Author: Miss Burton
P.E Days Term 1 2023/24
Parent Council Welcome 2023/24
Hello!
Welcome to all parents and carers of children starting Term 1 of the 2023/24 school year! We hope that you’ve had a smooth start, and that you and your children had a good break over the summer.
The Calderwood Primary School Parent Council (PC for short) is a volunteer group made up of parents and carers of children at the school and nursery. We provide a collective voice for the Parent Forum, which is made up of all parents and carers of children attending the school and nursery. You don’t need to do anything to “join” the Parent Forum, it’s just a way to refer to the wider parent body.
The PC membership is formed from the votes of the Parent Forum at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and has a number of specific “named” roles, such as Chair, Vice Chairs, Treasurer, Secretary etc. Members of the PC vote on various administrative matters, such as budget allocation, fundraising decisions, PC policy or constitutional matters.
If you want to find out more about the role of parent councils, there is a great resource in the Connect website: www.connect.scot (free to set up an account), and also the National Parent Forum for Scotland (www.parentforumscotland.org).
Meeting Dates for your diary:
We have the AGM once a school year, and other regular meetings spread out across the terms. The AGM includes our annual financial report, and the election of the PC Members.
- Tuesday 12th September (AGM)
- Tuesday 21st November
- Tuesday 27th February
- Tuesday 23rd April
The times and agenda for each meeting are shared in advance, and anyone from the Parent Forum can attend. You can join in person, or using Zoom (video call).
Clan Representatives (Reps)
The PC also co-ordinates the “Clan Reps”; our brilliant parents and carers who act as key points of contact for messages between the PC and the Parent Forum at a Clan level – mostly through messaging chat groups (e.g. WhatsApp, Messenger etc.). This can cover anything from informal canvassing for ideas to checking that important school information is reaching everyone.
Here is the list of current Clan Reps:
Nursery – Freya Mitchell / Lucy Wright
P1 Orkney –
P1 Shetland –
P1 Mull – Jenni Bell
P1 Skye – Claire Raeburn
P1 Ness –
P2/1 Linlithgow –
P2 Leven – Freya Mitchell/ Katie Guinan
P2 Rannoch – Jo Ferguson/ Lucy Wright/ Katie Guinan
P2 Tay – Katy Gillies
P2/3 Tummel –
P3 Edinburgh – Amie Cruickshank
P3 Glasgow – Jenni Bell
P3 Perth –
P4 Stirling – Toni Glen
P4 Aberdeen –
P4 Dundee –
P5 Bluebell –
P5 Bramble – Jo Ferguson
P6 Thistle –
P6 Schiehallion – Laura Hynd
P7 Ben Lawers –
P7 Ben Lomond – Lynne Spinks
There are some gaps, so if you would be happy to be a point of contact for other parents and carers in your child’s Clan, then please contact: joeyferg170@gmail.com
If you are not yet in a chat or messaging group and would like to contact your Clan Rep, then try asking another parent or carer at drop off or pick up, or post a message to the “Calderwood Primary School Parents Group” on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/groups/290855069331960/
Lastly, if you have any questions that you can’t find an answer for through the school website (https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/calderwood/) or the Clan Reps, then please email: hello@calderwoodpspc.org
We hope that you and your children have a really enjoyable year and we look forward to doing some great things together.
Tim Ozdemir
Chair, Calderwood Primary School Parent Council
Chapter 3 First Day Photos
Invisible Strings Learning Context
Calderwood Primary Chronicle: 18/08/23
Calderwood Chronicle_18_08_23 Download
Calderwood Commitments (Actions):
- Primary 5 – 7: Bring Your Own Device. If you would like your child to take part please complete the permission slip with your child, this will start from 28th You can find more information here.
- Medical: Please ensure the office are aware of any medical needs or allergies your child may have.
Calderwood Calendar:
- Term 1 Calendar link
- 19/08/23: Milk Open to order for Term 1 Unfortunately, you will not be able to order milk for Term 1 after this point.
- 23/08/23 – 6pm: Ben Lawers & Lomond Dalguise Information Session – Virtual Drop In: Join on your computer, mobile app or room device: Click here to join the meeting. Meeting ID: 334 279 901 597 Passcode: H3WhdG Download Teams | Join on the web
- 25/08/23: Dress Down Day: (For school funds) Please no football strips or crop tops. If you like to make a donation you can do this on iPay by clicking on funds, Dress Down Day.
Calderwood Communication:
- Free School Meals and Clothing Grant Information: Although all children in Primary 1-5 received free school meals, it is important that those families who are entitled to the free school meals grant apply, as this allows enables your child to receive free school milk and access to other support, in and out of school. The clothing grant application also helps you to receive funding to purchase uniform supplies for your child. This link has more information and our equity champs are more than happy to support you with filling out the forms.
- Routines: Thank you for bearing with us as we navigated our way through new routines this week based on our large intake of new children and the cabins being installed. You can find a copy of these routines here. You can also find in this Sway the areas children should leave their bikes. Primary 7 clans should use the bike rack next to the muga and Primary 5-6 clans should leave their bikes at the Great Glen Gate area. Next week, Primary 1 clans will follow the normal school routines.
- Breakfast Club: You can find out more about Breakfast Club here. If your child requires food at Breakfast Club please ensure they arrive before 8:20am.
- Communication: As you can see, the door at breakfast club and the gates in the morning are busy and at this time the champions focus is on the safety of the children. We therefore would ask that any communication that does need passed on to champions goes through the office, so the message finds its way to the correct person. When emailing the office, can you please ensure your note your child’s full name and clan name so the email can be directed to the correct champions.
- Reporting Absence: Please email the school office: wlcalderwood-ps@westlothian.org.uk
- Email title:School or Nursery Absence
- Child’s first and surname:
- Length of absence (if known):
- Reason for absence:
- If you are unable to email, you are still able to phone the school office. If your child continues to be absent for longer than one day and you haven’t initially reported this, please report this absence daily. If your child is going to be absent, it is your responsibility to contact the office before 9am to report the absence. Failure to report an absence will start the implementation of the West Lothian Safe Arrival policy, which may result in social work or police being contacted.
- Snack: Please ensure your child brings a snack to school for morning break. For those children who forget we do have fruit available at the office. We would discourage share bags of crisps and sweets, and any candy style sweets. Due to allergies in the school, we also try to discourage children sharing their snacks or bringing in treats for birthdays. Please avoid nut based snacks at break and lunch, due to allergies. Children should also bring a filled water bottle to school each day that they can top up if required, please let us know if you require support with purchasing a water bottle.
- iPay: The office champs are hoping that all new families will have a log in by next week. You can click here to find advice on how to use iPay. All families should use this system to order their child’s lunch or note that they are bringing a pack lunch from home, to ensure this does not take away from their learning time during stag start in the morning.
- Leadership team clan responsibility:
- Mrs Warden: Nursery
- Miss Connor: Mull, Orkney, Shetland, Skye, Ness, Linlithgow
- Mrs Bates: Leven, Rannoch, Tay, Tummel, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth
- Miss Burton: Stirling, Aberdeen, Dundee
- Miss Stark: Bluebell, Bramble, Thistle, Schiehallion, Ben Lawers, Ben Lomond
Calderwood Compliments:
- Congratulations to Mrs Christie who got married over the summer. We wish Mr and Mrs Curtin lots of love and happiness!
- Capturing Calderwood Chapter 3
- We are so proud of all our new Primary 1 children and how quickly they have settled into life at Calderwood. They have been excellent at learning all the routines of being in ‘big school’, making new friends and starting their learning journey. Thank you to our champions and families for supporting this transition and milestone for them.
- A big welcome to all our new children and families across P2-7 clans, we have welcomed 40 new children into our clans this week.
- A warm welcome to all our new champions this week, including our new Principal Teachers, Mrs Warden and Mrs Bates.
P5 -7: Bring Your Own Device 2023/24
Starting 28th August 2023:
Term 1 Family Calendar 2023/24
Rookie Rockstars Concert
Calderwood Clan of 2023: Leavers Photos