Mrs N’s Notes ~ 4/10/20
PARENT COUNCIL
Our Parent Council AGM will be held via video link at 7pm on Monday 5th October. Many thanks to those parents who have expressed an interest in joining this year. Your details have been passed to Cheryl Grant, Chairperson of the group. If you are a parent of a child currently attending our nursery or school, you are a member of the Parent Forum and have the right to attend any Parent Council Meetings. Please send an email to gw09nicolsonalison2@glow.sch.uk if you wish to attend.
FLU VACCINATIONS
NHS staff will be with us on Tuesday 6th October, as planned, to carry out the Flu Vaccination programme. Please be assured that appropriate risk assessments have been carried out, ensuring this is done in accordance with all health and safety guidelines. We will work in close partnership with our colleagues from the NHS to ensure all procedures are adhered to. If you have not yet returned your permission slip for your child, please do this on Monday.
ONGOING RISK ASSESSMENTS
As COVID-19 restrictions across the country are tightened up, can I assure you that we continue to show the same diligence in school and nursery. Nothing has relaxed. Pupils continue to work within class and group ‘bubbles’ across the whole campus, ensuring we are minimising the risk of any transfer of infection. Cleaning of touch-points and work areas takes place throughout the day and staff wear appropriate PPE if they are unable to keep a 2m distance from anyone else. Risk assessments continue to be updated and reviewed daily. Your child’s safety remains our primary aim.
With reading books now coming home, I know that many children are now carrying a school bag. This is not a problem, however please remember that only essential items should be brought to school: water bottle, snack, lunch, reading book and a pencil case, if you want. No toys should be brought to school and no gifts or cards for other children can be exchanged at school.
Please remember that teachers will collect their classes at their designated start time from the school playground, so pupils should continue to arrive at school as close to their start time as possible to avoid hanging around, sometimes in unpleasant weather.
OUTDOOR PE
Across Scotland pupils continue to carry out PE lessons outdoors. We continue to ask our learners to come to school on PE days wearing their outdoor gym kit. Now that the weather is changing, please pop a spare pair of socks in your child’s bag or jacket pocket as there is always the possibility their feet may get damp if they are carrying out sports on the grass.
We would like to say a huge thank you to one of our parents who made a most generous donation to the school to allow us to deliver an enhanced outdoor learning curriculum. We now have enough outdoor PE resources to provide each Zone with their own kit. These resources are cleaned after each use, following local and national guidelines. In addition, each child in the school has a waterproof jacket they can use for any outdoor experiences. We have a jacket for each child. These are named and allocated for individual use, meaning these do not need to be shared. A valuable resource, especially this year!
READING BOOKS, LIBRARY BOOKS, STORY SACKS
If you have any books or resources still at home from last session, please send them into school with your child at your earliest convenience. All paper-based resources will be quarantined for 72 hours in line with national guidelines. Any games from Story Sacks will be thoroughly sanitised before going into storage. Unfortunately we cannot continue our lending library of these resources during this time.
OCTOBER WEEK HOLIDAY
Remember school and nursery all finish at the usual times on Friday 9th October for our October Week holiday. We expect Breakfast Club, Nursery and School to all open at the usual times on Monday 19th October for Term 2.
INTERIM REPORTS
Pupils from Primary 1 to Primary 7 will bring home an Interim Report after the holiday week. This will give an overview of how your child is settling into school this session.
OFFICE STAFFING
On Thursday 24th September, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house as we bid farewell to Mrs Peat and Mrs Dunn. They served the Kirkshaws community for 20 and 18 years respectively and although we wish them well in their retirement, we will miss them dearly.
However, I am delighted to announce that following interviews last week, two new clerical staff have been appointed. As soon as pre-employment checks are carried out and they have worked their notice in their current places of work, we look forward to welcoming both ladies to Team Kirkshaws. Until then can I ask that you continue to be patient as we strive to cover the school office as well as all our usual duties to ensure your child is safe and their learning is uninterrupted. Normal service will resume as soon as possible.
