Headteacher Update 22/05/26
has been a week full of STEM activities for our upper school pupils. On Tuesday, the Primary 6 children went to the Babcock Festival of Engineering. They had a great day learning about STEM careers and taking part in a wide range of activities. We are very grateful to have been invited to this event over the past few years. 🧪🔬
On Wednesday, P5–P7 pupils enjoyed a visit from Henry Rae and his colleague from St Andrews University. He delivered an exciting and informative workshop on skeletons and crime scene investigation. 🦴🩻
The Climate Smarter Competition and showcase event took place on Thursday at Fife College in Dunfermline. Mrs Taylor took a group of six children to showcase the learning they have been doing in class about climate change and sustainable building design. They prepared a fantastic model school with lots of eco features.
Primary 1/2 celebrated National Numeracy Day with a full day of number fun and challenges. They also submitted entries for the Numeracy Heroes competition. 🔢
Transition activities continued with our new Primary 1 pupils coming to school for their second visit. This week, they enjoyed lunch in the dinner hall with their parents and then spent some time in the classroom. Some of our P7 pupils also had Headstart transition visits to St Columba’s on Wednesday. On Friday, all of our Primary 7 pupils travelled to St Andrew’s High School for the ‘Moving On Mass’ for P7 children from the St Columba’s and St Andrew’s High School clusters. The children represented the school beautifully, and it was a lovely celebration of their time in primary school.
Mrs Yau was in school on Thursday and carried out a training session with the Literacy and Numeracy PALS. The Peer Assisted Learning project has been used across Fife, and the children are very keen to take part in St Joseph’s.
We have a couple of groups in school who have been working to develop the school garden. We were delighted to receive a donation of compost and plants from the family of some of our pupils. Thank you to Mr Greenough for thinking of St Joseph’s—your donation is very much appreciated. If you have any extra plants or compost in your garden, we would be very happy to receive donations for our garden spaces and planters. 🌱🏵️
Mrs Milne had her last few days in school before leaving us to await the arrival of her new baby. The P6/7 children gave her a lovely baby shower on Wednesday afternoon. We will miss her very much but are looking forward to meeting baby Milne very soon!
The Maths Cafe returns on Tuesday after school. All families are welcome and we would love to see you there!
Finally, we have just received confirmation that our Family STEM Night can go ahead again this year, thanks to grant funding from the Royal Institute. The event will take place on Thursday 11th June, and we hope to see you all there. More details will follow in the coming weeks. 🎉
Have a lovely weekend.
Vanessa
Headteacher update 15/05/26
This week, we welcomed our new Primary 1 children and their families for their first transition visit. The children in P6 were very excited to meet their buddies and begin building friendships to support them on their transition journey into school and throughout their P1 year. The children enjoyed some time in class with Mrs Mair, Mrs Urquhart and Mrs Bowie. Parents heard a little more about life in St Joseph’s, and some of our P7 pupils took them on a tour of the school.
Some of our learners transitioning to high school also had visits this week, with Kinross High School transition days and a group of children attending Ready, Steady, Grow at St Columba’s on Friday afternoon.
Denise from the Early Help and Support Team was in school on Tuesday morning for a drop-in session. These sessions are informal and offer a chance to seek advice or support on a range of issues. Denise can support or signpost on matters such as ASN, neurodivergent strategies, housing, financial advice, group work in the area or online, education, schooling, routines and boundaries, mental health and sleep routines. No question is too big or too small, and everyone is welcome. We will send out more details of her next visit on the school app.
On Thursday, we all celebrated Mass in St Joseph’s for the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. The children demonstrated our school values and represented the school beautifully, showing respect and participating in many ways through singing, reading and taking up the offertory gifts.
At assembly this week, we celebrated the achievements of the children in school and presented Meta Skills and Values certificates. Children were also reminded that they should not bring toys or fidget toys into school. We have had many instances of children trading or losing them, which has caused upset. Toys should be kept at home where they are safe.
We also had a visit from Kirsty Frost, our Educational Psychologist, who carried out staff training with teachers and PSA staff on the use of the Circle resource, as well as planning and providing appropriate sensory activities.
The Gala Club began on Thursday evening, and we have lots of fun ideas to bring our Carnival float to life for the gala in June. The children have all been asked to think about some ideas to bring back to the club next week.
Next week will be Mrs Milne’s last week before she begins her maternity leave. Mrs Alix Barrantes will be taking over from Mrs Milne until the summer holidays.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Vanessa
Headteacher update 08/05/26
A short week, but a very busy one!
We waved the P7 children, along with Miss MacCaskill and Miss Blair, off on their Dounans residential on Tuesday morning. Everyone was excited and maybe a little nervous about what was to come!
Also on Tuesday the Primary 6 pupils enjoyed a trip to the National Mining Museum in Newtongrange alongside the Primary 6 pupils from Kelty Primary School. The trip was funded and organised by Kelty Community Council and was a great experience for the children. They learned about coal mining and the history of coal and could relate what they learned to the history of our village. The children were a credit to the school throughout the trip; they were polite, well‑mannered, and listened carefully at all times. Their behaviour was excellent, and they represented the school with pride. I was very proud of them.
On Thursday, work continued in school, with teachers attending the Transforming Learning Conference and others working on school improvement priorities and staff training. We were delighted to welcome Mrs Smith back for a keeping‑in‑touch day.
The Primary 7 pupils returned on Friday afternoon tired but with lots of stories of their experience at the residential. There was tree climbing, burn scrambling, leaps of faith, bushcraft, and even the celebration of a birthday! They faced the challenges with courage and resilience and supported each other throughout. They also enjoyed meeting new friends and speaking with high school staff, starting to build relationships for their transition in August. Miss MacCaskill and Miss Blair had a great time and were so proud of everything the children achieved. They commented on the excellent behaviour of the children and how well they represented St Joseph’s. A huge thank you to Miss Blair and Miss MacCaskill for all their hard work over the week — they will definitely be in need of a long lie this weekend!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Vanessa
Headteacher update 01/05/26
The week we welcomed Abbie our Active Schools assistant back to school. She runs various groups on a Monday and before and after school clubs. This term she has focus groups covering physical literacy skills, training and developing our playground leaders, and targeted ‘Together We Can’ groups to work on communication, team work and resilience skills through sports and physical activity. We also started a new after school club on a Tuesday where children can come along and try all different types of sports. See Mrs Cunningham if you would like added to the waiting lists for clubs.
The football team were once again in action this week playing at the St Margaret’s Cup at Pitreavie in Dunfermline. It’s a tough group with lots of schools from the surrounding areas competing. Huge thanks to Cohan one of our high school ambassadors who volunteers to come along and coach the team. His advice and encouragement makes a huge difference to the children.
Staff have been involved in various training sessions this week – dyscalculia awareness, assessment and moderation, and preparation for the Dounan’s residential.
Mrs Taylor ran another successful Maths Cafe. Thank you to all those who came along. This week the focus was fractions. They learned about how to sneak fractions practice into everyday life. Our final session of this year will be in May you are very welcome to join us. We are hoping to run similar sessions in the new year and if you have any maths questions please send them in to us.
The weather has been beautiful this week and as a result the playground can be very warm at lunchtime. As we move into the summer months please make sure that sun cream is applied to your children in the morning and they have a water bottle with them for the day.
Can I also please remind you of the procedures for when a child is sick or has diarrhoea. The child must be kept off school until 48 hours after the last episode of sickness or diarrhoea. This to prevent the spread of infection as far as possible.
It is an exciting week ahead for our P7 children who will be away on their residential trip. It is also a short week with the Monday holiday and Thursday in-service day.
Have a lovely long weekend. ☀️
Vanessa
Headteacher update 24/04/26
We were delighted to welcome the children back to school this week and hear all their news from the Easter Break.
It has been a busy first week of term with P3-P7 enjoying football sessions with Barry Christie from Kelty Hearts. They all had great fun developing their skills and are looking forward to another session with Barry next week. There is also a great opportunity for any 2014, 2015 or 2016 girls who would enjoy a FREE session of football to go along to Kelty astro pitch from 6pm – 7pm on a Friday night. If they are interested please contact Sam (Sam +44 7540 420652) or turn up on the evening with a parent or guardian. ⚽
Our school football team were also in action again at the Cluster League. They played brilliantly as a team and were so supportive and encouraging of each other. They made us very proud by bringing home the Sporting Integrity Award. 🏆
One of our P7 pupils has been preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and this was celebrated during a service on Thursday evening with children from the other schools in the Parish (St Bride’s, St Patrick’s and St Kenneth’s). Archbishop Cushley was there to Confirm the children and it was a special evening for all the young people and their families. 🙏
The staff attended their 4th iPad training session this week and the children in P6 and P7 have been using them with growing confidence to support their learning. We are looking forward to the P5 learners being issued with their iPads this term.
Information about before and after school clubs has been sent out. We are hoping to have a float in the Gala this year on Saturday 27th June. This takes a considerable amount of work to prepare and we are looking for parents to come along to an after school club on a Thursday to help us prepare. Please get in touch with the school office if you can spare an hour to help. The theme this year is ‘Carnival’. 🙌🎉
Next week we have a Parent Council meeting on Monday 27th April at 8.30am if you can make it please come along and support this small team who work so hard to help with fundraising and other events in school. The Parent Council Meetings are a great way to meet new parents, find out about what is going on in the school and support with volunteering or fundraising. Everyone is welcome!
Have a great weekend and lets keep our fingers crossed that the sun shines! ☀️
Vanessa
Headteacher Update 27/03/26
Welcome to our first Headteacher update. This week we have been celebrating our outstanding P6/7 Basketball team who won the NBA Basketball League last Friday. They demonstrated excellent teamwork and resilience to return to school as champions! We have the P5/6 team competing in their final this week, so we wish them lots of luck!
We have had a visit from Hazel from Childsmile who is working with the children and staff to introduce tooth brushing during the school day in P3/4.
One of our P7 pupils represented St Joseph’s at the Fife Schools Swimming Competition. We were delighted to hear he secured a personal best in one of his events. This is the first time we have had a swimmer from St Joseph’s. Well done Lochlan!
Parents evening was a great success with 94% of our families attending appointments. It was a wonderful opportunity for the staff the share the achievements of the children and speak with the families. We were also lucky to have the High School staff available to speak with parents about transition to St Columba’s High School.
Thank you for your continued understanding and support in not using the school car park during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times.
This measure is in place to ensure the safety of all our children, families and staff, and your cooperation is greatly appreciated. By keeping the area clear, you are helping us maintain a safe and calm environment at these busy times of day.
Have a lovely weekend.
Vanessa Anderson
