Wow – what an amazing few days it has been!  Thank you for all the messages of thanks and support over the past couple of weeks.

We didn’t get the ending we had planned in our old building but a huge thank you to our fantastic parent helpers – Karen Twistleton, Eddie Cairnie and Lauren Fenty – who helped get us packed up as much as possible over the last couple of weeks.  Thank you also to everyone who was able to join us for what turned out to be our final Assembly on Friday – I really appreciated seeing you there to support our Learning Community and feel incredibly proud to be the HT at St Mary’s.

All teachers have posted Home Learning Grids for the weeks leading up to the Easter break – you can find these in your child’s class in the CLASSES category on the website.  After the Easter break you can expect to find more activities etc posted via Google classroom accessed via GLOW.  Check Mrs Stewart’s post for help and advice with this.

St Mary’s is part of the Paradykes Hub for providing childcare for our Key Workers.  If you are a frontline worker in the NHS, Emergency Services, transport, etc and have no other childcare to enable you to go to work, you must ask your line manager about the key worker form to be completed for accessing a space within the School Hubs.  The important message however is, if your partner is not a key worker then this care should be provided at home.  Ideally we want the fewest children possible in the Hubs to prevent the spread of infection.

Woodburn Primary, Gore Glen Primary, Paradykes Primary, Mauricewood Primary, Dalkeith Campus, Newbattle High School, Lasswade High School and Penicuik High School are the schools in the localities providing this cover.  This will continue during the Easter holidays and we are working continuously to ensure these are staffed and managed effectively following NHS guidance for infection control.  We are also arranging for the distribution of meals for those in receipt of FME from these Hubs.  From next week this will change to a more coordinated delivery service so Mrs MacKerron and I won’t be delivering lunches next week.  Mrs Bowman will be though!

I will keep you posted as things develop, but in the meantime, stay at home and stay safe.

Mrs Laird