Milton Primary School

Good Evening and a Happy New Year.

IMPORTANT – Please read the following letter from Nicky Grant, Education Officer.

Can I please ask that all parents/carers use Seesaw to keep up to date with information, especially as we start online learning from Monday 11th January. If you are having any trouble with seesaw, please let me know. It’s best having the app downloaded on your phone as you are then altered to notifications.

Further information about how our online learning will look will be issued later this week.

If you have any queries or questions then please get in touch, we are here to support you all.

Please stay safe!

Click the following to read the letter….

Wishing all of our Milton Primary Community a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I hope you all enjoy your holidays and please STAY SAFE.

Information has been shared about the return in January and I have also attached it here.

Take care and enjoy the holidays 🙂

Schools have been asked to share this as a reminder for parents/carers.

Who needs to self isolate?

Everyone who develops symptoms of COVID-19 – a new, continuous cough; fever or loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste – should isolate straight away and arrange a test via www.nhsinform.scot or, if you can’t get online, by calling 0800 028 2816.

People who live in the same household as a person with symptoms should also isolate straight away.

If the test result for the symptomatic person is negative, and they are not already isolating as a ‘close contact’ of a confirmed case, they can end isolation and return to work or school when they are well enough and have not had a fever for 48 hours. The rest of their household can end isolation straight away.

If the test is positive, the symptomatic person should remain in isolation until 10 days from symptom onset, or longer if certain symptoms persist. The rest of the household should remain in isolation for 10 days from symptom onset in the symptomatic person, even if they don’t have symptoms themselves. 

More information can be found here: –

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-test-and-protect/pages/who-needs-to-self-isolate/

The Nursery children have been very busy exploring winter time. They made a beautiful winter tree and have been discussing the birds you usually see at this time of year using their special garden bird poster to help. They’ve been very responsible making bird feeders to feed the birds in the cold and have talked about why it’s important to give them some help at this time of year.

They’ve also enjoyed counting down to Christmas using their special book advent calendar. The children have loved taking it in turns to open the doors and explore the book inside. They’ve been very busy at the craft area too making special decorations for the Nursery to spread Christmas cheer!

The children partied today too. Mrs Christie was lucky enought to join the children for a sing song of Hokey Cokey! I believe this was a big hit throughout the day. There was lots of fun to be had by all. They enjoyed various games, dancing, and snacking before finally going to visit Santa (from a social distance in the Mercat Centre) and receiving a beautiful gift from him. A huge thank you to all involved for making our 2020 party such a success.

The global pandemic definitely didn’t dampen our party spirit today as we celebrated Christmas 2020 in our class bubbles down at Milton Primary.

Primary 1/2/3 enjoyed a fun afternoon of party games including Pass the Parcel and Musical Statues. They loved showing off their dance moves and in the middle of it all there was a knock at the door. The children were very pleased to see Santa and even happier to see they were on the nice list as they all received a present.

Primary 3/4/5 enjoyed an afternoon of fun and games too including a snowman drive, corners in the hall, musical bumps and musical statues. The adults even got involved in the games too and some of them got very competitive….not mentioning any names! We were delighted to receive a knock on our door too and find Santa (at a social distance) delivering some presents for us all. A lovely afternoon including a party food box from Santa’s Little Helpers in the Mercat Centre.

Primary 5/6/7 played some intense rounds of Bingo at the beginning their party and showed of their dancing skills in statues and corners. Then after a visit from ‘ho ho ho’ they ate some lovely party food and enjoyed a game of snowman drive!

From all at Milton Primary School & Nursery – we’d like to extend a huge thank you to Santa for stopping by at his busiest time of the year. A huge thank you to all of the Little Helpers involved in supporting Santa and providing us with a party to remember this year. I am sure there will be some very tired children in the village tonight.

Families on low incomes in receipt of free school meals can apply for a COVID winter hardship payment from Scottish Government

Families with children in receipt of free school meals due to reasons of low income are eligible for a £100 per child Covid winter hardship payment from the Scottish Government.

There are no restrictions on how families choose to spend the additional payment. The payment is per child not per household. However, P1-3 pupils receiving free school meals due to universal provision, not due to low income, are not eligible.

In Highland, the Highland Council will administer this payment on behalf of the Scottish Government. Eligible households do not require to apply for this payment, the Council will contact those families directly with payment details.

Households who think they are maybe eligible for the Covid winter hardship payment and have not received notification of an award by Monday 21 December 2020 should contact the Councils Welfare Support Team on or email

welfare.support@highland.gov.uk

Who is eligible for free school meals due to low income?

Families with children in receipt of free school meals due to reasons of low income are eligible for the Covid winter hardship payment. Eligibility for Free School Meals based on low income, is where the household is in receipt of:

• Income Support
• Universal Credit (where the monthly earned income does not exceed £610).
• Income-based Job Seekers Allowance
• Any income related element of Employment and Support Allowance
• Child Tax Credit, but not in receipt of Working Tax Credit, and your income is less than £16,105 (as assessed by the HMRC)
• Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit and an income below £7,330 (as assessed by the HMRC)
• If you are 16 to 18 yrs old and receive any of these benefits in your own right, then you can claim for yourself
• If you are an asylum seeker receiving support
• Pension Credit Guarantee Credit

The payment for the £100 per child Covid winter hardship payment will be made prior to Christmas for those who were in receipt of free school meals due to low income on 30 November 2020.

Households who apply and awarded free school meals due to low income after

30 November 2020 will be eligible for the Covid winter hardship payment up until 22 December 2020. Those eligible families will be notified, and an award will be made no later than 15 January 2021.

A cash payment via PayPoint voucher will be made to eligible households. Vouchers will be redeemable at local PayPoint outlets. A small minority of households will receive payment via Post Office Pay-out and will be advised in their notification.

Please read the following letter …

Here are our Pupil Council representatives who were voted by their class. We had our first Pupil Council Meeting using Google Meet this afternoon.

The children were very responsible and helped rebrand and make changes to our Awesome Ticket Reward on a Friday which is now called SHANARRI Superstars. Before multiple tickets could be awarded to pupils and now only one will be issued for showing a good example of one of the wellbeing indicators.

I’m looking forward to our next meeting already.

Please see the attached for your information…