Dear Parents and Carers,

• I hope you have all enjoyed the February Break and made the most of the snow, it certainly made for an interesting week!
• We have received this lovely request from NHS Lothian to invite our Primary pupils to take part in their Random Acts of Kindness campaign. They are asking children to make a poem, short story or picture of what kindness is to them. If you would like to take part then submissions should be sent to loth.kindness@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk by  Friday 12^th March.  Please find attached some templates for children to use and below is the link to a short video explaining what we are asking them to do https://vimeo.com/512532164
• The Remote Learning  Parents’ & Carers’ Guidance issued by The City of Edinburgh Council on 29.01.21 has been emailed to you and is posted on the CEC website, for your information.  This is a brief summary of the most recent iteration of the Schools Guidance.
• Parent Consultations: we had identified the first week in March for Parent Consultations, but we think it will be more helpful to you if we delay until all the children are back in school.
• The Paisley Book Festival runs from 18th to the 27th of February. Children’s authors appearing on the main programme include Ross Mackenzie,  Viv French,  Yuval Zommer,  Patience Agbabi,  Karine Polwart & Kate Leiper.  All the events are online and must be booked but they are all free via their website at: https://paisleybookfest.com/
• For daily links to resources, activities, online storytelling and more, be sure to visit the Children and Young People at Edinburgh City Libraries Facebook page and give them a ‘Like.’ At https://www.facebook.com/CYPatEdinburghLibraries
• Parent and Pupil Questionnaires: thank you to everyone who completed them. We are collating the replies and shall share the key points with you as soon as this is completed.
• Care Day on Friday 19 February 2021 is an international celebration of the Care Experienced Community. This year care day is about celebrating, connecting and communicating. There are a range of events for children and young people, staff and families, movie night, art competitions, webinars, share appropriately, thanks. https://www.whocaresscotland.org/care-day-2021/ and at https://careday.org/
• I emailed information on the P1-P3 children starting back at school on 22 January and Learning Together at Home continuing for P4-P7 children until the Scottish Government tell us their starting date. Latest information from the Scottish Government is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-schools-reopening/
• Assignments: If your children have any problems returning their learning to teachers via Assignments in Teams, please let the teachers know and they will be happy to help.

The Parent Council asked what parents could do to help the staff when the children return to school. This was so very kind of them to ask and much appreciated by all.

Our suggestions are:

• Follow all the FACTS to ensure everyone is continuing to do all they can to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. That will keep our children safe in school, prevent the teacher, pupil support assistants, class and any other close contacts being asked to self-isolate and Learn at Home for 10 days. No one wants that!
• Please be quick at school drop off and pick-ups at the end of the day.  I know this is a great way to catch up with everyone. I completely understand we are all in need of social company. However, enjoyable as that this may be, we do need everyone to reduce contacts as much as possible to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.
• Kindness before anything. If you are concerned about anything, do let us know, but perhaps leaving emails for a day or two before sending may help. We notice some are written very late at night.
• If you need our help in any way, please, just ask. Sometimes just talking can make a difference.
• We are a great community at helping each other out, this has become more important as we pull out of these dark days to help ensure we are all achieving our School Vision…’To be the best we can be’.

As always, if you would like us to help in any way, please contact us at admin@bruntsfield.edin.sch.uk

Kind regards,

Carol Kyle