Parent Council

Thank you to everyone who supported the Parent Council meeting this week.  It is lovely to have PC back up and running. The minutes and contact details for the Parent Council are available: Click Here

Building Work

Work on the new Modular Unit will start on 21st March 2022. This will have minimal impact on the running of the school but the upper gate from Flass Road will be closed off as a site entrance. This will affect P1 parents and Nursery parents with buggies. P1 will start using the same door as P1/2 from that date and we can help anyone with a buggy who needs it. Please click here for full information.

Big Park

The grass on Big Park is getting damaged by people playing on it wearing football/rugby boots with studs. When the grass is dug up, the field gets more muddy and it makes it harder to drain meaning we are less likely to be able to use it at playtimes, which I know everyone values. Our pupils never wear studs so this is happening out of school time. If you know people who come and make use of Big Park in evenings and weekends, please can you pass on a message to request they don’t wear studs to stop damage to the grass which could them impact on our use of the space. I am grateful for support over this.

Our 5 Ways Work (P1-7)

We are continuing to have a focus on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing

This week, we have been able to start Assemblies again – this is part of our work on Connect. Earlier in the week, P7 sharing their learning and ways they were Active at Ardroy with the whole school and on World Book Day, every class learnt together. On Friday 18th, P1-7 are invited to come to school dress as a Superhero and to bring a donation for Comic Relief – Give. There will be a special learning task on the day linked to our school values.

Safe Parking

The community Police Team are continuing to monitor parking at the school at pick up and drop off times. They have provided us with posters which you will see displayed by the yellow zig zags:

Rugby Taster Follow Up – Message from Active Schools

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

Work on the new modular unit will begin on 21st March 2022. It will be built on the flat ground between the two Flass Road gates.

From 21st March until the work is completed, the upper gate from Flass Road will be out of use as it will be a site entrance.

From that date, P1 parents and children should come in the lower gate on Flass road and the class will line up at the same door as the P1/2 class (beside the main entrance to the school). The children will go in that door at 9am and back out at 3.05pm until further notice. Mrs Steven will meet them there in the morning and see them back out at the end of the day.

Nursery parents and children and P3 children should come in the lower gate and walk up the steps to access the upper school playground.

If you are a Nursery parent with a buggy and you will struggle with the steps, please let us know and we will help.

Out of School Club drop off and pick up should not be affected by this work though parents should note that all children should be accompanied to the club and picked up by an adult. There may be moving vehicles on site at OOSC drop off and pick up times.

Sections of the grounds on the Flass Road side will be fenced off from the 21st March onwards with no access at all for reasons of safety. The upper fenced off area is where the modular unit will be built and the lower area is where drainage is being installed. The lower area will remain fenced off for a while after the drainage work is completed to allow the grass to recover.

The unit itself will be delivered in the Easter holidays and work will continue to fully install and clad it with it being completed by 31st May 2022, all going well.

Parent Council

We are looking forward to the Parent Council meeting next week.  It is at 6.30pm on Tuesday 8^th March on Teams. We will send out a link for the meeting and an agenda on Tuesday via groupcall email. The meeting will be led by Nissa and Lorna. Those who are new to the school or not familiar with the workings of a Parent Council, might be interested in a little explanation and there is information here: Wormit Parent Council Information.  As the Parent Council is being re-formed, post Covid, this is a great opportunity for new parents to get involved. The Parent Council needs a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer as well as ordinary members.  Please contact wormitparent@gmail.com to express an interest in taking on one of these roles or in joining the council as an ordinary member or to raise an agenda item.

Best wishes,

Lorna Tasker (outgoing PC Chair), Nissa Finnie (PTA Secretary), Lucy Jess (Headteacher)

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.

Please read this information below in full so that you know what to do and expect for your parent teacher appointment in March.

You must sign up for your appointment by the end of the day on Friday 11th March 2022. It will not be possible to schedule any appointments after that date. We will reschedule any appointments which don’t go ahead due to technical difficulties but we won’t reschedule if the appointment is missed or not booked in time. The system does not seem to cope well with appointments which are added after the booking end date and booking by then gives the teachers time to prepare for the interviews.

We do want to support every family to be able to speak to their child’s teacher so please contact me at lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk if you need help or an alternative arrangement. You should contact me by 11th March 2022.

You can use the comments space when you book to let the teacher know if there is anything you particularly want to speak about. Your child will bring their jotters home on Friday 11th to show you and you should return them to school on Monday 14th.

The appointments will be held on these dates and times:

Tuesday 15th March 3.30-5.30pm

Thursday 17th March 3.30-5.30pm

Wednesday 23rd March 3.30-5.30pm

At this point, we can’t offer meetings later than 5.30pm due to the need to ensure the building is cleaned after staff leave. Staff need to be in the building to conduct the meetings so that technical support is on hand and so that you can contact us if you experience difficulty accessing the call.

We will be using the The Parents Evening Booking System as our main platform for these virtual meetings. This system automatically pulls your details through via Groupcall to set the meetings up, minimising admin workload.

Previously you could only long into the call via one device but this is no longer the case. You can now click to choose to invite another parent to access the call. you can do this at the time of booking or afterwards by logging back in, finding your booking and choosing to modify it.

The bulk of our families will use Parents Evening Booking system for their meeting but we recognise that some families may need a different arrangement so that all parents are involved and we can help – either by using Teams or by setting up two meetings. We can also use Teams where a parent needs to meet with two teachers for any reason. If the technology doesn’t work for you, we can use phone call for your conversation with your child’s teacher. If you need an alternative arrangement, please contact me at lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk at the start of next week (beginning 7th March 2022). I would ask parents to be mindful that there is an additional workload for admin staff and teachers in setting up an alternative arrangement and only request one where strictly necessary but we are very pleased to help where it is needed.

We can’t make any use of Zoom as it is not GDRP compliant.

Parents Evening Booking System (PEBS) will be open for you to sign up for your child’s appointment from 9am on Thursday 3rd March and will close at 3pm on Friday 11th March. To make your appointments please login at: https://parents-booking.co.uk/wormit

To login you will need to enter:

• Your first name and surname
• Your child’s first name, surname and date of birth

The login details you enter must match those we have on record for you.

After you have made your appointments you can choose to print or e-mail a confirmation but you don’t receive an email with a link for the meeting as you would for Teams or Zoom. On the day of your appointments, you need to re-login at the website address above. We recommend you do this 15 before your first appointment. 10 minutes before your first meeting you will be able to join the video meeting room, where you can wait for your appointment(s).  Please note that the meeting will start and finish automatically as scheduled – the teacher has no control over this. You will only get your full 10 minutes if you join the meeting room before the start time. If you join the meeting late, it will still end as scheduled. We will reschedule a meeting if it is cut short due to delays at our end or if the parent has called us in advance to say they are experiencing difficulties.  We won’t reschedule a meeting if it is cut short due to the parent joining it late (this is to protect teacher workload) so please get set up in good time for the meeting.

A more detailed guide is available here: Parents-Evening-Booking-System-Guidance

Internet Browser Compatibility:

You must use one of the below devices and internet browser combinations for the video meeting technology to work:

• Apple iPhone/iPad (iOS 11+): Safari – avoid using Safari if possible
• Android phone/tablet: Chrome or Firefox
• Linux computer: Chrome or Firefox
• Microsoft Surface: Chrome or Firefox
• Mac computer: Safari, Chrome or Firefox
• Windows computer: Chrome, Firefox or Edge (Chromium)

Troubleshooting Tips

• Please log into the system 15 mins before your first appointment. If, at 10 minutes before, you are experiencing difficulties – either you can’t get logged in or the join button has not appeared, please contact the school office BY PHONE on 01334 659445. Please don’t delay calling us if you need help – this will help us get the meeting running on time or let us know we need to help by rescheduling it.
• If you have more than one child in the school please ensure you enter the log-in details for the correct child at the time of their appointment.
• In rare instances school computers may lose connection and affect your meeting time – if this happens we will contact you to let you know and arrange an alternative appointment.
• When logging on please avoid Apple products if possible as, in our experience, it appears there may be a compatibility issue even though it is listed as a compatible device.
• You can only log in from one device and so parents have to be together to both be on the call. We ask that wherever possible, parents either take the call together or one feedback to the other.
• Please contact lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk by 3pm on 11th March 2022 if you don’t think your device will work to support a PEBS video call – we can set up a meeting by telephone instead if this is the case.

Rugby Tasters

P4-7 children will be having a rugby taster session on 11th March – please send them with outdoor PE kit on that day. These sessions have been organised by Active Schools.

P1 Enrolment – Final Reminder

Please enrol your child by the end of the day on Monday using this form: Enrol a child into Primary 1 | Fife Council You must enrol your child even if they already attend our nursery.

World Book Day – Reminder

P1-7  will be celebrating World Book Day on the 3rd March 2022. All children will take part in fun activities in school to promote a love of books and reading.  We are not having a dress up day because we want the focus to be on the reading activities and because we are going to be dressing up on 18th March for Comic Relief. We recognise that not all families find a dress up day easy and so prefer not to have two in one month. We are opting for the Comic Relief dress up day as it is an easier one to find a costume for! Nursery Staff will confirm on Seesaw what their children are doing on this day.

Big Park – Reminder

Now that the weather is brightening up, the P1-7 children will begin accessing Big Park again at lunchtimes. From 28th February onwards, lunchtime play will always be on Big Park unless it is too wet and muddy. All children should come to school wearing shoes that are appropriate for outdoor play on tarmac and grass. They will stay in these all day but change into indoor trainers or gym shoes for PE.  We are not currently changing shoes routinely as not every class has a cloakroom space (due to Covid).

World Book Day

P1-7  will be celebrating World Book Day on the 3rd March 2022. All children will take part in fun activities in school to promote a love of books and reading.  We are not having a dress up day because we want the focus to be on the reading activities and because we are going to be dressing up on 18th March for Comic Relief. We recognise that not all families find a dress up day easy and so prefer not to have two in one month. We are opting for the Comic Relief dress up day as it is an easier one to find a costume for! Nursery Staff will confirm on Seesaw what their children are doing on this day.

Comic Relief

P1-7 will be supporting Comic Relief on 18th March. All children are invited to come to school wearing a super hero costume, or wearing their own clothes. You are invited to send a donation to Comic Relief in with them.  Nursery Staff will confirm on Seesaw if their children are doing anything on this day.

Big Park

Now that the weather is brightening up, the P1-7 children will begin accessing Big Park again at lunchtimes. From 28th February onwards, lunchtime play will always be on Big Park unless it is too wet and muddy. All children should come to school wearing shoes that are appropriate for outdoor play on tarmac and grass. They will stay in these all day but change into indoor trainers or gym shoes for PE.  We are not currently changing shoes routinely as not every class has a cloakroom space (due to Covid).

Good Luck…

…to all our P7s who are off on residential on Monday. And to the staff accompanying them! 😀

Lunches Next Week

Due to an ordering issue, it will be a ham roll not a turkey roll on Monday.

P1 in August

If your child will be in P1 in August, please enrol them as soon as possible – click here to do so.

We suggest you do this by the end of February.

Don’t Forget

School is closed to all pupils (Nursery to P1) on Wednesday 16th February for an inservice training day and Thursday 17th and Friday 18th for the mid-term holiday.

Message from Active Schools

P1 Health Reviews

These are taking place on Tuesday 8th February.

Deadline for Nursery Applications

If your child was born between 1^st March 2018 and 28^th February 2020 and you want them to attend Nursery during the next school year, you should apply by 31^st January 2022. More information is available here: Starting Nursery | Wormit Primary School (glowscotland.org.uk)

Class Pages

These pages are kept up to date and all information on them remains relevant. Please visit your child’s page to have up to date information:

Nursery

P1

P1/2

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

I am please to be able to tell you that a tender has been approved for the modular unit which will extend out accommodation to allow us to have 8 classroom spaces and a General Purpose Room.  The unit will be built on the flat grass area between the two Flass Road gates. Work will begin on 20th March 2022, the unit itself will be delivered over the Easter Holidays and the projected finish date is end May 2022.

In addition, over the summer holidays, work will be done to re-insulate and decorate the current P1-6 classroom areas (this work has already been done in Nursery and the current P7 area).

The the October holidays, work will be done to re-insulate and decorate the staffroom and office areas.