Langloan Primary School

Arrangements for week beginning 23rd March.

School is closed to limit the spread of COVID-19.  Children of families where both parents are key workers with no alternative childcare options can report to school on Monday although this should be viewed as a last resort.   Where possible, children should stay at home to minimise the risk to vulnerable children, children of essential key workers, school staff and their families.  There will be no access to the school building for parents/carers. Please telephone with any enquiries.

Message taken directly from NLC Facebook post

Schools only open to children of key workers to enable them to keep doing their essential roles. Only use school support if you need to. If you have a partner who is not a key worker, then please keep your child at home. To see key worker categories visit the ‘services affected’ page here: https://crowd.in/LhOjUH

I will be sharing the most recent information to be published by NLC. Please read carefully.
Our school will be open on Monday but only for those children who fall into the outlined key worker categories who can not make alternative arrangements.

Thanks  for your patience and cooperation with this matter.

Posted by North Lanarkshire Council on Friday 20 March at 18:25

Important announcement for key workers.

All North Lanarkshire schools will be open on Monday for the children of the following categories of key workers.

It is essential, to stop the spread of transmission of coronavirus, that people who can work from home do work from home. This is not business as usual and it is vital that this support being offered is only accessed by those who absolutely require it to enable NHS and other critical services to function.

If you’re a key worker who requires support, please take your child to your normal school on Monday. We will review these arrangements over the coming week and it is likely we will fully close some schools but we will inform you of this and the alternative provision we will put in place.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should any child who has symptoms of coronavirus, or who lives in a household where someone has symptoms, present at school. The whole family must follow the self-isolation advice.

Key worker categories:

Category 1

Includes:

Health and care workers directly supporting COVID-19 response and associated staff
Workers supporting life-threatening emergency work as well as critical primary and community care provision
Staff of energy suppliers
Staff, including teachers and early years workers, providing childcare and learning for other key workers and staff who support school buildings
Category 2

Please note that the first presumption is that staff who can work from home will work from home

All other health and care workers including home support staff and care home staff
Emergency services staff, including police, fire and rescue, prison officers
Military personnel
Social workers
Those supporting critical national infrastructure including:

Staff keeping air, water, road and rail passenger transport operating
Oil, gas, electricity and water and sewerage workers
Logistics staff including drivers and transport workers
Food and other necessary goods staff including food production, processing, distribution, sale, delivery as well as those essential to the provision of hygienic and veterinary medicines
Staff in essential financial service provision including: banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure; IT and data infrastructure; postal services; civil nuclear, chemicals and telecommunications; payment providers; waste disposal.
Journalists and broadcasters
Category 3

Other council and associated staff in the following categories. Please note that the first presumption is that staff who can work from home will work from home

Strategic-level management and support staff
Waste services staff
Fleet services staff
Cemeteries staff
Property repairs and maintenance staff including frontline workers of Mears and Saltire
Roads and lighting maintenance staff including staff of Amey
Facility support services including cleaning, catering, school crossing patrollers and janitorial staff
Human resources staff including payroll and employee service centre
IT staff
Communications staff
Finance staff including welfare, revenue and benefits staff and municipal bank staff
Registration staff
Essential legal services
Psychological services staff
SCHOOL MEALS

All children who are entitled to free school meals will be able to access these meals. If you need to access this support please take your child to their usual school at the school’s normal lunchtime, but only at their normal lunchtime.

Breakfast clubs will be open in those schools that normally offer them, will be open.

S4, S5 and S6 PUPILS

A normal timetable will not be operating. Only the following pupils should attend at school:

Children of key workers as detailed above.
Pupils who have already been instructed by their schools to attend at a specific time for coursework purposes.
Other S4, S5 and S6 pupils will be contacted by schools in due course to arrange completion of coursework. Schools have already informed pupils about arrangements for online learning.

Please continue to keep up to date with all of the current or new advice given from NLC.

https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=34889

Please read below for the latest information from NLC regarding school closure information and how best to support our pupils at this challenging and uncertain time.

Digital learning Letter

Supporting Children Interactive

Please read the attached letter for more information from NLC.

letter for parents Gerard McLaughlin

We are aware that parents have lots of questions regarding school closure or regarding educational provision for children of key workers.  Unfortunately we are unable to answer any queries regarding this matter at the moment as we are currently awaiting on further updates from NLC.  More information will become available throughout the course of the day and when we know anything new we will advise you accordingly.  Please look out for messages via letter, email, text or on our school app/blog.

Our school office are currently inundated with calls and we are extremely busy trying to prepare for closure today.  We know you will have lots of questions but we would greatly appreciate if you would only contact the school office with matters of urgency.  We appreciate your patience and support at this time and we will pass on information as soon as we have it.

Mrs Paterson

Here are some more useful activities and ideas to try at home.

https://sites.google.com/view/homelearningsite/teaching-ideas

Although we are providing you with resources and activities we certainly do not expect everyone of them to be done. They are there to help those who need a starting point.  We will be uploading tasks and suggested activities regularly for those who wish to use them.
We do however understand that these are difficult times for everyone and we do not want to overwhelm our parents/ carers or pupils. We understand that parents/ carers will also be trying to maintain some kind of normality as well as trying to adapt to a new routine of possibly having to work from home as well as juggle childcare.
Our advice is- stay safe and do what you can!

I have added a script below that I came across and thought it might be reassuring for some.

Dear parents with school aged children

You might be inclined to create a minute by minute schedule for your kids. You have high hopes of hours of learning, including online activities, science experiments, and book reports. You’ll limit technology until everything is done! But here’s the thing…

Our kids are just as scared as we are right now. Our kids not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off of school for weeks sounds awesome, they are probably picturing a fun time like summer break, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the coming weeks, you will see an increase in behavior issues with your kids. Whether it’s anxiety, or anger, or protest that they can’t do things normally – it will happen. You’ll see more meltdowns, tantrums, and oppositional behavior in the coming weeks. This is normal and expected under these circumstances.

What kids need right now is to feel comforted and loved. To feel like it’s all going to be ok. And that might mean that you tear up your perfect schedule and love on your kids a bit more. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find virtual field trips of the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle under warm blankets and do nothing.

Don’t worry about them regressing in school. Every single kid is in this boat and they all will be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will all course correct and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Don’t pick fights with your kids because they don’t want to do math. Don’t scream at your kids for not following the schedule. Don’t mandate 2 hours of learning time if they are resisting it.

If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, your kids’ mental health will be more important than their academic skills. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day.

Stay safe. X

From tomorrow, we’ll be bringing a bit of science into your home every day at 10am to help keep everyone inspired in these challenging times.
Join us on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at 10am each day.
Ask us questions and let us know what you’d like to see! #GSCAtHome