Muirhouse Primary School

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GIRFEC Refresh for parents 2.11.21

Thank you to those who came to hear about GIRFEC pathways.

I hope that you have a clearer understanding of the pathways and processes related to supporting our children in school.

If you wish to discuss the support in place for your child, please contact the school to make an appointment.

Parents Portal letter to parents

Accessing the Parent Portal

Due to the Coronavirus crisis we have been unable to process Young Scot cards for P7 pupils – our usual timescales and processes were completely disrupted as you might imagine.  The card production bureau, which services the whole of Scotland and beyond had to close its doors during the lockdown, and has only just re-opened, however they are still not able to accept large bulk files due to limited capacity and competing priorities. In North Lanarkshire we produce approximately 4000 cards for the new intake each year.

We are liaising with the National Entitlement Card Programme Office and await further guidance about what the new production timescales and arrangements will be for our local authority.  The last communication indicated an aim to have cards produced for pupils returning to school in August, and the likely scenario will be that we will have to arrange for cards to be sent to a central location (Civic Centre) where we can sort them and distribute to high schools just prior to the start of the new term. This is a change to our normal system whereby cards are posted to primary schools for distribution to P7 pupils prior to their induction visits in May and June. A very small number of pupils will already have received their cards, as they were processed during a test run in February. Another small batch will receive cards sent to home addresses as the file has already been encrypted and coded as such.

We have the majority of the cardholder data ready and waiting to be sent for production, and will securely transfer the data as soon as we have the go ahead to do so. After we have done that, we will be able to identify which pupils have not yet supplied the required data and follow up with them directly, by matching against records. Rest assured that even though we are a very small team, we will do our utmost to produce a card for each pupil as soon as we are able to do so.

We are also liaising with catering services as we understand the importance of the card being used in the school cashless catering system.

In the meantime, you might like to direct your pupils to the excellent resources at[ http://www.young.scot ]www.young.scot including our own local pages at[ https://young.scot/north-lanarkshire ]https://young.scot/north-lanarkshire. Young people aged 12+ can sign up for young scot membership and access additional opportunities, rewards and discounts on the web page. Our social media pages also contain lots of great information about events, opportunities and youth issues, so please follow @NLCYouthwork and encourage pupils and parents to do the same.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact the North Lanarkshire Young Scot team by email[ mailto:Youngscot@northlan.gov.uk ]Youngscot@northlan.gov.uk , although please do not send enquiries about individuals at this time.

Kind regards.

Young Scot Team

With children being isolated for such a long period, many will be spending an increased length of time online and in group chats.  Whilst this is a good way for our young people to remain connected, parents should be aware that some of the content of group chats can become inappropriate or even cause upset and distress to some participants.

Please speak to your child about using group chats in a positive and constructive way and to think before posting anything. Everyone is responsible for what they post. Our young people need to be reminded that whatever is said can be screenshot and shared with others without their knowledge.

Parents are encouraged to monitor the use of group chat and encourage the positive use of social media. The links below may help.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/social-media-advice-hub/?gclid=CjwKCAjw4871BRAjEiwAbxXi2xaUHz2ynKpn7i222_uTxpIIk6kWVvjFX4EWsmpzOrJXv87aB42o3BoCB4QQAvD_BwE

A large number of pupils are falling foul of common winter illnesses. We hope you all get well soon. In the meantime, please follow the link below for advice on how to prevent and treat the most common winter illnesses.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/10-winter-illnesses/

As an additional security measure, the gates adjacent to side car park are now locked. Pupils and parents using this car park should enter and exit by the main door or main gate as appropriate.

From Monday, the gates to the rear of the playground will remain closed in the mornings. Pupils who attend breakfast club will continue to enter by the main door as before and all other pupils will enter the playground via the infant gate in the lane.
They will be open at 3pm.

Thanks for your cooperation. These steps have been taken in the interest of pupil safety.

We are constantly addressing appropriate use of social media and online safety at school and will continue to do so. It is essential that parents closely supervise childrens’ online activity and ensure your child is safe and able to manage any social media they have in a responsible manner.

You may find the links below useful.

https://parentzone.org.uk/article/three-minute-briefing-momo-challenge

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre

https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/social-media-guides-parents/#1502118189543-b5aceb4f-2cc2

Social media advice on popular apps

MOMO-Online-Safety-Guide-for-Parents-FEB-2019