THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL

Department of Children and Families

Holy Cross R.C. Primary School

Craighall Road

Edinburgh

EH6 4RE

Telephone: 0131 552 1972

Email: admin@holycross.edin.sch.uk

Website: https://holycrossrcps.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @holycrossrcps

Head Teacher: Mr James McDevitt

M.A. (Hons.), P.G.C.E.(Primary)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

NEWSLETTER No 5, December 2020

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS FOR COVID-19 TEST RESULTS

Please note that the school office will close at 1200 on Tuesday 22 December and reopen on Tuesday 5 January. Should your child be tested for COVID-19 during the Christmas break and the test proves positive, please contact 0131 200 2000.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION DAY

On Thursday 17 December, in addition to the Christmas lunch, all classes celebrated Christmas within their classroom throughout the day. The children had the chance to watch a Christmas or seasonal film of their choice, as well as making some Christmas arts/crafts or other fun activities. Santa Claus, Mrs Claus and two elves also visited the school to deliver presents to all the children. As you can imagine, this caused huge excitement for the children and was enjoyed greatly by all. Luckily, we managed to capture their visit on video, which can be viewed by clicking on this link https://vimeo.com/492041352/a21e20c56f . We would like to express our thanks to the PTA who supplied and organised all the presents for the children.

NATIVITY SHOW

Children in Nursery, Primary 1 and Primary 2 worked very hard to produce a video of their Nativity Show. The link has been emailed separately to all parents and carers This has also been shared on Microsoft Teams and can also be viewed by clicking on this link https://vimeo.com/492630467/e4b2e8b383 Thanks to all to all the staff and children who worked so hard to make the show such a success. Special words of thanks also go to Jo Duncan and Rosemary McMillan for recording all the music, and to Mrs Sutherland for all her extra work editing the video.

CHRISTMAS APPEAL 2020

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this year’s Christmas Appeal for the homeless. These donations were taken to St Catharine’s Convent on 22 December and will be distributed there in time for Christmas. Thank you for your incredibly generous response! We were amazed by the number of donations, especially this year when things have been so challenging for many people. These gifts mean so much to those who receive them, and St Catharine’s Convent is extremely appreciative of your kindness.

CHRISTMAS SERVICE

Our Christmas Service has been recorded and will be shared on Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 22 December at 9.15 am. This will be comprised of readings and carols and will be an appropriate way to celebrate the final day of term before the Christmas holidays. At the end of the service there will be a video of The Twelve Days of Christmas which will be well worth watching! Again, the link will also be emailed to all parents/carers on Tuesday and can be viewed by clicking on this link https://vimeo.com/490717553/ea6b1cb530 Thank you to all those children who took part in producing the art work and in recording the readings, drama and music scenes. A special thank you goes to all the staff who took part so wholeheartedly in the video. We are also indebted to Mrs Burnett who spent many hours recording and editing the video of the service into its final form.

RETURN TO SCHOOL IN JANUARY 2021

On Saturday evening, the First Minister announced that children would not be returning to school as scheduled on Wednesday 6 January 2021. Arrangements are still evolving, but the following points have been confirmed by the City of Edinburgh Council:

· All schools are regarded as Hubs for the children of keyworkers and vulnerable children, who will be able to attend between 6-8 January and 11-15 January

· Keyworker status will be established by individual schools/settings via a Council form that will be sent to out to parents on Tuesday 22 December

· Remote learning for all pupils will take place from Monday 11 January 2021 with all pupils returning to in-school learning on Monday 18 January 2021

· The Council will write to all parents/carers on the afternoon of Tuesday 22 December outlining the arrangements for the start of the new term in more detail. This will be posted on the Council website and parents/carers will be alerted to it by text.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Holy Cross community for their incredible hard work and support since the children returned to school in August. Thank you to all our staff and to the children for being so adaptable and resilient in what has been a very challenging period. We have also received many messages of support from parents/carers over the past few months. These have been very encouraging and we very much appreciate these.

On behalf of all the staff at Holy Cross, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

James McDevitt

Head Teacher

22 December 2020

“Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

(Luke 2: 11)