19.3.20 NEW update from Midlothian council regarding school closure

The following statement was sent to schools this evening. At the bottom of the statement are links to parental guidance and advice which will be very useful in this time. We will keep you updated as, and when, we know anything else.

All schools will be closed to Primary Pupils and S1-3 Pupils with the following exceptions:

· Saltersgate School will remain open to support our children with severe and complex needs. The Head Teacher will be in contact with individual families outlining the individual arrangements which will be in place.

· All Secondary Schools will be open to S4-6 Pupils only in order to complete any SQA mandatory coursework and assessments prior to the published deadlines. Please refer to individual High School Websites for further updates. We are planning a phased approach to distance learning however priority will be given to S4-S6 to begin with.

· We are now focussed on planning for the families of staff belonging to the following groups key worker groups: Emergency Services, NHS, Health and Social Care Partnership including Care at Home, Teachers and Council Staff who have requested assistance with Childcare in order to ensure that we deliver critical services. This requested provision will be delivered through 4 secondary and 4 primary schools acting as Hubs. Individual Schools will be in touch with the individual families to alert them to the arrangements which will be put in place.

· Free School Meals: We are currently working with catering services in order to finalise arrangements for the distribution of food for children entitled to free school meals and further information will be communicated as soon as plans have been finalised.

Public health advice and guidance should continue to be followed for staff and pupils with underlying health conditions and self-isolation.

As you will appreciate there is significant planning needed to move this forward and we will continue to update our website to keep you informed.

You can listen to the Deputy First Ministers announcement at this link:
https://news.gov.scot/speeches-and-briefings/statement-on-covid19-managing-the-impacts-on-scottish-education

Andrew Sheridan
Schools Group Manager (ASN & Inclusion)

Guidance for parents and carers in the event of school closure due to Coronavirus

A1 – Midlothian SLT Telephone Helpline info 2020

Loanhead’s Got Talent update

Update for the Talent Show:-
The bar will be open from 6:15pm – 11pm.
We will have a program of events , order of performance etc on the night.
This has been selected at random.

First performance is 7pm so please arrive sharp as not to disturb performances. If you child is performing please arrive in plenty time !


There are tickets left for anyone wishing to come along and support our acts!

 

Thanks

House Captains 2019!

Many P7s have waited for this week for years, some with excitement and confidence and others with nerves and anxieties – many not even sure if they want to put themselves forward, but you did it!

I am so impressed with the House Captain speeches this year, not only were there a record number of you who put yourselves forward, but the quality of the speeches were all the best I have seen! We had raps, dance moves, PowerPoints, entrance music and many confident speakers captivating their audiences and energising their team. The children in each house voted for their captains and the votes were counted and announced.

Well done to….

TEAM EDGELAW with Freya and Riley

TEAM DRYDEN with Emma and Lewis

TEAM GLADHOUSE with Rachel and Luke#

I wish you all a successful year!  P7 is a huge responsibility and all P7s will be allocated roles within the school, I look forward to this next week.

Share your Community News

As part of assembly this week the House Captains have decided that they want to celebrate Extra Curricular achievements of pupils in their houses.

Have you won something? Done something that you proud of? Moved up a level? Joined a new club? Learned to play an instrument?

Pupils have shared their news with house captains but will be recognized in assembly on Friday.  If parents have any news or photos of pupils in action or with any awards then we would love to include these in our PowerPoint.  Please send to The House Captains via Mrs Hinton k.hinton@mgfl.net (before Friday 10am please)

 

Thanks

** Our Vision **

Our Vision

Loanhead aspires to be a learning community where

Care
Honesty
Inclusion
Learning
Development

Are at the core of all we do.

Our Aims to Develop our Core Values

• To promote care of all through a culture of wellbeing and     respect.
• To foster openness and honesty between all members of the learning community.
• To be inclusive and strive to meet the needs of all.
• To promote high quality learning and achievement.
• To develop all individuals to enable them to reach their full potential.

P7 robotics award winning team at the Vex nationals competition 2017, Birmingham

Mrs Hinton could not be any prouder 🙂 P7 have had Robotics as a topic this term and have been working through the Vex Robotics curriculum. This STEAM ( science, technology, engineering, art and maths) topic has really taken off and a team of 8 travelled to Birmingham with another team from St David’s Primary School to compete in the National competition.

Pupils have had to study robot builds from simple from complex, they analysed how they work and designed their own robot for for a challenge, built, it was then programmed to move, pick up hex balls, lift and transport them, place them in high and low goals, go up and down a bridge and balance in a bridge with 1 other robot…..very tricky. They also had an engineering notebook detailing, step by step, how they built and programmed the robot and this was assessed.

In Birmingham, pupils represented Scotland as the only 2 teams from Scotland and competed in driver and skills matches. Their robot was inspected and analysed and they were tested on their knowledge and understanding.

They had under 3 weeks, as a team, and we’re up against teams with experience from 2-6 years so they have done amazing. Thank you to the parents who have come in to help over this time too.

We have learned a lot from our fast paced day yesterday and saw some truly technological robot design and programming. We also are so happy to have won the Think Award for knowledge of programming, being able to talk about it on detail with terminology and relate it to our chosen robot design. Well done!

A different P7 team will.compete in a Midlothian school contest in 2 weeks.

Primary 4- Scottish Book Trust monthly writing competition

Primary 4 and I are taking part in a monthly writing competition run by the Scottish Book Trust.

The children will get a chance to write a 50 word “story” based on a visual prompt provided by the book trust.

The children should enter the “young writers” category.

I have started a creative writing course and will be taking part in this too. Why don’t you have a go?

This month is:

Write a story that features the roll of a dice. 

There will be an opportunity for the children to brainstorm ideas in class and write some ideas for their story as well as begin to write it.

I would appreciate it if you could help them to apply at home when they bring you their completed piece of writing.

The website is:

 

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/the-50-word-fiction-competition

and all information can be found there. There are also examples of last months winners.

Every month we will post a few entries on the website so that you can see what the children have been writing.