Today at Assembly we welcomed Rev. Povey into school who spoke to the pupils during our Harvest celebration. Thank you to everyone who donated food to the West Lothian Food Bank.
Harvest Assembly
Category Archives: News
Harvest
A big thank you to the nursery parents that handed in kind donations towards our school Harvest assembly. The food stuffs are being collected on behalf of West Lothian Foodbank.
October Newsletter
Dear Parent/Carer
Where has a full term gone?
Throughout the school the children have been learning about many different topics and the classrooms are looking bright and inviting. Some children have been experiencing outdoor learning this term and the children were very excited when they came back to explain what they had been doing and what they had seen. It is great that new opportunities arise which keep the children enthusiastic about their learning and give them ownership of how to take the learning experience forward. It also gives them the opportunity to explore different ways of learning; sometimes the classroom is not always the best place to enthuse children. I would like to thank the parents who helped on these trips because without helpers these outings could not go ahead. If you are a parent/carer with a few extra hours and feel you could offer help please call at the office and complete a PVG form and we could add you to our list of helpers.
We are almost at a full complement of staff and following very recent interviews we, hopefully, will have a new teacher starting soon. This will be after all West Lothian Council checks are carried out and when they can be released form their own school. This will give class teachers a regular professional dialogue opportunity through time out of class with our support for learning also back to a full balance of hours.
I hope everyone has a lovely break and I look forward to seeing all the children back on Tuesday 25th October 2016
Mary McKenzie
Nursery Newsletter – October
Dear Parent/Carer,
The children have all settled into the new school year and are confidently making new friends and learning the Nursery routines. We have created a community contract so that the children have an opportunity to discuss what they would like to learn at Nursery and what it should feel like to be part of our Nursery.
Thanks to all of you who attended our Meet the Teacher Session, if you were unable to attend you can access the information on the school blog: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/mcps/2016/09/09/nursery-learning-letter/
You can keep up to date with our learning on the school blog by clicking on Learning Stories, Nursery: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/mcps/category/learning-stories/nursery-am/
As a staff team we have been collaborating with our cluster nurseries and have visited Polbeth, St. Ninian’s and Riverside Nurseries to investigate how they are implementing new nursery planning advice and guidance.
Miss Burton
Depute Head Teacher
Dynamic Earth
Our Trip to Dynamic Earth
On Monday P4 visited Dynamic Earth as part of our Crazy Climates topic. We had great fun visiting all the different areas learning about how life was formed and we learned about different areas of the world. Our favourite part was the touching the Arctic ice, and we challenged ourselves to touch it for as long as possible. Adam touched it for the longest at just over a minute. Our most interesting facts was that trees in the rainforest are as tall as 6 double decker buses pilled on top of one another!
P4B Trip to Dynamic Earth
P4B had a fantastic day at Dynamic Earth this week! It was a super opportunity for us to learn more about the different climates we have been learning about in class, but also to learn more about planet earth and how it was formed. We loved all the different hands on activities we were able to take part in and touching the giant block of ice in the Arctic Section was our favourite!
After exploring Dynamic Earth we finished off the day with an interesting workshop on the Rainforest. We were able to share all the facts we already knew about the rainforest and also learn new interesting information.
What a super day, we would love to go back again soon!
Sum Dog Money Competition
As this week is West Lothian Money pupils in P2-7 have been invited to take part in a whole school Money Week Competition. This runs from Monday to 4pm on Thursday and is divided into P2-4 and P5-7. The pupils can assess this competition at school and at home. Remember we are looking for high accuracy scores.
Good luck!
Cluster Clubs for the West Calder Area
Swimming lessons on Fridays at West Calder High School;
Active Schools & Swim IT are running a swimming club for all pupils in P1-P7 every Friday at the West Calder High School Pool. The swimming lessons are aimed at non swimmers but all ages and abilities are welcome.
P1-P3: 13.00-13.45
P4-P7: 13.45-14.30
The lessons start on the 7th October – 2nd December (no lessons will run on the 21st October due to it being half term)
Each lesson will cost £2
If you would like to book a place for your child please contact the Active Schools Coordinator on hayley.smith2@westlothian.gov.uk . Spaces are limited so please get in touch soon.
P5-P7 Rugby Club on Fridays at Parkhead Primary School;
Livingston Rugby Club Coach Lee Anne Steel will be running the rugby club for both girls and boys in P5-7 for all abilities. The club will run from 13.00-14.00 starting on the 28th October -2nd December and is free. If you would like any more information please contact hayley.smith2@westlothian.gov.uk or leeanne1808@sky.com
GRC Triathlon Club on Wednesdays at West Calder Primary School;
This community club delivers alternate training sessions with one week swimming and one week gym fitness with games. Its open to all pupils aged 8-16 and runs from 6-7.15pm and costs £2 per session. This club is already in action so if you would like to join please get in touch with Coach Robert Ovens on 07971417877 or visit grctri.wordpress.com for more information.
House Meeting 1
On Friday we had our first House Meeting of the term. This was a chance for us to meet up with everyone in our house and welcome the new P1s. The House and Vice Captains set a task for us to look at the new school motto: Believe, Achieve and You’ll Succeed and what this would look like and sound like in our school. We are designing shields to display around the school.
http://www.slideshare.net/midcps/house-meeting-1
PSA Fundraising Update
A big thank you to everyone who supported the school with the PSA’s last 2 fundraising events. Jazz Up Your Gymmies has raised £219.09 (we’re still not finished jazzing so don’t worry if your child’s shoes haven’t been done yet) and the Dress Down Day made £219.40.
We’d also like to say a huge thank you to Helen Turner who, not only helped us out at the Spring Fair, but again applied to her employer, the Bank of Scotland, for Matched Giving who gave us £500 for her time helping a charity.
If you’d like more information about if your employer operates the Matched Giving Scheme you can contact your human resources team or this is a link is a rough guide but may be out of date.
This brings our total for the playground fund to £5,274.55.
A big thank you to the PSA for organising these events and to everyone who has contributed.
