Morgan Matters

At the beginning of January we were conscious that those who needed access to period equality products may find this difficult. Although the school building was open, getting here to collect items might be challenging for some. We devised an on-line order form to try to address this.

Since last summer, we had been trying to make sure that all pupils had access to a suitable device to allow them to engage in on-line learning. The provision of new machines by the Scottish Government supplemented our provision of netbooks which were not currently being used in school. Families did begin to approach us in numbers by email now to say that they needed a laptop. We also added IT provision to our order form, with dongles and data cards also available.

We added stationery items to this form, understanding that some families would not have all the required items at their disposal. We had also been given toiletries by Dundee Bairns at the beginning of the session and wanted to include these items too.

Our Pupil Support Team delivered the cosy PE kits that had been gifted by the Cosy Bairns project. We had also been given extra sweatshirts to keep pupils warm in school. We offered these as part of our on-line order too, along with other items of donated warm clothing.

We now have a Cycle Hub in school and one of our Pupil Support Workers has been working with classes to upcycle bicycles. Some of these bikes were nearly ready to go out for use. There were others waiting to find good homes. So bikes became part of our order form too!

To date we have had more than seventy-five on-line requests for these items, in various combinations. These have been delivered to families or collected from the school. We also set out supplies that could be collected without being ordered, so that those who wished to remain anonymous could collect what they needed from the foyer.

Food vouchers were made available for our most vulnerable families by Dundee Bairns, who had supported these folks at Christmas too. This directly supported 32 children. We diverted some of our Breakfast Club funds to supplement this for more families: there were not as many pupils in school needing breakfast as had been budgeted for. A further 50 children were directly supported in this way. We then borrowed an idea form one of our associated Primary Schools and started a Give and Take table, which was added to supplies in our foyer. Several families who came to collect laptops or other resources went away with food to supplement their weekly shop.

As more pupils were invited into school with changing restrictions, we discovered that some had outgrown uniform. They did not want to attend without the proper clothing but purchasing said items was proving to be difficult. So we added uniform to our order form.

Our EAL service arranged interpreters to call families where the adults might not have sufficient English to support pupils engaging in online learning when concern was expressed by our PTs Guidance. This led to general well-being conversations and further requests for items from families who had not accessed the online form.

We hope that by being as flexible as possible and asking families what they required we have been able to support our community through this difficult time and minimise the cost of the school day whether that takes place in the building or at home.