Happy New Year to our Morningside Primary family! We hope you all managed to have an enjoyable and restful break, we are sure that you have been enjoying this snowy weather too.

Online learning will commence on Monday 11th January until at least 1st February.

Staff have been working extremely hard to plan digital online learning experiences for your children to take part in and we are looking forward to hearing from them all next week.

All learning will be accessed through Teams. Please ensure that your child can access their Glow/Teams account and if they can’t, then please email Mr Stathis at gw10stathisgeorge@glow.sch.uk (Please ensure you have read through the online guides that have been provided on the Digital Area tab at the top of our school Blog before emailing) 

From Monday, teaching staff will issue timetables (which can be treated with as much flexibility as you need) that will provide an example of how your child’s home learning can be structured.

There will be daily numeracy and literacy lessons along with a variety of activities from other curricular areas throughout the week. Most activities will be accessed through assignments on Teams, Sumdog and Active Learn, with other online resources being included at times. Guidance on the NL Virtual Classroom will be issued through class Teams.

There will also be a live ‘check-in’ with teachers or a member of the management team most days for all classes.

We need your support to ensure that your children are encouraged to access their Team and engage in this learning. Unlike before, the children will be being taught through these digital platforms, not just consolidating prior learning.

We are here to help support you and your children as much as possible so please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any additional assistance.

Our digital learning will no doubt change and develop as the weeks progress as we discover ways to improve the experience for children, parents and our teachers.

Please be patient and understand that we are all working tirelessly to provide the best outcomes for our children and will address any difficulties as quickly as possible.

#TeamMPS #MakingPupilsShine

Dear parent/ carer,

In light of the Scottish government’s announcement to move to Home Learning from the 11^th of January until at least the 18^th of January I would like to ensure that all our children and families have access to our on line learning platforms.

• The main platform that we will be using during any period of Home Learning will be ‘Microsoft Teams’; this is the same platform that we currently issue all homework on. In Addition to this the additional platforms that we use are; ActiveLearn and Sumdog.
• All children should have their login credentials and these are the same for all three platforms mentioned above.
• Please visit our school website for a host of tutorials on how to access and use these platforms; https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/MorningsideBlog/digital-area/online-guides/
• Teams can be accessed from any laptop or computer and most tablets (the only tablet I have encountered that does not allow access is the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet).
• IMPORTANT – The number one problem that people have when accessing Teams is the login process. When accessing via an app whether it be the desktop app or mobile app you must put @glow.sch.uk at the end of your username.
• iPad – It would be useful to download the Microsoft office suite (this is free) on apple devices as this will allow you to edit documents issued on assignments without downloading them.

We are currently waiting on further guidance from NLC on the exact expectations for Home Learning and staff will be working on finalising plans when they return to school on the 6^th January.  We will issue more detailed plans on how Home Learning will look for our Learners that week. What we do know though is that all Home Learning will be online and issued via Teams so it is important that you login and familiarise yourself with this platform if you have not already been using it for homework.

• If you have any issues accessing any of the online platforms and have exasperated all the online tutorials on our website then please contact me directly at gw10stathisgeorge@glow.sch.uk and I will do my best to resolve any issues for you.
• Likewise if you do not have means of accessing Teams (laptop or mobile device) then please contact me directly and I can do my best to issue 1 device per household.

I hope everyone takes the time to rest over the festive period and our staff will be working hard on their return to school on the 6^th of January to prepare for Home Learning starting on the 11^th of January. As mentioned above we will issue further guidance on how lessons will look etc. when we return to school in January.

Kind Regards,