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.

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.