As per the email I sent last week, we will be holding P1-7 Parent/Teaching meetings by video call in November. The text of the email is available here: November Parent-Teacher Meetings (P1-7) | Wormit Primary School (glowscotland.org.uk). Please read this email and the information below in full so that you know what to expect.

Please make your appointment by the end of the day on Wednesday 3^rd November – this will give the teachers time to prepare for the interviews. We can’t guarantee you will get an appointment if you don’t book before then but we do want to support every family to be able to speak to their child’s teacher so please do contact me at lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk if you need help or an alternative arrangement.

Parents Evening Booking System (PEBS) is now ready for you to sign up for your child’s appointment. 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
• 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 the end of the day on 3rd November 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.

Following the disruption of the last two years, it is more important than ever that we support children to attend school as well as is possible. Our aim is that all children should attend for at least 95% of the school year. This equates to attending at least 4.5 days every week on average. Evidence suggests that children who attend for 95% or more of the school year have the best future attainment outcomes and it is important that good attendance routines are established from the very beginning of a child’s time at school.

​Attendance of below 85% falls into the cause for concern bracket. There is evidence that absences pushing attendance below 85% have a significant impact on overall attendance. 

Good attendance also supports children’s social and emotional development. It helps them to develop and sustain friendships. 

​It is important for us (school and parents) to monitor and support attendance throughout the school year and if you feel concerned at all about your child’s attendance, please contact me to discuss how we can support. Equally, if we are concerned about your child’s attendance, we will contact you to offer support.

​I would ask all parents to note the following ways that attendance can be kept high:

• avoid making appointments for during the school day whenever possible. If your child has a necessary dental or medical appointment that has to be held during the school day, let us know and only take them out of school for the duration of the appointment.
• only plan holidays/events for school holiday time. 
• only keep your child off school if they are too ill to attend (see below) and return them as soon as they are well enough to be back in school.
• Only keep your child off school to isolate if advised to do so by NHS (see below) and return them as soon as you are able.

There are occasions when children should stay off school:

• if they are ill with any illness and present as tired, poorly or otherwise not fit for school.
• suspected or confirmed infectious illness (e.g. chicken pox) – you should consult us about when it is safe for your child to return after symptoms end.
• tummy bugs – your child should stay off school until 48 hours has passed since the last instance of vomiting or diarrhoea.
• a continuous cough, loss of sense of taste or smell, high temperature – these are the symptoms of Covid, your whole household should isolate for 10 days or until your child has a negative PCR test. Your child can return to school after a negative test but if they have had a high temperature, they should not return until 48 hours after it goes down.
• if your child is told by NHS or TEST AND PROTECT to isolate and seek a PCR test, they must stay off until they receive a negative test result.

There are times when we may ask you to collect your child from school – this might be because they are too poorly to concentrate or work or it might be because we suspect Covid symptoms (or another infectious illness) and need to ask you to monitor them at home.
​

We also recognise that there are times when the wellbeing of the family is supported by a child being off school (for example in the event of a bereavement or a family event like a wedding).
​

If your child needs to be off for one of the above reasons, please explain it to us fully – I am always happy for you to contact me to ask for advice or support if your child needs to be off. If they are off school following NHS advice but otherwise well, you can request work for them to do at home.

​Beyond this, all children should attend school everyday. It is no longer the case that Public Health recommend all pupils in the class remain at home in the event of a positive Covid case in school and you should not keep your child at home to avoid contact with others unless you are advised to do so by a medical professional.

​All Covid related absences should be reported to lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk

All request for an absence in advance should be sent to lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk

All requests for work for a pupil who is isolating should be directed to Jamie.rose@fife.gov.uk

All other absences should be reported to the school office by 9am on the morning in question – email to wormitps.enquiries@fife.gov.uk or call to 01334659445.

​I am grateful to you all for your support,

Lucy Jess,
25^th October 2021

It is unlikely restrictions will change to allow us to invite parents into school for these meetings so they will be held virtually. Information about signing up for an appointment will follow, early next week.

The appointments will be held on these dates and times:

Tuesday 9th November 3.30 – 5.30pm

Thursday 11th November 3.30-5.30pm

Wednesday 17th November 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.

Please note that it is only possible to log in to Parents Evening Booking system on one device so we do ask that wherever possible parents take the meeting together or one feeds back to the other.

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 25th October 2021). 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.

Please don’t worry if you haven’t used Parents Evening Booking system before or if you can’t remember what to do, full instructions will come out next week. This is just an early reminder of dates and confirmation of the process.

Matchbox Competition

Well done to all who took part, the top three boxes contained 86, 86, 92 and 95 items! Everyone who returned a box earned points for their house:

Woodhaven – 115

Newton – 135

Flass – 160

St Fort – 160

Looking to work within the council?

Fife Council jobs are now advertised here. Facilities management are actively recruiting in this area. There will also be a PSA job for Wormit PS advertised soon.

Holiday Event

Please click here to find details of an event for primary aged children happening in the school holidays:

St Andrews Botanic Gardens FREE event schools invitation

Milk Fund

The milk fund will be open until midnight on 24th October – please order and pay for your child’s milk for next term before then.

Covid reporting in the holidays

If your child should test positive for Covid during the holidays, you do not need to report it to the school, only to Public Health. If your child will be absent on 25th October with a Covid related reason, please contact lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk to report their absence. All other absences should be reported to the office in the usual way on the Monday morning.

School closes today for the October holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone back on 25th October.

Christmas Card Fundraiser

We will be carrying out our Christmas Card fundraiser again this year.  The children are busy this week doing their Christmas Card designs. They will bring them home on Monday 25th October for you to see. If your child’s design doesn’t come home on that day, please contact us to query it. If you would like to order cards, follow the instructions which come home with the design to order and pay for your cards online. You should do this by Wednesday 3rd November.

You must then return your child’s design to school on Wednesday 3rd November so that we can send it away – if you don’t return the design on that day, your order won’t get processed.

The cards will come to school in the second half of November and we will put them out straight away. You will receive your cards by the end of November.

Please support this fundraiser if you can.

Many thanks

Scheduled building work at the school is continuing.

During the October Holidays, the following will take place:

• New pin boards will be installed in the refurbished P7 area.
• The upper gateway from Flass Road into the playground will be widened and new gates will be fitted. This is the first step of a project to make it possible for vehicles to enter by that route. This will be needed when the modular unit is being built and will also allow emergency vehicles and routine maintenance vehicles into the top playground. Rest assured that the vehicle gates will be locked to stop unauthorised access and keep children safe. Pedestrian access will not be compromised but we will have more secure gates to keep shut during playtimes.
• A site inspection will be carried out in preparation for the work to build the new modular unit (extension to the school in light of a growing roll). No contractor has yet tendered for the job of building the modular unit (hence the delay) but Fife Council are carrying this work out now to reduce the timescale of the build once a contractor has been identified.

During November, the Nursery Garden will be extended. This will likely take 4 days. It can’t be done over the October Holidays as the fencing  materials aren’t available yet. As long as the materials are ready in time, it will be done over the weekend of the November in-service day to minimise disruption.

Harvest/Next week

We will hold Harvest Assemblies next week and will invite children to bring in an item for donation to the foodbank on Friday 8th October. P1-7, please also remember to return your matchboxes by 8th.  Friday is the last day of term and we look forward to seeing the children return for Term 2 on 25th October.

Community News

Some parents have suggested a Community News Page would be helpful on the school website. I have set one up here.  I will be reliant on people sending me contributions to keep it up to date!

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

There will be an additional school holiday in 2022 on Friday 3rd June.

Annual Data Check

Please return your child’s form ASAP, if you haven’t already. This is so we can check details are up to date.

P1 Courier Photo

This will be published on Monday 4th October.

Big Park

Over the last week and a half, the children have enjoyed time playing on Big Park. As some parents have contacted me about this, I would like to clarify a couple of points. We don’t have enough staff to allow the children to choose between playing on the tarmac or playing on Big Park, we need to either have them all on the tarmac or all on Big Park to allow for proper supervision. In the first few weeks of term, they were playing on the Tarmac, this was to allow everyone to get into a proper routine at the start of term and while we were easing mitigations and opening up the class bubbles. At playtime, the children only have 15 minutes to eat their snack and we do like them to use this time to go to the toilet and so time does not make it worth going down to Big Park. But we are now making regular use of Big Park at lunchtimes and this will continue whenever the weather and underfoot conditions allow.  I have been grateful to the parents who have offered feedback about the use of Big Park and want to reassure you that we recognise the benefits of outdoor play in this wonderful space and know that this is something our pupils and parents value.

Fundraiser Today

Thank you to all who have supported our fundraiser today. We have raised £219 for MacMillan Cancer.

Matchbox Competition

The due date has changed to Friday 8th October. I look forward to counting your objects!

Dundee Football Camp

Active Schools have shared some information that I have received from Dundee Football Club regarding their October Camp. The camp is taking place from the 11th October to the 15th October 9am-5pm for £60 for the full week of training.  Information is available here:

October Camp Flier

Standards and Quality Report and School Improvement Plan

I sent a summary to all parents via email this week and a paper copy came home in the school bags. Please take time to read the summary. If you are interested in further details, you can access the full documents on the relevant page of this website or by clicking here. 

Don’t forget…

…to return your filled matchbox on 1st October. Click here for a reminder of the challenge.

Thank you to all parents who have completed our Parental Survey. The link came by email this week. Please complete it if you haven’t done so yet – it takes less than 10 minutes and we want to hear from as many people as possible!

The oldest child in each family will bring home an empty matchbox this week – you can work as a family to do the challenge.  The challenge is to put as many different items into the matchbox as you can. You want to look for things that are as small as possible but you can only put in one of each item. For example, you can put in one grain of rice but not a spoonful!

Please don’t put in:

• anything perishable – e.g. you can put in a dried flower but not a fresh flower as it won’t survive.
• anything which is too tiny to find and count (e.g. a grain of sand)
• anything which will crumble away – e.g. you can put in a coffee bean but not an instant coffee granule.

Bring your matchbox back into school on Friday 1st October. On th ebox, please write:

• the P1-7 child(ren)’s name(s)
• their house
• the number of items that are inside.

Everyone who brings their box in will win points for their house and the winning boxes will earn extra points.

Good Luck and Enjoy!