I can now confirm that  our school , nursery and after school club will be closed on  19th September- to enable our organisation to pay  our respects to Her Majesty and commemorate Her reign, while marking the final day of the period of national mourning.  School, Nursery and NOOSC will be open again as normal on Tuesday 20th September.

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.