Dates for the School Year

Dates for Nursery and School Events for this year are available by clicking here. 

All children will also bring home a paper version.

Unfortunately we have not been able to book a panto trip this year. This is due to the unavailability of buses. However, we have arranged the next best thing which is that M&M productions will bring a pantomime to us which all children will see in the school hall. We will ask for a small donation towards the cost of this nearer the time but the cost to you will be a saving over the contribution you made last year. We are discussing other trips that can happen this year as we are not going out to the panto and more info will follow in due course.

P1 Photos

During September we will be taking a photo of the P1s for inclusion in the local newspapers’ P1 supplements. Your child will be included in the photo as long as you have given permission for photos. If you have not returned your general permissions form, please do so on Monday so we know your wishes. We will give you any information about publication dates once we know it.

Communication about Learning

We know from feedback that many parents are keen to have updates on their child’s learning so that they can discuss learning at home with them. This year, we are going to pilot the use of Seesaw in P1-6. Over the course of the next couple of weeks I will be setting up Seesaw Journals for each class. The Seesaw Journals will be linked to the email addresses which receive Groupcall emails. If you would like another family member added, you can email me to request that, once the journals are set up. When the journals come into use (likely at the end of September) you will start to see information about your child’s learning appearing.

If you already have a Seesaw account linked to your email address, all you need to do is log into Seesaw or download the Seesaw Family App and log into it to see your child’s journal. Please don’t use the Class App as it won’t work.

If you haven’t used Seesaw before, you will receive an invite by email, you click on the link and set up an account and password.

Seesaw isn’t set up yet – don’t look for your child’s journal or the invite email yet. More information will follow.

P7 are going to have a greater responsibility for sharing their learning with home than Seesaw offers. They will be working together to make a class Sway to share with parents on a termly basis.

Punctuality

Thank you to all our families for a great effort with punctuality. I have checked the late book for August today and there are no concerns. This is great as when the whole class is in the line at 9am there is a smooth start to the day for everyone and classes can hit the ground running with their learning. Everyone sleeps in  or runs late sometimes – its always better to arrive late than never or stressed so please know we understand the odd occasion of lateness, we would only contact you about your child’s punctuality if it was frequent or formed a pattern.

Polite Reminders

Please don’t ride bikes or scooters on school ground – get off at the gate and push. This includes on Big Park outwith the school day – the grass can get damaged and the hills are too steep for safe riding.

Children should not bring mobile phones to school. The only exception to this is for older children who walk home on their own or attend a non-school club directly from school and need to be able to contact parents. In this case the phone must stay switched off and in the school bag the whole time they are at school, including on school transport. Primary aged children are too young to be able to be responsible independently with a device that can access the internet – a small error of judgement can lead to a big issue and we need to protect them from that.

Please encourage your child to wear a red or navy sweatshirt or school cardigan. Hoodies and fleeces are fine for PE ot the playground but not for the classroom, please.

Thank you to all parents for supporting their child to keep these rules.

The Playground

Playground staff have been working hard together and listening to children’s voice to make plans for the playground.

Monday-Thursday at morning break – the children all play in their tarmac zone.

Mondays and Wednesdays at lunch break – everyone on Big Park – P1-4 play at one end and P5-7 at the other end. There will be coned areas and equipment for football and gymnastics.

Tuesday and Thursdays at lunch break – everyone on Big Park – P1-4 play at one end and P5-7 at the other end. No coned areas to promote different types of play and P6s can visit their P1 buddies.

Fridays are mix-up day – everyone can go anywhere and play with anyone of any age – tarmac zones in the morning, Big Park at lunchtime.

If its too wet for Big Park, lunchtime will be on the tarmac zones and Friday will still be mix-up day.

The playground staff have a budget for buying equipment and resources to support happy playtimes and they will be listening to children’s ideas for how to spend this. I am grateful to playground staff for their hard work over this important part of the school day.

If there is any playground equipment you do not want your child to use, please make sure they know your wishes and contact me to let me know.

House Captains

Today has been the all important House Captain’s elections. Eight P7 children will be coming home with the news that they have been elected to lead their house this year, I am delighted for them – well done! I know some children will be disappointed not to have been elected and I would like to emphasise how proud I am of all of them for the work they put into their speeches and the way they have delivered them and coped with disappointment. There are going to be opportunities next week for P7s to apply for posts on school committees so lots more chances for responsibility in our school. Lucy Jess

General Permissions and Data Check Forms

Thank you to everyone who has returned their forms. If you haven’t yet, please do so ASAP – it means we know your wishes for your child and can be sure we have up to date details.

Assembly Today

At assembly today we discussed the wellbeing indicators (Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured, Achieving, Respected, Responsible and Included) and related them to our school values.

Polite Reminder

Please don’t bring dogs onto school grounds or tie them up unattended at the gate. Dogs can easily get overwhelmed when there are lots of people around and I don’t want any pet put in a position of stress. Thank you for your support.

Flass Road

Thank you to all parents who have contacted me following my email about the near miss on Flass Road this week. I have shared my concerns about Flass Road with the community police team and Fife Council’s school travel plan coordinator.

P1-7 Flu Vaccination

Your child has brought a letter home about this, please complete the form and return it to school by Friday 24th August. You should complete it even if you don’t want your child to have the vaccine because it means the NHS know your wishes – you can with hold consent on the form. Your child will not receive the vaccine in school unless you return the form giving consent. The date for the vaccines is Thursday 21^st September.

Instrumental Instruction

If your child is in P7, they will carry on with their instrument from last year – the lessons are continuing on Tuesdays.

If your child is in P6, they have brought home a letter about instruments this week. Next week the instrumental instructors will do some work with the class to assess the children’s aptitude for an instrument and some children will be offered the chance to learn woodwind or piano. Not all children can be offered this chance and it is helpful if parents can explain to them to help avoid disappointment. All children have been working on recorder and this will continue.

P6/7 Lunches

Please remember that if your child is in P6 or 7 there is not a universal free school lunch. Unless your child is registered for means tested free school meals/clothing grant/fee milk, you need to pay for their lunch through iPayImpact. Please contact the office if you need help with this.

School Tranpsort

If your child is registered for School Transport but is not getting the bus home, please inform the school office so that we know not to look for them at the end of the day for the bus. This will help us get everyone registered and onto the bus quickly.

Out of School Club

If your child attends Out of School Club, Please drop them off and sign them in at the door into the room from the top playground. After school, all P1s attending the club are collected from the Pod. The P2-7s are met by staff at the door the P2-4s come out of and registered before being taken up to the room. This means the children are quickly gathered and a check made in good time that all are present. If your child is not attending on a certain day, please please make sure Ish and the team know. Thanks for your help with this.

Annual Data Check

Your child will bring home a data check and general permissions form next week. Please complete and return these as quickly as possible so that we know your up to date contact details and wishes for your child.

Sent on behalf of Gilbert Valentine

Gilbert’s Community Saturday Football sessions restart tomorrow.  Please click here to find out the details.

Sent on behalf of the library service

The Summer Reading Challenges runs until 26th August

Sent on behalf of the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry

Let’s Be Heard is seeking to hear from students and staff across Scotland during our national engagement period, which runs until 31^st October 2023. This includes students with additional support needs. Click here to find out more:Let’s Be Heard Information Sheet

Vote for the Boat!

Thank you to all who entered the Wormit Boat Club Competition. We have a short list of three names and each child has until 9am on Monday to vote for their favourite. The link to do this was included in the email with this link. Please support your child to vote over the weekend.

Transition Next Week

All children who will be in P1-7 next year will meet their new teacher and visit their new classroom on Tuesday of next week.

Reports

If your child is in P1-7 or their pre-school nursery year (and this is their main setting) you will receive their report today. In with the report, you will find some information about curriculum levels, a feedback sheet and some information about attendance.

Please return the feedback sheet to your child’s current teach by Wednesday 28^th June. They will pass it onto the new teacher for their information.

Attendance in 2023-24

Please click here to read the Madras Communication Strategy Attendance June 23. This information is shared with all schools in the Madras Cluster as we have a common approach to promoting excellent attendance at school. This information will be in the envelop with your child’s report.

At Wormit, in session 2023-24, we will regularly share your child’s attendance rate with you if their attendance in 2022-23 was below 95% (excellent).

In session 2023-24, we are also going to promote excellent punctuality at school. All P1-7 pupils arriving after 9.10am have their name recorded in the late book. I will be reviewing the late book at the end of each month and will contact you if your child’s name has been recorded. The best start a child can get to their day at school is to be in the line ready to come in with their class at 9am and I encourage all parents to strive for that.

Frozen

Some Wormit pupils are performing in Frozen – a great show which your family might enjoy:

🎟️ ⛄️ LAST REMAINING TICKETS⛄️🎟️

Join us on our trip to Arendelle and meet Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, Sven and all of your other favourites! Frozen hits the stage at Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre next weekend! 🎭 🎟️ Tickets are selling fast- https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/stage-academy-dundee ❄️⛄️

Next Year

As you know, staffing is now fully confirmed for next year and you have received that information by email. Next week I will confirm practical arrangements, doors, cloakrooms etc. We will also go over this with the children at Transition on Tuesday.

End of Year Service

Friday 30th June at 9am

All P1-7 children will go to church with their teacher. Nursery parents are welcome to attend with their child and drop them back to Nursery afterwards. Parents and other guests should use the pews at the back of the church.

P7 and P6 instrumentalists will go to church on Tuesday for a practice.

Message from Active School

Dear Parent/Carer,

I am delighted to say that for the first time the Madras College cluster are running a cluster running event for all pupils Primary 1 to 7. This event is set to take place at Newport Primary School on the 20^th June from 15:50 to 16:45. This event will consist of 3 races , P1-2, P3-4 and P5-7 and it would be great to see pupils from every school in our cluster at this event.

If this is something that your child would be interested in attending please fill out the below registration form no later that Monday 19^th June.

https://forms.office.com/e/Buh1aZP7HB

Please note that pupils are to make their own way to and from the event and should be supervised throughout by an adult – there may not be staff from your school at the event and if there are, they will be there to organise not to specifically supervise – this is a community event.

If you have any questions please do just get in touch with me

Thank you,

Madison Garland

Active School Coordinator

madison.garland@fife.gov.uk

Newport Festival – Message from the Rio

Dear Parent/ Carer,

The Rio Centre is organising a RagTag Parade on Saturday 24th June as part of Newport Festival celebrations. Betty from the Rio has been in to tell all the pupils about this event and the challenge of creating a costume or outfit to wear in the parade.

Anything goes, it’s all about reusing and recycling! Wear a favourite costume or create a new one. The pupils are invited to come into the thrift shop, now located in the Rio Centre and select 10 items for £1. They can use these to make their own creation.

The parade will be led by local piper ‘Joe’ and will start in the Rio at noon. It will progress down the High St and the lower road, before returning back along the upper road to the Rio. There will be prizes, creativity and lots of noise! We look forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes,

Newport Festival Team & Betty at the Rio

Visitors at Assembly

Betty from the Rio joined us at assembly today to explain the Bag Tag parade on 24^th June.

Last week – Pauline from the Library came in to tell us about the summer reading challenge – this is great and FREE(!) event running in the summer holidays. It is a super way to keep your child’s interest in reading high during the holidays – you can visit any Fife Library to get involved.

The week before that, Lesley from Wormit Boat Club visited to tell the children about the club and gather some ideas from them on how the club can be developed.

It is lovely to be widening our community links in this way.

Attendance/Know Your Number

As you will know, we have placed a big focus on monitoring attendance this session to ensure best attendance and engagement for all pupils as part of Covid Recovery. I have used ‘Know Your Number’ to monitor attendance for all Primary children and to share their attendance rate with their parents. The average attendance across the whole school is now 95.5% which is above the National Average and is an improvement on last year’s rate of 92.3%.

Moving forward, I will no longer be using ‘Know Your Number’ for all primary children, only those whose attendance rate on their report is below 95% and therefore falls into the satisfactory or cause for concern categories. If your child’s attendance is just below 95% it will be recorded as satisfactory but I will not continue to use ‘Know Your Number’. There will be a note on yoru child’s report to let you know if I will continue to use ‘Know Your Number’ for them next year.

As we get towards the summer holidays, it is tempting to think that attendance is less important but we encourage all children to ‘Attend to the End’. The last few weeks of term may look different but there are lots of important events which support their transition into the next year of learning and which build team and a sense of belonging. Click here for a message from Fife Council: https://sway.office.com/CVMxE7TzCOeaWWEG?ref=Link&loc=play

Dates Reminder

Tuesday 13th June – Parent Council AGM at 6.30pm in the school – all welcome

Wednesday 14^th June – P4 on an Outdoor Learning Day

Thursday 15^th June – P5 parents invited in for the Game Design Exhibition. The classroom will be open to visitors between 1.45pm and 3.00pm. Please arrive at the main office during this open classroom time and you will be able to head upstairs to visit the class.

Monday 19^th June in the morning – Nursery Sports

Thursday 22^nd June – 1.30 – P1-7 Sports

Spectators at welcome at both sets of Sports

Friday 30^th June – 9.30: End of Year Service at Wormit Church – all P7s will attend with their teacher. Nursery parents are welcome to take their child along and drop them back at Nursery afterwards. All parents and family members are welcome to attend – please use the pews at the back of the church.

Friday 30^th June is the last day of term.

A few polite reminders:

• There is no access to the school carpark for parents at any time. There are moving vehicles at all times in the carpark and space is very limited. When dropping off or picking up your child (even if it during the school day) you should park safely on the street and walk onto school grounds. Please remind your child that they should not walk through the carpark or use the carpark gate at any time of day.
• Children should not bring toys to school unless their teacher asks them to for a learning activity. This includes Pokemon cards and other card or sticker sets. It is too easy for confusion and fall outs to happen so far best that children keep their belongings safely at home. I would appreciate it if all parents could check their child follows this rule.
• There are no dogs allowed on school property at any time including out with school hours. The only way I can be sure there is no dog poo on Big Park when the children go to play there is to insist on this. We have seen dogs on Big Park out with school time (though we don’t if with parents or other members of the community) so I would appreciate it if you could all share this message in the community. I am looking to get signage in place as well.

Football

Well done to the team who played at the St Leonards Tournament on Monday. They reached the final.

Community Events

Click here for details of a production of Joseph and the Technicoloured Dreamcoat

Wormit Boat Club are having an open day on Saturday the 20th May and would love to see as many families there as possible? They will have the opportunity to try out any and all of the watersports on offer i.e. sailing, rowing, kayaking, paddle boarding and even be able to ride on a high speed rib, there will also be food, singing and games – all sports are free to try out. The open day starts at 12 and will go on all afternoon.

 

Message from Active Schools

Looking for a fun family day out this summer? Aged 1 or 101 everyone is welcome for some family yoga in the beautiful walled garden at Cambo. Get all the family together to stretch, get active and laugh with yoga. Family yoga provides kids & adults a chance to embrace their playfulness and spend some great quality time together. Work together with your children creating shapes and moving through playful practices combining movement, breath, meditation and relaxation. This is time to let go of expectations, engage your imagination and find connections. These sessions are open to all ages, from 0 – 100. Any family members are welcome, the more the merrier!

Book your spaces online at https://www.warmheartsyoga.co.uk/summer-yoga

Tickets cost: £15 for a family of 2, £20 for a family of 3 or 4

Price includes: Yoga session, Partner and family postures, Songs and games, Movement, Mindfulness, Breathing, Relaxation

Half price garden entry for adults at Cambo for the day.

Wednesday 26th July, 11am – 12.15pm

Wednesday 2nd August, 11am – 12.15pm

You’re very welcome to bring your own picnic and stay for a play in the nature playground, enjoy some of the family friendly walks on offer or take advantage or half price admittance for adults to the walled garden for the rest of the day (children free).

Sponsored Run

Thank you to everyone who supported the sponsored run, we raised a whopping £1668 for Wateraid.

Ardroy Residential

P7 are currently on their way back from their trip to Ardroy. I will keep their parents up to date with arrival timings and I am sure they will have many tales from the week as well as plenty of dirty washing!

Drinks in Packed Lunch Boxes

Please don’t include a high sugar drink in your child’s lunchbox. Juice or dilute squash is allowed but you should not include a fizzy drink or an energy drink.

Sponsored Run

P1-7 Sponsored Run will be held on Wednesday 29th March at the following times:

P1-3 at 10am
​P4&5 at 1.30pm
​P6&7 at 2.15pm
You are welcome to join us on big Park to watch your child run.
Please use the Just Giving page to sponsor the team if you can and share it with family and friends.

On Wednesday 29th March, P1-7 should come to school wearing running kit and trainers – no need for uniform.

Church Service

On Thursday 30th March, all P1-7 children will go to the Church for our Spring Service. Parents are welcome to join us there for a 9.30 start – please use the pews at the back. If any Nursery parents would like their child to attend, they are welcome to bring them along and then drop them back to Nursery afterwards.

Thursday 30th is the last day of term – we will look forward to seeing everyone back at school on 17th April.

Last Orders for Milk

If you want your child to have milk in school in Term 4, please order and pay through iPayImpact before this term ends or contact Lisa in the office for help to do so.

Click here to see the winning poster full size!

P2/3 have been learning about The Rio. They have had a visit from Betty who told them about the work The Rio does in the community to help local people and also to help people in crisis.  She told the children that, at the moment, they are working with three different projects. Firstly they offer help to local families with their ‘All Welcome’ meals and food pantry where food is freely available for those in need. Also they work with a homeless charity based in Kirkcaldy and Dundee providing sleeping bags to those sleeping rough and finally they are involved in a project that is sending warm clothes to Turkey and Syria and have already sent over a lorry full of clothing. She said that donations into the Rio of food, clothing and sleeping bags were the priority so if families could help with this it would be greatly appreciated.

The class have had a competition to design a poster to promote the important work of the Rio. Here is the winning design – well done Chrissy and Archie!

On Wednesday 29^th  March, all P1-7 children will be taking part in a sponsored run in support of Wateraid. You are invited to come to school to watch your child run if you would like:

P1-3 at 10am

P4&5 at 1.30pm

P6&7 at 2.15pm

Children should come to school in their running kit and shoes – they will wear this all day.

We are working as a team and aiming to raise £1000 for Wateraid.

Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says all children have the right to the best health care possible, clean water to drink, healthy food and a clean and safe environment to live in. Sadly not all children in the world have access to clean water to drink and wash with and to decent toilets. At Wormit PS, we all take these things for granted and our fundraiser this year is going to help other children have their rights met.

WaterAid is an international not-for-profit, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. Only by tackling these three essentials in ways that last can people change their lives for good.

Please sponsor the team if you can.  Click here to donate  or use the QR code. Please share with friends and family who you think might like to be involved.