����ֱ��

Learning will be delivered to children and young people in ����ֱ�� and Bute at home from Monday (11 January).   This comes as a result of the Scottish Government’s announcement to temporarily close schools until at least 1 February due to COVID-19. Our school staff are planning for a longer period of home learning in line with this change and are developing a range of programmes that will engage pupils in their home learning and enable them to make progress.

Work continues to move forward on major projects across ����ֱ�� and Bute following the announcement from Scottish Government, that construction sites can remain open under Level 4 restrictions following strict Covid guidelines.

If your business is required to close by law, or required by law to modify its operations, you could be entitled to a grant from the Strategic Framework Business Fund. The criteria for the Fund is set by Scottish Government and administered by the council. Please note the council does not have discretion to vary from the set criteria. Grants will be paid every four weeks in arrears.  Payments for the next four week period, from 28 December 2020 to 24 January 2021, will be issued from 25 January 2021. There are two grants available:

Pupils at Arinagour Primary are the best in the west when it comes to figures and formulas, with the school having just been declared the winner of Sumdog’s National Holiday Maths Contest. And, as if this success is not enough, the clever youngsters also came first in Sumdog’s ����ֱ�� and Bute Maths Competition.

Anne Paterson, the council’s Chief Education Officer until her retirement earlier this month, has been awarded an OBE for her services to education.  Anne started her career as a primary teacher in Park Primary School in Oban, and went on to work for nearly 39 years in delivering education services for young people in ����ֱ�� and Bute.   Her successes include becoming Scottish Head Teacher of the Year in 2006, and, as Head Teacher of Inveraray Primary school, leading the creation of a centre for excellence for outdoor learning. 

Children at Kirn Primary have been spreading the Christmas spirit by organising a number of activities and goodwill gestures to show others they care. In what has been a particularly difficult year for everyone, pupils organised a ‘Love in a Box’ campaign, whereby they put out an appeal for donations and filled more than 60 boxes with love, kindness and Christmas goodies, for people in their local community. 

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF THE ARGYLL AND BUTE CHILD PROTECTION COMMITTEE

Three pupils from Dunoon Grammar have been selected to join the Education Recovery Youth Panel run by Young Scot and Children in Scotland. The school’s Junior Leaders, Ailsa Brown and Kathyrn Wilson, and Head Girl Amelia McFarlane, applied to join the panel last month and were delighted when they found out this week that they have been chosen alongside 12 other young people on the panel to help shape the Scottish Government’s Covid 19 education work.

  We enter this festive season having experienced a year like no other. The year has brought significant challenges to the people of ����ֱ�� and Bute and many have been affected by this pandemic with the loss of loved ones and my thoughts and wishes are with them at this special time of year.

People with a PA21 postcode are being invited to apply for funding from the Lamont Bequest Fund. The original bequest was ‘to be distributed to the poor of Kilfinan’ but, due to significant changes in society since then, the bequest needed to be updated to take account of these. At a meeting of the Bute and Cowal Area Committee, members agreed the updated bequest terms and eligibility criteria that must be met before applications will be considered.