St. Gerard's Primary

As you are aware, our teachers have been providing learning experiences for our children via this website during the school closure. Moving forward, we want to use the technology available to us to provide the best possible experience for you and your children. With this in mind, we are now going to be moving towards regular use of ‘Microsoft Teams’.

‘Microsoft Teams’ is an app that you can use on your computer, mobile phone or other device. It will allow school staff to be able to post school work as well as interact more regularly with your children.

Initially, we will continue to use the website to post work, however over the next couple of weeks we would like as many children as possible to begin to engage with ‘Teams’. Once we are confident that everyone is using ‘Teams’ we will be able to move towards using this app in place of the website.

Over the coming week, you should receive an update letter which will contain instructions for accessing ‘Teams’. This information can also be found by clicking on the links below. Please take some time to use these instructions to download the app.

Home Learning Update

Instructions for Accessing Microsoft Teams

We hope all of our children and families are safe and well at home. We miss you all very much!

North Lanarkshire are now moving to a hub model to deliver school support for key workers in 10 schools across the north, central and south regions. This should mean that essential key workers can send their child to a school that is still within the area near to where they live.

Children of St. Gerard’s who need to access the emergency childcare for key workers should now attend John Paul II Primary.

The hub schools will be open between 9am and 3pm. School meals will be provided to those attending, and those eligible for free school meals, between 12.30pm and 1.15pm.

We would once again like to stress the importance of only accessing this childcare if both parents are key workers and all other childcare and shift pattern options have been exhausted. In order to stop the spread of COVID-19, it is essential that those who can stay at home do stay at home.

More information can be found on North Lanarkshire’s website here:

https://northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=34909

We hope that all of our families at home are safe and well.

Please click the below link to find a list  of apps that would be suitable for use for nursery and P.1 children.

List of apps for early years parents

Please follow these instructions for the use of IDL Literacy for spelling:

– Log in using your given username and password (if you do not know this please contact the school via phone or email).
– Click on literacy.
– Click on lesson.
– Click to start.
– Type the word (taking to note to use the correct punctuation and grammar).
– Press space after every input.
– To exit a lesson click on the top right hand corner where it says lesson then click yes. If the lesson is incomplete, this is where you will start the next time you log in.
– You have access to colours to change the colour of the text and the background.
– You have access to the typing lessons to help improve your typing skills.

Please click the link below to see the list of key workers that has been issued by North Lanarkshire Council.

For families where both parents are key workers and there are no other possible childcare options, children can report to school as normal on Monday morning.

We stress that this should only be viewed as a last resort option to enable essential services to continue to run.

The purpose of the school closure is to limit the spread of COVID-19, therefore where at all possible children should remain at home to ensure that other children of essential key workers, vulnerable children and our teachers, staff and their families are not put under unnecessary additional risk.

In the attachment you will also find information for those who are entitled to free school meals.

We appreciate your cooperation in following this guidance carefully.

We hope that at this worrying time all of our families are safe and well.

List of Key Workers

Please read below for the latest letters issued regarding the school closures:

Letter 20th March 2020

Supporting Children Advice for Parents

Please click the link below to view the latest guidance regarding coronavirus safety precautions.

Letter re Coronavirus 19th March 2020

If you are attempting to log in to Sum Dog at home, you may be asked fr a school key.

If asked for this, enter:

st_1016

Please read the letter below for the latest updates regarding our current safety precautions. This includes information on the cancellation of upcoming events.

School Update March 2020

Following the latest advice from the government, we have issued all parents in the school and nursery with guidance.

Click the link below to view:

Coronavirus Letter