I was able to attend Assembly today so a big thank you to Miss Diplexcito who stepped in and took the lead.

Pupil Council Update

The first Pupil Council meeting was held today. The children have decided to start a litter picking club and will then be giving some thought to how we can be better at recycling at our school.

Peer Mediator Update

The peer mediators now have yellow vests to wear in the playground with peer mediator written on them so that everyone can see who is there to help.

Stars

We  celebrated the following Stars who have been living our school values of respect, effort, achievement, inclusion and independence. Well done to: Hugo, Matthew, Ava C, Finlay, Jemima, Fergus M and Lola.

Outdoor Learning

P3/4 did not have outdoor learning this week but it will start again next week.

Ordering School Lunches

Please order your school lunches on the online system (iPayImpact). Even if you don’t pay for your child’s lunch, it is still helpful if you log into the system to order their meal as it saves time in class if you have chosen with them at home and it means you know what they are eating. If your child will be late for school (arriving after 9.30) you must order online in advance. This is because Miss Sivewright needs to phone the order into the kitchens a Wormit just after 9.30 – all meals are cooked to order to avoid waste. If you don;t order in advance and your child comes into school after 9.30, they might not get their first choice of meal.

Thank You…

…to all parents who took part in the learning partnership visit on Monday. We received helpful and positive feedback and I will share the report in due course.

Christmas Event in Perth

I have been sent details of this event in Perth to share. The message from the organisers is:

Christmas Wonderland at Perth Riverside. The trail promises festive fun for families and takes place between 10^th – 23^rd December at Norie Miller Walk. Santa will be there in person each night, so that everyone can meet Santa at no additional cost, guaranteeing that Christmas feeling. Click here for an event map to show the range of beautiful and fun Christmas installations: Christmas Wonderland Event Map 2021_3  There is a discount code –  FIFESCHOOLS10 it offers a 10% discount on tickets. Discount code will apply to tickets purchased before 8 December (code excludes Saturdays). Be quick to get yours before they run out! More information about the event and to book tickets, check out the website www.perthchristmaswonderland.co.uk

We are welcoming two visitors into school today – Mrs Barker and Mrs Coggins. They are headteachers and have come to school see our work and offer feedback. Mrs Else (our Education Manager) visited on Friday.

We revisited our road safety work at assembly today and focussed on a safe place to cross Gauldry main road when walking to school – somewhere without parked cars and where there is a pavement on the other side.

We made sure that everyone in P1-4 knows who our new peer mediators are: Emily, Emily and Martha and Miss Diplexcito introduced our newly appointed Pupil Council members: Fergus M, Jenna, Lola, Ola, Evie, Emily and Holly.

We celebrated four star learners who have been living our values for learning: curiosity, perseverance, enthusiasm and effort. Well done to Jack, Lily, Theo and Jackson.

This week, all children have been learning about road safety. This work has been carried out in partnership with Parent Council and in response to concerns around a couple of near misses at drop off and pick up times. All children have brought home a reflector today on their bag (funded by Parent Council) and we encourage you to keep this on their bag. We have shared the learning in the primary classes on Seesaw and the Nursery pupils have brought home a Ziggy Book today. Please talk to your child about their learning in class this week and support them to continue to practise the road safety skills they have learnt. Even if the road is quiet, don’t let them cross without following Stop, Look, Listen and Think and encourage them to wear bright colours to be visible.  Please also support everyone’s road safety at drop and pick up time by leaving your car at home if you can or if you do need to drive your child to school, parking at a distance and walking the last section. The less cars around the school the safer everyone is at these busy times. Please respect the 20mph speed limit in the village.

Primary 3/4 have displayed their road safety learning on a poster – look at the super messages they have shared:

Primary 5/6/7 have displayed their learning in board games which they younger pupils will be able to play to reinforce this important learning:

Primary 1/2 enjoyed using the road layout in the playground to practise their Stop, Look, Listen, Think.

Nursery Parents, please look out for the Ziggy Book and share it at home:

Christmas Arrangements

We are going to ask each family to make a donation towards the cost of Christmas at school if they are able. The suggested donation is £2 per child. We will be giving half of what is collected to ‘Save the Children’ and retaining the other half in school fund to contribute towards the cost of Christmas Craft and fun activities. Please send your Christmas Contribution into school by 10th December. Please put cash in an envelope marked with your child(ren)’s name(s). You can give the envelope to your child to hand in or pop it through the school letter box. We are grateful for your support. Please note the following dates:

Friday 10th December – Christmas Charity Day: we will invite all children to wear a Christmas Jumper for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day and bring in one item for the Wormit Food bank. If your child doesn’t have a Christmas Jumper they can wear a jumper of their choice – please don’t buy anything especially for this day.

Wednesday 15th December – Christmas Lunch – details about ordering will follow

Friday 17th December – all children will bring home a wrapped gift they have made in school to give to a parent for Christmas. This replaces the traditional Christmas Boutique and will be our habit moving forward.

Week Beginning 20th December – we will send a recorded version of the show home for you to watch with your child (ongoing Scottish Government restrictions do not allow us to invite an audience to join us) and there will be some fun activities – more details to follow.

Message from the Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews

Here is information about musical opportunities for children in P4 and above: StAMP Choir and Orchestra poster

Is your child interested in a Karate Club?

Details are available here about a new club: Karate – St Andrews

Responsible Citizens

As part of their work on climate change, P3/4 asked if they could do a litter pick around the village to reduce the amount of plastic in the environment.  The woods were relatively free of plastic but there was a lot of litter around the village.  They did a second litter pick around the village on Wednesday. 

Today at Assembly we celebrated Star Learners who have been living our learning values of independence and enthusiasm.

Well done to: Ross and Jessica D.

We also celebrated some Wellbeing Stars who have lived our values of:  personal achievement, friendship, respect and inclusion.

Well done to Martha, Sebastian, Holly, Emily B, Eleanor and Lewis.

This week is Road Safety Week. The whole school is going to work on aspects of road safety and Friday will be a High Viz Day – all the children are invited to wear the brightest colours they can to school to highlight the importance of ‘Stay Safe, Be Seen’.  No team colours, please.  Each child will be gifted a reflector for their bag – thank you to the Parent Council who are funding this.

Finally, I have invited all P7 House Captains to apply for a post as peer mediator. If your child is interested, they should email their note of interest to me at gw15jesslucy@glow.sch.uk by the end of the day on Tuesday 16th November. They can use their glow account to do this.

Christmas Show

We are going to be staging a Christmas Show this year. All children win the school will be involved. We don’t anticipate being able to invite parents to see the show but we are going to film it and share it electronically and the children will still benefit from the excitement and enjoyment of being in a performance, developing skills in drama, music, art and literacy. We are looking for donations of the following items:

Message from Dollar Academy

Every year, there are bursaries available at Dollar Academy to support families who could not otherwise afford the fees.  These bursaries apply to pupils who will move to S1 next August. We publicise the bursaries on our website but it would be helpful if you were able to forward this letter to any parent who you think might be interested and whose child might benefit from this opportunity.  The Governors aim to maintain the confidentiality of these awards, and the names of successful applicants are not publicised. Further information is available for interested parents on the Dollar Academy website – www.dollaracademy.org.uk  or by contacting Marion Campbell in the Bursar’s Office – campbell-m@dollaracademy.org.uk. We are still planning to hold our entrance assessments, for admission to Form 1 in August 2022, on Saturday 22 January 2022. Parents will need to submit an application for enrolment prior to that date and the form may be downloaded from our website.

Today was a very busy assembly.

We started by reminding ourselves of Our School. Our Future. which is the Vision Statement for our school and lays down our aims and values. You can read Our School. Our Future. on the home page of the website here.

We celebrated some star learners who have been living our school values of perseverance, effort and enthusiasm. Well done to Leo, Annie and Lexi.

We also celebrated Emily B’s personal achievement in gymnastics and trampolining.

I would like to invite all parents to contact me by email if their child has a personal experience we could celebrate in school.

I then introduced a new school script called ‘Stand Up – Get Help’. This is being developed alongside our Relationships and Behaviour  and Anti-Bullying Policies which are currently under review. As a staff, we are working on these (taking into account Pupil Voice) and after Friday’s Inservice Day, we will be sharing draft versions with parents and looking for your input into the finished policy. You can read Stand Up – Get Help! here.

Miss Diplexcito then spoke to all children about the Pupil Council which will be re-starting in the next few weeks. She has asked all children to consider if they would like to be a Pupil Council member.

And finally, we spoke about the significance of the poppies some of us are wearing this week and I told the children they will all be given a poppy to wear on Thursday if they would like and I invited them to bring in a coin for the Poppy Appeal.

Lucy Jess

In-service Day

Just a reminder that the school will be closed to all pupils (Nursery-P7) on Friday 12th November for the in-service day. Staff are taking part in training on Body Image, supporting children with autism and sensory difficulties and we will be carrying out self-evaluation work with a particular focus on learning, teaching and assessment.

11th November

We will respect a 2 mins silence in school and all children will be given a poppy to wear if they would like. We invite you to send a coin in with your child for them to put in the Poppy Appeal box on 11th.

All children who have returned a consent form will receive their flu vaccination in school on 11th.

PE Kit

P1/2 children should bring their PE kit on a Tuesday and Friday each day this term. They will change in school but then come home in their kit. P3-7 children should have a kit in school everyday at the moment. Thank you for your support.

Pumpkin Competition

Thank you to everyone who took part – here are the four class winners! There was no charge for the competition so if your child did bring £1, it will come back home in their bag.

P1-7 Flu Vaccinations

These will be held in school on Thursday 11th November. Your child will only be vaccinated if you have returned the form and given permission. Please return the form as soon as you can if you haven’t and still wish them to receive the nasal vaccine.