February 2021

Blacklands
Primary

Newsletter

19th February 2021

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Message from the Headteacher

Dear Parent/Carer

Firstly, I would like to thank you for all your engagement and
hard work over the past five weeks. The work our children are
sharing on SeeSaw and handing in from paper packs is fabulous.

As you know, following the update from the First Minister we will
reopen for Early Years children and P1-3 on Monday 22nd
February. More details later in this newsletter.

We are being urged to treat Monday as a return to educational
establishments for some and not a return to normality. The
First Minister stated that the situation is still ‘very fragile’ and
we really need your continued support with our plans for return.
We are minimising staff in the building and to this end P4-7
staff will be working from home to support their learners.

Our priority is to keep our children and staff safe, and to this
end we are updating our risk assessment following Scottish
Government and North Ayrshire guidelines.
Can I remind you I can be contacted by
email:
[email protected]
if you have any queries or questions..

In Partnership,

Susan Lauder

We are looking forward to welcoming all our Early Years
boys and girls back on Monday. Mrs Sadler has been in
touch to inform parent/carers of their drop off times
before each session.

Please can we take this opportunity to remind parents
to adhere to current social distancing advice. Adults
must wear a mask at drop off/pick up and we ask that
only one adult accompanies each child.

We will be accessing our outdoor spaces as much as
possible. We have super suits to keep the children dry,
but please do dress them for the weather (lots of
layers/hats/gloves etc).

It might seem strange that children can play together
at their ELC setting all day, but can’t have indoor play
dates at home. It is really important to remember that
keeping the restrictions at home and across society is
what is enabling us to reopen our EY Class at the
moment. In addition, there are lots of precautions taken
at our setting that families can’t always replicate. One
of the main precautions is spending time outdoors in the
fresh air. So if you want to meet up with another
family, then please do so outdoors

We are continuing the staggered start and finish times to

minimise contact and help adults to adhere to current

social distancing advice. Adults must wear a mask at drop

off/pick up and we ask that only one adult accompanies

each child.

PRIMARY 1 9am – 2.40pm

PRIMARY 2 9.10am – 2.50pm

PRIMARY 3 9.20am – 3.00pm

As before, there will be enhanced hand washing and use

of sanitizer. Please feel free to provide your own, if

preferred, clearly labelled.

School bags and packed lunch boxes are permitted as
before. Children should not share snacks with their
friends.

We will have the windows open to increase ventilation.
Please pop an extra jumper in your child’s schoolbag which
they can use if they need.

As the EY class, it is so important to remember that
although children are in their class, they can’t have play
dates at home. Keeping the restrictions at home and
across society is what is allowing us to open school to P1-3
at present. We really want this to be continued and
extended to allow our whole school community to be back
together.

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Children in Primary 4, 5, 6 and 7 will continue to access
remote learning. This will look as follows:

 Children’s learning will be chunked into daily learning
plans.

 These will be uploaded to the child a week at a
time to allow maximum flexibility for families to
schedule home learning time to suit their individual
circumstances.

 Further daily instruction will be posted by the
teacher to clarify tasks in more detail as required.

 Each day’s learning across stages will consist of:
 Short reading and mental maths activities
 2 core activities which must be completed- 1
in literacy, 1 in numeracy
 1 activity from another curriculum area -
desirable but not essential
 Further challenge/extension activities –
optional

We will continue to host our ‘Virtual Playtime’ on a
Thursday for all to access and we are starting our
‘Home Learning Drop in Club’ from Monday.









 Breaks
o Each class will have its own playground to allow
children to remain in their ‘bubble’

 Lunches
o These will be provided as usual. Menus to be
confirmed and these will be shared by
Xpressions and Twitter as soon as we know
o Packed lunches can be brought as always

 School Uniform
o We are still being advised to make use of
outdoors as much as possible and so we would
encourage children to wear leggings/joggers
with outdoor shoes along with a school polo-shirt
and sweatshirt/cardigan

 Visitors
o Please call the school office on 01294 552626
to speak to the appropriate member of staff.
Unfortunately, we have to minimise footfall into
the building

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