Happy new year to all in our school community and welcome back after an extended winter break. Unfortunately, once again, this is not the start to a new term that any of us were hoping for.

As you will be aware COVID 19 cases are not diminishing and we are all under a strict new lockdown. As a result of this school buildings are closed to the vast majority of pupils and staff in order to comply with the requirements to minimise person to person interaction, to significantly reduce the number of households mixing and consequently to reduce community transmission.

The school will remain open for key worker’s children but only if their job function cannot be carried out from home and there is no alternative childcare option available. If an adult is at home during the school day (including working from home) the expectation is that pupils will remain at home.  A very small number of identified vulnerable children will also attend. We hope that in sticking with this and keeping our numbers as low as possible all of our children will be able to return to the school building in shortest time possible.

For those of you who have experienced the previous lockdown, you will know that we will be using Microsoft Teams through Glow to deliver our remote learning. New pupils will have been introduced to these platforms by their class teacher. All pupils have access to Glow and the Teams app can be downloaded to a variety of devices. Previous Blog posts detail how to do this but if you have any problems please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will support you to get your child logged in to Glow and Teams.

Each stage(P1-7) will share their outline for home learning with you. Some have already done this and others will over the next day or so. As a school we are trying to balance the current guidance on home learning with the feedback we received from parents during the last lockdown.

Teachers will provide an offering that is as close to a school day as possible. This means a timetable will be issued and home learning activities provided in line with the timetable. This will include a mixture of “live’ teacher interactions though Team Meetings, teacher recorded lessons to view online, links to other online recorded lesson and opportunities for independent learning tasks.

Previous feedback from parents indicated that there was a flexibility required in the timing of tasks due to the sharing of devices between siblings and availability of adult supervision within the home. As a result we will structure the majority of tasks so that they can be completed at a time that is suitable to each family circumstances. Teachers will give advance warning of ‘live’ sessions. They will work with colleagues to avoid clashes with siblings as much as possible.

We understand how difficult this is for families and we are here to support you as much as possible. If you have any issues with connectivity, access to IT or the home learning please get in touch with us. I (Mrs McNaught) will be in school each day and can be contacted on the school number. Mr Collins is currently supporting P1-3, as he will be mostly working from home he can be contacted on 07541 049686 during normal office hours. Similarly Mrs Davidson is supporting P4-7 and can be contacted on 07541 063788.  Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require any form of help or support.

Pupils who are in school will follow the same programme that has been provided for those at home. They will have access to the class Team in school and will complete the tasks provided by their own class teacher. Groups of pupils in school will be supported by a teacher to access and complete the learning provided by the class teacher.

Attendance- School attendance will continue to be recorded on a daily basis. Therefore it is important that your child checks in with the teacher on the check in post each morning. If your child is ill and is unable to participate in school work then we ask that you follow the normal procedures and call the school office before 9.30 to let us know.

I’m sure it will take us all a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of this so please be patient while we get everything up and running. This is not an ideal situation for any of us and we must all work together to ensure the best outcomes for the young people that we all care deeply about.

Be assured we are all working flat out to give your child the best home learning experience possible and we are here to support you too as you grapple with this. If you have any concerns at all please get in touch using the numbers provided.

Please continue to check the school blog and social media channels as we will provide updates on a regular basis.