Meldrum Primary School Blog

We’ve had a brilliant first full week here at Meldrum.  Our classes have all settled really well and are getting to know their new teachers and classmates.  Staff are seeing lots of children showing our school values in classes and in the playground.  We had our weekly assembly today where we talked about ways that we can show respect.  We heard about this week’s Lead Learners who were chosen for showing school values across the week and who will be looking out for other children showing values and trying hard in learning next week.  We talked about some leadership opportunities which are coming up. P7 will have the chance to put themselves forward for a role as House Captain; P6 will be offered the chance to chosen as Mini Champs in our key areas of Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing.  The pupil leadership group will have children from each class represented and will meet regularly with one of the school leadership team to look at ways of making our school even better.  Exciting things ahead!

Next week sees the start of our Big Breakfasts.  We are very much looking forward to welcoming up to 2 family members per pupil to these events where you will hear about our priorities for this year, and get the chance to visit your child’s class and meet the staff who will work in partnership with you over the coming year.  We hope to see you there!

Have a lovely weekend, Lynne Egan.

Next Week

Wednesday – P3/2 Big Breakfast @9.15am; Parent Council members meeting 6.30pm in the school

Thursday – P4/3 Big Breakfast @9.15am

Friday – P1/2 Big Breakfast @9.15am

P1/2 have had a busy week learning new sounds, numbers and shapes as well as showing more confidence with the daily routines.

We have also been to the hall twice for P.E. where we had to listen carefully for instructions when we were playing games. We enjoyed the Jellybean game and splashing (jumping) and splatting beanbags into the hoops.

We have started learning about the school values and this week we have been looking out for kindness. Primary 2 have been very good at demonstrating kindness with the P1s.

Yesterday we went into the playground with our buddies to do “the daily mile”. We had lots of fun walking and chatting with them.

Great Green – (things that went well) … finding words that rhyme.

Think Pink – (we need to practise) … tidying the home corner.

Our lead learners for next week are Cody and Thomas.

Great Green:
We have been writing sentences using adjectives to describe ourselves.
We had 2 PE slots this week and the P6’s practised getting changed in the changing rooms.
We started a mini research project about a country of our choice.

Think Pink:
We will all continue to work on respecting each other and our teachers by listening, following instructions and not talking over other people.

Leader Learners:

Our lead learners for the week are Isaac and Joe. They have continually shown responsibility by being proactive in class, offering to do jobs and always contributing to class discussions. A huge well done to them both!

Hi we are the lead learners for next week, Jonah and Max.

It’s been a busy week at school! We have been doing writing and maths, also art making sunflowers and shapes.

Great Green

• We have been practising to add more adjectives in our writing!
• We’ve been predicting and clarifying about short novels.

Think Pink

• Focus more when the teacher has been talking.
• Improve our connectives to demonstrate second level targets.

We are the P7 Lead Learners for next week for showing respect and responsibility! We have been reminding Miss Jones about tasks and jobs.

A wee note from Miss Jones

We have had an exciting first full week in Primary 7 learning about our new responsibilities. I am very proud of how well they have settled into their new roles.  They have kept me young by adding new music to our Primary 7 Spotify playlist!! I look forward to next week as we move onto Similes and Metaphors in Writing and continue with our place value of 4, 5, 6 and 7 digit numbers!

It’s been a very busy 1st full week back, with lots of fabulous learning both in the classroom and using the outdoors.

Great Green

• We wrote a description of Wilbur from our class novel. We all remembered to write in sentences.
• In PE we worked hard to complete different circuits. It was exhausting!

Think Pink

• Lots of people have been working hard at tidy up time to keep our classroom tidy and safe. We hope everyone is going to help us with this.

Our Lead Learners this week are Ellie and Harris for being helpful and keeping our classroom tidy.

Excellent first full week in Primary 5. :O).
We have all the plates spinning now and we are working really hard to keep them moving.
Great Green – ‘What went well’
– As part of our Maths topic, we revisited what we knew about 2D shapes. The class searched the filing cabinets in their heads and retrieved lots of key knowledge and understanding. We extended this by looking at common properties and quadrilaterals!!
– Our daily practise of handwriting is showing improvement already!
Well Done P5.
Think Pink – ‘Even better if’
– Using a ruler carefully to underline dates and when a task is completed, ready for the next task.

Lead Learners.
This week our Lead Learners are Valentina and Ollie.
They have shown kindness consistently to other pupils in the school, to adults and to the school environment. Well Done Valentina and Ollie.

Our first week back has been fantastic here at Meldrum PS.  It has been lovely to have such high attendance figures this week with nearly every pupil being in school and on time every day so far.  Attendance is school is hugely important so I ask that you continue to ensure that your child/children are in school as much as possible.  West Lothian Council’s Attendance and Engagement at School policy provides schools with procedures to follow to support positive attendance.  Where attendance falls below 90%, schools are required to begin engaging with parents to look at reasons behind low attendance and for conversations to begin about how improvements can be made. Arriving on time at school is also very beneficial, many children find it unsettling to arrive late to the classroom when everyone else is already in the room and having them here on time for the start of the school day avoids this potential upset.

School Events – I will be sending out a list of diary dates for the school year at the beginning of next week so that you have a note of planned dates for the session.   We do, however, have some upcoming events happening soon.  We will be holding our Big Breakfasts events in the next couple of weeks.  A maximum of 2 adults per child are able to join your child for some breakfast and a chance to meet their class teacher and visit their classrooms to see where they learn each day.  We will aim to start our breakfasts at 9.15am and expect to be finished by 10.00am.  Family members attending the breakfasts should wait at the door to breakfast club (in the front playground) and as soon as we are set up, we will let people in.  We look forward to seeing families on the dates below:

Wednesday 26th August – P3/2 Big Breakfast – for children in Miss Canning’s class

Thursday 27th August – P4/3 Big Breakfast – for children in Mrs Scobie’s class

Friday 28th August – P1/2 Big Breakfast – for children in Mrs Lang’s class

Wednesday 2nd September – P6/5 Big Breakfast – for children in Miss McGrorty’s class

Thursday 3rd September – P7 Big Breakfast – for children in Miss Jones’s class

Friday 4th September – P5 Big Breakfast – for children in Mrs Orpin’s class

PE Days – PE days for this term are:

P1/2 – Tuesday and Wednesday

P3/2 – Monday and Thursday

P4/3 – Monday and Thursday

P5 – Tuesday and Thursday

P6/5 – Tuesday and Wednesday

P7 – Monday and Thursday

On PE days, pupils across P1 – P5 should come to school in “active school uniform.”  Children should wear a t-shirt or polo shirt (red, black or white – no large logos) and joggers or leggings. They will not be asked to change.  Pupils in P6 and P7 should bring their PE kit to change into, this supports preparation for high school where changing is required. Football strips should not be worn for PE.

School Uniform –   it has been great to see the children looking so smart in their school uniforms this week.  A reminder that uniform is either school shirt and tie or polo shirt; skirts, trousers or leggings.  Hoodies are not permitted.  If any family needs support with uniform items, please contact the school and ask to speak to either Mrs Egan, Mrs Brown or Miss Jones in confidence.

Outdoor Learning – staff are finalising their weekly timetables and outdoor learning days will be confirmed as soon as this is complete.

Arrival at school – any child arriving before 8:35am should go directly to Breakfast Club, where supervision will be available. Please note that children do not need to eat breakfast to attend Breakfast Club—they are welcome to join in games and activities until 8:35am. However, if your child would like breakfast, please ensure they arrive before 8:30am, as this is when the kitchen stops serving food. 

At 8:35am, playground supervision will begin in both the front and back playgrounds. Children in Breakfast Club will head outside by 8:45am at the latest, allowing time for those finishing their breakfast. 

On days when it is raining or in the winter when the playground may be icy, all pupils should enter the school building via the hall door where they will be supervised in the hall until the start of the school day.  If you do not see any staff in the playground from 8.35am onwards, you will know that children should report to the hall.

Any pupil arriving after the start of the school day at 8.55am should be brought to the main office.

Next Week 

PE begins as per timetable above. No other planned events.

I hope that everyone has a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing the children again on Monday.

Kind regards, Lynne Egan.

P6/5 have had a lovely (and busy) first few days back getting to know each other and our new teacher. We are learning our new routines, class values and have even begun reading our class novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class.

We discussed our perfect day with our peers, then we wrote in paragraphs about how we would choose to spend our morning, afternoon and evening. We also recapped our knowledge of place value using a variety of active learning approaches.

Next week, we will continue to settle into P6/5, learn our new routines, class values and begin to expand our thinking!