All posts by Mr Healy

Summer Critical Childcare for Key Workers 

Message from Renfrewshire Council

We will continue to offer a critical childcare service for the children of single parents who are key workers or for children with two parents if they are both key workers. We are also supporting children and young people from vulnerable families.

We have already contacted key workers and families who are currently using our service. If you think you meet the criteria for this support, you can find out more and how to apply on the council’s website.

http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/coronavirus-childcare

Uniform Update

 

09.06.20 – Uniform & School Bags Letter

You have received communication from us about school uniform and school bags for August recently. I’m sure you will appreciate that we have not made these decisions lightly and have considered health and safety and financial implications for families throughout the decision making process. Our decisions about school uniform were made with our Trinity cluster schools as directed by the local authority. We know that other schools outside of the Trinity cluster may have made slightly different decisions and this may be causing some confusion. We thought it would be helpful to clarify a few points.

· We are recommending that all children return with the informal uniform (joggers, polo shirt etc). However if a parent decides they would prefer their child to wear the formal uniform on any day we will support this.

· If circumstances change throughout session 2020/2021(in relation to COVID health and safety) we will not be insisting on a move back to formal uniform part way through the year due to financial implications for families and possible difficulties getting uniform part way through the year.

All staff at St James’ are committed to working in partnership with parents and carers. Whilst we endeavour to provide clear guidance around school uniform during these unprecedented times we do not want to cause any unnecessary worry or financial pressure around school uniform in August.

Best Start Grant

The School Age Payment is part of Best Start Grant, a package of three payments that will give extra money to low income families during the early years of a child’s life. It is a £250 payment made around the time a child normally starts Primary 1 to help with the costs of a child starting school. The money can be used for anything from school uniform and shoes to a school bag, books or days out.

Applications open on 1 June 2020 and will remain open until 28 February 2021. Parents who have deferred entry to August 2021 should still apply in the 1 June 2020 to 28 February window. If they wait until after then it will be too late and they will miss out on their payment.

Please follow the link for more information:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/what-we-do/stakeholder-resources/best-start-grant-school-age-payment

P7 Transitions

Please click HERE to read our cluster plans for transition activities for our Primary 7 pupils across our cluster primary schools for June 2020.

For pupils attending Trinity High School, further information, including a virtual tour of the school, is available on the school website https://trinityhighrenfrew.co.uk/new-s1-pupils-parents-and-carers/.  Trinity High School’s twitter account is also a great source of information and advice: @Trinityrenfrew .

Whilst this is not the end to primary school any of us would have wished for, we hope that our prior transition work and forthcoming alternative transition activities (detailed above) reassures you and gives you confidence as your child transitions to secondary school.

On behalf of the community of St. James’ Primary School, we would like to wish all of our Primary 7 pupils and families every good wish and blessing for the future, and we look forward to hearing about our children’s continued successes at secondary school and beyond.

Yours sincerely

St James’ Leadership Team

Uniform for August 2020

Please click HERE find information regarding school uniform for returning to school in August 2020. This will also be sent out to parents and carers today via email.

On behalf of the community of St. James’ Primary, and Trinity High School cluster primary schools, we would like to thank you for your continued support, patience and understanding in this matter, and assure you of our continued commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our children.

Yours sincerely,

St James’ Leadership Team

Renfrewshire Council – Parent and Carer Survey Responses

Earlier this month, Renfrewshire Council asked parents and carers to submit their questions on schools and nurseries. Thank you to everyone who took part, there was a phenomenal response with more than 1,000 questions.

Your most-asked questions were put to Steven Quinn, Director of Children’s Services, which you can see at www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/coronavirus-schools. You can also find answers to many more questions there too.

Thank you for your continued patience and support for our school/nursery during this difficult time. We hope to see you back in our school/nursery as soon as it is safe to do so.

http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/coronavirus-schools

Renfrewshire Council – Coronavirus Information and Free School Meals Applications

Here are some important links that you may require of the next few weeks:

General Coronavirus Information (includes a link to schools information): http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/coronavirus

 

Coronavirus Information and FAQs about early years and schools:  http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/coronavirus-schools

 

Online application for free school meals:  http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/Freeschoolmealsandclothinggrants (Visit the page and then click on ‘Apply for Free School Meals’ under Related Links on the right hand side of the page)

 

Online application for clothing grants:  this should reopen on 1 June 2020 or shortly thereafter and information is on the same page as for meals.  http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/Freeschoolmealsandclothinggrants

Our families need to make a new application for each new academic year.  There will likely be a lot of new applications over the next few weeks and it may take a couple of weeks for applications to be processed.