Dear Parents/Carers Head Teacher’s Briefing Wednesday 24 June 2020 Deputy First Minister’s Statement I am sure by now you will all have heard the DFM’s announcement that if the progress made in reducing CV-19 is maintained that all children will be able to return to school in August. The City of Edinburgh Council will adjust its planning based on this. Parents will be informed on planning for reopening in August by the end of the week. I apologise that the situation seems to be constantly changing and I assure you I will provide some clarity as soon as I have this. Communication with School this week We are unable to respond to non-urgent business, currently as our teachers, support staff and senior leaders are working significantly beyond their contracted hours to facilitate:

• Running transition activities and Yearbook Pick-Ups Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week

• Running recruitment interviews

• Running end of year events to mark this time for children in as positive a way as we can

• Managing a rapidly changing environment where we are updating our arrangements for August and the summer holiday period.

We will do our best to respond to any urgent queries and some will have to be picked up with you after the summer break. Parent Council Thank you to our PC for hosting our first virtual meeting. Our chairs will consider how we can potentially utilise remote meetings to enable more parents to attend. A minute will be issued to parents shortly but in the mean-time here are slides from the HT report. Pease appreciate that some elements of this were accurate at the time of writing but have since been overtaken by events.

Staffing Congratulations to Joanne Russell who has been appointed on a 0.6 part-time temporary contract. Ms Russell will teach P7 with Kym Craig beginning in August. Sadly Sarah Walsh, Ali Parkin and Sophie Radcliffe will all leave Preston Street at the end of this term. Thank you to Ms Walsh, Mr Parkin and Ms Radcliffe for all your support and hard work for your classes as well as your significant contributions to our school community. I know children, parents and staff will be sad to see you leave and we wish you all the very best in future. Thank you also to Mr Paul Cummings who is unable to continue to support our maths learning and teaching next session as he is required to teach a full timetable at JGHS. Thank you to Paul for all your work as part of school’s faculty model. Communication over summer School is closed over the summer break and all of our staff including the school leadership and family support team will need to take a break and attend to personal and family matters. I will send brief updates to our parent community as any updates arise. Website Update – Supportive Resources Based on parent feedback we have bolstered our supportive resources on our website. These will be added to over the summer break so that parents can use these tools to support pupils in returning to school. Emotional and Mental Wellbeing Family Learning and Family Support Dates

Wed 24 Jun 2020 P3-4 Achievement Assembly, 9:30am This will be a pre recorded assembly published on our YouTube page

Wed 24 Jun 2020 P7 yearbook collection in playground, 9 – 9:30am By appointment only – please see previous email for details

Wed 24 Jun 2020 ‘Move up Day’ – pupils meet new teacher / class This will be held via website (P1-3) and Teams (P4-7) – further details

will follow via email

Thu 25 Jun 2020 P1-2 Achievement Assembly, 9:30am This will be a pre recorded assembly published on our YouTube page

Thu 25 Jun 2020 P7 yearbook collection in playground, 9 – 9:30am By appointment only – please see previous email for details

Thu 25 Jun 2020 P7 Leavers’ Assembly, 2pm This will be a live assembly on MS Teams

Fri 26 Jun 2020 P7 yearbook collection in playground, 9 – 9:30am By appointment only – please see previous email for details

Fri 26 Jun 2020

School closes for summer holiday at 12.00

SUMMER BREAK

Mon 10 Aug 2020 INSERVICE DAY 1 School closed to pupils

Tue 11 Aug 2020 INSERVICE DAY 2 School closed to pupils

Wed 12 Aug 2020 Pupils resume (dependent on group TBC)

From previous briefings

Supportive Resources Anti-Racist Education - CNN & Sesame Street Collaboration National Parent Forum Support for Home Schooling Coming back to school in a bubble Children’s Story Support for Children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder on Returning to School Back to school toolkit for parents of children with an ASN Young Scot information for young people Primary School P1 Placements, Placing Appeals and Class Organisations Unfortunately, due to city council HQ staff not having access to information systems at home during lockdown, the above systems are running behind schedule. The HQ Team are currently prioritising work on the S1 placements as the Secondary placing appeals have been scheduled to take place between the end of June and mid-July. Primary placing appeals will start mid-July through to August. Cleaning and Personal Protective Equipment

The following PPE items have been delivered to school:

1. Hand Gel 2. Gloves

3. Aprons 4. Masks

5. Disinfectant

6. Wipes

PPE will be used when we cannot socially distance Eg providing first aid and intimate personal care.

New cleaning hours and routines are being put in place by our cleaning service. Signage, floor markings etc will be organised before children return by city council. Hubs Update

Hubs will be continuing in their current locations until the school summer holiday begins. Then for the start of the summer holidays key worker children’s hubs will be sited at six of the existing hubs. James Gillespie’s HS hub will continue along with all the other current hubs except Juniper Green and Drummond. Staff will come from Lifelong Learning and Early Learning and Childcare. Reopening School

We continue to work on our risk assessment, parent guide and staff guide for re-opening. National information for parents about schools and early years / childcare providers re-opening https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/reopening-schools National Q&A for parents on school and early years/ childcare re-opening https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/reopening-schools-faqs Temporary Values for Reopening This will be our renewed values for welcoming children back in to school in August. These have been formed based on feedback from our school community. These values will apply to all. Safe Following appropriate advice and arriving for school and being picked up at the right time. Thorough handwashing technique. Observing and modelling physical distancing. Following rules so we can play safely and spend time outside school as part of our day. Supportive Focus on health and wellbeing and allowing for a diverse range of experiences with home learning. Warm, predictable, kind responses towards all members of our community. Smart Enjoy the opportunity to refocus on in-school learning. Trying to listen to our teachers and learn all we can. Thoughtful, calm decision-making by all adults in our school community.

Transition for Children with Additional Support Needs

Some children, who are supported at Pathway 3 and have a Child’s Plan, will require individualised transition arrangements for returning to school. We will contact parents individually to plan this with you.

Child Planning Meetings (via video call or phone call)

We are sending out email offers for final Child Planning Meetings to be held in June. We have prioritised children most in need of these. P7 transition to S1 James Gillespie’s High School

P7 families should go to https://youtu.be/-Ug_toGI1MY for a message from James Gillespie's High School. This movie will hopefully help your child with their transition to JGHS this year whilst we are still in lockdown. Please also keep an eye on the JGHS cluster page which has transition information at https://www.jamesgillespies.co.uk/cluster-primaries/ We will send you more info about P7-S1 transition when this has been agreed across the school cluster group. Our team is also planning some special home learning activities for P7. Dates

Fri 26 Jun 2020

School closes for summer holiday at 12.00

Tue 11 Aug 2020 Planned re-opening of Scottish schools. NOTE that this is earlier than had been planned before Covid-19.

Mon 17 Aug 2020 Inservice day 1 CANCELLED TBC

Tue 18 Aug 2020 Inservice day 2 CANCELLED TBC

Support Resources Approaches to Children’s Wellbeing Education Scotland Guidance on Transitions Advice on play during the crisis

Here is some helpful advice on why play is so important for children right now. http://ipaworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IPA-Play-in-Crisis-Booklet-for-parents-and-carers-2020.pdf

P1 Teachers I am delighted to announce that our P1 Teachers next session will be Ms Emma Sampson and Ms Katy Ritty. P1 children and parents will find out their exact class and teacher in June. Staffing and Class Organisation

I have a draft class organisation staffing structure that will be ready to share with parents in June, once our staffing model is confirmed by the city of Edinburgh council, with children finding out their class in late June. It is expected that almost all children will move on to a new teacher next session. We will however do what we can to enable children to spend some time with last year’s teacher where this is possible. Children’s questions and suggestions It is really important that we give children agency and a sense of having some control in these uncertain times. Please can children and parents submit views, fully and constructively, on this form, which will close on 2nd June at 5pm. Please consult with your children and include their views too. Older pupils can submit these directly onto this padlet. I have updated my feedback to pupils in light of recent advice. School Reopening Plans You may have seen the First Minister’s announcement regarding the return of pupils to school. Please note that while guidance has been issued at a national level, we are currently awaiting guidance from the City of Edinburgh Council and the chance to form our own reopening and recover plan based on this guidance. Until we have been given this, we will be unable to provide details. I appreciate that this will feel uncertain and perhaps frustrating for both parents and pupils and can only ask for your patience as this complex situation unfolds. As soon as we have a clearer picture, we will let you know more. A strategic framework for reopening schools & ELC is available here. Key points in this document are:

• Any re-opening of schools will be subject to medical and scientific advice saying that it is safe to do so.

• Assuming that is the case, there is an expectation that school staff will return to school at some point in June to prepare for a return of all pupils in August.

• Efforts will be made to encourage more of our ‘most vulnerable children’ to attend hubs this side of summer.

• Some form of in-school transition work for incoming P1s and S1s may take place in late June. We do not have any details of this as yet; we are awaiting national and local guidance before establishing our own plan.

• All schools in Scotland will return on 11th August. We do not yet know of this is for all pupils and are awaiting national and local guidance before establishing our own plan.

• The twin constraints of space and staffing will determine what schools can offer – and it is clear that this will be a part-time in-school and part-time in-home ‘blended’ offering.

• Critical childcare will need to continue throughout May, June and the summer break to ensure ongoing provision for key worker and vulnerable children. When school staff return in June to prepare for the new school session in August, local authorities should consider carefully how to resource hubs during this period. It will be important that school staff have time and space to work and plan together to prepare for the start of session 2020/21.

Free school meals payments to parents The city council payments team has made around 6000 free school meals payments to parents every fortnight. As of 15 May 2020, they have 60 enquiries outstanding and are working hard to get back to all parents who have been in touch about their payment. Remember the payments are only for low-income families who would meet the eligibility criteria for free milk and a clothing grant. Instrumental Music Service If your child receives violin lessons, they will be issued with weekly materials to support home learning. For P5-7 pupils, these will be uploaded to Microsoft Teams; meanwhile P4 pupils will have their weekly materials sent via email. New material will usually be uploaded on a Thursday or Friday. An email was sent last night to all parents whose child receives violin lessons, with details of how to access the materials. If you did not receive this please contact Mr MacLean.

Family Support

The next delivery will be on Friday 22 May. Unfortunately, the city council cannot provide any additional food parcels for new families at this time. If anyone needs food, please use the national helpline on 0800 028 2816.

Free school meals home payment and other grants

Information about free school meal home payments and other grants is available at https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/food-clothing

Teachers using Video Calls for Learning and Teaching

There are clear benefits to pupils being able to see teachers via video. A barrier currently is the professional judgement of staff in terms of their confidence transmitting video and having a home working environment that makes this possible. Having just journeyed into of creating video content during lockdown, I can attest that this is an extremely difficult task to manage effectively, both in terms of expertise and logistics.

Current feedback on our padlet shows that parents do indeed value video content from teachers and it is one of our priorities to consider, as we continually refine our practice in the delivery of home learning. At the same time, this remains a personal professional decision as to whether our staff create video content. There are various reasons as to why this may be the case and so whilst I know we will be supporting staff in developing skills and confidence in this area, it is possible that some teachers do not create video content. As Head Techer, this decision has my respect and support.

Contacting School Reminder

The school is closed. The phone line and answer machine messages cannot be accessed.

Please continue to direct enquiries to admin@prestonstreet.edin.sch.uk. This mailbox is monitored regularly, and a member of our team will respond within 5 working days usually much quicker.

School email admin@prestonstreet.edin.sch.uk FAO [name] for HT, DHT, class teacher

Website prestonstreetprimary.wordpress.com/

Twitter twitter.com/prestonstps

Facebook facebook.com/prestonstreetprimaryschool/

Family Support

The next delivery will be on Friday 22 May. Unfortunately, the city council cannot provide any additional food parcels for new families at this time. If anyone needs food, please use the national helpline on 0800 028 2816.

Free school meals home payment and other grants

Information about free school meal home payments and other grants is available at https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/food-clothing

Reporting This session you will receive an end of year report on your child’s progress in mid-June. In line with local authority guidance we will not report on achievement of curricular levels as pupils will have been out of school for over 10 weeks. The report will consist of positive statements on children’s learning a progress with an emphasis on literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and notable strengths.

Support services

We can still access support services such as Educational Psychology, so please ask for help using admin@prestonstreet.edin.sch.uk if you need support.

Recommendations from our School Nursing Service Please find new resources uploaded to our school website to support parents and children to discuss and make sense of corona virus. Talking to your children about scary world news Children’s picture book explaining Corona Virus Other support Following the Scottish Government’s announcement, the city council has set up a local support line to help people who are not in the higher clinical risk group but need support if they too don’t have family/friends helping. This is for people who are over 70, have a disability, need mental health support, are pregnant, receive a flu jab for health reasons and/or don't have online access to get information. We’ll arrange the help or support either through our services or through volunteers or voluntary groups. Call 0131 200 2306 or email edinburghvulnerable@edinburgh.gov.uk Requests are handled through the same team as the shielding so that we link people to what they need and refer to other services if/when needed. Important contacts for support Food Support Scottish Welfare Fund 0131 529 5299

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/benefits-grants/scottish-welfare-fund/3 SOUTH EAST FOOD BANK 0131 664 9353 http://edinburghse.foodbank.org.uk/ edinburghfoodbank@blythswood.org Edinburgh City Mission Basics Banks https://www.edinburghcitymission.org.uk/where-to-find-help/basics-bank.php 0131 225 9445 mail@edinburghcitymission.org.uk Wellbeing Support Social Care Direct - 0131 200 2324 (social work service) socialcaredirect@edinburgh.gov.uk Opening hours Monday-Thursday 8:30am-5pm Friday 8:30am-3:55pm Emergency Social work service – (out of hours) – 0800 731 6969 Police Scotland Edinburgh – 01786 289070 Emergency police – 999 Police text phone – 18000 Police 101

• Domestic abuse helpline – 0808 802 3333

• Children 1st – 0131 446 2300

• NSPCC – 0808 800 5000

• Samaritans – 116123 or jo@samaritans.org

• Parent line Scotland – 08000282233 Home Link – voluntary agency offering advice or support for families – 0131 661 0890

• Home Start – voluntary agency offering advice or support for families – 0131 564 1540

• Cedar – voluntary agency offering advice or support for children affected by domestic abuse – 0131 315 8116/ 07850515283

• Circle – voluntary agency offering advice or support for families – 0131 552 0305

• CHAI- voluntary agency offering advice, housing support and employability support – 0131 442 1009

Support from City of Edinburgh Council See advice on council tax and benefits https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/14429/council-tax-benefits-and-welfare---coronavirus-advice Danny Hoyle Head Teacher Preston Street Primary School Dalkeith Rd

Edinburgh EH16 5BR 0131 667 4208 prestonstreetprimary.wordpress.com t: @prestonstps