Good Morning Boys and Girls. I hope you all had a lovely weekend with your families. Did anyone have a go at making a rainbow, or see any rainbows in other peoples windows?

This is all a little bit strange, not getting to see all your lovely smiling faces in the morning and I know it’s going to feel a little bit strange for you too. It’s going to take us all a little while to get used to this new way of learning, but hopefully it won’t be like this for too long. If we make sure we are staying away from people other than our families hopefully this nasty bug will go away soon and we will get to go back to our normal school routine!

Please remember to comment (or get your adult at home to comment) on this post to let us know that you have seen it. Parents: If your child is unwell and wouldn’t normally be attending school please let Mrs Callander know directly by sending an email to Suzanne.callander@highland.gov.uk. This will allow us to keep an accurate record of attendance. Thank you.

This morning we have 3 little tasks, don’t worry, they’re not too tricky and I hope you find them fun!

Literacy	Log on to Education City (www.educationcity.com) and have a go at the city called ‘Phonics, Spelling & Reading’. Try to play for a minimum of 15 minutes. (Your Education City Login should either be stuck into the front of your homework diary or in a small brown envelope in your homework pack. If you cannot locate it, please let me know.)   Please note that I have set the pass rate to 80% for each of the games and the system will not let you move onto the next game until you have gotten at least 80% of the answers correct.   Parents: When we play this in class the children tend to try and rush through the game without listening to the instructions. Please encourage them to take their time and ensure that they know what they are being asked to do.
Numeracy	Go on a number hunt around your house. How many numbers can you find?  Is there a number on your front door? Are there numbers in your kitchen? What is the biggest number you can find? What is the smallest?   You can use the jotter in your homework pack to record the numbers you find.
Health & Wellbeing	Joe Wicks will be hosting an at home PE lesson live on his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1) at 9am. Try your best to tune in and join in. Don’t worry if you’re not able to do it at 9am, it should remain on his YouTube page so that you can complete it later in the day. If you are struggling to find it, he also has a playlist of Kid friendly workouts that you could do instead. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LPrhI0v-w&list=PLyCLoPd4VxBvPHOpzoEk5onAEbq40g2-k)

Please remember if you have any photos of your work or of you completing the activities ask your adults at home if they can email them to me at carolyn.robinson@tainroyalacademy.net. You can also email me if you have any questions or are finding any of the tasks tricky.

Thank you,

Miss Robinson 😊

Good morning children. Well this is a bit different to our usual Monday morning but we will soon get used to our new way of nursery and its great because the ones you love and live with can join in. I hope you all had a good weekend, did anybody get out and spot rainbows on people’s windows? 🌈

I have Haggis here with me and he is going to be helping me give you little tasks on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is really important that even if you don’t manage the tasks that you leave us a little comment on the posts so we know that you are checking in. So I’ll now hand over to Haggis for todays task. Mrs Forth x

Hello everyone! This morning Mrs Forth got me out bed early to go a quiet walk with her dog Tess, I’m not quite sure of Tess yet, she likes to lick my face and carry me in her mouth! Anyway we went out for walk in the woods and we collected some twigs, leaves, stones and fircones. I would love it if you could get out today for a small walk, remember only with those you live with and keep a distance from anyone else who is out, this helps keep the bugs from spreading.

While out for you walk please collect some natural resources (sticks, stones, fircones, conkers, shells, seeds etc) pop them in a bag or bucket to take home. I stopped to climb some trees and hop on some boulders. You don’t have to go to the woods, around the garden, the beach or round the houses is fine too.

Once we got back I had a look at everything I collected.

What did you collect? Take some time to talk with your family about what you saw on your walk? what sounds did you hear? how did it make you feel being outside?

Hold onto everything you collected, we will use them on Wednesday.

Have a great day, remember to pop a comment below so I know you’re checking in. I miss you all, love Haggis. 🦖

Good evening,

First I’d like to thank you all for your patience and understanding last week while we tried to deal with the impact of school/nursery closures due to the Corona Virus pandemic. The children have been very resilient and coped with change and ‘normal’ nursery routine exceptionally well.

This coming week, Mrs Forth and Mrs June will communicate with you via the Early Level Class blog. They will post a morning check in and we would ask that you interact with the post by commenting on it as we are still required to keep an attendance register. We will be checking in with you regularly so please expect communication from the Nursery/School.

Mrs Forth and Mrs June will post three small learning tasks per week for the Nursery children. However, as explained by Miss Robinson in a previous post, you are welcome to take part in some of the tasks set for Primary 1 too if you feel they are appropriate for your child. We would love to see what your child is getting up to so please email any photographs to Mrs Christie so she can share your good work with others. Please don’t worry if your child is unable to take part in the learning activities set, you are welcome to email Mrs Christie to let her know or we will find out when we contact you throughout the week.

Mrs Christie’s email is as follows:

Mrs Christie – joanna.christie@invergordonacademy.org.uk

Teachers will only respond to educational queries between the hours of 9am – 3pm, Monday – Friday during term time and all other issues, outwith the classwork set for your pupil should be directed to Highland Council as indicated in the Chief Executive’s statement.

From all staff at Milton, we hope it’s not too long before we see you all again. Please be patient with us as we adapt to a new way of working next week, it’s all very new for us too. In the meantime, take care and stay safe.

Good evening. Sorry to post this on a Friday evening but I wanted to explain what’s going to be happening regarding school and your child’s education from Monday onwards. Mrs Christie kindly put a blog post together on the main blog and a lot of this may be repeated information but I thought it would be useful to explain what will be happening specifically for Primary 1 and nursery parents.

First of all I wanted to say that I am definitely going to miss seeing all of the children’s little faces on Monday morning. 3pm today was a strange one for everyone, filled with uncertainty and confusion but we are hoping to make the transition to this ‘new’ style of learning as smooth (and painless) as possible, and we are all hoping that we can get back to ‘normal’ learning soon.

From Monday morning I will be posting some tasks for the children to complete here on our class blog. This applies only for P1 children but nursery children are free to have a go at the tasks if they so wish. (Mrs June and Mrs Forth may post some nursery specific ideas separately).

After you have checked the blog I would appreciate it if you could comment on the post saying that you and your child have read it. A simple comment of your childs name is enough. This is to allow me to take a virtual register.

Please do not worry about these tasks. I promise they will not be difficult and they shouldn’t be taking your child hours to complete. I know how much my class enjoying showing off and sharing their achievements so I would he very grateful if you could take the time to snap a picture of them completing any activities and either share it in the comments or email it to me directly at Carolyn.robinson@tainroyalacademy.net.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support. I will speak to you all on Monday morning.

Miss Robinson.

The First Minster made an announcement this afternoon, closing schools after Friday this week.

Donna Manson, Chief Executive of The Highland Council said:

“Highland Council will need time to assess the impact of this announcement on our workforce, and our communities as well as on the provision of support for our young people.

“Further information will be forthcoming tomorrow, and please be assured that our central education team have been working extensively on providing learning materials for use at home.

More detail will be given to parents and carers and pupils from the Council later this week.

As was intimated by the First Minister, details about free school meals will again be forthcoming in the days ahead.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

We are expecting further information from the Scottish Government on what will be happening for older pupils regarding exams and the Council will provide further updates as they come.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.”

Donna MansonChief Executive, Highland Council

I said at the start of this term that I would post some links to games on the blog to help with learning at home. In light of current circumstances and parents making the decision to keep their children at home I thought it would be useful for everyone to have a small bank of resources that can be used at home. These games are ones we play in school and can be played at home by all children to help support learning.

I will add more ideas to the blog over the coming days as I do not want to inundate you with resources.

CVC Words

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/fishy-phonics?phase=2 (Children should be able to work at set 5)

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/odd-and-bob?phase=2 (Children should be able to work from the ‘revise all’ option)

Sound Identification

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/flash-cards?phase=2 (Children should be able to work at set 5)

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/odd-sound-out?phase=2

Maths

https://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/busyday/drive/

http://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/bottleTakeAway/index.html

Good Evening all,

Just a post to address any anxiety about COVID-19.

At Milton Primary and Nursery, we are following the NHS guidelines meaning the children are being asked to wash their hands multiple times per day to further prevent the spread of infection. We urge you to follow the same guidelines at home. If we feel your child is presenting as unwell at school or Nursery we will not hesitate to ring home and ask for them to be collected. We ask that you are considerate of the whole school community and ensure your child is 100% fit for learning before sending them to school.

The School remains open tomorrow. We are following the Highland Council’s policy and procedure and will inform you immediately if the situation changes.

This weeks star of the week goes to Sami! She received the award for always working hard and being king and helpful.

Well done Sami.

This morning we had Amy’s Mum with sister Zoe and Leo’s Mum with sisters Anna and Allie come along to our stay and play session. It was lovely for the children to show them around our setting and join in painting, drawing, Lego, small world and role play. We then went outside and our little visitors loved exploring the slide and loose parts.

Our spaces are filling up quickly for this term, there is one space left for Friday 27th March so pop your name down if you’d like to come in for an hour and spend time with your child. We will be looking to continue this next term so don’t worry if you haven’t managed to join us this time.

All of the children should have taken home. A slip today with an appointment time for parents evening next week (Wednesday 18th March). I hope that we have managed to accommodate everyone at a time that suits, however if there are any issues please speak to me and I can rearrange your appointment.

Miss Robinson