We’ve had a lovely week in school as the festive events continued! Thank you to everyone who came along to our Christmas Fayre, the fantastic total of £860.85 was raised!   P1 – P3 proudly presented their nativity to families and there were lots of positive comments about how well this went.  The children were fantastic!  Children with spoken parts were very clear, P1 remembered their stage directions when moving around and our P2 and P3 choir sang beautifully to share the special story of the birth of Jesus.  Thank you to everyone who made the time to come along and support the children.  P6 took part in a crafting afternoon with the minister and volunteers from St Andrews Church on Tuesday and really enjoyed learning about the Christmas story while taking part in a range of design tasks. Today, we had Crazy Christmas Hair Day and saw some amazing creations and hairstyles! Thank you to those who sent donations for the Food Bank, they will be very well received when we drop them off. We had an assembly where we were joined by Mr Boatman, our Active Schools Co-ordinator who talked about the importance of moving our bodies to stay healthy.  We also focused on our value of Respect with each class being set a challenge by Mrs Brown to work on over the next few days.

We were delighted to receive a surprise delivery this week from the team at Rab’s Bar.  They have gifted a selection box for each child in the school.  We intend to send these home on Monday of next week so please look out for these in your child’s school bag.  We thank everyone who supported this initiative for their generosity.

Please find the link to West Lothian Council’s cost of living hub which may be of interest to some families:  Cost of Living Hub West Lothian – West Lothian Council

Next week is our final week of term before Christmas.  We have a lot of things happening so please take a note of anything that involves your child/children!  Most of the information below has already been shared with you in our Christmas Calendar but please note a few small tweaks to timings.

Monday – P4 Enterprise sale.  All classes will get the chance to visit the P4 Enterprise sale, products range from 10p – 20p.

Tuesday – P4 and P5 Christmas Party – any pupils going home to get ready should be collected from our office at 12.20pm

Wednesday – Christmas Jumpers/festive colours can be worn today.  Pantomime performance in the afternoon.

Thursday – P1, P2 and P3 Christmas Party – any pupils going home to get ready should be collected from our office at 12.15pm; P6 and P7 Christmas party – 6pm until 7.30pm.

Friday – Whole school to attend Christmas service in St Andrew’s Church at 9.30am.  Everyone will walk from our school to the church to take part in the service led by our school chaplain Nelu. Our local EE2 consent forms will cover this so no need for any additional forms to be completed.  Please try to ensure that children arrive to school on time on Friday morning as all staff are attending the church service and we will be leaving to walk down by 9.15am.

We’ve had a quick week in school this week with lots going on!  Our P7 continued their online lessons with staff from the Humanities department at Deans Community High School.  The pupils have really enjoyed this block and have been engaging well in the activities.  We all enjoyed our Christmas Lunch on Thursday, a big thanks to the kitchen staff who prepared our lovely meal and to everyone who supported to make sure that lunch service ran smoothly.  Everyone looked good in their Christmas jumpers and festive colours as well!  Today we had our “Socks for Santa” day and there was lots of funky footwear on display!  Each class took part in a “Silly Sock Walk” as part of their normal Daily Mile task and classes linked up together to make this even more fun than usual!

A reminder that our Christmas Fayre takes place tomorrow, the parent council hope to see lots of you there!  The fayre runs from 12pm – 3pm here in the school.  There will be lots of stalls including raffle and tombola, so please come along and show your support.  I am fully aware that there is a lot of work which goes into putting on these events and thank the parents who have worked hard to make the fayre happen.  Let’s hope for some dry weather on the day!

Best wishes, Lynne Egan, HT.

Next Week

Tuesday – Nativity performance 9.30am – tickets have been sent home, please check your child’s reading bag.   P6 to St Andrew’s Church for Christmas activity afternoon.

Wednesday – Nativity performance 9.30am – tickets have been sent home, please check your child’s reading bag.

Thursday – Last netball after school club of the term.

Friday – Crazy Christmas Hair Day – please bring a donation for West Lothian Foodbank (we are not able to accept cash).  1.00pm – 1.30pm Parent Tour for anyone who is applying for a P1 place here at Meldrum for session 26/27

It has been a busy week here at Meldrum PS!  P1, P2 and P3 are working hard to ensure that their nativity performance is ready to present to families soon, the children are very enthusiastic and their singing sounds fantastic!  Our P4 pupils attended a benchball festival along at Deans Community High School yesterday and represented the school very well.  Everyone enjoyed taking part and meeting children from other schools.

Christmas Fayre – This takes place on Saturday 6th December from 12pm – 3pm.  The Parent Council are looking for donations for the tombola and raffle stalls.  These can be handed into the school any time over the next week.  The team who are organising the fayre are working very hard to finalise the arrangements for the event, please come along and support on the day.

Winter Ready – we are approaching the time of year when schools are asked to have their plans in place to be “Winter Ready”  In the event of a school closure, P1 – P3 learning will be shared on Seesaw.  All pupils should have had their Seesaw codes home already, please ask your child’s teacher if you do not have this or need another copy.  P4 – P7 learning would be shared on Microsoft Teams in the event of a school closure.  Now that we have our pupil devices back in use following the cyber attack, classes are currently logging in and accessing Teams so that children know how to do this should they need to access it at home.  If anyone does not have access to a device, please contact us to let us know as we can provide some paper based tasks which you can keep just in case!

West Lothian Council instructions for FMA staff (janitorial staff) is that in the event of heavy snow, staff on the early shift will clear / salt one initial footpath to allow staff and pupils access to the school safely. For Meldrum PS, this will be a path from the gates at the front of the school up to the front of the school building.   Risk assessments on whether pupils can stay outside or come into the building will be made by staff. As shared previously, if you don’t see any staff in yellow hi-vis jackets outside, children should come into school via the breakfast club door.

Parking – a reminder that parents/carers should not enter the school car park.  Thank you for your co-operation with this.

Christmas Events – next week sees the start of our Christmas events, you should have already received a copy of our Christmas calendar, we hope that you find this useful!

I hope that everyone has a lovely weekend, Lynne Egan, HT.

Next Week

Monday – P5 having PE with Mrs Harris today – one off change

Tuesday – P7 taking part in online Teams lesson with DCHS staff

Wednesday – P1, P4 and P6 having PE with Mrs Harris today – one off change.

Thursday – Christmas Lunch, children can wear a Christmas jumper/festive colours

Friday – Socks for Santa Day – children can wear odd/silly/fluffy/festive socks.  Nativity Dress rehearsal performance for school.

Saturday – Christmas Fayre 12pm – 3pm

Football Stars!!

Races, egg and spoon, sack race, beanbag hoops and of course throw the welly.
A great day P6!

Tennis skills in the sunshine!

Primary 4 and Primary 5 have been uploading lots of artwork this week. I thought I would let you see some of them. Aren’t they brilliant?