As we come to yet another week, there are a number of weekly reminders to make you aware of.  In order to try and keep track of a busy couple of months, I have prepared monthly calendars and attached these above for reference.  There are likely to be additions and changes to these and we will make you aware of those as soon as they come up. 

First and foremost – a huge thank you to everyone for your amazing support of Children In Need. It is so refreshing, in these changing times, to see that the enthusiasm of our pupils and families in supporting these worthy causes is just as strong as ever! We will update our Facebook page later today with some photos from today.

With the winter weather appearing, a reminder of our arrangements for Adverse Weather are detailed below. 

Adverse Weather Arrangements

It is the responsibility of parents or carers to decide if a pupil should attempt to travel to school, by transport or on foot, in adverse weather conditions.  The council encourages full attendance at school but in severe weather condition the safety of pupil is much more important. 

Parents and pupils are often concerned about content that may be missed, but this should not over-ride good judgement.

Communication

Every effort will be made to keep parents informed of details of school closures, early closures etc. brought about by adverse weather.

When the school is not going to open, this will be communicated by the school Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/portreeprimary/ on the Highland Council Website www.highland.gov.uk/schoolclosures and on the schools telephone information service line, which is available by dialling 0800 564 2272 and entering the school’s PIN 042810

Bus Pupils

Parents should note that the final decision on whether it is safe to operate rests with the driver of the school transport vehicle.  Therefore there may be occasions on which a school is open but some routes, or part of routes, are unable to operate.

When weather conditions are poor, parents should ensure that children are met at the “drop off” point, especially where public service transport it used.

In the event of the school closing early due to adverse weather conditions, the three schools in Portree will make a collective decision about whether buses will be called early.

Where this is the case, school staff will make every attempt to contact parents directly to ensure pupils are to get onto school transport.  In cases where parents cannot be contacted, pupils will not be put onto busses but will be kept at the school for collection.

All Other Pupils

In the event of the school closing early due to adverse weather conditions, this information will be shared as listed above.  We ask parents to share this information widely and to make arrangements to collect pupils from school as soon as possible.  All pupils are to be collected via the school reception.  Once school transport has been arranged for pupils travelling by bus, and if the telephone lines allow, parents of pupils still at school will be contacted directly to ascertain arrangements for collection.  Often adverse weather can also mean a loss of phone lines and in this instance, staff may use mobile phones to contact parents.  It is essential that we hold up to date contacts for all pupils  Pupils will not be permitted to walk home unless that has clearly been stated by parents.

Please discuss this with pupils so that they are aware of what their plan is if this circumstance were to arrive.  For pupils who are permitted to walk home in this situation, class teachers must be given this permission in writing.

Virtual Concert

You will be aware from previous emails, that we are working on putting together a virtual Christmas Concert.  In addition to this being shared with parents, we hope to offer it to Taigh Na Drocaid, Home Farm etc.  We would normally visit to present some Christmas songs etc but thought that this might be a nice way to engage when we can’t be present. As previously mentioned, please let us know if you would prefer for your child not to be involved in this virtual performance. We also hope to involve some pupils in writing cards and letters to some of the residents in these homes over the festive season.

Given that pipes and chanters are currently not allowed in school, we would still like to include these performances in our virtual concert.  Piping pupils are encouraged to take a video at home and send this to myself so that it can be included in the performance.  

Our days for filming on 7^th and 8^th December and class teachers will be in touch if pupils require any particular clothing or props on those days.

Internet Safety

Internet Safety continues to be part of our Health and Wellbeing Curriculum at school. However, recently there have been some incidents in school that have begun on social media and gaming platforms outside of school.  A reminder of the Net Aware website https://www.net-aware.org.uk/ which provides the most up to date guidance for parents around content and restrictions of the ever changing online world.  In particular, some of our pupils have been involved in a Call of Duty game which has an age rating of 18.  We try to contact parents when we become aware of this as in some cases, pupils have gained access to these without realising how age inappropriate these games are and without parents knowledge.  If you have any concerns around this, please get in touch.

Youth Speaks

Primary 7 pupils have been busy preparing their Youth Speaks entries for presenting in school next week.  We are hoping to select a team of 3 to represent PPS at the upcoming, virtual Youth Speaks competition which will take place on Tuesday 1^st December.

Homework

We hope that everyone has been able to access weekly homework tasks via Google Classroom.  As per our school homework policy, homework will be reduced in the month of December and will just include reading. 

Parent’s Nights

While there was some mention that Parent’s nights may be able to proceed, virtually, this month.  The Council are still in the process of trialling different methods for this and as such, Parent’s night appointments will not take place this term.  We will update you on this once we have further guidance from the Council.  We hope that, through the month of December, we can share some photos on Google Classroom to give you some insight into what classrooms, displays etc are currently looking like as well as a sample of classroom activities.

As always, please be in touch with any questions/concerns.

Regards,

Sara