The children and staff have enjoyed another very busy week at school and nursery. The Senior Leadership Team has focused on children’s progress in learning so far this year and identifying those children who require additional support in any aspect of the curriculum. Mrs Gallacher co-ordinates the support for all children with additional support needs and is working alongside parents, class teachers and support staff to ensure all children have the support they need to succeed. If you have any concerns about your child’s progress or would like to discuss their settling in report, please contact the school office to make an appointment.
Scottish Government: Guidance on reducing the risk in schools
The Scottish Government issued revised guidance for schools on Friday 30th October. This provides further information for schools and local authorities about the steps that should be taken to promote safe school communities with low risk of transmission. South Lanarkshire Council will work through this next week with schools to review procedures taking account of new recommendations.
The focus for schools includes:
- implementing the guidance to enable children to participate in PE indoors, where possible. This will be implemented over the coming weeks.
- ensuring adults wear face coverings at drop off and pick up times unless exempt. Face coverings can be collected from the school office if you do not have any. Please contact the school office by telephone to arrange this.
- reviewing ventilation plans to ensure the school is adequately ventilated without being overly cold and draughty in the winter months. Please ensure your child has a jumper or cardigan each day.
Please click the link below if you would like to read the document published by the Scottish Government:
https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance/
Flu Immunisation
Children who have returned their consent form will be immunised against flu in school on Wednesday 4th November.
If you would like further information about he immunisation programme, please click the following link:
https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/immunisation/vaccines/child-flu-vaccine
Halloween feedback
We are aware from Twitter that there is concern regarding the programme of activities undertaken by Heathery Knowe Primary School in relation to Hallowe’en. The complaints specifically related to the decision that children would not be allowed to wear fancy dress or dress down during the school day. This is no different to previous years with the exception of October 2018 when the Pupil Leadership Team organised elective events in the afternoon.
Each school is different and leadership teams in schools make decisions for their own school community. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the school’s position and provide a further explanation of the decision made.
- Public Health guidance requires all adults to remain 2m from children to reduce transmission risk. This applies at all times. Moving within 2m to support children to take costumes on or off to use the toilets and change for outdoor play would increase the risk of transmission of Coronavirus. All children are able to change independently while wearing school uniform and this protects everyone in the school community.
- The Scottish Government require all schools to fully consider the ‘cost of the school day’. We are committed to ensuring that there is no unnecessary financial burden related to attending school. Over the past two years, Heathery Knowe Primary School has worked towards there being no additional cost to families for events within the school day. Dressing up / down within school places financial pressure on families, risks pupils feeling financially excluded and encourages a higher level of absence on these days. With many more families facing financial hardship because of the Covid-19 crisis, poverty awareness and action is more important than ever.
- Children’s comfort and safety at school is our priority. Whilst children enjoy wearing fancy dress, this becomes uncomfortable over the course of a full day. In addition, the school is cooler than normal as it is fully ventilated at all times and children play outdoors in all weathers. Fancy dress costumes would not provide appropriate levels of comfort and protection throughout the school day. Requiring costumes to be worn in school and outdoors before Saturday 31st October would have risked them becoming dirty or damaged before family celebrations.
- Heathery Knowe PS has a diverse community of learners. There are a number of learners who find change difficult to manage leading to feelings of anxiety and distress. Predictability and routine contribute to feeling safe for all children. With significant changes required in relation to Covid, staff are working very hard to ensure the school day remains predictable and settled for all children.
The plan for Hallowe’en was shared in the week 8 blog (3rd October 2020) including the decision that children would not wear fancy dress to school. I understand that some parents are disappointed with the decision however it remains in line with previous years and is underpinned by ensuring pupil and staff safety and comfort is the priority at all times. We are always happy to explain our decisions to parents and invite you to contact me at school via telephone or email to discuss any future events.
Clothing Donations
If you have any winter jackets that your child no longer requires then we would really appreciate if you could hand them into school. We will redistribute these to children who need a warmer jacket to wear over the winter months.
We have a number of items in lost property. If you are missing anything, please contact the office and we will check if it is in the lost property and reunite it with your child. We will upload photos of items to Twitter to help parents identify missing items. Any items that are unclaimed by Friday 13th November will be donated to pupils or local charities.
In preparation for Christmas celebrations, we would be grateful for any donations of Christmas jumpers or tee-shirts that your child no longer requires. These will then be given to children who would benefit from them.
Thank you for your continued support.
Kind regards
Kirsty Duff
