Rapid coronavirus (COVID-19) testing is now available for people without any symptoms at our Asymptomatic Testing Centre at Carluke Lifestyles Centre from Wednesday 21 April 2021. The community testing initiative aims to drive down COVID-19 rates and transmission by identifying positive cases more quickly, as people can spread the virus to others before symptoms appear.
You don’t need to book a test and can turn up at the Lifestyle Centre between 9:30am and 5:30pm.
With thanks
We have been asked to share the following information from colleagues within NHS Lanarkshire with parents and carers.
Calm Distress is a new online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services, designed for you to use in your own time and at your own pace. It is all about understanding emotions and improving wellbeing, during Covid-19 and beyond.
The pandemic means NHS staff can’t run classes or groups in the community like we used to – but we can provide high-quality psychological help online via our Lanarkshire Mind Matters website.
Over five friendly sessions, Calm Distress will help you open up to day-to-day stress, recognise your warning signs, and learn new ways to cope with difficult thoughts and feelings. Each Calm Distress video is about 20 minutes long, giving you lots of useful information in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. There are also booklets to go alongside the videos, which you can download and dip into if you wish: do it how you feel it works for you.
You can access Calm Distress through Lanarkshire Mind Matters online: click here to go directly to the Calm Distress page. Register online and we will send you a password to access the course. You can then keep coming back to it as often as you like.
NHS Lanarkshire
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please see out app for some information pertaining to the return to school for pupils in P4 – P7.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming all our learners back on Monday.
Staff will be in the playground on Monday to help ease the transition for our children. Please be assured we will take good care of them.
We would ask that all parents and carers read this information carefully and continue to follow the guidance set out by Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and South Lanarkshire Council.
We all hope you can have some time this weekend to relax and enjoy some time with those within your bubble.
Kind Regards
Kirkton Primary School
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please see the school app for some information pertaining to the return to school for pupils in P1 – P3.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming our youngest learners back on Monday and very much hope we will see everyone very soon.
Staff will be in the playground on Monday to help ease the transition for our children. Please be assured we will take good care of them.
We would ask that all parents and carers read this information carefully and continue to follow the guidance set out by Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and South Lanarkshire Council.
We all hope you can have some time this weekend to relax and enjoy some time with those within your bubble.
Kind Regards
Kirkton Primary School
Phased return to in-person learning in schools and ELC settings
Information Update: 16 February 2021
We acknowledge the First Minister’s announcement today (Tuesday) targeting the gradual phased return of children to schools from 22 February for nursery children, those in P1-P3 in primary schools and some senior pupils in S4-S6 in secondary schools. We have been developing plans with our schools and nurseries on the phased return for those children highlighted by the First Minister and further details will be provided this week for staff, parents and carers.
Information Update 2 February 2021 – Education Resources
We acknowledge the First Minister’s announcement today targeting the phased return of children to schools from 22 February provided the virus continues to be suppressed.
We are developing plans in South Lanarkshire on that basis, and await further details of the testing arrangements outlined for staff and senior pupils. The council and schools will continue to update parents and carers.
South Lanarkshire Council
Good Afternoon everyone.
Thank you for another fabulous week of Remote Learning. We know this isn’t an easy time just now and many of you are juggling with Remote Learning as well as your own jobs and other responsibilities. We are astounded with all the fabulous learning which is taking place across our community and would like to remind you that this is not the situation we want to be in, we cannot wait until we are able to open our doors again to everyone.
As you will be aware, all children and young people will continue with online learning until mid-February (there will be a further review by the Scottish Government on 2 February 2021). The school continues to remain closed to most pupils, who will instead be provided with a programme of remote learning, based on digital experiences and supplemented with other resources, where applicable.
Our teachers will continue to remain in direct contact with pupils online through GLOW and Google Classroom.
I want to thank all members of our school community (pupils, parents and staff) for their continued support. Since the school has returned we have continued to provide a range of support to our pupils and parents, including:
Across the school, we are delighted with the high levels of engagement from our pupils on Google Classroom (90 %+). The school has also received some encouraging feedback from parents and carers:
What is remote learning?
Remote learning is learning that is directed by practitioners and undertaken by children and young people who are not physically present with the practitioner while instruction is taking place. Remote learning involves a combination of ‘live’ interactions between the teacher and the learners, and also learning which takes place away from the direct presence of the class teacher. It may involve a range of learning experiences which take place in a variety of spaces, including outdoors and includes active and physical learning. Remote learning can be delivered in a variety of ways:
Learners should not engage in online learning for the entirety of the school day. It is expected that learning will include provision of opportunities to consolidate, extend and enhance learning to take account of and meet the needs of the learners and their families. This may be accommodated by providing access to pre-recorded lessons, presentations, lesson notes, diagrams or links to useful websites.
As always, we aim to continue improving the delivery of our remote learning to ensure the best educational experience for our learners. With this in mind, our staff will introduce regular weekly check in times on Google Classroom and Google Meet to enable pupils to speak to each other and their teachers. Teachers will post a meeting link on their google classroom and pupils can enter via the link. There will always be 2 adults in each Google Meet. The table below outlines our plans for this week:
| Class | Session 1 | Session 2 |
| Primary 1 | Monday 1st February 11.45am | Friday 5th February 11am |
| Primary 2 | Monday 1st February 1.30pm | Thursday 4th February 10.30am |
| Primary 3 | Monday 1st February 10.00am | Friday 5th February 1.30pm |
| Primary 4 | Monday 1st February 10.30am | Wednesday 3rd February 11.15am |
| Primary 5 | Monday 1st February 11.15am | Thursday 4th February 11.15am |
| Primary 5/6 | Tuesday 2nd February 9.30am | Thursday 4th February 11.30am |
| Primary 6 | Tuesday 2nd February 10.00am | Thursday 4th February 10.00am |
| Primary 7 | Monday 1st February 2.00pm | Thursday 4th February 9.30am |
I have attached a Parent/Carer Guide as well as a Pupil Guide. Please read these and share the information with your child/children before their live session. There are a number of protocols which have been identified by South Lanarkshire Council which we must follow.
Finally we wish to thank you all for being so supportive of your children during these most challenging of times. We recognise that many of our families are facing challenges that are unique to them. Please do not feel pressure from us to complete all of the tasks all of the time. We know that some days will be easier than others. I hope that you, and your family remain safe and well whilst balancing the challenges of school work and home life.
As always, if we can be of any assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact a member of staff at the school. Stay safe, take care of yourselves and each other.
Team Kirkton
EDUCATION RESOURCES Emergency childcare provision Monday 8th February – Wednesday 10th February 2021
In these exceptional circumstances, Education Resources is being asked to provide a limited emergency childcare service for the children of key workers whose parents are critical to supporting the front line Covid-19 response during Monday 8th February – Wednesday 10th February. We have therefore reviewed the key worker criteria for this short holiday period.
As places will be limited we expect that most parents will use annual leave or make alternative childcare arrangements.
Only key workers who cannot fulfil these critical functions when working remotely from home may qualify for emergency childcare provision. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be. Both parents must be classed as keyworkers as defined below.
These emergency childcare hubs will operate from a number of locations throughout South Lanarkshire between 9:00am until 3:30pm. A hot lunch will be available either paid as normal or via free school meals if eligible. Transport will not be provided.
Those requiring a place must complete the on-line application form by Monday, 1st February, 9.30am. Places will be prioritised and those granted a space will be notified via email by close of business on Thursday, 4 February.
We will do our best to match the allocated childcare place to the location you specified, but this may not always be possible.
Please do not fill in the form if your child already attends a Standalone nursery as they remain open.
Details of prioritised key workers during this period are provided below:
If eligible and have no alternative childcare, an application should be submitted using the link attached:
Children and young people should NOT attend if they have underlying health conditions or are currently self-isolating. Those attending will be required and supported to follow social distancing and hygiene rules.
Emergency childcare will revert to normal following the schools’ return on Thursday, 11th February 2021.
Below are details of the emergency childcare hub locations.
Childcare locations for families who have a school age child/children (Primary 1 to S2)
Childcare locations for families who have a child/children of nursery age (3-5 years not yet attending primary school)
Please note this is being organised centrally by SLC staff not by individual schools.
Good Afternoon,
As we get to the end of another week, I would like to thank you for everything you are doing to support your family and our local community. We know things are not easy for many people just now but we can be assured that things will get better.
Following the changes implemented last week, we hope your child has found Google Classroom easier to navigate.
In response to feedback from parents we have decided to have ‘focus’ literacy and numeracy tasks each day. These are tasks which should ideally be uploaded and teachers will provide feedback. These are clearly marked within the tasks for the day. We are hopeful this will reduce the amount of time being spent uploading pupil work. This does not mean teachers do not wish to see other work but please do not feel under pressure to send in every task.
We would recommend being flexible with the amount of time spend on activities. Literacy and Numeracy tasks should take between 60 and 75 minutes including watching any videos or PowerPoints etc. Learning across the curriculum should last no longer that 90 minutes, however this will vary depending on age and ability.
Staff will be calling parents following email requests or to check in, please note these may be from blocked or unknown numbers as they may be using personal devices.
If anyone needs to collect jotters or stationary resources, these can be collected from the school between 1.30pm and 2.30pm each day. If you could call ahead first it would ensure staff have all the resources ready.
As a school we are able to offer a range of supports, these can be accessed via the link send out on the app on January 8th 2021.
This week we are asking our parents to complete a short questionnaire to allow views, opinions and feedback to be taken into account as we plan our next steps. Your views are very important to us as we all adapt to this new way of working.
The questionnaire will close on Wednesday 27th January 2021.
Thank you for your continued support.
Kirkton Primary School
Good afternoon,
Staff will begin contacting some parents over the course of the next few days.
As they will be using their own mobile phones we would like to make you aware that this may show on your phone as a “blocked number”, just in case you automatically reject the call.
Kind regards,
Mrs L Brennan
Head Teacher
Kirkton PS
