It was a busy Assembly today!

200 miles for £200

We have got started on our walking challenge today and everyone in counting their miles. We have already reached our £200 fundraising target and are well on our way to £300 which is amazing! If you haven’t sponsored the school team yet, and would still like too, its definitely not too late. You can make a donation here or scan the QR code on the sheet that came home.

Community Links

The Community Council have been in touch to remind us all of the importance of wearing cycle helmets and hi-viz and about being very careful on the roads. I have advised the children only to cycle on the road if they’ve talked to a parent about it first.

Summer Fair

I have asked the children to think about stalls we could run at our school summer fair at the end of June (a Save the Date email came to parents last week). It would be good to discuss this at home too.

Stars

Our star learners have been living our values of perseverance, effort and enthusiasm this week. Well done to Ava C, Luca and Annie

House Points

The totals stand at:

Peacehill – 1223

Logie – 1251

Little Inch – 1435

P7 Parents – would your child like to get more involved in the community? Being an Ambassador could be great for them. Click here to find out more: Youth ambassador poster

Dates for Your Diary

Wednesday 27^th April – P1 dental inspection.

Monday 2nd May – School Holiday

Thursday 5th May – In-service Day – school closed to pupils for staff training

Friday 6th May – Rag Bag collection

Wednesday 18th May – Madras Guidance Staff Visiting P7

Wednesday 1st June – Sports Day for Nursery-P7 (parents will be invited – details to follow)

Friday 3rd June – Additional Holiday for Jubilee

Monday 6th June – School Holiday

Wednesday 8th June – Back Up Sports Day (in case it rains on 1st!)

Tuesday 14th- Thursday 16th June – P7s to Madras for Transition Days

Wednesday 22nd June – To Be Confirmed – School Outing

Friday 24th June – reports coming home (pre school Nursery Children and P1-7)

Thursday 29th June – End of Year Assembly for Nursery-P7 (parents will be invited – details to follow)

Friday 30th June – last day of term – school and nursery finishes at 3pm

200 Miles for £200

In week beginning 9th May, we are going to hold a fundraiser for The Disaster and Emergency Committee to support their work in Ukraine and with Refugees. We will be working as a team that week to walk at least £200 miles in total between us with an aim of raising £200.  All children from Nursery – P7 will be taking part with everyone walking what their legs can manage! We have set up a Just Giving Page so that everyone who would like to donate can do so – no forms or cash required! You can access the Just Giving page here: 200 Miles for £200 or by scanning this QR Code:

Please feel free to share the page link with any family and friends who might support our fundraising effort.

I will be going over this with the children at the start of next week but am sharing it now in case you want to discuss it with your child at home in advance.

Message from Active Schools

Dear Parents,

Assembly Today

Well done to the stars who were celebrated at Assembly today: Jack, Howie and Fergus M.

Spring Fling Tomorrow

P1-7 parents, please don’t forget to send a packed lunch tomorrow (unless you pre-ordered a school packed lunch last week). The weather doesn’t look as good for tomorrow as it is today but I think it will still be good enough for us to go to the woods. Don’t forget woods clothes – no uniform needed.

I would also like to share few things for you to know about ahead of next term:

Drop Off/Pick Up – Parents on School property

I have not yet had confirmation from Fife Council that we can invite a greater number of parents onto school property so at this point, I need to continue to ask that only Nursery, P1, 2 and 3 parents come into the grounds and at this point we can’t routinely invite you into the building. I am hopeful that this will ease into next term and I will communicate this to you when the change can happen. But for 18^th April, please assume this mitigation is still in place – I won’t contact you in the holidays with a change, only once term has begun.

Pupils Zones before 9am

We no longer need to maintain bubbles and so there is no longer any need for children to wait in a class ‘zone’ before the bell. It is fine for them to mix with pupils from other classes before 9am. This being said, we don’t supervise children before school and can’t take responsibility for them before the teacher brings the line in at 9am – they are in your care until then. I recommend that your child arrives at school as close as possible to the bell and 8.45 at the earliest. This is not to do with Covid, it will be my advice long term.

Face Coverings/Social Distancing on School Property

For 18^th April, please assume these mitigations are still in place.  My understanding is that once the legal requirement for face coverings in public places is removed, there will remain contexts (including schools) where the guidance will be that face coverings should still be worn. I am expecting, therefore, to need to advise you to keep wearing a face covering on school property (including at drop off and pick up) and I will continue to ask you to maintain distance from any adult or pupil not in your household.

Ukraine Fundraising

We are going to hold a fundraiser for Ukrainian refugees next term. Details will follow but I am letting you know about this now because I know many of you might want to discuss this with your child before it is discussed in school. Our discussions will be about how we can help those who have needed to leave their homes, we won’t focus on warfare or the political situation in any depth.

School Events/Sports Day

Outdoor events, including sports day, will go ahead next term and we expect to be able to invite parents to attend – we will set and share a date for sports day early in the term to give you good notice. We are also hopeful that we may be able to invite parents into school for an indoor open event, with mitigations in place. We are awaiting guidance about this and will share further details early next term, when we can.

I am going to post these details on the school website for reference. I am sending them today so that there is time for you to come to me with any questions before term ends on Friday. I will be in touch with updates on or soon after 18^th April.

I wish all our families a happy holiday, when it comes, and would like to extend a sincere thank you to you all for your support of the school and understanding during the Covid period. While guidance and mitigations remain in place, I am very hopeful that things will ease next term and I look forward to being able to meet many of you and get to know your family a bit better.

Kind regards

Lucy Jess

P1/2 next week

The class will do PE on Monday instead of going to the woods so please send them in uniform with PE kit.

P1-7 on Tuesday – Spring Fling

There are no hot lunches as we are taking packed lunches to the woods. If you haven’t already ordered a school packed lunch, you will need to send a packed lunch with your child. Please don’t order a lunch on iPayimpact for Tuesday – the ordering was done in advance and your child is either marked as ‘school packed lunch’ (if you ordered one) or packed lunch from home (if you didn’t). We will be leaving school mid-morning to walk to the woods and will be back by 3pm. All children should come in suitable clothes – no uniform required!

Nursery on Tuesday – Spring Fling

There will be an Easter Egg hunt lead by P6 in the school grounds. The children will be served lunch as usual.

Child Protection – for information 

On the in-service day, all staff had child protection refresher training. Our updated policies and procedures are available here. We are going to be sharing the ‘It’s Everyone’s Job’ leaflet with all families and friends of the school – look out for it coming home.

Covid Restrictions Easing – for information (all families)

All parents received a copy of the latest letter from Jason Leitch yesterday. In light of restrictions easing there will be changes next term and I will communicate these to you from next week onwards.

Trees

All our trees have been allocated now and we are looking forward to seeing the photos of them! If your family has a tree, please send your photo to me as soon as possible and please also bring in your thank you letter for the village hall committee.

Fire Evacuation

Everyone did REALLY well last week when we had to evacuate the school due to an electrical overheat. We are going to keep doing fire drills so that everyone continues to know what to do.

Stars

Our stars have been living our values of effort, teamwork and enthusiasm. Well done to: Sebastian, Melissa, Edith, Hugo and Ola.

House  Points

The current totals are:
Little Inch: 1161

Peacehill: 868

Logie: 957

But there is everything to play for and lots of chance to win points next week at the Spring Fling and the Quiz!

Today P1-7 and staff met inside, in school, altogether for the first time since I became headteacher. It is lovely to see the Scottish Government restrictions easing and lovely to have in person assemblies in the school lunch hall.

We welcomed the P6/7s back from Dalguise and shared the news that they had worked hard and all lives our school values everyday.

We shared the news about our school trees. They have been allocated to the selected families who are busy planting them. Once  you have planted them, please return the pot and also send a photo of your tree for the school website. Many thanks!

We celebrated stars who have been living our school values of effort, respect and independence. Well done to: Ruari, Evie and Kaia.

Rugby Taster Follow Up – Message from Active Schools

Dear Parent/Guardian,

I hope you are well?

I am getting in contact with you regarding an exciting opportunity for our pupils in P4-7. In partnership with Madras Rugby Club and Scottish Rugby, Active Schools would like to offer your child the opportunity to take part in an After School Cluster Rugby Club. These sessions are set to start on Friday 18^th March at Madras College, in the games hall, from 4:15-5:15 completely free of charge. Unfortunately, we only have 20 spaces and these will be given on a first come first serve basis. To register please click the link below. 

https://forms.office.com/r/uhgy9u7Gdq

If you have any questions please do just get in touch with me!

Thank you,

Madison Garland 

P1 Parents Survey

Did your child receive the P1 Bookbug bag last year? Taking this survey will help the Scottish Book Trust understand how to make Bookbug better and how parents and children use their Bookbug bags. As a thank you, you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 book token from Bookbug!   BBP1 parent survey:    https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/B66G6CP

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.