Airth Primary School Elphinstone Crescent, Airth, Falkirk Telephone: 01324 831265 Acting Headteacher: Mrs S Ritchie
Falkirk Council Date: January 2021 Children’s Services
Dear Parent/Carer,
It is so difficult to find ourselves back in this position where children are not in school, it is a worrying time for us all. But as previously, we all pulled together to support each other, our families and our community and we will do the same again to get through this!
Following the Scottish Government announcement on 4th January, the majority of our children will now be accessing learning remotely at home from Monday 11th – Friday 29th January with the hope that all children will return to school on 1st February.
Contained in this letter you will find some updates as well as information that was issued in my previous letter issued before the holiday.
All children have access to their class Teams page and have been practicing how to access this independently in school. For week beginning 11th January:
Learning will be posted daily on Teams in line with learning that would take place in the classroom. Learning will be provided in a variety of ways – task grids, powerpoints, videos and live Teams meetings. Class teachers will be available ‘live’ on Teams twice daily – once in the morning and once in the afternoon for 30mins. During these times class teachers will discuss set learning for the day and direct pupils to where they can find learning activities. Please note that this is not a time for parents to communicate with the class teacher. This should only be done through posted comments in your child’s Class Notebook. Please do not worry if you are unable to access Teams at the allocated ‘live’ times, these are not direct teaching times. All teaching inputs will be pre-recorded to allow you to watch at any time. ‘Live’ sessions with the class teacher may take the form of video meetings, audio only meetings or communication through the chat function. Support and feedback on learning will be provided by the class teacher out with these times. Additional Support for Learning for individuals will be provided where possible. For the vast majority of children, Home Learning packs sent home in October for self-isolation should still be available to use if required.
Director: Robert Naylor Sealock House Grangemouth. Telephone : 01324 506600 Fax : 01324 506601 www.falkirk.gov.uk
Live interaction times with the class teacher
Morning Afternoon Primary 1 9.00 1.00 Primary 2 9.30 2.30 Primary 3 10.00 1.30 Primary 4 9.30 1.00 Primary 5 10.00 1.30 Primary 6 9.30 2.00 Primary 7 9.00 2.30
We appreciate that as some of the timings are the same for more than one class this might impact on siblings who are sharing a device. We have tried to avoid this by spreading the timings out as much as possible but to ensure that class teachers are available early morning, in some cases this has been unavoidable. We would suggest that if this is the case for your children, they access at least one live session each day.
Class Teacher Planning and Preparation Time
When in school, class teachers are entitled to non-class contact time to support planning for learning and teaching; therefore no class teacher will be available on-line on a Wednesday from 11.00am. This means that there will be no live session on a Wednesday afternoon and any work or comments posted will not be responded to until the Thursday.
Accessing Teams
Glow can now also be accessed through games consoles: https://youtu.be/rWTwAfLKbkU https://youtu.be/mHTHaXhccDE
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If you require support to access your child’s Teams page or to upload learning, please see the video links below:
Video 1 - Guide for signing into Glow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZBCrLYrAzw Video 2 - Overview of the Glow homepage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1tH182z6Po Video 3 - Logging into Microsoft Teams on a tablet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_up5wh3yUA Video 4a - Guide to Using OneNote (Browser) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYGndjix3O0 Video 4b - Guide to Using OneNote (App) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEStUbnQHlw
Other on-line platforms
Your child has login details for:
Sumdog: https://www.sumdog.com/user/sign_in
Active Learn: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0
Through Glow, pupils can access a range of sites, including BorrowBox and TigTag.
**Please remember that all pupils can download the full Microsoft Office suite for free after signing into Glow and clicking the 'Download Office Now' app. This can be downloaded on up to 5 devices including desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.**
Access to devices/SIMS
App message issued previously with regards access to devices and SIM cards. If you still require support with this please contact the school [email protected] Some families requested more than one device to support their children at home. Unfortunately at this point we are unable to facilitate this due to the number of devices being handed out.
We understand that working from home and supporting children and young people to learn from home is not easy. Information and supports are available from: Connected Falkirk Blog – digital learning support Connected Falkirk - Blended Learning Support Parent Club – Learning At Home
Again l would like to reiterate how fully we do appreciate that a lot of parents will still be working whilst also trying to support their child/children with remote learning or children are in childcare. As class teachers are providing more directed teaching inputs this time, we hope that children are able to access more learning independently, particularly our older children.
However, we understand if your child is not able to access the learning posted on Teams each day and that you may decide to provide your own form of learning. Please do not put yourselves and your family under undue pressure to complete everything that is provided. When the children are all back in their classroom, we will adapt our learning plans and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Please do what supports your own family circumstances and most importantly the health and wellbeing of all members of your household.
Take care, stay safe and we hope to see everyone back as soon as possible.
Sharon Ritchie Acting Headteacher
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