News

What's happening This week at Downfield

Here we are week two of the new terms and things are moving along a pace. We are working on numerous things with the children.

Prior to Christmas break, we completed a survey with the children relating ot their experience in school. The results of this were particularly positive, however, there were two areas which emerged where the responses were not so positive. These areas being Learning Experiences and safety. To expand on this, the children felt that their learning needs to be more active and that there were situations were a few children felt unsafe. 

On the back of this, the Leadership Team conducted pupil focus groups to unpick these areas further. We have subsequently met with the staff and are in the process of planning the way forward to improve these areas for the children. 

As well as this, we are continuing to focus on our Anti-bullying campaign which is proving to be really successful. The children are using the reporting methods to good effect. We will continue to work on this in the coming weeks. 

We are also continuing the focus on promoting attendance. Chris, our School and Family Development Worker, is working hard with groups of children to promote attendance. 

Assembly

The focus for the coming weeks assemblies are kindness, our Vision Values and Aims, Child Mental Health and respect.

Yesterday we had a visit from Russell Pepper who works for DCC as par of the safer streets intiaitive. He spoke to all the children about the need for our streets to be closed to vehicles at vertain times of the day and why it is important. The children were really engaged in this and had lots of fab questions.

They have been asked to design a banner to remind road users to stay out between the hours of 8.30-8.15am and 3.00-3.30pm Monday to Friday during term time. The winning design will be used as our very own personalised banner. Good luck to all those who enter!

Halloween Disco

Please see image below with details of our Halloween disco...the planning meeting at Docs has already happened! Apologies if you missed the email! Still not too late to offer your help!

Snow Closure Information

Given there seems to be a lot of the white stuff falling, here's a link to the snow closure leaflet.  

snow closure leaflet.

Lockdown: Home learning Updates

So here we are at the start of another period of home learning. We are here to help whenever and wherever we can, please just get in touch. There has been a nationwide issue with Microsoft Teams today, perhps it's all too much for the infrastructure to cope with every child logging on all at once! Our amazing teachers have been finding alternative ways to get the learning out to the children, please be patient, we are all hoping this is just a temporary glich!

If your child does not have Microsoft on their device this can be downloaded free using their glow email address by clicking on the following link https://glowconnect.org.uk/help-with-glow/microsoft-office-365/office-365-proplus/ and following the steps.

The most recent school lunch menu has also been uploaded and can be accessed via the following link. Dundee Nursery & Primary School Menu January 2021 (tayside-contracts.co.uk)

If your child can't remember how to log on to Microsoft Teams, please watch this really helpful video from Mr Dolan about how to access it. https://youtu.be/8ZA8WMwuaho

You will find the most recent communication from the school in the Newsletter tab on this website Downfield Primary School Pupils Home Learning Plan 2021 — Welcome to Downfield Primary

November Updated Covid Information

Our updated information sheet for parents can be found in the publications section of this website.

Covid Advice for Parents

Please check our publications section for this new document.

http://resolveuid/4c67c31751844fff8fa1da5afd513a4e

Out of School Club

Is currently closed

Returning to school

Good afternoon all.

The Leadership Team have been meeting today to finalise plans for next week and the coming weeks.

Mrs Emmett has a meeting tomorrow with Audrey May to finalise info regarding lunches, full time attendance as of Monday 17th, breakfast club etc.

On Monday and Tuesday, staff will be reconfiguring the classrooms to allow for full time attendance and new safety procedures.

In the short term, I can share with you the immediate attendance plan for next week. After the detailed planning we did prior to the holidays with blue and purple groups, we will use this model for the first week. This reduced number of children on Wednesday and Thursday will allow us to reinforce the new procedures around health and safety with the classes.

Wednesday 12th
Blue Group 9am-3pm
(P1 Blue group 9am-12pm- entry via nursery gate)

Thursday 13th
Purple 9.15pm-3.15pm
(P1 Purple group 9.15-12.15pm- entry via nursery gate)

Friday ALL children in
Blue 9am-3pm
Purple group 9.15pm-3.15pm

After tomorrow's meeting, we will be in a position to share information regarding lunches and week 2s attendance etc.

After School Club will be open as of Wednesday 12th.

Thank you once again for you patience as we formulate plans to get it right for our school community.

***Classes for next session***

June 2020

Dear Parent,

Staffing and Classes for Next Session 2020/21

Many thanks to our parents and carers for your patience.  I know that families have been keen to have information to share with their children about plans for next year.  My team have been working on our plans and we will share the plans for August with you all this week – please check Dojo, emails and Twitter this week for details.  In the meantime, I am sure that your child will be keen to know who their class teacher will be.  I would like to share with you class teachers for the coming session.

Classes for August are as follows:

The staff team and leadership team spend considerable time organising classes before they are finalised and shared with families.  We invest time to ensure the classes formed will work well as learning groups and we have spent time talking through decisions with staff during lockdown. P7 and P1 classes will be a different, although classes will be organised to take successful learning groups and friendships into account.  Our current P1-P5 pupils will move to their next teacher with the same pupils.

Further information will be shared this week regarding our return for August.  Again, I would like to take the opportunity to thank parents for their understanding and patience at this time.  Our guidance has changed many times and it has taken time to adapt plans to get it right for our pupils.  The current situation has made planning for schools in August very complex and plans have taken more time to organise than usual as a result.

I would like to take this opportunity to inform families that we have several staff members moving on to pastures new – I am sure you will join me in wishing these staff members well.

Miss Treece and Miss Esposito have both accepted teaching jobs abroad, in Dubai and Spain.  We wish them both well and look forward to hearing about their experiences.  Mrs Hampson, Miss Clark and Miss Bremner are all leaving to have babies.  Good luck ladies, hoping to meet the new arrivals very soon!  Mrs Donald from our nursery and Mrs Calder and Mrs Ward from our school office are retiring.   All these ladies have given long service to the school and will be really missed.  I know you will join me in wishing these ladies a long and happy retirement.  We also welcome Mrs Bunce to our team.  We still have a vacancy to fill and will inform parents when we receive this information.

Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable summer break.  Looking forward to seeing the pupils and families in August.

Kind regards,

Mrs Karen Emmett

Head Teacher

****up coming information****
I know many of you have lots of questions about what school will look like in August, who your children will be taught by, report cards etc.  All this information including a FAQ sheet will be shared with you all this coming week. A lot of this info will be shared on here and twitter but also via email. It is vital that we have your most up to date email address. If you have not already sent this to your child's teacher or to downfield.primary@dundeecity.gov.uk please do so before Monday as we don't want you to miss any information.

***Recovery Planning for August 2020***

As part of our recovery planning for August, we would like get your opinions on a couple of matters.

Below is a link to a survey which will only take 2 minutes to complete to allow you to have a say in what things will look like going forward in August.

These are anonymous but really important for us to get it right for coming back. Thanks in advance....feel free to copy and share the link with other parents who are perhaps not on Dojo.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKbnEZgUnwq9GsD_Pv1CLqq9UNjJNMzlIWVhTUjc5UlZLQTQwWkJFV1VaWS4u

****New activities for home learning have been added to the Publications Section.****

Key Worker Update

Please use the link below to see if your child fits the criteria for a place in school on Monday. You get an almost instant response. You cannot just send your kid into school without completing this.

Link to Key Workers Survey
https://my.dundeecity.gov.uk/service/Support_for_children_of_key_workers

If you have qualified for a place, P2-7 children to come to the assembly hall, Nursery and P1 children go to the nursery. Normal school hours, NO breakfast club nor school uniform.

School closes today at 3.15pm until further notice. Once we have any more information we will update you.

****Corona Virus Advice****

In a nutshell, advice is as follows:

Washing your hands often - with soap and water, or use alcohol based hand sanitiser if handwashing facilities are not available. This is particularly important after taking public transport

Covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throwing the tissue in a bin.

People who feel unwell should stay at home and should not attend work or any education or early learning and childcare setting

Children, pupils, students, staff and visitors should wash their hands:

• before leaving home
• on arrival at school/setting
• after using the toilet
• after breaks and sporting activities
• before food preparation
• before eating any food, including snacks
• before leaving school/setting 
• use an alcohol based hand sanitiser that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available 
• avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands 
• avoid close contact with people who are unwell 
• clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces 

if you are worried about your symptoms or those of a child or colleague, please call your GP or NHS24 (111). Do not go directly to your GP or other healthcare environment but phone.

further information on HPS COVID-19 website and NHS Inform https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Face masks for the general public, pupils or students, or staff are not recommended to protect from infection, as there is no evidence of benefit from their use outside healthcare environments.

World Book Week- various reading activities in the school

Parents Night Tuesday 5th 4-6pm in the hall. We will also be giving you a survey to complete https://www.athenatesting.com/test/login.php You will be given the password for this at your parent appointment.

Other events in March:

• 5^th   & 10^th  Parents’ Evenings 4-6pm
• 13^th P2 Class assembly
• 16^th Modern Languages Week
• 20^th FIT Friday
• 23^rd Parent Partnership Meeting, 6pm
• 26^th Easter Service, 10am
• 27^thSchool closes end of term 3