Dear Parents and Carers,

• I hope you have enjoyed the sunshine which was very welcome during the Easter Break and you and your families are keeping well. I appreciate how challenging these times are for everyone.
• Our Hub School for children of key workers, with no other alternative care, is going to be James Gillespie’s High School for the Summer Term. Our staff are in a rota with staff from other schools to help support this. We are very proud to be in a position to have had the opportunity, capacity and number of staff to help enable frontline staff to work in our NHS and other key services and we shall continue to do this. Thanks to the staff who have worked at Tynecastle and also those who are supporting year group learning plans and ongoing school initiatives to allow them to do this.  We are looking forward to seeing the children at James Gillespie’s High School over the next few weeks. Parents who are accessing this service, please use the City booking system to confirm your places and if you know the times, that is a big help as it will allow us to ensure we have enough staff for the day. Thank you for keeping our NHS and other key services working, we all appreciate it.
• You are invited to complete a survey with your children if they are between 8 and 14 years of age about coronavirus, from the Children’s Parliament at https://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/our-work/children-and-coronavirus/

• We have emailed you documents as they come to us from The City of Edinburgh Council. They are all kept, with existing guidance and resources to support parents and carers on the Edinburgh Council website at Home learning support
• Other online resources which support parents and carers to develop the skills and confidence to support the learning and wellbeing of children during this period may be found at Parent Club and Education Scotland.
• ‘BBC Bitesize’s’ is a learning schedule to support learning at home and has great programmes on it for each stage. We used to use the BBC programmes a lot, so they may be familiar to the children. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bitesize-daily-schedules-teach/zdtwjhv
• Sharing learning, digital learning, live streaming, interactive teaching and learning: Our teachers are providing high quality learning activities to our families to ensure the children continue to engage in learning. We are all building skills in this new style of delivery, which is not the way any of us have worked in the past and is new for many of us. We are aiming for consistency across the school and teachers are supporting each other in many ways. Our time to work together to learn and deliver learning, though new ICT programs, is limited and skill dependent.
• Whilst we are exploring new ways to interact with the children, this will take time. I know some schools in other Authorities have used platforms, such as Zoom. This has not been approved by the CEC for use in our schools. We are working on ways to share learning using 365 with you and I shall be able to update you as we make progress.
• In the meantime, please continue to enjoy the variety of learning activities the teachers share with you. Remember, we are not asking you to recreate the school day, but to encourage children to engage with learning, which comes in many forms. We are aiming for 15-20 hours per week, which can be arranged to suit your own circumstances and may include other activities such as following cooking instructions, sewing, knitting, crafting, or building things out of bits and pieces. You never know what the things in the recycling box can make!
• I am pleased to have ‘found a friend’ who has helped me set up the systems in place to share my first ever video message with you (sent out earlier today with a task for the children). Did you watch ‘The Quiz’ on TV? I did enjoy it.
•  One of the PHD Students working with our Educational Psychologists has adapted her research to fit with the times we find our-selves in. She is  looking for parents of children involved in competitive sport… if you are such a parent or know anyone please take part and share this video.
  https://youtu.be/6X9fs7WCAiU  or https://www.facebook.com/raisinghappychamps/  or contact Jen Harris’s directly at jennifer@raisinghappychamps.com
• Date of schools opening: we have not been given a date for children returning to school. I shall keep you updated as information comes to me.

This term is about consolidation of prior learning and giving the children time to be creative in their thinking.

Enjoy using this time to focus on reading books, enjoying walks, runs, cycles and spending time with each other.

We shall pick everything up when the children come back to school and reinforce new learning with them.

The children will do well, because they have consistently given their very best every day, every year they have been in school.

They are in a very, very good position to take this term in their stride.

Look after yourselves and each other and enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts.

Kindest regards,

Carol Kyle

Head Teacher

Bruntsfield Primary School

12 Montpelier

Edinburgh

EH10 4NA

Tel: 0131 229 1821