For anyone who didn’t manage to see the school as it was prepared for the Gala Day in June, I thought I would share some photos of the school as it was being decorated.  (Better late than never…) A team of dedicated parents, carers, pupils and staff worked really hard to produce the fantastic display which earned us first place in the decorated building category.

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We’re sure you will agree that everyone deserves a huge “Thank You” for all their hard work and commitment!

We are looking forward to next year when, as always, we will welcome any offers of  help or inspired ideas from our talented community.

Great job everyone!

We would like to thank all the parents and carers who took the time at the end of last term to come and visit us at the Breakfast Club.  It was great to see you join in with the children and to take the opportunity to find out about this great start to their day at Murrayfield Primary.

The club opens at 8.15 am Monday – Friday, is free for all children from P1 – P7 and offers the children a healthy breakfast each morning to set them up for a busy day of learning.

Parents of our new Primary 1 children will be invited in to join us at the Breakfast club one morning next week.  We will confirm the date and time for you later this week.  We look forward to seeing you!

Bon appetit!

Mrs McLay, Mrs Walker and Mrs Cordner

Here’s a wee reminder of some of the early morning “Wake and Shake” sessions, organised by Mr Benyon during Fitness Fortnight last year.

I wonder if this could become a more regular event?

We had a very interesting maths lesson last week, when some of the children in Mrs Millar’s group went to do some shopping down at the Mill Centre in preparation for the arrival of our French visitor, Mme Savoie on Thursday.  It turned into an experience which taught us lessons on lots of different levels.

We did mental maths in Scotmid, calculating the best prices for fruit.  Would it be better to buy pre-packed apples or buy them individually? Could we estimate how much money we were going to spend?  How much money would we save if we bought multi-packs?  What would the change be at the till?  Was Liam strong enough to carry both baskets of fruit or would someone else step up and help him..?

On the way home, we popped in to Blackburn Library, where we signed up for a library card and then were treated to a “private viewing” of the mobile library van.  The driver, Carol, explained about her previous jobs and how the experience of driving a whole range of vans and lorries helped her in her job.  She told us about the pros and cons of the different jobs she’d done and gave us an insight into what it was like to drive the mobile library van.  She also gave us a quick introduction on how to use the Dewey System to find books.  (I’m a teacher and I like the added extras!  I was also thinking that it would be good to see how well they were listening and wondering if I could ask them to tidy up the school library when we got back to school.)

Thank you to everyone who helped to make our trip into our local community so welcoming and interesting.  We are looking forward to going down to the library next term to do some research and to find out how they will be able to help the children with their school work as they transition from Murrayfield to their local Secondary Schools, Bathgate Academy and St Kents.

Mme Aurelie Savoie is visiting our school on Thursday and Friday this week as part of a Comenius visit sponsored by the French Institute in Edinburgh.

Mme Savoie teaches P2 and P3 equivalents at Ecole CONCORDE Barberaz in Chambéry, where the children spend half of their day learning in English and the other half learning in French.  Murrayfield hopes to set up a link between the two schools and to encourage children from each school to communicate in a variety of ways. 

Our pupils are very enthusiastic in showing Mme Savoie around and staff have been keen to discuss and compare teaching and learning in France and Scotland with her.    We are all looking forward to further developing our relationship with our French colleagues and pupils in Chambery.

What a wonderful day for a Gala Day!  For the first time in a good few years, the sun shone down on us as we made our way around Blackburn with the parade.  This year, we chose the theme, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”  Congratulations to the Nursery for winning a prize for their lovely, decorated float.  Oompa Loompas galore, Willie Wonkas, Veruca Salts, a great range of sweet treets and winning “Golden Tickets” cheered to the crowd as they made their way round.  Susan Boyle even said hello to one happy Oompa Loompa before setting off in her car to wave to her fans.  Thank you once again to all the parents, children and staff who came along to represent our school.  We hope you all had lots of fun!

The boys and girls in the HUB are delighted to share that on Friday 3rd May, with your fantastic help, they raised a grand total of £530 to add to the funds raised elsewhere to help rebuild Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder.

Thank you to everyone who got into the swing of things by dressing as an animal or a zoo keeper.  We had some very realistic looking animals and some very talented violin-playing ones too!  Great timing, as visitors to our Friday morning Assembly were also treated to a lovely farm-based performance from the P2 and P2/1 classes. 

The children in the Nursery really enjoyed taking part in the “Bear Hunt”, led by Dannielle in P7.  The hunt, based around the theme of “People Who Help Us”, encouraged the chldren to work out clues to find out which adult in the school the bears would go to for help.

Thank you again for all your help in making this a very successful week.  Special thanks to the Hub children for their enthusiasm and hard work and to Mrs Cordner for her patience, good humour and support throughout!

Work has now started on our new playground.  We will be keeping a diary of what’s happening and share the information with you.  Here is the diary of today’s exciting development.

Reece P7

Diary

Day 1

• Skip delivered
• Site assessed for size of area for equipment
• Skip delivered for rubbish etc (spoil).
• Delivery of play items.
• Start to mark the area.
• The job will take approximately 2 weeks.

FUNDRAISING FOR FIVE SISTERS ZOO

Pupils at Murrayfield Primary School felt devastated by the fire at the Five Sisters Zoo last weekend in which 48 species of animals died.

We have decided to hold an animal themed dress down day on Friday 3^rd May 2013.  We would love it if you came dressed as an animal or a Zoo Keeper and brought a £1 donation for us to send to the Five Sisters Zoo to help repair the Five Sisters Zoo.

In addition we will be doing lots of other fundraising thing to do, for example:

• guess the teddy bear’s birthday 10p
• guess where the teddy is from 50p
• guess the teddy bear’s name 50p
• tombola
• paw prints face/hand painting
• teddy bear hunt

We will be very grateful if anyone could help us by donating prizes for our tombola.  Thank you for your support.

The Hub children.