Dear Parents,

Please note that due to an illness on the bus, the driver returned all pupils unexpectedly back to school. We presently have all bus A children in our hall and are trying to contact parents to come to school to collect their child.

To add to this issue the school xpressions/text messaging service has gone down and this means we are limited in how we contact you.

Presently all available staff are working their way down the register of children we have that have been returned to school to notify you and arrange a pick up from school.

Obviously, we have issues to address regarding the ICT communications system and with the school transport provider but for the moment our priority is to ensure all children can be safely collected from school.

If you are a parent of a BUS A (big bus) child then please make your way to school in order to collect your child – staff will continue to phone each main contact of all Bus A children until we have ensured all pupils have been handed over safely.

Thank you for your co-operation and support under such challenging circumstances.

Dougie Ford

Head Teacher

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please see attachments below for the Active Schools sessions available (Term 3 Balmedie and Ellon Cluster Area sessions) – sign up online using the following link Active Schools Ellon Network – Online Booking Form (office.com)

Click on links below to open the Active Schools schedule for January to March 2023.

Balmedie T3

Ellon Cluster Sessions

Confirmation of places will be directly to the parents/Guardians on or around the 9^th January.

Kelly Green
Active Schools Coordinator, Ellon Network

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please be aware that the surrounding roads and drop off areas around school grounds are particularly icy this morning.

If you are transporting your children to school please drive slowly and take extra care.

Thanks.

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please find an updated schedule for the remainder of our school term to address the disruption caused by the adverse weather conditions of the last few days.

Update on School Quiz (Friday 16th December)

The family quiz scheduled for Friday night will go ahead as planned. There is still plenty of space for teams so anyone interested can still come along and pay at the door. PTA/FOBS will be providing refreshments.

Update on Class Parties (Monday 19th December)

In order to accommodate rescheduling of Xmas Lunch and Concerts, P1-P7 class parties will all be held on Monday afternoon of next week.

Nursery parties will continue with their originally planned dates.

Update on Xmas Lunch (Tuesday 20th December) 

Our Christmas lunch has now been postponed until Tuesday 20th December. Alternative menus will be communicated to parents by the catering team for next week as a result of our closures/necessary re-scheduling of Xmas lunch.

Friday 15th December’s adjusted lunch menu will be;

Hot Dog

Baked Potato and Cheese

Ham Sandwiches

Update on Christmas Concerts (Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd December)

The following rescheduling has been put into place to ensure all concert dates can be offered to those parents with tickets;

The concert cancelled from the afternoon of Tuesday 13th December will now take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 21st December

The concert cancelled from the morning of Wednesday 14th December will now take place on the morning of Wednesday 21st December

The concert cancelled from the afternoon of Wednesday 14th December will now take place on the afternoon of Thursday 22nd December

Please note that all door open timings remain in place from the original event and your original ticket will be valid for the specified re-scheduled date offer above. We also hope that this notice provided can ensure most, if not all parents will be able to attend.

We would also remind all ticket holders that these concerts have been ticketed to full seating capacity so please only attend on the specific re-scheduled date that you have been offered above as no additional numbers can be accommodated.   

Staffing Updates

We welcome Michelle Karrim who will be starting with us every Thursday and Friday for the remainder of the school year to provide class cover/job-share in P5K on a Thursday and McCrone class cover on a Friday (formerly provided by Elaine Duffy).

Elaine Duffy will now provide ASL support  on a Thurs/Fri as part of an additional staff funding plan. Our aim is to increase the targeted support we can provide for a range of children on the evidence of increasing pupil needs.

School/Nursery Openings for Friday 16th December

Please note that the Balmedie School, Balmedie Nursery and Potterton Nursery will be a late opening tomorrow;

Potterton Nursery – Nursery start time at 9.45am and finishing time/last pick up by 2.30pm

Balmedie Nursery – Nursery start time at 9.45am and finishing time/last pick up by 4pm

Balmedie School – School opening from 10am and finishing at our normal time of 3.20pm

This will provide additional/staggered timings for everyone to travel more safely and in order to reduce the risk of challenging/icy road conditions (including our operating school transport).

School Transport Updates
Please note that Bus A (big bus/Potterton bus) will not be running on Friday but parents are welcome to transport their children on a flexible timing basis if families/carers decide that they can travel to/from school safely. Please ensure that you notify the school office to confirm pick up arrangements.

The smaller buses and minibuses will all be running but will run 1 hour later than normal (e.g. morning pick up times will be 1hr later than usual from the same locations, pick up/drop off at the end of day will continue as normal).

Please visit our school blog after 6pm for further updates regarding re-scheduling of our Christmas Events (https://balmediehomelearning.edublogs.org and refresh the page to view our latest updates).

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Due to worsening weather conditions predicted overnight in the Ellon Cluster Schools area and the possibility of drifting snow, Balmedie School/Balmedie Nursery/Potterton Nursery will be closed on Thursday 15^th December to ensure the safety of all.

Rescheduled dates for all outstanding Christmas events will be updated tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued support.

Dear Parents,

Please note that the Aberdeenshire school closures website appears to be down (and has not been in operation most of the night).

Here is our school closure announcement that was posted late last night and has been re-posted at 6.30am this morning;

Balmedie School, Balmedie Nursery and Potterton Nursery will be closed to everyone due to ongoing severe weather warnings and significant overnight snowfall which is resulting in unsafe travel conditions across the Ellon Cluster Schools Area. We apologise to all families for the inconvenience and online learning activities for P1-P7 classes can be found at https://sites.google.com/as.glow.scot/balmediehomelearning/home

As a result of this closure day our remaining Xmas Concerts will be cancelled – further information on the possibility of re-scheduling both concerts to alternatives dates will be shared by the school in due course via Xpressions and via our school blog updates.

Many thanks in advance to all families for your understanding and support.

This message is also being group called/Xpressions messaged to all parent contacts, and will be shared on the school facebook page to alert all parents.

Dear Balmedie Families,

Firstly, thank you to everyone for your immediate support in relation to today’s part closure arrangements and resulting Christmas Concert cancellation.

Again our apologies to those parents who have taken time off work today and we appreciate you will be disappointed not to have been able to attend. We hope that the following re-scheduled event may provide a further opportunity to attend next week.

Our Primary 7 party will now be brought forward and now will be held on the afternoon of Friday 16th December.

Our rescheduled afternoon concert from today’s cancellation will now take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 21st December (all timings/ticketing will remain in place as per this afternoon’s intended arrangements).

We look forward to welcoming you back next Wednesday afternoon!

The main school updates message is released first via this site;

School closures and transport changes – Aberdeenshire Council

Here is the message which has been posted below –

Due to the ongoing weather and weather warnings, the following arrangements have been made with safety for all in mind.

The school will remain open to 3.20pm but some arrangements will be made to support part-closure and early pick ups of children from school where required (e.g. associated to Nursery siblings and Bus A transport children).

1. Our afternoon Christmas Concert is cancelled this afternoon and will be rescheduled at a later date (apologies for such late notice).

2. Our Balmedie nursery is closed to all PM session children and all nursery parents are requested to attend nursery early to collect their children from the setting this afternoon to allow staff to travel safely home in daylight hours.

Potterton Nursery remains running as per normal hours.

3. Bus A (big bus) children transport will not be running today but other smaller buses will be running (at the usual dismissal time of 3.20pm)

*All Bus A children should be collected directly from school (parents are invited to attend for early collection this afternoon)

4. School will remain open to all remaining children with a closure time of 3.20pm. Any parent wishing to collect their child early may do so by reporting to the front office.

Many thanks in advance for your patience and support given the logistics involved at short notice, the recent weather conditions and ongoing road conditions. Travel safely everyone.

Adverse Weather/Emergency Closure

Please find a reminder of our adverse weather/emergency closure procedure should it be necessary to close the school or nursery.

Please note that the school closure phone line is no longer in use and the Council website is the main reference point for up to date notification regarding school closures.

You can subscribe to the feed and automatically be sent an e-mail when the school status is changed. The feed is cleared at 4pm each day to enable a new message for the following day.

https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/Apps/schools-closures/

• It is always our intention to keep our school/nursery settings open if possible. This may result in a delayed opening and/or early finish to allow staff from outlying areas time to travel safely (e.g. in adverse weather or forecast of extreme weather conditions/warnings).

• Where practically possible, the nursery will aim to announce changes by 7.30am and the school by 8am on the day (unless a blanket Aberdeenshire schools closure decision has been announced by the Director of Education).

• A later opening or school closure decision will apply to all  settings e.g. Balmedie School, Balmedie Nursery and Potterton Nursery services (although given the different session timings an individual statement for each setting will be shared). Nursery announcements will be posted sooner due to earlier opening times.

• Any decision on school transport is taken and communicated by the transport provider. If transport is not running, parents are welcome to bring their children to school if they feel it is safe to do so and they are in a position to collect them at the end of the day, or earlier if required. Please be aware that if the buses DO NOT run in the morning, they WILL NOT run in the afternoon either.

• Similarly, the decision on whether breakfast/after school clubs are operating is taken by the manager of this service (please check directly with the school club service).

• Updates are posted on the Council website, please check these regularly. The school groupcall/Xpressions service will generally only operate during school hours (approximately 8.30am until 4pm)

• Further information updates are likely to follow later on the school blog, facebook page and/or via groupcall (whenever relevant) to extend communication to parents but it would be important to note that our primary communications for school closures in the first instance will always be via the school closures website

• Please note that only notices of later opening, part closure or full closure will be posted. If no information is logged or communicated then this means that the school and nursery services will be open and running as usual.

• In the event of a school closure, learning activities may be signposted through our school blog and the support of parents/carers is sought to encourage their children to make use of on-line educational resources and support revision tasks

A reminder that parents/carers should not attempt to contact the school/nursery phone numbers to make enquiries about school openings/closures. Please refer to the online link above.

The school and nursery phone lines require to be freed up to allow school/nursery to follow up contact between services – we would request to all parents access the council website feed at approximately 7.30am (for any Nursery announcements) / 8am (for any School announcements) to check if a new announcement for the day has been made.

Emergency Closure Procedure

If the school is required to close during the day for any emergency, parents will be sent a groupcall/xpressions text to alert them and a message is also posted on the Aberdeenshire Council website as early as practically possible. In these circumstances, pupils need to be collected from the school by an adult.

It is essential that the school office has up to date information regarding mobile phone numbers and the main family contact.

Safe Routes into School

Please note that in adverse weather two main paths at the front of the school will be prepared  (e.g. from the main gate to the main school entrance and to the nursery) to enable safe access.

Other routes should may be accessed with extreme care but where at all possible, children/parents are recommended to use the main access paths to enter the school/school grounds.