STAKEHOLDER UPDATE 5 JUNE 2020
I hope you are all continuing to cope and focus on positive aspects of this challenging situation. Again, thank you to everyone for the work being done at home, at hubs, via deliveries, online and in any other form as we all continue to support each other. As a way of hopefully bringing a smile to our many families, we have made a staff video – click here and enjoy….. https://clickv.ie/w/Mgpn .
This week has been one of uncertainty and I appreciate the challenges that brings. We are working intensely to consider and plan the steps we must take in order to have a safe return in August. Some of the key points are below;
Recovery Planning
The Scottish Govt set out the recovery plan for Schools last week, since then Senior Council colleagues have worked on what this looks like for Edinburgh. Head Teachers got guidelines on Wednesday and I have been working with my Senior Team on plans / thoughts / considerations. We are not at a detailed phase yet. All HT’s must submit plans to Council, this then goes to Senior Council colleagues for approval. You’ll appreciate things like cleaning, building maintenance, travel, catering are all Council services impacted by Schools opening and the City has to be sure we can proceed in a safe way. Below are some of the broad guidelines;
-all Leith plans will meet social distancing, at present in Scotland that is 2m
-we will not be at full occupancy, we are looking at models where we work at a certain percentage of occupancy
-classes will not be their usual 30 and 20 pupil size…..these will be split into smaller, manageable numbers
So these are some of the parts of a very challenging puzzle. These are based on ‘today’ and may well change by August (or even next week). We essentially are having to re work every function / aspect of school to fit a Covid picture. I will keep you posted as this develops.
Key Adult Calls / Contact
Ordinarily, our ‘Key Adults’ see our pupils every morning for first registration and to ‘check in’ for the day. Soon we will be attempting to make a quick phone call or contact email just to check in with families and ask people ‘how are you doing?’. We think this would be a nice thing to do and will keep you posted on dates once this is clearer.
P7 into S1 Transition
We have had a great response of questions from our new S1 and we are working our way through recording the answers on video to help put names to faces. Our website is developing well within the transition section https://leithacademy.uk/parents/transition/ . Ordinarily the 15th June would have been the beginning of our week, but instead we will provide some ‘Edinburgh’ activities alongside some of our Sec / Subject activities via Ms Connell and Ms Watson. We are keeping in close contact with all feeder Primaries.
Parent Council AGM
This was held via Microsoft Teams last night. Parents are understandably anxious around next steps, but also were very complimentary of how we as a School Team are handling and communicating this challenging situation. Which was nice to hear. The Parent Council are a great support to the School and we have an extremely positive relationship which allows to work through solutions together.
EAL Letters
Edinburgh Council’s English as an Additional Language Team have helpfully prepared letters recently issued from Council in different languages. These have been added to our Parent Section of the website. The letters are in;
Arabic, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish
Chinese – simplified (China, Malaysia, Singapore)
Chinese – traditional (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan)
I appreciate these points may not answer every question you have but I hope they give you a sense of the work ongoing. As ever our email address of Admin@leith.edin.sch.uk is available where we will then direct your question to the relevant person.
Have a nice weekend when it comes.
Mike Irving
Head Teacher
