P4 Update – January 2021

Dear parents/carers,

We would like to wish you Happy New Year. I know this is not the start to the year we had hoped for but we are working hard this week to support key-worker families and get ready for Home Learning – Part 2 which begins on Monday 11th January 2021.
We had hoped that we would not be faced with another period of learning from home but unfortunately the virus has a sting in its tail and we need to re-focus our efforts on supporting our children and school community remotely in, hopefully, this final push before the vaccine is rolled out.
We will be using Google Classrooms as our delivery platform and packs of jotters have been organised. P4 pupils who did not take home jotter packs at the end of term, can collect theirs from the school office. The office will be open normal school hours so from the morning of Monday 11th January, people will be able to collect packs.
Mrs Roy and myself will continue to be active on Google Classroom on our normal days so Monday and Thursday – Mrs Roy and Tuesday and Wednesday – Mrs Watts plus alternating Fridays with Mrs Roy working Friday 15th January.
You can find your child’s login details glued into the inside cover of their homework jotters and we had a brief practise logging in on the last day of term but if you have any difficulties, Mrs Hinton is our expert and happy to help.
Daily learning at home will consist of:
  • 3 curricular areas – literacy, numeracy and one other
  • Daily post from teacher on group chat (Stream) within Google Classrooms outlining the days activities
  • Assignments will be posted and used to gather evidence of learning
  • Children can submit pictures of their work or work straight onto their assignment
  • Queries on assignments can be made via ‘Group Chat’ (Stream tab) which the teacher will monitor at intervals throughout the school day
  • More specific, individual queries can be made by e-mail to either class teacher
As always, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require any further information and we look forward to welcoming you on to Google Classrooms from Monday 11th January.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Watts – J.Watts@mgfl.net
Mrs Roy – S.Roy@mgfl.net

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

Digital learning update

This week most pupils should bring home their digital learning passwords for Sumdog, Glow and Education City.

In class, pupils will practise logging into these and using them to enhance learning.

Google classroom is an app within Glow Scotland where each class has a ‘google classroom’.  It works best on Google chrome and is accessible on most devices.

There are also tiles on the Glow home page for typing, maths, literacy games and activities too.

Pupils are asked to have a play about with these at home but also have passwords in school bags every day. This will be a learning curve for many and we appreciate your support, patience and cooperation at this time.

Thanks

Mrs Hinton

 

ONLINE AND COMPUTER SAFETY UPDATE

Safety Online!

Screen Addiction

e-Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Loanhead Primary School . We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any e-Safety incidents are recorded and managed.  e-Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.

We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the e-Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.

Recently, many of the children have been talking about the Momo challenge and have been increasingly worried about it.  Like many of these online phenomenon the publicity and hype has made this a lot bigger than it needs to be.  For a quick briefing on it see the link below.

https://parentzone.org.uk/article/three-minute-briefing-momo-challenge

MOMO INFO

It’s essential to be realistic – banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use is essential.

Search engines

Please note that no search engine is ever 100% safe but below provides some links to some “safer” search engines:

Research searching

nICE
CBBC
Kids Yahoo

Google offers a safer search option for children searching on the Internet. You can find out how to do this by downloading the instructions at the bottom of the page.

Image searching

Pics4Learning
picsearch

Gaming

When children are accessing games via Xbox LIVE, privacy settings can be set up.  To read more, click here

FORTNIGHT BATTLE ROYAL – WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW

Social Media Platform Guides

Click here to access to modern and relevant information on the most popular online phenomenons and social media platforms

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/

Insta advice

Snapchat Info

WhatsApp Info

YouTube Info

 

P5 Homework w/b 11.6.18

P5 Homework will carry on this week as normal:

  • Spelling Activity Cards (complete green & red is optional)
  • Literacy Circles Role (week 6 – last week of P5 reading homework!)
  • Times Table practice

We have now organised our class trip to the Scottish Mining Museum for Wednesday 20th June 2018 and are really looking forward to this. We are still waiting for 5  ME2 slips to be returned and would really appreciate these before the end of the week.

If there is any parent/carer who would like to help out on the trip next week please let the office know or send a note in with your child and I will give you a ring.

Many thanks,

Mrs Watts

Reebops in P7 Science

In Science this week, P7 investigated inheritance and variation through Reebops -imaginary animals, made from play  dough.

The new proud parents learned the relationship between genes and inherited traits and how hereditary information is passed from one generation to the next, and how the physical appearance of offspring can be determined by combinations of genes received by parents.

Have a look at some of our adorable offspring 🙂

P7 30 days of kindness grid…

Below is the grid that out P7 pupils have challenged themselves to complete.  We are choosing kind and trying to be a kindness classroom which is part of our “Wonder” novel study.

I typed this when pupils worked in groups to create the grids so initially there was some typos – that will teach me to proof read!  🙂

I have hopefully edited it so here is a copy.  We will reflect on these on the 10th of October!

30 days of kindness challenge