We had a Parent Council meeting this evening (17th) at 7:30 pm via Teams but it has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.  Contact details for the parent council can be found click here

Congratulations to our P4 dance group who came third in their category in the Fife Virtual Dance Championships 2022! Huge thanks to Mrs Simpson for training and bringing the entry altogether.

Last week 4 pupils represented Tayport at the cluster tennis tournament at St Andrews.  Well done to everyone involved!

Our World of Work Week kicked off yesterday with an interesting virtual input from one of our parents who is a 3D animator. The children were very interested to hear about this career and the skills learned in school, such as creative writing, art and model making that contributed to this.  We have a varied programme across the week with presentations to come from a prison officer, teacher, architect, depute procurator fiscal, assistant shop manager, and a head of marketing!   A few in person visits are also in place from local business Foodmek, a farmer from Kettle Produce and an animator.  It has been wonderful to connect with our families in this way.  Many thanks to all our presenters who are giving up their time this week to promote learning in this area.

As we begin to set our school improvement priorities for next year we would welcome your feedback on our curriculum. A very short survey was emailed to families yesterday.  Please let us know your thoughts, the survey will close on Friday 20th.

Important Reminder – No Nuts in School – please ensure any snacks and lunches have no loose nuts or food items with whole nuts as a main ingredient e.g. snickers bars.  Across the school we have children with severe nut allergies and we need everyone to follow this guideline.

General security – at 9am the main office door is usually open to allow classes to enter. If any parent or carer needs to speak to the office staff please ring the bell (even if the door is open) and wait outside. Someone will come to you.

P7 Bake Sale – our primary 7s are organising a bake sale to raise some funds towards their leavers’ events in school.  There will be more information to follow but the sale is on Friday 20th May.

Tempest Photos – if you planned to send your photo orders for individual or sibling photos into  school they must be received today (Tuesday 10th) but you can still order directly online.  Class group photos to be taken on Wednesday 11th too – children should wear school uniform even if it is a gym day.

Thank you to all the families who have supported classes by accompanying them out on the Tayport Heritage Trail. It has been wonderful to get outdoors and into our community.

Tempest Class Group Photos – has changed to Wednesday 11th May.  Please send children in school uniform, even if it is usually a PE day!

School Calendar updated Here

• Inservice Day – Thursday 5th  – school closed to pupils.

School Uniform – as more routines get back to normal we ask that children return to wearing school uniform daily unless it is a class PE day when children should come dressed in suitable exercise clothes (no jeans or Football tops)  Click here for a reminder of uniform colours.  Our supplier (BE Uniforms) has contacted us to ask families to order school uniform early due to supply issues. This can be done online too: https://www.border-embroideries.co.uk/schools/tayport-primary-school.html

Parent Council Meeting has moved to Tuesday 17th May, 7:30 pm on Teams

P3-6 Cluster Tennis Competition – Please read details and complete the form if interested: Complete form by 3pm on Friday 6th May

Community page updated with an Active Fife Walking challenge for the month of May: Click here

Absences – Parents/carers must phone or email the school office to inform of any pupil absences.  Please do not inform teachers via Seesaw or when they are collecting their lines from the playground as this important information may not be passed on in a timely manner.

Attendance/ lateness –  Part of our responsibility in school is to monitor attendance. Due to Covid-19 we recognise that there has been increased absence for many pupils (and sometimes this has been as a precautionary measure).  We are currently running a check on pupil absence for the school year. Therefore if your child’s attendance has fallen below 90% we will be in touch over this week or next to make you aware of this.  We are also monitoring late arrivals at school and will be in touch with families to make you aware if your child is regularly arriving after 9 am.

Water bottles – please send a named water bottle daily. The bottle should contain only water, no juice (unless we have a letter explaining the need for this). The bottle should be taken home and washed daily.

Nursery April Newsletter can be accessed on the website – April Nursery Newsletter

Sports Day – Thursday 9th June and our wet weather back up date is Friday 10th June.  We fully anticipate inviting parents along to this event for P1-7.

Wellbeing Conference – this week! Please take a look and sign up to anything you are interested in. https://sway.office.com/rAAkRzbahhtavFhO?ref=Link&loc=play

P7 leavers’ arrangements – An email has gone out to P7 families with provisional plans for the last week of term.   We plan to hold a Last Day of Term Service at the Parish Church, 30th June at 10 am.

Fife Child Protection team has asked us to alert parents of a new viral video of a character named ‘Huggy Wuggy’ that is being shared widely through online channels at the moment. Videos of the animated blue bear – like creature with razor sharp teeth has leaked through many parental controls due to its name which has the ability to infiltrate firewalls and filters.  In some Fife settings many  younger children are recreating playground type games associated with this character which encourages inappropriate and worrying behaviour. They ask that all parents/carers be vigilant in checking parental controls on devices used by their children.

For 18^th April, please assume current 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 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 those not in your household. But I will share changes to this advice when I get them. I hope the guidance will be updated today or tomorrow which will allow the Tempest family/group photos to go ahead this Friday.  At this point it remains a provisional arrangement.

School Uniform please – classrooms must remain well ventilated so children may wish to bring an extra jumper to put over (not instead of) school jumpers.  PE days should be plain sports wear (school colours when possible) and no football strips or denims.

We are planning a whole school topic this term around the Tayport Heritage Trail. We look forward to sharing the plans around this very soon. We hope to have families into school to share our learning around our community. It this is not possible it will be done virtually.  Sports day will go ahead this term, and we expect to be able to invite parents to this too.

Parent Council meeting, via Microsoft Teams, is scheduled for 10 May at 7:30 pm. Please contact your parent council team if there is anything you would like to put onto the agenda (contact details can be found in the parental involvement section of the website).

Fife Council is hosting its annual wellbeing conference from 25th – 29th April 2022, to allow staff, parents, carers and community partners to attend various workshops and webinars.  Themes to be covered are:

• Support for parents, carers, and staff in relation to supporting their child’s and their own wellbeing
• Building resilience and emotional regulation strategies
• Self-esteem and confidence
• Helping to reduce and cope with anxiety and stress
• Promote positive peer relationships
• Encourage in learning, especially those who are often most withdrawn and non-engaging

The following SWAY has a list of workshops and webinars.  Sign up to anything you are interested in. https://sway.office.com/rAAkRzbahhtavFhO?ref=Link&loc=play

We made it! The final week of term 3 is upon us. Learning Steps will be sent home today to share learning over the term.  Your child will be able to share and talk about their progress with their targets. Please return the learning steps jotter, with your feedback, by Friday.

We are doing a special certificate award for children who regularly demonstrate all the school values and vision. We look forward to sharing this with you on Friday.

Click here to read the summarised feedback from the recent family survey. It is on our website under School Improvement Work/ Stakeholder Feedback.

Easter Egg Gifts – Our Parent Council has again secured a generous Easter gift to all children at Tayport and Ferryport. All the children will leave with an Easter Egg this Friday. Thank you to all those who support the fundraising efforts of the Parent Council Team.

Saftey near water – concerned members of the public have contacted us and asked us to highlight that, after school hours, some Tayport PS children have been seen sitting on the seawall at high tide. There is also a risk of quick sand in this area.  Please remind your child about your expected safety rules when they are out in the community.

As you will have heard in the news Covid cases remain high in Scotland and therefore in school we reduce risk by minimising the number of external visitors. Therefore, at this time our Tempest individual and sibling group photo date of Friday 22^nd April remains provisional.  We are however expecting for risk assessment guidance to change on our return allowing this to go ahead.

All families will be offered an opportunity to grow 3 varieties of tatties next term. We are awaiting the arrival of the seed potatoes. We will do a great tattie giveaway after the holidays.

We are focusing on the kindness value this week. At Learn to Learn (Friday’s assembly) we will be celebrating all our strengths and differences linked to International Neurodiversity Celebration Week – ADHD, ASD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Tourettes – and how kindness is always our response to any diversity.  The following clip will be used to promote discussion around ASD: https://youtu.be/Ezv85LMFx2E

Some may be interested in this range of neurodiversity resources for parents: https://www.neurodiversityweek.com/parent-resources

Thank you to those parents who said they would be willing to take part in our virtual job fair. You will receive an email this week with further information about this. If anyone else is interested in sharing some information about their job during term 4 with classes please email me directly: tayportps.headteacher@fife.gov.uk .

Tayport Heritage Trail’s website is now up and running. http://tayportheritage.com It offers a wealth of local information. As a school we plan to utilise the trail next term. More information to follow.

Our school value focus this week is Connecting.

This week marks one full year of schools being open!

We have been advised that there is no crossing patroller at Queen Street zebra crossing for this entire week.

We are currently reviewing the school’s travel plan.  This involves looking at the main routes children take to school and also any issues e.g. around parking. The survey will be emailed to you this week.

Thank you to those who completed our school evaluation survey last week – 35 families were represented in the results (50 children) equating to 22% of the school population. This feedback will be summarised and shared with you soon.

Parent meeting phone calls begin this week. Each family is allocated ten minutes (just as you would if visiting in school) to discuss your child’s progress.

Community News: Please take a look at the Tayport Community Blog which has details of an upcoming exhibition at the Larick Centre, sharing the vision for Tayport in 2030.  Tayport in 2030 :: Creative Dundee – Amplifying and Connecting the City

Library theme is Patron Saints. All the usual bits are on to, such as Bookbug, story times and crafts. Please do let us know if there is anything you would like us to put on YAY which would be useful for you. https://sway.office.com/gNNIVj07477kli00?ref=Link

Our school value focus this week is Achieving. 

Nursery to P1 Transition begins next week with some informal visits by nursery (and playgroup) to the primary 1 classroom.  This is being planned and delivered within a managed Covid-19 risk assessment.  If your child is due to start school in August 2022 please ensure their application is submitted as soon as possible. 

 P7 to S1 Applications – please ensure you have applied to enroll your P7 to your catchment high school before 15th March.  It is customary for children to attend their local school (catchment school). If you don’t want your child to attend the local school, there’s the option within the online form to select up to two alternatives. This request is referred to as a placing request. More information can be found here: Enrol in secondary school | Fife Council  

Parent/Carer Survey issued today – an email was sent to all nursery and school families today with a link to an online survey. We welcome your feedback. Please note the survey will close this Friday 11th March at midday, and not on Friday 18th March (as indicated in the email).

 Individual/Sibling Group Tempest Photos – a new date has been provisionally arranged – Friday 22nd April. This will be dependent on the current Covid-19 guidelines changing before this date. At present we are only able to allow essential visitors into school e.g. community police. Therefore, this new date will be confirmed, hopefully before the Easter holiday. 

 Rugby Taster – a selection of classes are to experience  rugby taster sessions on Tuesday 8th March.  Community Police Visit – our primary sixes will receive an internet safety input from the community police on Tuesday as well. 

 One upper class proudly represented Tayport primary at a hockey festival at Madras College on Friday 4th. 

 World Book Day and Scholastic Book Fair – We had a very successful world book day week and some samples of the learning can be viewed on our school Twitter account. Book sales were also very strong over the week – the school receives a percentage of the sales to purchase books for our library and classes. Thank you for your support with this. 

 Community News: Please take a look at the Tayport Community Blog which has details of an upcoming exhibition at the Larick Centre, sharing the vision for Tayport in 2030.  Tayport in 2030 :: Creative Dundee – Amplifying and Connecting the City   

Our school value focus this week is Responsibility.

World Book Day – Thursday 3^rd March – Your child can bring a favourite book with them on Thursday 3^rd March when we will participate in DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time throughout the day. We look forward to sharing our WBD celebration via our school Twitter account.

Fife Library Resources for World Book Day week: OnFife Virtual LibrarYAY, week beginning Monday 28th Feb (office.com)

 Scholastic Book Fair – Children are enjoying browsing  and exploring the new texts being sold at the book fair. Details on how to order were shared last week.  The following is a link to online payment: https://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/travelling-books/pay  which should be done as soon as possible.

Family/Group Tempest Photos Postponed until term 4. Date tbc.

There have been several ongoing cases of head lice reported in classes. Please check your child’s hair regularly.  Here is some useful advice/guidance: https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/skin-hair-and-nails/head-lice-and-nits

Parent/carer survey – Later this week a survey will be emailed to all families to seek feedback on school improvements this year. We welcome your feedback.