Author: Miss Burton

Calderwood Chronicle_14_08_26

Every fortnight we will issue our chronicle to families via email and our blog.

All other information about Calderwood is on our blog and website.

Calderwood Calendar: 

• Family Calendar: Link is here.
• 19/08/26: 4:30pm: Primary 7 Clans Online Residential Talk for Parents and Carers: An opportunity for parents/ carers to find out more about Dalguise Residential. The presentation will be made available online after. The link is: Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/344972994265271?p=VBP9fsDOJBqVUw6j3p Meeting ID: 344 972 994 265 271 Passcode: Pf6NB3HD
• 27/08/26: House Captain Election: Children can wear their house colour on top, school uniform as bottoms. Red, Sika, Fallow, Roe.
• 28/08/26: House Captain Election Results: Children can wear their house colour on top, school uniform as bottoms. Red, Sika, Fallow, Roe.
• 03/09/26: Visit My Clan 4:30pm – 5:10pm or 5:20pm – 6:30pm: An informal drop in opportunity, for you to visit your child’s clan room (classroom) and meet their champion (teacher).

Calderwood Communication:

• Uniform: We take great pride in our uniform as it helps us belong to our Calderwood family. A reminder, that black hoodies, black leggings and branded sports clothes are not part of our uniform. The various options are here.
• Clothing Grant and Free School Meals Information: Please click here for more information
• Dogs in the playground: A reminder that dogs are not permitted into our school playground, this includes the Breakfast Club door. If you are leaving your dog outside the playground, just a reminder that some children are allergic or are afraid of dogs, therefore please ensure this is away from the gate entrance.
• PE Days: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/calderwood/2026/08/13/p-e-days-term-1-2026-27/
• Mobile Phones and Smart Watches: Through parental consultation, this session we are not implementing Bring Your Own Device. Children who bring a phone to school, should switch off their phone before they enter the school playground and keep it off until they leave the playground. Each clan has a box where children can place their phone during the day. We would also request that children who have Smart watches, have their watch on school mode, if this is not an option, we would appreciate that they also place their watch into the box.
• Home Learning:

Reading: In Primary 1, we focus on developing the foundational skills that children need to become successful readers before introducing reading books. Through play-based learning, daily phonics activities, storytelling, songs, rhymes and language-rich experiences, children build their awareness of sounds, letters and early reading behaviours. Once pupils have established these key skills and are ready to access books independently and confidently, reading books will be introduced later in the term. This approach helps ensure that children develop a positive relationship with reading and experience success from the very beginning. Primary 2-4 Clans will take their reading book home, week beginning 24^th August. Please ensure they have their reading book in the bag every day so they can access to it in clan. Primary 5-7 reading homework is a personal reader from the clan library or home. They should complete their reading log with the books they read.

Home Learning Choice Grids: Will be issued after September Break, linked to learning in Clan.

• Communication Approaches: You will find a link here which explains how we communicate with families at Calderwood.

• Lunches: You can find the lunch menu for this session here. Please ensure you have ordered your child’s lunch at home on iPay. This ensures you know what your child is eating and also means they are not using their learning time in the mornings to order a lunch. If your child is having a packed lunch from home, it is useful for our systems if you can also mark this on iPay. Primary 6 and 7 pupils can pay for their lunches on iPay. Primary 1 and newly enrolled children, can order their lunch in clan until their log in as been issued. If your child has an allergy, please ensure we are made aware of this by contacting the school office. We have children in school with severe nut allergies. To help keep everyone safe, we kindly ask that, parents avoid sending nut-based snacks or packed lunch items into school. We appreciate your support and understanding in helping us maintain a safe environment for all children.
• Toys from home: Please ensure your child is not bringing toys or squishes from home to school. These can be a distraction and cause issues if they are damaged or broken. Thank you for your support with this.
• Breakfast Club: The Breakfast Club door at Nethershiel Road will be open from 8:05-8:20am.
• Drop off and Pick Up: The school gates lock at 8:45am in the mornings, please ensure your child is in the playground before this time, otherwise they will need to access the building through the office doors and will be marked as late. The school playground opens at 8:25am, parents are not permitted in the playground in the mornings.
• Field update from Education Services: We appreciate the ongoing frustration for both the school and parents regarding the condition of the grounds, and we understand the importance of getting the remedial works progressed as soon as possible. The Land and NETS team have been on site this week to cut the grass and address the immediate presentation of the area. Unfortunately, no tender returns were received for the required remedial works. The Land and NETS team have therefore contacted their contractors again and are seeking submissions by the end of August. We appreciate this is not the progress or timescale that the school or parents were hoping for, and we are keen to move matters forward as quickly as possible. Once a contractor has been appointed, we will be able to provide Education with a clear programme and timescales for the remedial works.
• Staffing Structure: You can find a list of all our clans and champions

Calderwood Compliments:

• A warm welcome to our 116 Primary 1s and our 8 new children, who joined our Calderwood family this week. This means that our current role in the school is 675.
• It has been a fantastic first few days welcoming our children back and hearing about their summer experiences. We are excited to see what Chapter 6 brings!

Calderwood Chronicle_19_06_26

Every fortnight we will issue our chronicle to families via email and our blog.

All other information about Calderwood is on our blog and website.

Calderwood Calendar: 

• 23/06/26: 4:30pm: Primary 7 Leavers Meal: See separate letter.
• 24/06/26: Reports will be brought home by children.
• 26/06/26: Last Day of term: Primary 7s will be piped through the playground.

• West Lothian School Holidays 2026/2027
• 12/08/26: First Day of Calderwood Chapter 6 – School session 2026/27
• 19/08/26: 4:30pm: Primary 7 Clans Online Residential Talk for Parents and Carers: An opportunity for parents/ carers to find out more about Dalguise Residential. The presentation will be made available online after.
• 27/08/26: House Captain Election: Children can wear their house colour on top, school uniform as bottoms. Red, Sika, Fallow, Roe.
• 28/08/26: House Captain Election Results: Children can wear their house colour on top, school uniform as bottoms. Red, Sika, Fallow, Roe.
• 03/09/26: Visit My Clan 4:30pm – 5:10pm or 5:20pm – 6:30pm: An informal drop in opportunity, for you to visit your child’s clan room (classroom) and meet their champion (teacher).

Calderwood Communication:

• Clan changeover: You can find information here on our transition processes and how we support the children with change. You can also find a link to each clan’s social story and a picture of their teacher on the blog.
• Uniform: As families begin to think about next session we would to remind you of the expectations and different options available for our school uniform. We take great pride in our uniform as it helps us belong to our Calderwood family. A reminder, that black hoodies, black leggings and branded sports clothes are not part of our uniform. The various options are here. Primary 7 will be able to purchase a Primary 7 tie from the office and they will be able to purchase their Leavers hoodie early in the new term, to wear for PE days and then after Christmas they can wear as their daily uniform.
• Clothing Grant and Free School Meals Information: Please click here for more information
• Crossing Patrol Lady: Following Joy being in post for two weeks, we have decided to trial a different position for crossing this week, and we will continue to review this with the Parent Council. Can you please remind your children to wait until Joy is standing in the middle of the road with her lollipop stick, until they begin to cross.
• Calderwood Ski Programme: Click here to find out more about this very exciting opportunity for our families.
• Dogs in the playground: A reminder that dogs are not permitted into our school playground. If you are leaving your dog outside the playground, just a reminder that some children are allergic or are afraid of dogs, therefore please ensure this is away from the gate entrance.

Calderwood Community:

• Parenting Smart Course
• Community Listening Project: ASN Parent Support Group

Calderwood Compliments:

• Teenage Cancer Trust Fundraising: Three eight-year-olds from Calderwood have cycled 50 miles and held a large bake sale to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust. They have raised over £3000 to help
  support the charity and its vital services for young people with cancer. We celebrated the girls success at our Connects last Friday – you can find out more here.
• Gala Art Competition: Well done to everyone who entered – especially our winners.
• Parent Council: Our Parent Council Chair, Jo Ferguson, is stepping down as chair as we move into the new school session. Jo has been instrumental during her time as the chair of Parent Council, in leading developments and changes, bridging that voice between the staff and parent body. We would like to thank her for all she has given to Calderwood Primary & Nursery. Thank you to Mica Burns, our Parent Council Treasurer, as she also steps down at the end of this session. It is a busy task, keeping up to date with all the incomes and outgoings, thank you for your time and ideas. Thank you to all our members of the Parent Council for their support and advice this school session and for their exceptional fundraising efforts.
• Primary 7s: A huge thank you to our Primary 7 cohort, our first ever Primary 3 Clans! We wish them every luck and will be thinking of them all as they embark on the next part of their journey. A special thank you to our Chiefs and House Team, for all the support and leadership they have given to Calderwood.

As we move into our last week of Chapter 5 at Calderwood, we would like to thank our families for all their support this school session, we hope you all have an enjoyable summer.