With the school closed and the laptops open, it’s important for us all to keep an eye on our health and wellbeing. 30mins a day moderate exercise is the absolute minimum that we should be doing to keep ourselves healthy. With that in mind, we have decided to enter PLHS into ‘Doddie Aid’!

Its a simple concept, but we hope it will provide a little extra motivation to get outside and do some kind of exercise. It doesn’t need to be running, it can be walking, cycling, dog walking, golf, anything!

We have been entered into ‘Team South’ in a competition against the other regions of Scotland and the Scottish Exiles around the world. As you are not getting your normal PE lessons we are asking you (and your family if they wish) to do the following:

– Download the trac4GOOD app,

– Join ‘team south’

– Use the app to help track your exercise

The challenge finishes in mid February, only then send a pic of your total distance to cthomas@edubuzz.org to get a Preston Lodge grand total! You can keep up-to-date with Doddie Aid through twitter @PLHS_PE

In addition, you can donate to Doddie Aid using this link here.

This is your PE lesson! Get out, challenge yourself, enjoy!

Chris Thomas, PE

The Teams

To add an element of competition (Doddie is extreeemely competitive!), there are 5 teams from the old Inter-District championship. The South, Edinburgh, Glasgow, North & Midlands and the Exiles. See the Scoreboard page for the 4 criteria the Districts will be competing in. Once signed up for your District, for a small donation you will get your free district snood, and then you need to start logging all your exercise miles, be it walking the dog, rowing on an Ergo, climbing a hill or skiing back down, or measuring your steps through the working day; anything you TRY, they all count.

Conversions

The other key way you can help your District is to spread the word and recruit your friends and family into the team. They do not need to be local, or even from the District, or for that matter, Scottish at all. You can score CONVERSIONS by recruiting any poor soul not lucky enough to be born Scottish. The more interesting or well kent they are, the more bonus points you earn when you message your conversion on the Doddie Gump Facebook page via Facebook Messenger. Hopefully your District Manager and 2 Captains will be leading the way on major conversions. But who are you going to sign up?

Champion

At the end of the challenge, the scoreboards will be added up for each team to find out which District will be crowned 2021 INTER-DISTRICT CHAMPION!

Dear Parent/Carer,

As a result of the First Minister’s announcement on Monday 4th January 2021, schools will be closed to most children other than children of key workers and the most vulnerable until 29th January 2021.  This is a change from the initial statement from the First Minister on 19^th December 2020 which required a phased return to school.

Due to the extended period of school closure, East Lothian Council has reopened the application process for key worker children to access places for in-school learning and childcare from Monday 18th to Friday 29th January 2021.  This online application process is for new applicants who did not apply in the first round in December 2020.  Those who have confirmed places already will roll over in to extended period and do not need to reapply.

Priority will be given to those key workers in category 1 and category 2 where both parent/carers are key workers or where there is a single parent who is a key worker.  Information about the category definitions can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-school-re-opening-arrangements-for-january-2021/pages/children-of-keyworkers/

Wherever possible, parents/carers should make use of informal childcare arrangements in line with the Scottish Government Guidance.

Any parents/carers who believe they are key workers under criteria set out by the Scottish Government will be invited to complete our online application.  This link to this application can be found here: https://eastlothianconsultations.co.uk/education/january2021-keyworker-application-2

Kind regards

The Education Support Team

Dear parents/carers.

We would like to gauge your interest for an exciting new pilot project East Lothian Council has recently procured. The Inclusion & Wellbeing Service has been working with a third sector group, Animate to enable this new project entitled ‘Radical Redesign: Parents as Partners in Effective Collaboration for Better Support for Learning for Children and Young People with Additional Support Needs’.

 The aim of the project is to consider and take forward recommendations from the national Additional Support for Learning implementation review and is part-funded by East Lothian Council. Further details of the project can be found in the attachments but I would like to highlight one element of the model which is the establishment of an action inquiry group, made up of key stakeholders and facilitated by Animate in order to support solution-focused, effective, collaborative working between parents and the professionals involved where a child/young person has Additional Support Needs.

We are currently looking for representation from parents/carers (along with education and other relevant services) to be a part of the action inquiry group and we are keen to hear from anyone who might be interested. There are up to four places available on the group for parental representation and we would like to ensure we have a broad range of experiences represented within the group. This model is a key piece of work in improving our approach to support for learning and inclusion in East Lothian.

Animate would like to lead the first action inquiry group session in February 2021 (date to be confirmed) therefore Liz Hardy from the Animate team would be happy to answer any questions in the meantime and discuss the project with you in more detail if you are interested. Please contact Liz directly to forward any notes of interest or highlight any queries/concerns.

Liz Hardy – lizziehardy@gmail.com

More information can be found below

Invitation to join the Parents as Partners Action Inquiry Group

Parents as partners in Support for Learning

Teenage Booster vaccinations will take place on the 27th January 2021 (Diphtheria/Tetanus & Polio and Meningitis ACWY). Vaccination letters have been distributed to S3 classes.  If you have not yet returned your form, could we kindly ask you to hand it in to the school office by end of term.  Many thanks.

NHS Lothian is working to create a new website for Children’s Services and all child health information for families living in the Lothian area. The site will focus on information for children, young people, parents, carers and families about our hospitals, clinics, treatments and conditions, etc. helping empower them with information about their health care, and reduce anxiety by giving young people a place to understand about coming to hospital for an admission, tests, or for a clinic appointment. The site will launch in 2021 and will also include information about the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh.

An online survey is open for children, young people and their parents and carers to help shape the design of the site by sharing feedback on some of the styles the website might take. The survey is anonymous and will only take 5-6 minutes to complete. Thank you

https://forms.gle/GF8tfYQdSFvd44jXA

we are appealing for donations for the foodbank and contributions to a new display in memory of Emma Liddle and there slides can be found here

As you may be aware, the Scottish Government plan to launch a new national travel concession scheme to provide free bus travel for young people under the age of 19. They anticipate that legislation to underpin the scheme would be required to be laid in Parliament in early 2021 and the scheme would come into effect later in 2021.

For the next six weeks (until Monday 7th December), Transport Scotland are running a consultation in regards to this scheme to gather information on the most appropriate ways to provide this free travel to best suit young people. They are hoping the consultation will reach as many members of the public as possible, especially to those who will be impacted by the proposals, including children and young people, their parents and carers and people who work with children in a paid or voluntary capacity.

The consultation can be found on https://www.transport.gov.scot/consultation/consultation-on-free-bus-travel-for-people-resident-in-scotland-aged-under-19/

More information on the proposed scheme can be found on https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/consulting-on-free-bus-travel-for-young-people-under-19/

Please find here letter from Lesley Brown, Head of Education and Children’s Services that we have been asked to circulate.

Dear Parent/Carer,

We have been monitoring the ongoing Coronavirus situation and how it has impacted on our youth theatre & move it classes. At the beginning of March all classes were postponed and we have been working extremely hard during these difficult times to provide a solution for delivery.

As many council venues remain closed and restrictions on face to face teaching, we have taken the decision to break into the online world and developed an online Arts Programme which will be delivered over Zoom, an online video-conferencing platform.

Our Youth Theatre, Move It, Dramarama and seated exercise classes will all be offered online from the beginning of November and run for 7 weeks. All classes are led by experienced and qualified drama and dance professionals who work as freelance performance artists and have a wealth of knowledge and talent.

Classes are being offered for a very low fee of £5 for a 7 week block, plus an additional £1.50 booking fee, thanks to funding which the Brunton has secured through Creative Scotland.

We know how important it is to stay connect right now and we would love to keep our amazing community of young drama and dance students together at this time.

Booking is now open and can be accessed using the link below, this will be exclusive to members until Sunday 25^th October. From Monday 26^th October booking will open to the general public and close on Saturday 31^st October for everyone. We are anticipating high demand for these classes and would suggest booking as soon as possible to avoid missing out as spaces are limited. *Please note class times may have change, please check this before booking.

https://www.thebrunton.co.uk/en-GB/categories/online%20classes

Online booking is limited to two children, if you require booking for a third child please contact the box office on 0131 653 5245 10am – 3pm Monday to Saturday.

 I am aware cyber security may be an issue for some, therefore I have attached a list of security measures we will be putting in place to ensure the safety of all who are participating in our online sessions.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Development Officer of Dance and Drama: youththeatre@eastlothian.gov.uk moveit@eastlothian.gov.uk

I look forward to seeing you all very soon.

*Should we not reach sufficient numbers to run the class, we will look to facilitate your booking within another one of our online sessions.

Best wishes,

East Lothian Youth Theatre