A warm welcome to any new parents/carers to our school community, and a warm welcome back to all those faithful ‘Blog’ readers.
I would like to begin with a HUGE thank you to each and every one of our parent/carers. Our pupils look magnificent in full school uniform, timekeeping has been great this week with very few latecomers and attendance has been excellent, a fabulous start. Long may it continue.
Our first week back has been very busy with lots of hard work on-going in classes.
On Monday we held our first full school assembly (although Primary One will not be joining us until next week). At this assembly we also welcomed three visitors from Korea:
Jeong-eun, Soo-jin and Sun-mo. Three female primary school teachers from South Korea. Our visitors were incredibly impressed by the excellent behaviour, manners and friendliness of our pupils. They remarked on the superb behaviour and attention shown in assembly. Throughout the day our visitors enjoyed a guided tour from our P7 pupils and some time in a variety of classes, including our wonderful nursery. Our P7 pupils also hosted lunch and entertained our visitors with anecdotes of all that happens in our school. This visit was arranged through Mr Philip McGhee, one of our Continuous Improvement Officers, Philip sent an email following the visit; please see below:
Just a formal thanks to you and all of your staff for being outstanding hosts to our South Korean visitors (at very short notice!).
As you know Jeong-eun, Soo-jin and Sun-mo, were very impressed with the school and in particular your pupils. They were very envious of your school but in particular your staff and frequently mentioned the support provided by the additional staff. As they mentioned they were very impressed with the working ethos in the classroom and the qualities of the teachers in their preparation and influence on the children. They thought this was conveyed through the behaviour and attentiveness of the pupils which they expressed as ‘your pupils being totally focussed and responsive to every word the teacher had to say’. In light of our perception of the high standards of teaching in Korea and other Asian countries I think this is very high praise indeed.
They were extremely grateful for your warm and engaging hospitality and through the experience of your school they are confident it will help them become better primary teachers. They left on the train to London after a fleeting visit, with, in their own words, great memories and an awesome impression of our lovely small town (!), Scotland and education system.
Your staff and pupils should be proud to have made such an overwhelming impact on our visitors in such a short period of time.
High praise indeed, a wonderful way to begin our school year. Wonder if there’s any chance of a reciprocal visit?
Photographs below show our wonderful P7 volunteers with the beautiful gifts from our very grateful visitors. Well done to our fabulous volunteers, they were excellent tour guides and great lunchtime hosts.
On Wednesday we introduced our new P1 pupils to the concept of weekly school assemblies. Ably assisted by P2, 3, 4 (and a few P5) pupils we discussed our Good Work Wall, Pupil of The Week and what happens each Monday. P1 seemed very impressed and we look forward to welcoming them on Monday morning.
Thursday we ‘sang’ a warm welcome back to Mrs Sally Wilkinson. Mrs Wilkinson will be with us every Thursday working with P5 pupils on Kodaly,re-forming our much loved, and eagerly anticipated, ‘Boys Choir – Only Boys Allowed and recruiting for new starts from P2 and P3 for our Baby Choir. Exciting times ahead. Once a fortnight Mrs Wilkinson will also work with P6 pupils and staff building on the good work from last year continuing their Kodaly journey. Mrs Wilkinson is funded through our Pupil Equity Funding. Mrs Wilkinson will also be running a family music group after school. More details coming soon.
Friday we were delighted to welcome back Lisa Roebuck. Lisa is our Community Learning Development worker, she has great plans to work with many of our families throughout the year ahead, again, building on the great work from last session.
Meanwhile, it is still all very exciting in our wonderful nursery.
Here’s Mrs MM Murphy with all the news:
It was great to see all our returning children looking happy and healthy after their long break.
A big Welcome to our new children who have been joining us over the course of the week. Our pre-school children are enjoying the big responsibility of being a buddy to the new children and are proudly wearing their group buddy badges which helps our new children identify them. They have taken on this responsibility as ever with great gusto. The new children having being exploring their new surroundings with the help of their buddies. Can you spot the buddy badges in the photographs.
We are happy to welcome back Mrs Denise Higgins every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs Higgins will be working in the infant department in school and in the nursery on Mondays only as part of our PEF plan. In addition we welcome new Early Learning Practitioners Andrea Ure and Jodie McCluskey to our nursery team. Many congratulations to Miss Andrea MacMullen who commences in her new post as our Lead Graduate Practitioner. We wish her every success in this new venture in our nursery!
As you know, our fabulous Forest Kindergarten was nominated for an award from the Scotland’s Finest Woods Award scheme. Mrs Murphy and Mrs Little attended an award ceremony with our green fingered Grandy and some pupils. We are delighted to announce this most successful initiative within our nursery was such a huge success we were awarded second place at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh in June last session. Quite an achievement, so much so Mrs Murphy and our nursery were mentioned in the Scottish Parliament!! The plaque presented takes pride of place in the nursery foyer.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read our weekly blog, comments are always welcome.
Mrs Shields
