Voicemail

We now have a voicemail system on the school phone and may use it at times of day when the office can’t be manned or when it is particularly busy. If you get the voicemail, please leave a message and know that it will be quickly picked up. We will call you back if needed but if you are phoning to pass on information, e.g. to report and absence we will note it and only call back if you have requested we do so.

Playground Charter

Over the course of several terms, we have been working with the children on ensuring our playground is a safe and happy place. This work started after the return from lockdown in March when we found that the children were finding it hard to settle back into playground routines. It was in response to our own observations and to parental feedback that children were finding the playground a wee bit rough and noisy. We had a series of assemblies and each class worked on establishing their own expectations for their playground space. Since August, we have been able to open up the bubbles and children are now mixing with other classes outside, meaning that we need a common charter and shared expectations across the school. Mr Rose has taken the lead on this work through assemblies and all children have had a chance to share their ideas of what they think our playground should look like. We have also listened to parental voice particularly with regards to rough play and berries.  The result of this work is our charter which you can view here: Playground Charter. This week has been the first week since the charter was launched and I have been pleased to see lots of lovely play in the playground – the children are playing a range of active games as well as being able to take quiet space if they would like.  Moving forward, the charter will support us to maintain our high expectations around playground behaviour, keep playtimes safe and fun and it will be a useful reference to new staff who are supporting the children outside and secure a consistent approach. I would welcome any parental feedback on the charter – lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk

Staying Warm in School

We still have children in the upper school wearing coats inside to keep warm because they are wearing shorts and don’t have an extra jumper with them. I would prefer children to keep their coats for outside as I am not sure they are comfortable for class, particularly if they get damp. Please can you check your child has a school jumper and a second thick jumper everyday as well as their coat. It is up to you, as a parent whether you insist on long trousers/tights. but my advice is that we can’t keep the areas warm enough for bare legs to be suitable in the winter months. On a Friday, children attending cross country do not need to wear shorts all day. They can run in joggers or tracksuits trousers. If they wish to run in shorts, they can change into them at 3pm.

Staffing

We have said goodbye to Mr McCarthy today as he takes up his new post at Newport PS on Monday. Our loss is their gain. Mrs Rice will join us from Monday 6th December having been successful at interview. Mrs Walker, as you know, will leave at the Christmas holidays as she starts her retirement and her post will be filled by Mrs Henderson.

House Quiz

P4-7 had great fun at the House Quiz this afternoon. Well done to all and particularly to the House Captains who took a lead role:

Woodhaven – 50 points

St Fort – 51 points

Flass – 56 points

Newton – 61 points

Christmas Event in Perth

I have been sent details of this event in Perth to share. The message from the organisers is:

Christmas Wonderland at Perth Riverside. The trail promises festive fun for families and takes place between 10^th – 23^rd December at Norie Miller Walk. Santa will be there in person each night, so that everyone can meet Santa at no additional cost, guaranteeing that Christmas feeling. Click here for an event map to show the range of beautiful and fun Christmas installations: Christmas Wonderland Event Map 2021_3  There is a discount code –  FIFESCHOOLS10 it offers a 10% discount on tickets. Discount code will apply to tickets purchased before 8 December (code excludes Saturdays). Be quick to get yours before they run out! More information about the event and to book tickets, check out the website www.perthchristmaswonderland.co.uk

Message from the Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews

Here is information about musical opportunities for children in P4 and above: StAMP Choir and Orchestra poster

Is your child interested in a Karate Club?

Details are available here about a new club: Karate – St Andrews

Keeping Warm in School

Due to ongoing Scottish Government Regulations, we need to keep the building well ventilated. We now have CO2 monitors in school to help us do this more effectively. The CO2 monitors show us when more fresh air is needed and when windows can be closed somewhat to keep heat in. But it is still the case that we sometimes need windows open to an extent that the temperature is lower than it would have been without these regulations being in place. We also make greater use of the outdoors e.g. when the weather allows, P4-7 Assembly is held out of doors as the group is too big to gather in the hall. Please help us to help the children stay warm in school time. I recommend all children wear long trousers or tights to school (no bare legs please) and that your child wear a school jumper and brings an additional jumper or fleece to wear over the top if needed (they are allowed to wear this in class as an additional layer). Please also send them with a warm, waterproof coat each day. If their coat doesn’t have a hood, please send them with a hat.   If they don’t have a coat and something to cover their hair, they may get cold or a little damp at playtime and then find it hard to warm up afterwards if the classroom is cooler.  I don’t want any child to be cold or uncomfortable at school and I am grateful for your support in sending them with the correct clothes to help me with that.

Christmas Arrangements

Ongoing Scottish Government Regulations do not allow us to have the whole school together in a space or to invite parents into school for events but we will be keeping the Christmas spirit alive with a Christmas Lunch,  Craft, Parties and a Concert (which will be shared virtually with you to enjoy at home). More details will follow. If any parent is interested to read the Schools’ Covid Regulations, it is available here.

In-service Day

Just a reminder that the school will be closed to all pupils (Nursery-P7) on Friday 12th November for the in-service day. Staff are taking part in training on Body Image, supporting children with autism and sensory difficulties and we will be carrying work out on developing our progressive pathway documents.

Foodbank

Here is a letter from the food bank following our recent collection: Foodbank

Parent Teacher Interviews

If you received a final reminder yesterday and haven’t yet made your appointment, please do so by end of day today. No further appointments will be able to be made after today. The teachers are looking forward to meeting you at your appointment.

11th November

We will respect a 2 mins silence in school and all children will be given a poppy to wear if they would like. We invite you to send a coin in with your child for them to put in the Poppy Appeal box on 11th.

Bonfire Night and Diwali

Lots of our children have learnt about Bonfire Night and Diwali this week. We had a focus on firework safety at assemblies on Tuesday and P4 have made beautiful rangoli patterns in the playground:

Class Pages

These have been updated this week. Please read the pages that apply to your family – there is up to date information about learning and some photos of the classrooms as well as reminders about  homework, PE days etc. You can follow these links or use the menu above.

Nursery

P1

P1/2

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

Class Photos (Nursery-P7)

Thank you to all parents who responded to the question about school photos. More than a third of parents in the school indicated that they would like to buy a class photo so I am arranging for the Tempest Photographer to come in. The photos will be taken on Friday 5th November, first thing (weather depending). Please send your child to school wearing the clothes you would like them to be photographed in (uniform please). All children will be included in the photo unless you withheld photo permissions at the start of the year. If you did give permission but don’t want your child to be included,  please  email lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk to tell me.  There is no obligation to buy.

P1-7 Parents Night

Please make sure you sign up for your appointment by the end of the day on Wednesday 3rd November.  And please make sure you have read all the information so that you know how the system works. Information is available here and here.

As the appointment is only 10 minutes long, the purpose of the meeting is for the teacher to update you on your child’s progress. If you have any concerns which would need longer to discuss, please contact me, in the first instance, at lucy.jess@fife.gov.uk to raise them.

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.