25th August 2016
News from Mrs Kennedy
Welcome back to our new school session 2016 – 2017. I hope the summer holidays have provided the opportunity for a well earned rest and you have managed to make the most of the holiday despite the poor weather.
I would like to particularly extend a warm welcome to our new pupils and their families. We look forward to working in partnership with you and are confident that your child will have a happy and successful time at Knightsridge Primary School and Early Years Centre. As ever we are looking forward to the new session and the various opportunities and challenges that will shape the children’s experiences as we move through the school year.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new staff who join our team in both the school and the Early Years Centre this session. We welcome Miss Irvine and Miss Calder who join our Infant Department teaching Primary 2 and Primary 3/2 respectfully. We also welcome Mrs Kilfeather who joins the Nursery staff team in the Early Years Centre. I am delighted to inform you that Mrs Nelson re-joins our staff team in a part time capacity sharing the Primary 7/6 class with Mrs MacDonald. I would also like to welcome Miss Ingles to our school team. Miss Ingles replaces Mrs Ferguson, our PE teacher, who is currently on maternity leave. All the staff in the school and Early Years Centre are very much looking forward to the new session as they continue to work in partnership with you to provide your children with high quality learning experiences. We say goodbye to Miss MacDonald our Family Support Worker as she is leaving us at the end of the week to move to Wales. We wish Miss MacDonald every happiness in this new chapter of her life.
We have had another summer of improvements to our school. Over the holidays we have had the whole school painted internally and externally. This work has made a significant impact to the overall appearance of the school and I hope that you will be impressed with the results when you are next in school. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the cleaning team, our janitors and the many members of staff who gave up some of their holidays to ensure that the school was ready for the children returning on Tuesday.
Now that the three year improvement programme is almost completed it is very important that the whole school community respect the work that has been undertaken to improve the learning environment for all. I would be grateful if you would support us by encouraging your child/children to take care and respect their school. Please note that all pupils must have a change of shoes to wear indoors every day.
We had a very successful year last session with lots of varied opportunities for the children to further extend their knowledge, develop skills in many different contexts and demonstrate their many achievements. Our senior pupils participated in a number of Cluster and West Lothian competitions and performed very well indeed. We were proud to have achieved Level 2 accreditation in the Rights Respecting Schools Award under the leadership and guidance of the RRS Group and Mrs Piper. We will continue to work hard in all aspects of RRS work as this session progresses. I am delighted to inform you that we have achieved our Fairtrade status and are now an accredited Fairtrade school. My thanks go to the International Group and Mrs Webber who continue to work hard to promote Global Citizenship and Fairtrade education across the school. We participated in a number of sporting events and again our pupils excelled. The Early Years Centre continue to work towards their full Fairtrade status and gain their first Green Flag from Eco Scotland this session, so there will be a busy time ahead for us all! We will be looking for some parent/carers to join these groups so if you are interested we would be very pleased to hear from you.
We could not achieve and maintain this level of success without our continuing strong partnerships with parents and carers and we look forward to working with you, in various ways, throughout the coming school year as we continue to build on experiences and opportunities for all our children in both the Early Years Centre and the Primary School.
Our whole school priorities for the coming session will centre around developing programmes of learning and to build on West Lothian’s Numeracy Framework and further develop learning with the curricular area of Literacy with a focus on Listening and Talking. Our School Self-Evaluation Summary for session 2015 – 2016 will be available on the school blog and at the office as will our School Improvement Plan for 2016 – 2017. An abridged version of both documents will be sent out to all of our families in the coming weeks.
General Information
Annual data checks
Each School/Nursery session we check the data held on your child and it is vital that we are notified of any changes in this information. We are currently up-dating this information and will be sending home your child’s data for you to check and amend where necessary. Please would you return the up-dated information to School/Nursery as soon as possible.
Absence
Please be reminded to contact the School/Nursery by 9:30am and by 1pm (if your child attends the afternoon Nursery session), at the latest, should your child require to be absent from School/Nursery. This practice needs to be repeated each day that your child is absent. We will follow up any unreported absence and should we fail to be able to contact parents/carers, information will be passed to appropriate authorities who will then pursue the reasons for absence. Please note that from this session poor time keeping will be noted and addressed in line with Council policy. It is very important that all pupils are in school and ready to begin their day by 8:55am.
Breakfast Club
We provide a free school Breakfast Club to all pupils in the Nursery and Primary School. Breakfast will be served between 08:15am – 8.45am in the school dining hall and will be supervised by Mrs Rendall and Mrs Currie. Nursery Breakfast Club will be available to all children attending the morning class from 8:15am and will be supervised by Nursery staff.
Please note that school children must not arrive at Breakfast Club before 8:15am as staff are not available to supervise them. Should children arrive before this time they must make their way round to the courtyard area in the upper school playground and wait until Breakfast Club begins. Please note that this area is uncovered and children will not be supervised until 8:15am.
| Sample menu (This may vary depending on what is ordered from week to week) | |||
| Monday | Fruit Juice (85ml)/Water | Yoghurt | Toast |
| Tuesday | Fruit Juice (85ml)/Water | Chopped fruit | Cereal |
| Wednesday | Fruit Juice (85ml)/Water | Yoghurt | Toast |
| Thursday | Fruit Juice (85ml)/Water | Chopped fruit | Cereal |
| Friday | Fruit Juice (85ml)/Water | Yoghurt | Toast |
Please speak to Mrs Page in the School office and Mrs Ferguson in the Centre office for further details.
Milk Money (Primary only)
Children who are in receipt of free school meals are offered milk every morning. If you would like your child to receive milk every day and are not entitled to free school meals payment of £7.03 can be made now and this will cover the period 23/8/16 – 14/10/16. Please make payment to the school office.
Ipayimpact – Ordering your child’s school lunch (Primary only)
We are delighted that so many of you have registered and are using the WLC online payment system for ordering school lunches with you children. The system allows you to pre-order your child’s lunch from home and this has proved to be very successful. We have observed that more children are taking hot meals which can only be a benefit to their health and wellbeing. If you haven’t signed up yet please speak to Mrs Page in the office and she will support you. Please remember that if your child/children are in receipt of free school meals you can still order their lunch online, you just have to register and complete choices daily or weekly if you prefer.
Our new Primary 1 pupils will receive their letter with their unique code to register for this service tomorrow.
I would like to reassure you that, as a West Lothian Council initiative, the system is completely secure.
Free School Meals (Primary only)
Please note that free school meals must be applied for each session. If your child/children were in receipt of free meals last session they will not necessary receive them unless you reapply. Please collect an application from the school office or from WLC Civic Centre. Mrs Page will be happy to help you should you have any queries.
School uniform (Primary only)
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting myself and my staff in our drive to reinforce school uniform to our school. Pupils are looking very smart and are taking pride in the knowledge that they are part of a school community of which they are proud. Our school uniform for our Primary 1 – 6 pupils is green school sweatshirt, gold or green polo shirt, with grey trousers, skirts or pinafores. Girls are welcome to wear green checked summer dresses or pinafores. Our older pupils in Primary 7 will wear their new black sweatshirt with gold polo shirts along with black trousers or skirts. Grey cardigans and jumpers are not our uniform therefore I would ask you to note this when you are buying new uniform for your child/children. All pupils should wear black school shoes. Please note that brightly coloured trainers should not be worn, black trainers with touches of white are acceptable. If you are unsure of our uniform please speak to Mrs Page.
Unfortunately, due to lack of storage we are not able to keep a big stock of uniform for you to buy directly from the school. You are able to purchase our school uniform throughout the year at the following website: www.border-embroideries.co.uk You will have the opportunity to order more uniform during the next two weeks. Please contact Mrs Page at the office for an order form.
Mrs Paget runs a KPS Uniform Shop where you will be able to buy a mixture of new and quality recycled school uniform at reduced prices. The shop is open every Friday morning from 8:50 – 10:30am. If you have any uniform that you no longer require please pass it into the school office so that other pupils can benefit from it.
We have many visitors to our school who comment on how engaged the pupils are in their learning and on how smart and polite they are. This is something we all feel very proud of and want to continue to build on this session.
| DATES FOR DIARIES | |
| August 2016 | August |
| 22nd August | In Service Day for staff |
| 23rd August | Pupils return to school |
| 26th August | Nursery Open Afternoon for new children |
| 31st August | Individual and Family Photographs (school only) |
| September
2016 |
September
2016 |
| 1st September | 6pm: KPSA AGM in school hall |
| 6th September | Come and Visit my Class
For Primary 1 – Primary 3 |
| 7th September | Come and Visit my Class
For Primary 4 – Primary 7 |
| 19th September | HOLIDAY |
| 20th September | In Service Day for staff
(Holiday for pupils) |
| 21st September | Pupils resume
|
| 26th September | After School Clubs begin (details to follow) |
| 30th September | 10am: McMillan Coffee Morning – School Hall |
