Category: School Closures Home Learning

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Parents and carers are being urged to be Winter Ready

Advice and guidance from West Lothian Council

West Lothian’s 31,000 pupils, their parents and carers can be one of the most affected groups during bouts of severe winter weather, particularly if there is a need to close a school.

Head of Education Jim Cameron said: “During periods of winter weather, the school closures page is the most viewed page on the council’s website, so we know it’s an important issue.  

“One of the most important  actions for parents and carers to do is check that their child’s school has up-to-date contact details so that messages via GroupCall can be communicated effectively. GroupCall is the first method of communication in the event of a closure or school disruption, so it’s very important that the school has the most up-to-date contact details.

“Whilst the message will also go out via websites, Apps and social media, GroupCall is the main method for schools. If there’s no GroupCall message, then there is no  major disruption at the school.”

He added:   “Parents/carers should also note that it’s their responsibility to decide on whether their child/children should travel to school during winter weather. It’s not for the school staff to tell parents whether their child should come to school unless, of course, the decision has been taken to close the school due to weather conditions.”

“The school can only make a judgement based on the condition of the school building and immediate area outside a building. They can’t make a judgement based on individual streets, roads and paths for every child.

“In extreme weather conditions such as snow, parents/carers should carry out an assessment as to whether they consider it safe for their child to travel or walk to school. Parents/carers should then inform the school of their decision at the earliest opportunity.”

For information on the impact of winter weather on local facilities, and tips on how to keep safe ,visit: www.westlothian.gov.uk/winter

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Arrangements for Monday

Good evening all,

As you will know by now our school and nursery are open on Monday 5th March.

On Monday breakfast club will be closed. There will be no milk available and pack lunch menus may vary from what has been planned.

Pupils should enter through the main school entrance, as close to 8:50am as possible.

Please take care when using the turning circle, as there are limited drop off spaces.

The main footpath to the school entrance is clear.

We will monitor the situation throughout the day and groupcall you about pick up arrangements for the end of the school day.

The nursery will open at normal times but there will be no breakfast club.

At the moment we presume that those who already attend P1-3 dance after school will be on, if this is cancelled we will groupcall parents in the morning.

There is further information available on the council website: https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/schoolclosures

We look forward to welcoming all our children back.

Kind regards,
Miss Burton

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School Closure on Monday 5th March

All council primary schools, nurseries and special schools will remain closed on Monday. We will aim to get these schools open as quickly as possible and parents will receive an update on these schools on Monday.

Pupil safety is paramount and we have taken the decision to use a structured approach to re-opening schools.

This approach will allow us to clear snow and carry out essential safety checks to ensure that schools are staffed, safe to access, and that facilities such as heating systems, pipes and catering provision are in place and working correctly.

We understand that school closures are inconvenient to parents and pupils. However, we will always put pupil safety first and ensure that we have all appropriate measures in place before allowing pupils to return to school.

Our plans are based on current weather forecasts and if there are any further updates on schools, we will let you know via GroupCall and, website and Social Media as quickly as possible

West Lothian Council is planning to re-open secondary schools on Monday 5 March

The following schools are planned to open at normal opening times:

  • Armadale Academy
  • Bathgate Academy
  • Broxburn Academy
  • Deans Community High School
  • Inveralmond Community High School
  • Linlithgow Academy
  • St Kentigern’s Academy
  • St Margaret’s Academy
  • The James Young High School
  • Whitburn Academy
  • West Calder High School

For more information visit: https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/schoolclosures

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Our leaderboards for Sumdog … so far!

Top 8 for Reading (26 entries):

  1. Jack – P6
  2. Jake – P4
  3. Ellie – P4
  4. Charlie – P7
  5. Faith – P5
  6. Jaxon – P3
  7. Oksars – P4
  8. Jay – P5

Top 8 for Maths (25 entries):

  1. Ula – P7
  2. Kayden – P3
  3. Jack – P6
  4. Ailidh – P5
  5. Amen – P6
  6. Pupil from P5
  7. Pupil from P2
  8. Kyle from P5

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P4 Junk Modelling

The third snow day in a row… WOW! I hope you are all enjoying the snow and have been doing some very exciting activities. I have seen a few people on the school Twitter account already!

Since the bins are not being collected due to the snow, I thought we should take this opportunity to ask parents for their help!

Primary 4 are beginning to look at their local area and all the different parts of it, including housing, leisure, jobs and the school.

We would be very grateful if you could help us by collecting any junk modelling materials (cardboard boxes, kitchen roll tubes, etc) for us to make model houses and parks. Please ensure the junk is clean however.

Thank you for your support and thank you in advance for any pieces of junk you can send our way!

Miss Mulhern

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Snow Day Number 3!

Good morning everyone!

I hope you are all safe and warm. It’s hard to believe that we have another  snow day!

If you would like to continue your learning at home, your teachers have set you some activities that you might want to take part in during your snow day! Please click on our blog link and find the activities for your class or whole school activities.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/puscpsnews/category/winter-ready/

Or use the Winter Ready tab to navigate to the learning ideas.

Remember you can take part in our snow day reading and/ or maths Sumdog competition. Your log in should be in your homework diary.

P7 you can you use your glow log in, to log into your Yammer group.

Remember to leave a comment on our blog or ask your parents to send us a photo on Twitter @PUSCPS or to the school email address of what you have been doing.

Whether you are spending your snow day outdoors or indoors, remember to stay safe. We look forward to seeing you all soon, have a lovely weekend.

Miss Burton

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More Snow Day Activities

Hi, l hope you are all taking care and enjoying your second snow day. Here are a few activities and web sites to keep some of you busy and learning at home.

If you are allowed you could go outdoors, or if you prefer to stay indoors and cosy you could bring a tray/basin of snow indoors. Use the snow like a whiteboard and try to sound out and write words, form letters or numbers (using a stick/pencil or even paint) in the snow. Or you could try to see if you can remember how to spell some of your tricky words. Remember to use any of the stories/rhymes/mnemonics you made up to help you recall the patterns.

You could also try to make more rhymes/mnemonics to help you with other words you find tricky to spell e.g said – Snowy Afternoon In December (even though it is March!!) . We can add these to your tricky word keyrings when we are back at school. Remember to draw a picture to go with your mnemonic.

Ask someone at home to challenge you to a game of ‘Round the World’ (like we do in some of our group times). See who can recall the sound to match the colour in the vowel house e.g. yellow – oa, ow, o_e. Extra challenge see if you can think of a word with the sound colour.

You could use old books or magazines to cut out and build words. Try to make a sounds/tricky words poster.

Play snowman bingo – draw an outline of a snowman for each player. Then fill it with 4-8 of your target sounds/words. Make cards with the sounds/words on them. Take turns to turn them over or read them out. Cover the word using a counter, scrap paper, cotton wool snowballs (if you have any at home). First one to cover all of their words is the winner 😀.

If you have paper/reusable plastic cups write or stick your target letter/words onto them. Set them out like bowling pins. Ask someone to say the word/sound/number then see if you can use a cotton wool snow ball or scrunched up piece of scrap paper to hit the correct cup.

Spotty Snowman counting – draw the outline of two snowmen .  You will need 5,10 or more counters, cut out bits of paper or cotton wool balls for each snowman. You can either start with them already on the snowman or put them on as you roll the dice. Use one or two dice. Roll and add or take away the number of items to or from your snowman.

Practice your typing skills for using Clicker on Dance Mat typing. Bit.ly/keyboardtyping

Read lots of books or if you prefer listen to online audio books. Storyonline.net

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