Free Meal Entitlement and Clothing Grant

If your financial circumstances have changed recently, it is worth checking if you can register your child for free school meals. Click here to find out more. If your child is in P1-5, they get a free school meal anyway but it it is still worth registering them because they also get free milk and a clothing grant.

Good Luck…

…to all the P6/7s and staff heading off on residential trip next week! The forecast is looking pretty kind. But pack those layers and wet weather gear!

It was a busy assembly today with lots of news!

Pupil Council News

The Pupil Council have arranged a litter picking club. There will be a rota made up of those pupils who want to join in. They will pick up litter at lunchtime on Monday (to sort out anything which may have been left over the weekend) and on Friday (to make sure we leave the grounds tidy before the weekend). Everyone will keep trying hard not to drop litter but the club will make sure that anything dropped by accident or blowing into the grounds will be picked up. We have new litter pickers so that we can do this safely.

Dog Poo Campaign

The results of our Dog Poo Competition are in! Everyone who submitted a design won 5 points for their house (plus 5 additional points if they remembered to write the name of their house on the back!) Five entries were selected to go to the Village Hall Committee for the final judging. Those 5 entries also won additional points for their house and they will be displayed around the pitch. The results of the House Competition are:

3rd place: Peacehill – 80 points

2nd place: Little Inch – 90 points

1st place: Logie – 165 points

The individual results are:

2nd place for persuasive writing – Finlay

1st place for persuasive writing – Isaac

3rd place for poster – Holly S

2nd place for poster – Martha

1st place for poster – Joe

Star Pupils

Our Stars have been living our values of independence effort and teamwork. Well done to Edith, Ross, Isaac, Luis and Ciaran.

Upcoming Dates

Monday 28th February – P3-7 are having a Rugby Taster session today organised by Active Schools. Please make sure your child has outdoor PE kit with them.

Tuesday 1st March – Pancake Day. P1-7 children are invited to bring in £1 to contribute towards the day. All children will be given pancake with choice of topping and a hot juice or hot chocolate at playtime. If you child has any allergies we are not aware of or you don’t want them to take part, please contact me at lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk. Nursery children will also celebrate pancake day but their costs will be covered by the contribution nursery parents have already made.

Thursday 3rd March – World Bok Day – All children are invited to come dressed as a favourite book character. There will be activities in school to celebrate reading.

Monday 7th – Friday 11th March – P6/7 Residential Trip

Tuesday 29th March – whole school ‘Spring Fling’ in the woods – more details to follow but all children will need a packed lunch and outdoor clothing on that day.

Friday 1st April – last day of term. School finishes at 3pm as usual. We restart on 18th April.

Well Done to our Stars who have been living our school values of effort, respect, enthusiasm and personal achievement: Lewis, Bonni, Joe, Finlay and Emily B.

We have re-visited the 5 Ways to Wellbeing at Assembly today and we have spoken about Connect. At a little school like ours, it is really important that children feel connected with all others in their year group as they will move up through the school together. It is also important that they feel connected with those in other classes as the year groups might come together in future years. Covid has reduced our chances to connect so to support connections within the year groups and beyond the classes we are going to work with 3 playground zones over the next month or so – P1/3 will be in one zone P4&5 in another and P6&7 in the third. This is just one piece of work we will be doing on connect – more information to follow.

Lunches Next Week

Due to an ordering issue, it will be a ham roll not a turkey roll on Monday.

P1 in August

If your child will be in P1 in August, please enrol them as soon as possible – click here to do so.

We suggest you do this by the end of February.

Don’t Forget

School is closed to all pupils (Nursery to P1) on Wednesday 16th February for an inservice training day and Thursday 17th and Friday 18th for the mid-term holiday.

Thank you everyone who brought their house competition entries in today. I will be asking the Hall Committee to look at the entries and I will announce the results once they have been decided.

If you have an entry but didn’t bring it in, I’d love to see it but the closing date was this morning so we can’t include it in the competition.

Our stars have been living our values of friendship, respect, effort and enthusiasm. Well done to Maciek, Eleanor and Joshua.

Dates for your diary

• 7th February – Last date to bring in your Dog Poo House Competition Entry – Click here for details
• 8th February – P1 Health Check

Polite Reminder

Please make sure your child has outdoor trainers with them on PE days so that they can work on the pitch. We have no indoor facility at present until the repairs on the hall are complete. Children should have kit in school every day so that we can deliver outdoors to suit the weather.

Outdoor Learning

There will be no woods trips until we can assess the storm damage. The Nursery garden is in use but the school garden is out of bounds until work cam be done to make a section of the roof (and the chimney) safe following storm damage.

Message from Active Schools

At Assembly today we introduced our first target day. All P1-7s have brought home their Big Picture Targets for this term today and they are available on Seesaw.  The Targets are the broad areas your child will be working to. I have asked the children to imagine they are standing at the foot of a mountain, the target is the top of the mountain. They can’t get there in one stride, they need to take lots of steps. Each lesson at school is a step towards their target. Their steps in learning will be shared regularly on Seesaw – there will be a piece of work shared about once per week to let you see their progress in school.

We celebrated stars who have been living our values of perseverance, effort, respect and personal achievement. Well done Lexi, Sophie and Holly S.

We have celebrated some Stars today who have been living our values of Respect, Perseverance and Teamwork. Well done to Scott, Mya, Lachlan and Owen.

I have also introduce a House Competition today. The aim of the Competition is to produce work which can be displayed in the village to support local dog walkers to pick up after their dog and keep the pitch clean.

The rules of the competition are:

• You should work on your entry at home but you can take paper from school to use.
• Your entry should be on A4 paper and have your name and house on the back.
• You can work on your own or do a family entry (with a brother or sister).
• Parents can advise but it should be the child’s own work – it is the content that is most important. If your child’s is the winning entry we can help with presentation and spelling before it is published, if needed.
• Entries must come into school at 9am on 7th February at the latest.

There are two tasks and your child can choose which one they do:

1. Design a poster with a bright and colourful picture and a slogan encouraging dog walkers to pick up.
2. Write a persuasive letter asking Dog Walkers to pick up after their pet and giving suggestions for ways to make sure they do. Start it ‘Dear Gauldry Dog Walkers’ and end it ‘From the children at Balmerino Primary School’

All children who submit an entry will win points for their house and those whose entries are picked to be displayed in the village will win extra points. The village hall committee are going to help us select the entries to display.

Deadline for Nursery Applications

If your child was born between 1^st March 2018 and 28^th February 2020 and you want them to attend Nursery during the next school year, you should apply by 31^st January 2022. More information is available here: Starting Nursery | Balmerino Primary School (glowscotland.org.uk) If you don’t apply by this date, your will be a late application and you are less likely to get your first choice of setting.

P1/2 Outdoor Learning

P1/2 will restart their trips to the woods each Monday from this Monday coming (24^th Jan). Please send your child to school in their woods clothes and with a pair of shoes they can wear inside. They need to wear warm layers and waterproofs with wellies or sturdy shoes.