I am sure you will join me in voicing our sadness on hearing news of the passing of Her Majesty The Queen.  Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Royal Family. So soon after our wonderful Platinum Jubilee celebrations earlier in the year,  and because  Dunrossness Primary has a special connection with the Queen  as she officially opened the school on her Royal visit in 1969, there is an added poignancy with the announcement   What ever individual views we might hold about the monarchy, the Queen was an  inspiration by her example of humility, respect,  kindness,  loyalty and devotion to  serving the British people.  A remarkable person whose legacy will be marked in history.

Like all public services, the school will be very respectful of the period of national mourning and as such the Union flag will be flown at half mast outside of the school except on the morning of 10th Sept when His Majesty the King is formally proclaimed in the Accession Council.   All other school activities will continue as normal during the period of mourning and all staff will sensitively support children who may be upset  by what they see and hear in the media,  or by any other bereavement they may have experienced recently.  I will update you with any special  arrangements that may be put in place for the day of the state funeral  as we are informed of them.

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been delightful to have all the children back in school this week. They have all settled well and are getting used to the daily school routine.  I have been very impressed with how all of the children new to P1 have transitioned and are rising to the challenges of the school day.

The school diary is filling up quickly so please keep an eye on the dates below and for further information when it comes out.

There have been some small changes to the way we work in school to tell you about.

Visitors:  We are very pleased that we can now welcome parents and visitors back into school for meetings and events.  There is a new visitors signing-in process which is designed to  protect  information and also ensure that  visitors  are identified by wearing a lanyard.  If visiting the school please make sure you sign in at Reception.

Class Names: The children all had fun during their transition days choosing a name for their class, here is what they decided upon.

P1/2 Class as Tammie Norries.

P2/3/4 Class as Orcas

P4/5/6 Class as Draatsis

P6/7 Class as Mareel

Numeracy and Maths lessons are now all happening at the same time for the whole school. This is so Mrs Leslie and myself can work with groups of children from different classes to support their learning. We are also trialling a new Maths scheme which we are running alongside all the other resources that teachers already use.

Jewellery and PE:  As you already know, for health and safety reasons, children are asked not to wear any jewellery except plain studs in pierced ears, to school.  In my time working in schools, I have seen some nasty injuries causes by jewellery such as necklaces which have got caught on something.  This week our PE specialist teachers have been informed that the Health Safety Executive have updated the regulations regarding jewellery, particularly ear rings in PE lessons, informing us that children are not allowed to do any PE whilst wearing earrings of any kind.  This has come as a bit of a surprise to me and until I can find out more information from the Health and Safety Executive, I suggest that children do not wear any type of earring on the day they have PE which is Tuesday.  The PE specialist teacher will support children in taking earrings out and putting back in, but if this is not possible, they will be given activities to do at the side

Assemblies: We plan to have a regular weekly assembly, something that the children asked for when we did a whole school focus event, where we can celebrate learning and invite members of the community to share various topics with the children.  So far for this term we have two visitors planned:

20^th September – Dr Armitage in his role as Councillor talking about looking after the ocean environment

4^th Oct – Rev. Fran Henderson sharing thoughts about Harvest and Food Journeys

NOOSC after school club – has got off to a really positive start with lots of fun activities available. There are spaces everyday so please get in touch with the office if you would like to use this provision.  We do need it to be well used if it is to be viable for the longer term.  At this time it seems unlikely that we will be able to start a breakfast club as this will not be supported by the council and the school budget would not be able to support the staff to run it.

 

Dates so far:

29^th August P6 Bikability  lessons for 5 weeks.

5^th September  P4 Bikability to start for 4 weeks- more information to follow

21^st September  Orcas class visit to the recycling depo.

23^rd September P4 visit to live performance by Tom Percival – Children’s Author at the Shetland Museum

26^th September  Book fair

28^th September   P7 John Muir Day 1

26^th /27^th September Parent /Teacher consultation   4pm to 6.30pm

7^th Oct  Last day  of Term 1

26^th Oct  Term 2 begins

 

Best wishes,

Gina Finch

We are still looking for Parent Volunteers for the planned Bikeability training.

Volunteers do not need to be parents of P6 children or commit to all 5 weeks training. If you are able to volunteer for even one week it would be greatly appreciated.

The dates are  Monday 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th September, from 1.45pm-2.45pm.

Please contact the office via phone or email if you think you will be able to assist.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the new session 2022-23.  I hope you all have managed to have some holiday time over the Summer in spite of the challenging weather!   It has been a joy to greet the children this morning has they hopped, skipped and ran into school.  Although many would have experienced a mix of  excitement and anxiety, hopefully seeing all their friends and teachers again will help them to settle quickly.

Welcome to all our new starters in Nursery and also to the children who have transitioned in to P1 today.  They have all come in really well.  Starting school and returning to school after a long break can be tiring so please make sure your children eat well and get to bed in good time.

Welcome also to new staff  starting with us this term:

Ms Rebecca Halcrow-  Support worker in Nursery (Acting Practitioner for this term)

Ms Molly Farmer-  Play practitioner for after school club

Mr Andrew Feeney – LSA across school

Ms Bernie Saunders-  Support worker in Nursery

The staff have been working hard over the last two in-service days to get the school ready for the children as well as plan exciting learning for this next term.  Each teacher will be sending home a  learning overview and welcome letter in the next few days as well as putting these on the blog which I hope you will find useful, and below you will find some dates of events that have already been planned and which I will add to as other events are organised.

So here are some quick reminders as children get back into the routine this week.

We are a Nurture accredited school, this means that

• Children’s learning is understood developmentally,
• The classroom offers a safe base
• Nurture is important for the development of self esteem
• Language is understood as a vital means of communication
• All behaviour is communication
• Transitions are significant in the lives of children.

We do have high expectation of all our learners and we promote positive behaviour through a nurture approach by developing good respectful relationships between pupils, parents and staff. We use a restorative approach for when things go wrong.  More information can be found on the school blog.

1. PE day is a Tuesday and children need to come to school in their PE kit that day
2. Any children with a mobile phone must have it switched off and kept in their bag during school time.   If they have a smart watch as well- these should have all notifications switched off during the day.
3. We do not encourage children to bring toys into school, unless asked to by the class teacher, but recognise that some children will need a familiar object from home as comfort. These objects/toys need to be small enough to fit in a pocket or the child’s drawer. There is not room on the tables for toys to be stored.
4. Children will be bringing home the new home school diary. This is where teachers and parents can keep school/ home updated when needed, and older children can make a record of any home learning tasks.
5. After School Provision starts today. If you need further information about this please contact the office or look at the school blog.

Dates so far:

25^th  August P6 Bikability- bike check

29^th August P6 Bikability lessons for 5 weeks

26^th September Book fair and week

26^th /27^th September Parent /Teacher consultation   4pm to 6.30pm

28th September P7 John Muir Day 1

7^th Oct  Last day  of Term 1

26^th Oct  Term 2 begins

 

Best wishes

Gina Finch

Our JRSOs have been very busy over this year, helping the school community to learn about road safety. They have planned competitions and events for everyone to join in and last Thursday they shared all they had done with JRSOs from other school. They presented their PowerPoint very clearly and with a lot of confidence. We are all very proud of them.  Well done JRSOs.

 

 

Well done to all children for joining in, trying your best and having fun and  to Yellow Team  who came out on top with the most points closely follow by the other teams- Red, Blue and Green.  It was a lovely  fun morning with fabulous weather. Thanks too, to all parents whom came to organize refreshments,  help out and to watch.

Also in the Blue team but missed main photo!