Dear Parents/Carers,
Please find below and in the attached documents, our weekly update. We apologise again for the last minute disruption to the school week this week and thank you all for your understanding in this. With quite a few events coming up over the course of this term, dates along with short descriptions have been included on the document attached. We will be in touch with any changes or additions to this information is confirmed.
Upcoming Dates
Attached to the weekly update, you will receive a copy of upcoming dates for this term. Please note that our online panto date has changed from the 20th to the 21st December to avoid clashing with the virtual Dance Festival. We look forward to providing further information about additional dates over the coming weeks.
Makaton
Our Makaton signs for this week are; please, sorry and next. The graphics for these are attached above.
Extra Curricular Activities
Unfortunately, we are still not in a position to start school run after school activities at this point due to current restrictions. Active Schools have managed to restart some of our previous sporting clubs and Skyedance are also operating as per usual. Attached you will see an overview of what is currently on offer as well as contact details for any queries.
Access to Google Classroom
For most classes, homework is currently assigned on Google Classroom. We will also be using this platform to share photos of classrooms and pupils over the coming weeks. If you are unable to access Google Classroom for any reason, please let class teachers know so that we can help.
COP26 Walk – Friday 12th November
Pupils are challenged to create a redesigned/recycled outfit from turning shirts to skirts, trousers to shorts, embellish no longer wanted items, jumpers to t-shirts, t-shirts to buffs – the ideas are endless. (Pinterest is great!) Children are encouraged to wear these to school and we will do a village walk, promoting Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to raise awareness of the Climate Conference.
Winter Weather
With the winter weather approaching, 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.
As always, please get in touch with any question or concerns you may have.
Regards,
Sara
https://portreeprimary.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/extra-curricular-activities-november-1.pdf
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