Muirhouse Primary School

As you might remember, this is the last day of school before the 2 week Spring Break. We know that it is probably not the break you had planned but please make the most of it and enjoy some quality time with your families without having to do any school work. The teachers will resume online learning on the 20th April.  In the meantime, have fun, relax and stay safe.

A new payment system is being set up for parents and carers of pupils who receive free school meals.

You will be sent a message twice a week from the council, which will include a voucher code for £10 (£20 per child per week).

For more info:

https://crowd.in/en6gdG

The school and nursery are now fully closed to all.

Please see post about arrangements for nursery children of key workers.

Primary children of key workers with no other options are being catered for at a hub at Our Lady’s High School.

All parents and carers should be aware that the hub is now focussing on providing childcare rather than learning. The staff on duty at the hub are volunteers and will not always be known to the children. There are also digital and risk assessment issues which are preventing us from accessing online learning.

All volunteers are focussing on keeping children occupied and happy. Please do not feel under any pressure to complete the online learning set by the class teachers. It is not compulsory and we completely understand that it cannot all be done at home after a day at the hub.

Likewise,  as stated yesterday, children at home are not under any pressure to complete online work. Health and wellbeing is the priority just now.

If the class teacher is volunteering at a hub or is sick, there will be no online work posted. There are loads of ideas already posted on this blog.

Please look after each other and stay safe.

 

Nursery parents
If you meet the criteria for a key worker, you require child care for a nursery child and you have no other options, your child can attend any Family Learning Centre. Please email me at ht@muirhouse.n-lanark.sch.uk if you require this provision.

Key worker information
School Support for Key Workers
The list of schools below will be open from Tuesday March 24 for the children of key workers. All other schools will be fully closed.
It is essential, to stop the spread of transmission of coronavirus, that people who can work from home do work from home. If you have a partner who is not a key worker they must provide childcare. 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.
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..
Schools open between 9am and 3pm
If your child normally goes to school in KILSYTH and surrounding villages:
Please take your child to Kilsyth Academy, Balmalloch Road, Kilsyth G65 9NQ.
If your child normally goes to school in MOODIESBURN, CHRYSTON, STEPPS and surrounding areas:
Please take your child to Chryston High School, Lindsaybeg Rd, Chryston, G69 9DL
If your child normally goes to school in CUMBERNAULD:
Please take your child to Cumbernauld Academy, South Kildrum Ring Rd, Cumbernauld G67 2UF
If your child normally goes to school in AIRDRIE and surrounding villages:
Please take your child to Hilltop Primary School, Petersburn Rd, Airdrie ML6 8BH
If your child normally goes to school in MOSSEND, NEW STEVENSTON, HOLYTOWN and surrounding villages:
Please take your child to New Stevenston Primary School, Coronation Rd East, New Stevenston, Motherwell ML1 4HX
If your child normally goes to school in BELLSHILL or VIEWPARK:
Please take your child to St John Paul II Primary School, 1 Laburnum Rd, Viewpark, G71 5DG
If your child normally goes to school in COATBRIDGE and surrounding villages:
Please take your child to St Ambrose High School, 65 Townhead Rd, Coatbridge ML5 2JE
If your child normally goes to school in MOTHERWELL:
Please take your child to Our Lady’s High School, Dalzell Drive, Motherwell ML1 2DG
If your child normally goes to school in WISHAW and surrounding areas:
Please take your child to Clyde Valley High School, Castlehill Rd, Wishaw ML2 0QS
If your child normally goes to school in SHOTTS and surrounding areas:
Please take your child to Calderhead High School, Dyfrig St, Shotts ML7 4DH

All parents/carers will need to complete a keyworker form on arrival at the hub school.
If you are a parent/carer of a child who attends an LCSC unit, and you require school support as you are a key worker, your child should attend the nearest school to you as listed above.
Volunteer staff should attend hub school nearest their place of work for 8.45am.

Transport
Key workers must take their child to the relevant school hub as listed above. No school transport will run.

Free school meals
For those children who are eligible, and who require this service, please come to the schools listed above between 12.30pm and 1.15pm. We are working very hard to provide a more localised service and will announce details in due course.

Please note our staff volunteers will be at Our Lady’s High School.  Our keyworkers can choose Our Lady’s or Clyde Valley High.

 

First of all, thanks to all of our parents and carers for their good sense in observing the safe guards advised by the government and health services and stayed at home. We appreciate that only those who met the criteria and had no other choice made use of school cover today. As a result of this good sense,  NLC are now able to move towards significantly rationalising the number of schools remaining open to provide this support. That means far fewer schools will remain open tomorrow. NLC are working as fast as they can to determine which schools will remain open to provide support to key workers, and will inform head teachers as soon as possible today, before making public announcements on the council website and via social media later today and into this evening.

I have the contact details of those parents who have indicated that they require this provision and I will call tonight with details of where to attend.

Glow was very busy today and understandably some children have had some issues logging in. Please be patient.

Teachers are posting daily on GLOW and/or See Saw but there is no expectation for these tasks to be done immediately. We understand that some children are not in their own home and may not always have access to the hardware or internet connection for the duration of the school day. These activities can be done at any time. Teachers have also supplied an extensive list of links to other ideas to keep children busy and learning throughout the day. Please look back in this blog to find these links.

Moving forward, it is likely that many of our teachers will be on duty at the hubs that open for key workers, on a rotational basis.  If teachers are on duty on a particular day, they will not be able to maintain online contact with their own class. Likewise if the teacher happens to fall ill, this contact will cease. In these cases, parents and pupils are directed to use the wealth of aforementioned activities.

We will continue to keep in touch and hope that everyone continues to keep good health.

Mrs Matthews

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.

ENDS.

If you intend to send your child in for their free school lunch, it would be helpful if you could phone between 9 and 10 on Monday morning to let us know. This will allow staff to prepare the appropriate number of meals.

Please read these arrangements very carefully and only attend if you meet the criteria and have no other options.  Please enter by the main door and register your child’s attendance.

 

Message to Parents/Carers

Parents and carers are advised that North Lanarkshire Council Communications team are preparing to release information as soon as possible through its normal communication channels regarding the closure of schools to pupils from today. This will include

· Arrangements for children of key workers (including clarification of who Key Workers are)

· Clarfication of arrangements for S4-S6 pupils for SQA accreditation purposes

· Arrangements for those children requiring free school meals from Monday onwards

· Arrangements for children with additional support needs from Monday

Further information will be available through your school’s normal communication channels from Monday onwards.

Regards

Gerard

Gerard J. McLaughlin

Head of Education (North)

Education and Families

Civic Centre,

Motherwell