Our school value focus this week is Thinking. Today our school captains visited every class to explain more about the thinking value.  Tomorrow (22 February) is officially  World Thinking Day – https://www.wagggs.org/en/what-we-do/world-thinking-day/  This has been celebrated since 1926, World Thinking Day is a day of international friendship linked to the 10 million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 150 countries.

World Book Day – this year’s theme is “You are a reader”.   We will not be dressing up for world book day but a full day of literacy fun will be enjoyed on Thursday 3^rd March.

Here is a link to family resources to support a love of reading:  https://www.worldbookday.com/families/ –

The Scholastic book fair arrives this Thursday (24th February) for one week.  An email will be sent to all families tomorrow to share how you can browse and purchase books.  We have £1 book tokens available to each child too.

Parent teacher meetings – expect a letter on Wednesday which will allow you to book a telephone appointment with class teachers from w.b. 14 March – 23 March.  Please return promptly.

Storm damage – some of our sports hall windows are damaged from the recent storms and are being checked.  Therefore, the sports hall is currently out of use. We hope to have the matter resolved quickly.

Our school value focus this week is Kindness. Here is the launch video:

On Friday P2/3 plan to share their learning from Scottish Mental Health Week and Kindness at Learn to learn.  P3 also plan to share their safer internet day learning. We are looking forward to hearing from both!

Safer Internet Focus Week  theme is All fun and games?  There is some excellent and up to date advice on this theme for parents and carers here

Covid-19 Safety Reminders – all Scottish schools continue to operate under C-19 safety mitigations. Some families have contacted us concerned about the number of adults crowding in our playground and those not wearing face masks.  Please support us in school by keeping everyone safe and reducing the spread and impact oF absences from Covid-19 within our school community by maintaining physical distancing from other adults and wear a face mask.

A huge thank you to our amazing Parent Council team. We had a successful meeting on Teams last Wednesday. We learned that the Parent Council Christmas Raffle raised over £1500! Thank you to everyone who supported this fundraiser.

Parent Portal – A letter will be emailed this week to all families regarding Fife’s Parent Portal which gives access to services such as the My Scot card etc. Just over 25% of Tayport families are already signed up to the parent portal and it is hoped to increase the number.  Please check your emails and in the meantime for general information look here: https://www.fife.gov.uk/kb/docs/articles/education2/schools-in-fife/parentsportal.scot

Dates for your diary – please check the calendar section of the website by clicking here. Please note the Scholastic Book Fair arrives on the 24th February on the lead up to World Book Day.

Our school value focus this week is Connecting. Not only are we looking at making connections within our learning but also reaching out and connecting with our Tayport community. Here is the launch video:

As part of the local “Cultivate” project through the community garden, many classes are getting involved in creating a vision for Tayport in 2030.  shaping the future of Tayport with the local community garden.  Click here to find out more.

We have a significant number of Covid-19 positive cases in school, please remain vigilant to your child displaying symptoms.  Schools continue to operate under Covid-19 safety mitigations, one of which, is ensuring good ventilation in all spaces where children and adults are in school. This can result in the temperatures being cooler in classrooms. We encourage children to wear extra layers. It would be greatly appreciated if top layers were red or black and without large branding motifs. This promotes a sense of belonging and being part of our school.

Parent Council Meeting this Wednesday 2^nd February at 7 pm.  Contact the parent council via this website.  Click here to join the meeting

A few children are bringing footballs into school and playing unsupervised before 9am, resulting in a few minor incidents.  There should be no football being played in the playground before 9am.

This week all our classes are focusing on the Achieving school value allowing us all to make progress.  To do this children need to know where they are in their learning and what their next steps are.  By the end of last week a copy of pupil’s learning steps was sent home.  Here are two creative primary 4s whose class decorated the learning steps with our new vision “On TRACK to a bright future”:

We would encourage you to ask your children about this learning and how they will know that they have been successful.

As our Scots language focus comes to a conclusion Achieving Certificates will be awarded to each class’ three finalists at Learn to Learn on Friday.   Here is this week’s Achieving video:

Homework is an important part of your child’s learning and is set weekly. P1-3 use Seesaw and P4-7 uses Glow or paper copies. Please encourage your child to engage and complete all tasks to a high standard. If there are any issues regarding homework please contact the class teacher to update.

Covid-19 Mitigations remain in place in school. However we have booked provisional dates for Tempest to take individual/family photos and whole class photos.  Please note the dates below and remember this will be entirely dependent on Covid mitigations at the time and therefore are tbc.

• Individual/Families – Monday,14^th March
• Group photos – Wednesday 4^th May

School Calendars – we still have a supply of 2022 calendars which have now been reduced to £3 a copy.

Parent Council Meeting – the next parent council meeting is planned for Wednesday 2^nd February at 7pm, on Teams.  If you would like to join the meeting or have any issues you would like raised please contact the parent council team here.

P1 Enrolment now open – Fife’s online enrolment system for pupils due to start primary one in August 2022 is live from Monday 17 January 2022.  All parents/carers of any child eligible to start primary one in August 2022 should submit an enrolment application online at www.fife.gov.uk/applyforaschoolplace.

The deadline to enrol your child(ren) for Primary one is 15 March 2022. The deadline to apply for a placing request application is 15 March 2022.  It would, however, be appreciated if you could apply online no later than 18 February 2022 to give school staff the opportunity to process all enrolments/placing requests as quickly as possible.

This week we are focusing on the Responsibility school value and are looking forward to celebrating success with this at learn to learn on Friday. Here is the information about this:

 Scottish Booktrust – some superb resources to support reading at home: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/home-activities

Happy New Year to all our families! Today we have launched our new school vision and values click here to find out more.  Children are focusing this week on our Thinking Value.  Here is the message shared with them this morning:

As you will understand we have tightened up our Covid-19 procedures again in school and so ask that you support us in keeping everyone safe by:

• all adults in our playground wearing a facemask,
• adults not gathering in groups (particularly at the side entrance)
• ringing the bell at the school office and waiting outside (even if the door is open). Someone will come out to see you.

School Calendars – we still have a supply of 2022 calendars which have now been reduced to £3 a copy.  Please contact the school office or send money in an envelope with your child’s name and class clearly labelled, if you wish to purchase.

Current P6s – Ardroy note of interest – Following our information evening in December current primary six pupils will receive a paper letter with further Ardroy information today. This information includes a return slip to express interest in the trip or not and whether financial support from school is being sought. Once we have reviewed all responses we will confirm the booking for August 2022 (Covid-19 restrictions permitting) and share the proposed payment plan. Please send the note of interest slip back by return.

Nursery – Our nursery section of the website has general information,  nursery deferral contacts and deadlines as well as newsletters. access here.

Our local community police officer has asked us to share the following:  Vodaphone are offering a limited number of free downloads on these three internet safety themed kids’ books. There are also free activity sheets for each story.  A fairytale for the digital age | Vodafone Digital Parenting

Thank you for your support! The parent council Christmas raffle was a great success. The final amount raised will be updated in the new year. We still have a supply of coloured pupil designed 2022 Calendars for sale at £6. Please contact the office ASAP.  Again we appreciate your support.

Congratulations and a huge well done to Ciara, Ava-Ruth, Zoe, Poppy and Hamish who performed in the Tayport Amateur Dramatic and Musical Society show “Nativity The Musical” from 8^th to 11^th December. We are proud of their dedication and commitment over the previous months, resulting in being part of a great community event.  #community  #inspire

Mid-session reviews and Learning Steps home – please return learning step jotters asap (with your signature and comment).  #progress

Draft School Calendar for Jan – April 2022 – has been updated on the website but is a work in progress! Please keep checking here. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fi/tayportps/school-calendar/jan-april-2022-draft/

From 6^th January 2022 – We continue to operate with various Covid-19 mitigations in school. We had hoped by the New Year that we would have more flexibility with children mixing, however, this is not the case. For various reasons we plan to make one change to the current bubble structure operating at breaks and lunchtimes. On our return to school in January Primary 4 will switch bubbles with Primary 2/3.  For your information lunch times are structured as so (first 20 minutes in the dinner hall):

Bubble 1 – P1, P1/2, P2/3 –Lunch 12:00 – 12:45

Bubble 2 – P5/6, P6/7, P7 – Lunch: 12:25 – 1:10

Bubble 3 – P3, P4, P4/5 – Lunch: 12: 50 – 1:35

Vacancies at Tayport Primary:  There are a number of cleaning posts in North East Fife schools available. Our recruitment advert for another pupil support assistant has been extended too. https://ekmu.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX/

All the boys and girls have worked hard to prepare and deliver their Christmas 2021 performance. Please enjoy!

Click here to view Tayport and Ferryport’s Christmas 2021 Cheer Performances

Mid-session reviews and Learning Steps home – please enjoy sharing your child’s learning together. Jotters should be returned by end of week with comments from you and signed.

Parent Council Raffle Tickets – still available. Check their Facebook page for an impressive list of prizes. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fi/tayportps/parental-involvement/parent-council/

Class Christmas Parties – Just a reminder of plans for this week and the start of next:

School 2022 Calendar For Sale– Envelopes with order slips were sent home last week. Please get back to us ASAP.

Covid-19 Safety – with ongoing concerns around the new variant, where possible adults should avoid entering our playground, physically distance from each other and wear a face covering at all times. There are some changes to isolation rules if anyone in school becomes infected with the new variant. We will update families if this happens.

Christmas Cheer Videos to be shared on Friday 17^th – Classes are finalising their Christmas cheer song and we hope to share this, via the website, on Friday.  A link will be emailed to first contacts on Groupcall.

Refreshed School Vision and Values – After a lot of collaborative work, our young Learning Leaders have finally agreed our updated school vision and values. We will trial these next session and make any improvements before finalising during term 4. A short video will be created to explain this soon. In the meantime, you can view details here: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fi/tayportps/

Class Christmas Parties – Dates have been set for class Christmas parties below. Although two classes are against a date, due to ongoing Covid-19 mitigations classes will use the gym hall separately. If desired, on party days children can come to school in “party wear” .  All children will receive a selection box to take home following their party.  Please remember the Parent Council is funding the parties and selection boxes through its fundraising work and would welcome families’ support for the Christmas raffles through ticket purchasing and prizes.

Tues 14th – P4

Thurs 16th – P5/6 & P4/5

Fri 17th – P6/7 & P7

Mon 20th – P1 & P1/2

Tues 21st – P2/3 & P3

Click here for other dates for December

2022 Designed School Calendar Fundraiser –

Please expect an order slip and envelope sent home with pupils this week.

P6 Ardroy Residential information Evening – Ardroy staff will host an information evening for P6 families on Tuesday 7^th December at 6 pm on Teams. The link has previously been emailed to all families.

Link to Tues 7th Dec meeting on Teams at 6 pm

 Nursery Deferrals – Fife is part of a pilot programme giving parents the option of deferring children whose birthday is after 17^th August 2022. All information will be emailed to families or can be accessed on our website here: Nursery Deferral Information

Pupil Support Assistant Post – closes midnight 9 December.  PSA vacancy has arisen in school. Please share around the community. PSA at Tayport PS Advert

 Tiny Tangerines Programme at Dolphin Centre – Michael Anderson, the Early Years Development Officer from Dundee United Community Trust is running the Tiny Tangerines programme, a physical literacy programme that is for nursery aged boys and girls. He currently runs sessions at the Dolphin Centre in Tayport every Friday from 1pm – 1:45pm and 2pm – 2:45pm. All information can be found at their website  here

Winter Fuel Discounts – You usually get a Winter Fuel Payment automatically if you receive the State Pension or another benefit, such as Pension Credit (but not Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support or Universal Credit). If you qualify, but don’t get paid automatically, you’ll need to make a claim:  here

Perth Christmas activity – Information can be found on the Community section of our website. Note there is a 10% discount code if you book before 8th Dec (excludes Saturdays).

Fife’s Virtual Library Links for w.b 6^th December: https://sway.office.com/Bpzc5xYmuFMbkY2L?ref=Link