Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
-
Weekly Update - Monday 30th March
Mon 30 Mar 2020Dear parent,
I trust this latest update finds you well and that you have survived your first weekend of lockdown. If your experience has been anything like the Corbetts, then your weekend may well have included significant boredom, strained sibling (and spouse!) relationships and excessive screen time!! I must do better as a parent!
I am writing on a Monday morning at a time when every pupil and teacher would normally be gathered in the hall for our weekly whole school assembly and it feels strange for the school to be so eerily quiet at this time.
We continue to miss the children but hope that you are all doing as well as can be expected in these challenging times.
HOME LEARNING
At the risk of repeating myself, please take a bit of time to read the following reminders regarding home learning:
Week beginning Mon 30th March (This week) - all children were provided with work packs which should be sufficient until Easter. You may have begun to run short of work so below is a list of links that you might find helpful to provide additional resources in the meantime. Remember, it is important that the children (and parents!) get a break as normal at Easter, so do take a couple of weeks to do other things over the Easter break.
AFTER EASTER
P1-P4 - weekly timetables will be uploaded to the respective class pages. These will give some direction as to the work that has been sent home and you should aim to follow these as closely as your home situation will allow.
P5-P7 - work after Easter will be through Google Classroom. Most children have been logged on and access should not be an issue. I am aware that a number of children are still having difficulty accessing but we are working on rectifying this as soon as possible. The intention is that teachers will upload work on a weekly basis for the children to work through.
Remember, please do not allow home learning to become a source of conflict in your home. All we ask as school is that you do your very best while protecting everyone’s sanity!!
Don’t forget also that Microsoft Office is free to all pupils on up to 5 devices. Guidance on downloading this can be found at the following link: https://www.gilnahirkps.org.uk/online- learning/
ADDITIONAL HOME LEARNING LINKS
If you are running low on work or if you just need something a bit different for this week and future weeks, some of these links may help. There are so many sites out there offering free resources and it can be hard to know where to even start, but hopefully these links along with those that you have discovered for yourself, can supplement what you are already trying to do.
www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk
www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies
www.hitentertainment.com/tvportfolio
www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/art-attack
www.usborne-quicklinks.com/uk/
I mentioned in last week’s update how many homes had been putting rainbows in their windows as a symbol of hope in these challenging times. Some of you then took time to send in pictures of your own rainbows, which are included below. I must say, each of them brought a smile to my face – there is always hope and this will all end some day – hang in there and enjoy the photos. I hope they give you the same lift that they gave me.
GREAT GILNAHIRK BAKE OFF
Some of our pupils have been busy honing their baking skills at home. Anna from P5 and Mary Ella from P7 have sent in photos of themselves practising their pastry skills. I’m no expert, Mary Ella, but that drizzle cake looks pretty good to me!
BIRTHDAY WISHES…The past week has seen birthdays for some of our pupils, including Charlotte and Caitlin from P4. Happy Birthday, girls. We hope you had a great day!
A NEW ARRIVAL!
No, not that sort of arrival!! Callum, Naomi and Cara Baird were excited to recently welcome Max, their new pup, to the family. I’m sure this will be a welcome distraction from all that is going on. Hopefully the house training is going to plan and that Max is providing plenty of fun in the Baird house.
A MESSAGE TO THE CHILDREN FROM MRCORBETT
Boys and girls, it’s just not the same without you. I am missing the buzz around school and popping in to classrooms to see how everyone is doing. I hope you are all well and that you are working hard at home and doing everything that mum or dad (or whoever is teaching you) is asking you to do. Remember, school work is still important so just try your very best at home. I know it’s strange working at home, but one day, we’ll all be back at school and you’ll realise just how much it means to you! Until then, keep going and be kind to others and yourselves.
DON’T FORGET
If you want to keep the school community up to date with what you have been up to as a family, please do send information and photos to dcorbett546@c2kni.net, and let me know if you are happy for me to include them in the weekly update.
Wishing all of you good health and God’s blessing.
Kind regards
D Corbett
Principal.
-
Info/pics for Weekly Update
Thu 26 Mar 2020Don't forget you can send information and/or pictures of what you are up to as a family to be included in next week's update. Really important to stay in touch as I know many of you are doing via WhatsApp etc. email:
dcorbett546@c2kni.net -
Home Learning Reminders
Thu 26 Mar 2020Dear parent,
In response to a number of inquiries from parents regarding home learning, please take note of the following reminders:
WORK BEFORE EASTERThis was distributed last week and was designed to give your child enough to work on until the Easter holidays. If you find that you are running short of work, please use the one of the many online learning platforms that are offering free resources to supplement what your child has already done
WORK AFTER EASTER
P1-P4: Work for after Easter was distributed to the children before the school closure. If your child was not in school when the work was distributed, you were invited to come to school and collect it from the front entrance. There are still a number of work packs that have not been collected. You should aim to collect these as soon as possible, observing the social distancing protocols currently in place. Weekly timetables will be uploaded after Easter on to the relevant class pages on our school website: www.gilnahirkps.org.uk
P5-P7: Children will complete work via Google Classroom. Every child was logged on to their classrooms before school closure, even if they were not in school, so children should be able to log in without any need for the class code. A step by step instruction guide can be found on the school website in the parents section under online learning. Please note that for Child Protection reasons, parents should not use their own google account to access your child’s classroom.
AND REMEMBER:
We can all only do our best in these unusual circumstances, so do not put yourselves and your families under undue stress and pressure. Strive to find a balance between the importance of school work and the importance of family harmony!
If you have any queries or difficulties with any of this, please do not hesitate to contact me on dcorbett546@c2kni.net
With kind regards
D Corbett
Principal.
-
Weekly Update
Wed 25 Mar 2020Dear parent,
I trust this finds you well and that you are all settling in to what is everyone’s new reality for the foreseeable future. I wanted to keep in touch with you over the next few weeks by sending a weekly correspondence to you. I may not always have much to say or any new information to give, but I think it’s important to stay connected as a school community. As we have all had plenty of time to do recently, I have been reflecting on a few things in relation to our situation and wanted to share them with you.
HOME LEARNINGIf my experience so far as a dad has shown me anything where home learning is concerned, it is that the best laid plans for the day rarely come to fruition. Already in our house we have started a few days with great gusto only to find that by 11.30am, everyone is fit to be tied!! I suppose what I’m saying is, while it is crucial to keep a focus on learning, we should all be kind to ourselves and our families as we learn to adjust to life as it is at the moment.
By way of reminder, packs were sent out to the children for this two-week period up until Easter – you should focus on these at the minute. After Easter, P1-P4 parents should keep an eye on the school website for timetable updates and P5-P7 children should begin to use Google Classroom. Children should have received their log in details for this. If you have any difficulties with this, please contact me and we can get it sorted.
Don’t forget to take a well-earned Easter break from Mon 6 April to Friday 17 April with a renewed focus on school work on Mon 20 April. But remember, be kind to yourselves!! It’s simply not worth that family argument!
REFUNDS FOR TRIPS ETC.
I am aware that quite a number of parents are due refunds for things like school trips that have been cancelled, swimming lessons, Greenhill and Edinburgh. Obviously in these tight financial times, we are keen to reimburse parents as soon as possible but this will take time to organise from a logistical point of view. Once these are ready, we will be in touch. Your patience in this regard is appreciated.
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE…
On my drive in to school this morning, I noticed many homes had stuck rainbows in their windows and I must say it brought a smile to my face. Everything we know has changed, but this thing will end, and in the same way that storms are often followed by rainbows, life will one day return to normal. When it does, I am convinced our school community will be stronger and more together than ever before.
Remember, keep well and be kind to yourselves and each other.
Please pass on my thoughts and best wishes to the children. We miss them all. Feel free to drop an email to myself on dcorbett546@c2kni.net if you have any queries or just to let us know how you’re getting on as a family.
Warm wishes
D Corbett
Principal.
-
Key Workers Update
Sat 21 Mar 2020Please note that childcare provision is only available to children whose BOTH parents are key workers or whose parent is a single carer. Mr Corbett will be in touch by tomorrow to confirm with those who have applied. Stay well, everyone. -
How to Clean Devices
Fri 20 Mar 2020
-
Information for Key Workers
Fri 20 Mar 2020Dear Parents,
You will no doubt be very aware of the information released by the Education Minister yesterday evening. In essence, this confirmed the closure of all schools on Friday 20th March, but with skeleton staff being available on Monday 23rd March to support identified Key Workers. This announcement was then followed by a letter to Principals in which the extensive list of key workers was highlighted.
As part of a national response, we are keen to pastorally support the Minister’s request. However, this has been initiated with such haste, that we must consider carefully the potential implications of such an extensive list and ensure that appropriate steps are put in place to manage this request effectively. Similar letters are being issued to Primary Schools across the country.
Consequently, we will only be able to offer places for childcare based on capacity.
It is worth bearing in mind that we have been instructed to close to minimise the risk of infection transfer at a time of national and global crisis. It is essential, therefore, that we are still able to comply with this ultimate reason for closure. Consequently, we will only be able to offer places for childcare based on capacity. To inform that decision, we need to be able to manage who can access the offer, otherwise the original reason for closure of schools becomes meaningless. In practice, this will mean we are not able to safely provide the offer of childcare from Monday morning, but will need a few days to organise the provision. We may also need to consider offering places to a smaller group, where the need is most urgent.
Once key information has been gathered and decisions made, only families with an offer of a place should attend the school, and they should only do so when directed to by the school. It could potentially be impossible to accept the number of families who may apply for such provision, given the extensive nature of the Minister’s key worker list.
To help us support those most in need and yet still safeguard appropriately, we request that if you require this provision, you contact the school with the information detailed below. Before doing so, please consider the guidance:
Points to Consider
• A list of key workers, issued by the Department of Education is listed below. Only children with BOTH parents working as key workers, and both parents out at work at the same time, should consider attending school.
• In single parent families, the main carer MUST be a key worker.
• If possible, alternative childcare arrangements should be sought before deciding to send your child to school, for example, with other family members, friends etc.
• Please try and use schools as a last resort. This is to try and limit the number of children and adults together in a small space in line with recent social distancing guidance.
• School’s normal opening and closing time will apply. For example, 8.50am –2pm, 8.50am –3pm. Please check with Sleepy Hollow for any separate arrangements regarding wrap around care.
• Children attending will be required to wear their school uniform.
• Schools will largely be performing childcare duties as not all teachers are currently available to teach specific year groups; teachers are also providing remote learning at the same time. Any child in attendance should bring their pack of work that has already been supplied
Please keep well and keep reassuring your children that everything’s going to be ok.
There are currently discussions around how lunch would be provided during the closure period for children entitled to Free School Meals. As yet, there is no clear guidance on this but once we are notified, we will inform you accordingly.
Thank you for your understanding as we have sought to work our way through this most difficult of weeks.
As a school, we are deeply grateful for the diligence, compassion and expertise of vital key workers, particularly those of you on the front line in health and medical services. We are mindful that many of you are under extreme pressure at this time.
Please be assured that the praying people of GPS are holding you up daily as you battle against this awful disease.
Thinking of you all.
I am still holding out hope (however slim) that this is not the end. If it is, on behalf of myself and all of the staff, I want to thank you for everything, not just during this most trying of weeks, but right throughout the year. The Gilnahirk spirit is as strong as it’s ever been and there has been a real sense of togetherness in the face of adversity amongst staff and parents.
Please keep well and keep reassuring your children that everything’s going to be ok.
With kind regards
D Corbett
Principal
APPLICATION FOR
CHILDCARE SUPPORT
FOR CHILDREN OF KEY
WORKERS
Please email your response to dcorbett546@c2kni.net by 3.00pm on Saturday 21st March, with the following information included
Children’s Names and Classes
Key Worker roles of parents or parent if you are a single parent (please indicate that you are a single parent in your email.)
Any other circumstances or considerations that the school should be aware of if we need to prioritise.
Contact number(s)
Email address
We STRONGLY underline the fact that, given the timeframe, this provision will not be in place for Monday 23rd March. This is to give us time as a school to make the necessary preparations. It is envisaged that the provision will be available from Tuesday 24th March
LIST OF KEY WORKERS
AS OUTLINED BY THE
MINISTER FOR
EDUCATION.
Health and social care. This includes doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, home carers and staff required to maintain our health and social care sector
Education and childcare. This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those education professionals who will remain active during the Covid-19 response.
Public safety and national security. This includes civilians and officers in the police (including key contractors), Fire and Rescue Service, prison service and other national security roles.
Transport. This will include those keeping air, water, road and rail transport modes operating during the Covid-19 response.
Utilities and Communication. This includes staff needed for oil, gas, electricity and water (including sewage) and primary industry supplies, to continue during the Covid-19 response, as well as key staff in telecommunications, post and delivery, services and waste disposal.
Food and other necessary goods. This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution and sale, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (e.g. hygiene, medical etc.)
Other workers essential to delivering key public services.
Key national and local government including those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response.
-
Key Workers
Thu 19 Mar 2020The minister for Education has released a statement this evening in relation to children of key workers. Please note school will be closed to all children on Monday as directed. Further information on this issue will be provided tomorrow. -
Update - Thursday 19th March
Thu 19 Mar 2020Dear parent,
After the madness of last night with the announcement of school closures, I wanted to keep in regular contact with you and to keep you updated with arrangements for the closure. As yet, there remain so many unanswered questions, so the best we can do is deal with the things that we do know. Please take time to read through the following points carefully.
WORK PROVISION FOR TERM 3.
Staff have been working hard over the last week to put in place plans for term 3 education provision. After much deliberation and preparation, we have decided on the following pattern:
P1-P4 – the majority of work for P1-P4 will be sent home today (Thursday) as hard copy worksheets and booklets etc. Please note this work is to be used after the Easter break (from Monday 20th April). You should already have the work planned for the two weeks prior to Easter. Once again, if your child is absent from school today and tomorrow, please collect term 3 work on Monday 23rd March from 9.30am. Weekly timetables will be uploaded on to the school website to guide you through the weeks after Easter. These can be found in Home-Children-Class pages and will be uploaded in time for the start of each school week from Monday 20th April
P5 – P7 – Mr Halliday and Mr Wright have been absolutely flat out this week preparing staff and pupils to use the online platform, Google Classroom. All children in P5-P7 who have been in school this week have been given a crash course in how to use Google Classroom and the children who have received this will have also received log in details for this. For those children who have not been in school this week to receive this training, log in details will be sent via a text message. Alternatively, a list of these will be held in my office and you can collect it on Monday 23rd March. An instruction guide on using Google Classroom can be found on the school website – Home-Parents-Online Learning.
This is a lot to take in but if I’ve learnt anything this week, it is that seemingly insurmountable tasks can be overcome by taking small steps at a time, and this is what we have tried to do.
P6 TRANSFER
This is a worrying time for all P6 parents given the repercussions for the AQE in November and December and the time that would normally be spent in the summer term preparing children for this – as the parent of a child in P6, I understand your concerns about this. For the children who are present today, transfer test packs will be sent home. If your child is not present today, these can be collected from the boxes at the front entrance on Monday 23rd March. It is vital that you do your level best to work through these papers in the time that we are not in school. Answers to each of the tests will be posted on the P6 Google Classroom page in due course.
CHILDREN OF ‘KEY WORKERS’
You may have heard the Minister for Education’s pronouncement this morning indicating that the children of ‘key workers’ may well attend school on Monday. The most frustrating thing about this for me as principal, and for everyone else, is that these pronouncements rarely, if ever, come with any substance or detail. As I write, no clarification has been given as to who is considered a ‘key worker’. There are so many professions that could rightly consider themselves as such and we could have such large numbers of children wishing to attend school that closing the schools becomes a pointless exercise in the first place! I wish I could be clearer about the details but at present, they do not exist. Until such times as it is made clear, you should plan for your children to be off school along with everyone else.
A FEW REMINDERS
- School is open as normal tomorrow with the usual finishing times
- Children may come to school in non-uniform
- Scientific Sue has been cancelled so there is no need to send £1 with your child.
Thank you for everything. The messages of support and reassurance that I have personally received from many of you has been truly humbling. Thank you.
Kind regards
D Corbett
Principal.
-
School Closure Confirmation
Wed 18 Mar 2020Dear parent,
It is with a genuinely heavy heart that I write to you to confirm the news that school will close to pupils from Friday 20th March at 3pm. Even as I write this, I am in a state of disbelief that this may be the last time that our children attend school in this academic year. I know that I speak for all of the staff at Gilnahirk Primary School when I say I am deeply saddened by this decision, while understanding its necessity in order to combat the common enemy that we face in Coronavirus.
Having consulted with my colleagues and friends at Gilnahirk, we have resolved to resist the temptation to follow many other schools who have already closed. It is our desire to open as normal on Thursday and Friday as we have been advised, and if this is to be farewell for the academic year, then we want to at least do it with some sense of finality and closure. It should be reiterated, however, that no resumption date has been given. However slight it might be, I hold some hope that we may return at some point in the summer term.
At this point it seems likely that staff will meet early next week to finalise provision for term 3. You should aim to work through the packs that have been given out today (Wednesday) in the run up to Easter and then take a well-earned break for two weeks, scheduled for Monday 6th April to Friday 17th April. If you have yet to collect your child’s pack, they are still in the front entrance hall in clearly labelled boxes. You should aim to resume your focus on school work from Monday 20th April, the details for which will have been provided well in advance of this date. As I have said before, I am realistic about the fact that none of this can ever be a match for what we offer in school and the patterns that you settle in to will differ from family to family, but it is vital that school work remains a high priority during term time.
There are so many other issues that cannot be covered in a single correspondence so I will keep in regular contact with you over the next weeks and months.
Please take note of the following other points:
Please ensure that you have provided your most up to date email address to school.
Check our website and Twitter feed regularly during the closure
Download ‘TheSchoolApp’ to your smartphone or tablet and search for Gilnahirk Primary, to receive notifications.
Return any reading books you may have at home with your child or in to the labelled boxes in the front entrance if your child is absent.
If your child is absent, please collect their PE kit and other belongings from their locker or hanger by Friday
And finally, children may come to school on Friday in non-uniform as a last hurrah before we part ways for the foreseeable future. Finishing times will remain as normal.
If you are one who believes in the power of prayer, I ask you to join me and many others at GPS as we pray for a quick resolution to this global crisis. May we all look to the ‘Rock who is higher than I’ in these uncertain and anxious times.
With kind regards and warm wishes,
D Corbett
Principal.
