We have all now had time to digest the information coming from the Scottish Government and the Highland Council. Staff have met and discussed how we can best serve our community and provide the best education possible for all our pupils whether they are learning from home or coming to school as part of the keyworker or vulnerable children support.
For the older classes of P5, P5/6, P6, P7p and P7j we plan to have children complete their work online and teachers are setting up google classroom groups this week. All children in P6 and 7 already have Chromebooks and for those in P5 we will provide Chromebook for those who do not have a device at home. You will be contacted later today to make arrangements to come and collect these from the school tomorrow (This includes some pupils in P6 and P7 who left their Chromebook in the school)
For the younger classes of P1, P1/2, P2, P2/3, P3, P4 and P4/5 we have prepared paper packs containing the work for next week. This will include worksheets for literacy and numeracy and a reading book along with other work which is specific to the class. Teachers will conduct online lessons, but the work the children need to complete will all be in the paper packs so no need to be printing things off. We hope this will help the younger children engage with their work. This will mean you do not necessarily need a Chromebook as long as you have a device which is suitable for your child to join in with the lessons on Google Meet. If you have said you do not have this or if you are sharing with more than 2 children, you should be contacted today or tomorrow to collect a device. If you have not been contacted by lunchtime tomorrow but feel you have been missed out, then please phone the school tomorrow afternoon (609702).
For all classes, teachers will provide literacy, numeracy and other work to be completed each day Monday to Thursday and then give ideas for some additional activities to do on a Friday. Each teacher’s timetable will give details of how each day will look, but staff have agreed that a Friday will be more of a fun day with drop in sessions with the teacher and time to catch up any work not done during the week.
We really want to ensure that all children continue their education during this lockdown and so will expect all pupils to engage with their activities being given by the teacher and also to submit all literacy and numeracy work as a minimum. I’m sure all parents will agree that we cannot afford to disrupt their child’s education any more that is necessary. For older pupils this will be submitting their work online and for younger ones we expect the worksheets in the packs to be returned.
The plan for the younger group will be to collect the first pack tomorrow (Friday 8th Jan) then return this the next Friday with the completed work and the reading book in the pack and collect the next week’s pack. In this way parents can quarantine the pack for 72 hours and be ready to start work on the Monday so that we keep everyone safe. I realise the government message is to ‘stay at home’ but you are allowed to go out each day for exercise and we would ask that you pick up the pack at this time from the school office which will be open each Friday from 9.00 – 3.00 for this purpose. You are welcome to get together and support each other by delivering packs to friends and neighbours if this will make things easier for everyone.
Further details will be given by each class teacher about how things will work in their class.
For those of you who will be attending school either part time or full time, I will send and second message specifically for you to give further instructions as to how this will work as this message is long enough already.
Finally, please message class teachers if you have any questions about education, but contact the school office for any administrative issues so that teachers can concentrate on teaching.
Newton Park Primary School 