Dear Parents / Carer’s,
I hope you all had a wonderful October break. We are now well into to the flow of term 2 and all that this term brings!
STAFFING UPDATE
I am delighted to say that last term, Mrs. Deborah Houston was appointed as our new Principal Teacher. Mrs Houston comes to us from Dundee City Council where she has been working for the last couple of years within their pedagogy team delivering training and supporting schools. It is hoped that she will start on the 10th of November.
Miss Jill Ferrie joins us this week as our Acting Principal Teacher. She was a student at Grange quite a few years ago and has worked in both Angus and Dundee with a few years in Dubai working in a couple of International schools where she led various developments and teams. Jill will have pastoral responsibility for P2-4.
We welcome both ladies to “Team Grange” and know they will be welcomed into our school!
SCHOOL INSPECTIONS ARE CHANGING – SHAPE WHAT’S NEXT
A national public consultation on the future of school inspections in Scotland has been launched. HMIE are keen to gather a wide range of perspectives on the current inspection process and how inspections should evolve.
The current phase aims to broaden the scope of participation to children and young people, parents, carers, and members of the wider public.
Please see below a link to access a questionnaire. The consultation is open until Wednesday 26 November 2025.
https://consult.gov.scot/education-scotland/school_inspections_are_changing/ https://consult.gov.scot/education-
SEA STORY TOPIC
This term the children will be learning through our whole school topic of “SeaStory” inspired by the recent David Attenborough movie. A clip of which can be seen by following this link:
This starts one aspect of our school improvement where learning is led by the children’s interests. This is the start of a journey as staff will be taking part in professional learning about a “Curriculum of Hope” and how we can further inspire children’s engagement for learning.
We look forward to sharing some of this at our “Sharing Our Learning” event on Wednesday 26th November from 5-6.30pm.
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
We have consulted with the children, staff and the Parent Engagement group and am delighted to share our plan for celebrating 50 years of Grange!
6th November – Whole School Photo
Please can all children wear their grey school hoodie or top on this day. We ask that P7’s wear their Black Leavers’ hoodies. We are hoping for a dry and bright day so please keep everything crossed. This will be an aerial photo and we will be having a rehearsal to practice before the 6th. If you do not wish your child to be included for any reason please message your child’s class teacher by 5th November.
Birthday Week – 24th – 27th November
A number of former pupils have volunteered to come in and speak to different classes about their experiences of Grange and what they have achieved since. If you know of anyone who might like to do this then please ask them to get in touch with me directly by phoning the school or messaging me on Dojo.
Birthday Bake Off – Friday 28th November
Children are invited to get their creative juices flowing and bake a cake of any variety and enter our Bake Off competition. The theme is Grange is 50! See poster for details:
Golden Parties – Friday 28th November
The children have asked for a party with balloons and so children are invited to come dressed with a touch of GOLD or in full Golden colour if they wish on this day. We will have silent discos throughout the day too!
Birthday Open Morning – Saturday 29th November
We are opening our doors to the school community past, present and future from 10-12 noon. We hope that some of our P6&7 pupils will volunteer to take guests on a tour of the school and welcome them into the Grange Cafe where coffee and cake will be served. We have obtained some pictures and memorabilia of old that will also be on display. Even I have learnt some things about Grange I did not know!
If you wish to come along please register to allow us to cater for numbers:
Grange Golden Celebration – Fill in form
DATES FOR THE DIARY
- 5th November – Parent Engagement Group 6-7pm
- 6th November – Whole school photo (as above)
- 19th November – Tempest Photos (info. to follow)
- 24th November – GOLDEN CELEBRATION WEEK
- 26th November – Sharing Our Learning 5-6.30pm
- 28th November – Golden Parties
- 29th November – 50th Birthday Open Morning 10-12noon
- 3rd December – In Service Day 2 (schools closed to pupils)
- 4th December – In Service Day 3 (schools closed to pupils)
- 5th December – St. Andrews Day Holiday
- 15th December – Cinema Trip (P1-7)
- 18th December – Christmas Lunch
- 19th December – Christmas Cheer
- 23rd December – End of Term 2
- 7th January – Start of Term 3
