Now that the council has confirmed the model of school openings from August we wanted to share with you what we have done in Glencryan in preparation for pupils returning.
The council worked with the HT from each ASN school to look at the building and come up with the ratio for each class taking into account the current 2m social distancing rules. Across all ASN schools the agreed percentage was 50% pupil role attendance for two days and 100% staff attendance across the week with the exception of those on the national shielding list. All pupils will be onsite in a familiar environment with familiar staff. In order to facilitate this in Glencryan we have had to make a number of changes:
Although pupil numbers are reduced, all staff will be in school every day and be used to support the pupils with social distancing measures in addition to the support roles they usually do to help with learning, personal care and health needs.
All rooms have had furniture removed to allow more space to accommodate a desk for each pupil allowing the 2m distance.
All specialist areas such as Art, Technical, Home Economics and music have been turned over to core classroom areas in order to allow us to meet the 50 percent attendance figure.
Teaching of these discrete subjects has been suspended in the short term to allow these teachers to cover core classes which are all focussing on Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing in line with Scottish Government Guidelines.
We are zoning the outdoor areas to allow more classes to access outdoor learning. Fire exit doors in each ground floor class will be used to provide direct access to the outdoor areas while reducing travel throughout the building.
The fire exit door at the front of the school next to Mrs Rowe’s office will be used as a discrete entrance and exit to the Primary Department to remove the need for Primary pupils to use the main foyer and dinner hall which will continue to be used as the main entrance by Secondary and LSU pupils.
New signage will be erected within the school over the summer holidays detailing direction of travel within corridors and reminders of hand hygiene.
Transport arrangements are still being dealt with by the NLC Transportation department and these will not be confirmed until later in the summer. Taxis are not going to be a preferred method of transport for North Lanarkshire Council due to the uncertainty of the cleanliness of taxis and the potential volume of passengers on a daily basis. Buses will only be able to transport a smaller number of pupils. Multiple trips will therefore take place to transport pupils. However, this will still present a challenge. As you already know, we are asking, if you are in a position and willing to transport your child to school and back again, to consider doing this. You would be entitled to apply for a mileage cost for each journey for this expense. Thank you to all who have responded with this information.
School staff are being asked to park out with the school carpark to allow us to create three distinct drop off / pick up zones for pupils arriving and departing. Pupils will be escorted to and from cars by class staff and drivers will be asked to remain in their vehicles and move off as soon as the child has been dropped off or picked up to avoid congestion.
All teaching staff are contractually required to have non class contact time built in to their weekly timetable. This is usually scattered throughout the week and covered by other teachers. However to reduce the number of staff pupils are interacting with in their class “bubble” all non class contact will be allocated to a Wednesday afternoon when there are no pupils in school. This is the same across all schools within the ASN sector.
Part of the blended learning approach requires provision for home learning and this will be met in a number of ways. Class Dojo will remain the main form of day to day communication with home in the Primary and Secondary departments. In addition to Class Dojo all pupils will have access to Microsoft Teams within Glow where they can access any work which the class teacher puts on to the site. If your child does not already have access to this site they will be issued with login details when they return to school in August. We recognise that this is new to most of our families and we will provide detailed, user friendly instruction of how to access the site. We also understand that parents at home have their own work and childcare issues for not only our pupils but also any siblings they may have so please be assured that we will not be expecting work to be completed to a deadline or submitted back to school, the work will be consolidation of what is covered at school. If you do feel you require extra work for your child please contact the school and we can arrange with you on a one to one basis.
The council has contacted families who have no access to the internet or an internet enabled device to help them with this. If you feel you fall in to this category and have not been contacted then please let us know at the school and we can pass on your contact details.
Teaching and ASNA staff will undertake extra cleaning duties throughout the day and after pupils leave each afternoon as well as on Wednesdays when there is a reduced number of pupils in the school.
School lunches will be provided by catering staff as normal however meals will be fetched by staff and eaten in class.
Staff breaks and lunches will be staggered to allow access to staff room, an area of the outdoor space will also be allocated for staff breaks to allow us to adhere to the current 2m social distancing rules.
As you are aware the situation is ever changing and as national guidelines change the council will reflect this in their plans for schools also. Any changes which occur over the summer holiday period will be communicated to you through the School App, Twitter, Website and Dojo.
Can we once again take the opportunity to thank you all for your support in working with us over what we know is an extremely difficult time for a lot of you. We are looking forward to seeing the pupils return in August and although we are disappointed that it is not yet a full time return for them we are bound by national and council guidelines. As these change and we are able to reopen further we will do so as soon as possible.
