cases, children will be well enough to attend school and continue their learning with little or no interruption to their education. In other cases, for instance where they have quite a heavy cold, they may need to take a day or two off to recover.

This is not the case for children and young people with potential COVID-19 symptoms, they are required to self-isolate and seek a test through nhsinform.scot or by calling 0800 028 2816.

In order to ensure your children do not miss out on their education, it is important to be clear about how COVID-19 symptoms differ from those of other infections that we normally see circulating at this time of year.

COVID-19 Symptoms

It is important that all of us – including those who make up the community around a school – are vigilant for the symptoms of COVID-19 and understand what actions we should take if someone develops them, either at school or at home.

The main symptoms to be aware of are:

• new continuous cough
• fever/high temperature
• loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste.

If a young person or a child in your care develops any of the above symptoms, they should self-isolate and you should book them a test as soon as possible at NHSinform.scot/test-andprotect, or by calling 0800 028 2816

We recommend testing only for those with a continuous cough, fever, or loss of or change in the sense of taste or smell. The UK senior clinicians continue to keep the symptoms for case definition under review and will continue to use evidence to adjust these if it becomes necessary.

It is essential that people who have COVID-19 symptoms, or who share a household with someone who has symptoms, do not attend school, nursery or other childcare settings, and must self-isolate along with all members of their household. If the test is negative, self-isolation can end for everyone. If the test is positive, Test and Protect will give you further advice.

Cold-like symptoms

If, however, your child does not have symptoms of COVID-19 but has other cold-like symptoms, such as a runny nose, they do not need to be tested and they and you do not need to self-isolate. Your child can go to school if fit to do so.

The Scottish Government appreciates the huge effort being made by parents, carers and school staff to ensure the risk of COVID-19 is minimised and to support children’s education.

For further advice please visit the Parent Club website or NHS Inform.

Professor Jason Leitch

National Clinical Director

Scottish Government

Hope this letter finds you and your families well.

We have had a busy but successful start to the term as we all adjust to the new normal. I am grateful to the teaching staff who are spraying desks and chairs after every class and to our pupils who willing get their hands ‘skooshed’ with sanitiser at every opportunity. We have also identified separate zones for both internal and external use to ensure our year groups are kept separate as much as possible. I just wanted to give you an update on the following:-

1. Masks

The Scottish Government recently announced that face masks should be worn by ALL secondary age young people as of Monday 31^st of August. This will take effect in schools in corridors and other crowded places where social distancing is difficult. We therefore expect our pupils to wear them in social areas, corridors, toilets and on school transport. They are not required to wear them in class or outdoors unless they prefer to.  Just a reminder that any masks worn in school should comply with current school uniform policy. We would prefer something fairly plain, without badges of any football teams or with any potentially offending slogans.

Any S2-S6 pupils leaving the school at lunchtime should wear a mask if they are going into any of the local shops. S1 should stay in school.

2. Exemptions

Any medical exemptions should be agreed with the school and the individual pupil concerned, and should only be in the cases of severe medical difficulty such as “severe asthma” and supported by appropriate information/advice such as a card from the asthma nurse. We can then update our medical records and keep a register of pupils who are exempt.

3. Uniform

With pupils wearing masks it is more important than ever that they wear their blazer every day so we can easily identify them. The days they do not have PE they should wear their blazer, white shirt, school tie and black school skirt/trousers.

On the days they have PE they should have a white t-shirt and plain black joggers or leggings. A hoodie or zipped top should NOT be worn in school. Pupils may bring a hoodie for wearing outdoors for PE but these should be removed in the building. It is particularly essential to wear a blazer on PE days to identify our pupils as part of the Braidhurst community.

4. Procedures for reporting your child’s absence

Please contact the school if your child is going to be absent. You can phone before 8.45am and leave a message on the answer machine. If your child is going to absent for a period of time contact should be made to their Pupil Support teacher. Click here for Pupil Support Info

• If your child displays symptoms of COVID-19 in school we will contact you and they will be isolated until you are able to collect them. A test should be arranged. Do this online at NHS Inform, or call 0800 028 2816. Please let us know the result of the test as soon as possible but certainly before your child returns to school. Similarly if your child is self-isolating as a family member is waiting on test results please let us know results before your child returns to school.

5. Information Evenings

Normally by now we would have held an information evening for our new S1 and our senior phase pupils. These would have covered topics relevant for each stage. We are therefore putting on our website a survey to discover what you would like to find out about and following this we will prepare virtual presentations to share this information with you. Please take a few minutes to complete so we can make sure we are keeping you fully informed of what is happening in school and how it affects your child.

Click here to complete our surveys

Thank you for your ongoing cooperation. Our school is organised and calm with teaching and learning the key focus. Please help us maintain our high standards.

Mrs Rooney

Head Teacher