Head Teacher Update – Sunday 29^th March 2020

Dear Gilmerton families,

On Friday we opened our doors at our hub school, based within Craigour Park Primary School.  A massive thank you to both the staff members who volunteered to work in the hub and to the home working teachers who kept home learning running for all children including for those teachers working in the hub. I cannot put into words how much I appreciate this team effort and approach. Please read the important information below about hub schools and food parcels.

Key workers’ hub school

• If you are a category 1-3 key worker you will have received an email from the authority regarding the offer of a place at a hub school.

• You should not be using a hub place if there is an adult in your household who is NOT a keyworker. We do have to minimise the amount of contact people have with each other in order to contain the virus. If you send your child and you have not met the criteria on the diagram, you will be asked to take your child(ren) home.

• Please do not take your child to the hub school if they require any medicine to be administered.

• Young children are finding it difficult to keep to the 2 metre social distancing rule. We would ask parents of young children to think carefully about the hub provision for young children. Please reinforce social distancing with your child.

• Please be completely sure that you, your child, or anyone else at home does not have any symptoms of COVID-19, or has had them during the previous 7-14 days, as per NHS advice.

• Please transport your child to school obeying social distancing guidelines.

• Please observe social distancing guidelines during drop off by staying well back from others.

• Please bring ID with you to prove that you are a Key Worker.

• Please complete the registration sheet (which will be issued when signing in) and clearly record your place of work and contact details.

• Please bring the following
• Your child’s electronic device if they have one so they can do their remote learning activities set by teachers.
• Snacks and drinks (own water bottle)
• Books or small games they like to play.

• It is very important that school teams manage to have a rest from the work of the past 2 weeks, wherever possible.

• If you do not need a place allocated to you, please email with subject line HUB NOT REQUIRED and DATE SchoolsandLifelongLearning.BusinessSupport@edinburgh.gov.uk

• We would appreciate if you could copy in Admin@gilmerton.edin.sch.uk so we can stop staff coming to a hub if not required for their own safety and their families’ safety.  #StayHomeSaveLives

• The authority are working to extend the hub school hours from 8am to 6pm from Monday 6 April, the beginning of the school holidays. This will largely depend on availability of staff from community and learning and development teams across the city.

• We will continue to update you on progress and arrangements for hubs schools. Please do not ask for more details at this time. We do not have them.

We had very few resources on our first day of opening but we have now “raided” our own school and will be setting up activities in the classrooms and grounds.

• Your child will be in a small group with approximately 5 others.

• Lunch will be provided in the hub.

• Please ensure appropriate clothing and footwear for PE and outdoor play.

• During collection, please adhere to 2m social distancing and wait until your child is brought to meet you outside by the Group Leader for your school.

• Please ensure your child washes and changes their clothes when they return home.

• Please ensure that clean clothes are worn in attending Learn/Care next day.

My staff team are working under very stressful and difficult circumstances.  We are being asked to staff hub schools, send home learning for your children and take part in other aspects of the emergency response such as delivering food parcels.  Please be kind to the staff team.  We are doing our best to manage the demands we face, to support fellow key workers and ask that your child(ren) access the hub only when it is essential.

Food parcels

Thank you to Ms Vacher who delivered food boxes on Friday to members of our school community.

If there are families in financial hardship who require help with food, please let me know in confidence at Admin@gilmerton.edin.sch.uk  I can access help from the children and families team. Moving forward, we hope that food parcels will be delivered every 2 weeks.

Please keep safe and thank you for all of the wonderful messages for our team- this really helped! Thank you to our amazing key staff who will face challenging times in our critical services. We will do everything we can to support you through childcare/schooling.

I do hope that you and your families are safe and well.  Thank you to our key workers in the NHS and other services.

Please stay home, follow NHS and Government advice and keep our key workers, including your school staff on duty, safe and healthy.

Kind regards

Rebecca Annand

Head Teacher