School Newsletter November 2014
Thank you!! I wanted to start by saying thank you for all the support since taking up the Acting Head Teacher post. I have appreciated how welcoming everyone has been and look forward to working with you all in the coming months. School Website Our school website has had a spring clean so you may notice some small changes in appearance and layout. We have checked all of the links to other useful sites to make sure they are live and brought all the information up to date. We now plan to set up a blog for each class to replace the Class Information page. The blog will contain informative posts and photos, bringing you up to speed about what the children are learning. Pupils in P4-7 will be writing their own posts. We will put an announcement on the school website as soon as these blogs are up and running. Please visit and leave a comment – always a great way of encouraging children. The Feedblitz software – which sent out emails when the website was updated – has been discontinued by East Lothian Council. It has been replaced by a similar (and improved) service called Feedburner. This is on the front page of our website – enter your email address and click the button to sign up. There are lots of new posts and slideshows to see on our home page, so please check them out. This is where you‟ll find the latest information. Copies of newsletters are still available via the website, now moved to the „About our School‟ section.
Issue 2
St Andrews Day Rev. Joanne Evans-Boiten is organising the annual service to commemorate this important day in our calendar. She welcomes children from our school to attend the service at 11am and take part in the event afterwards. Rev. Evans-Boiten would be very glad if children participating could wear their school uniform. This year the theme is “Role Models”. As well as St Andrew being an important role model to his Christian brothers and sisters in the early church, it is also the theme of the project our P4-7 class is exploring this term. All classes are contributing work on this theme for the event and this will be displayed in the church. Children who wish to talk about their writing or picture are welcome to do so, either by just explaining what they have produced, or – if they prefer – answering questions put to them by the minister. The service will last for about 50 minutes, followed by singing the Saltire Anthem outside the church immediately afterwards. There will be a rehearsal for those taking part (if free to do so) at the church at 12.30pm on Friday 28th November. Nativity and P4-7 Drama Our annual nativity play for P1-3 is called The Donkey Seller and it will be followed by a lively performance by the P4-7 class. The date for this has had to change and is now on Monday 15th December at 2 pm. More details will follow but we look forward to seeing many of you there!
School Lunches
A message from the school caterers:
After receiving feedback from our customers we have decided to re-instate baked potatoes on certain days of the week. Whilst we recognise that macaroni cheese, pizza and burgers are the most popular dishes on the menu, we can appreciate not all children like them. Baked potatoes are already available on week one and week three Thursdays so to make it easy for all to remember we will provide Tatties on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. Unfortunately we are unable to change the hard copies of the menu leaflets to inform parents of this however we will make the information available on the council website. Lunchtime Sports Club Next week, on Wednesday 18th November, Mr McCann will be launching a new lunchtime club. At the moment this will be open to pupils in P4 and P5 and the sport will be cross country. As the year goes on, P6 and P7 will have opportunities for a lunchtime sports club too. The focus will change with time also. Other sports which will feature will include tennis. Pupils taking part will need to bring a packed lunch on Wednesdays, as the club will run at 12.30pm, followed by eating lunch after school lunches have finished serving. Keepit yer bairns hale (and free o’ wee beasties) Despite efforts by the Scottish Government to eradicate head lice, this is still a common problem in many schools. Regular checks of your child‟s hair are the best way of keeping hair healthy and preventing the spread of the problem. Many children will get head lice at some time during their school career so it‟s best to be on the alert. Bug Busting Kits rely on a special comb rather than chemicals and are easy to use. They are available free and can be ordered from your local chemist.
Pupil Parliament Our whole-school Pupil Parliament met last week. The working groups came up with some great ideas. The Fundraising Group is planning all kinds of exciting activities for Children in Need on 14th November. The group also wanted to plant bulbs to sell flowers for Marie Curie in the spring, and work on this started this week. The children are concerned about people suffering from ebola and want to raise some money for this at the Christmas fair. The Working with Others Group was eager to explore hands-on learning about animals. They decided that learning at somewhere like the Seabird Centre, a zoo or a farm was a much richer experience that everyone (the whole school) could enjoy rather than a previous suggestion of keeping a pet in a classroom. The group also had exciting ideas for the Christmas party, including a banquet for the school in the hall rather than eating in different classrooms. The Outdoor Opportunities Group discussed ways to improve the playground, especially replacing markings and tidying up the pond area. They had lots of good ideas for how to use the glebe for supporting topics. They also discussed our allocation of time with the Outdoor Learning Service and listed lots of ideas for adventurous activities for different age groups. If you are interested in the work of the Pupil Parliament, there is more detail in recent posts on the school website. Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day Join us on Friday 12th December to raise money for Save the Children by wearing a Christmas jumper or decorating a woolly one. There will be lots of opportunities to decorate your jumper during the course of the morning. To take part we are asking for a suggested donation of £2 per family. Look out for a flyer nearer the time.
Pupil Profiles As a school staff, we have been discussing good ways to help children plan and reflect on their own learning. We will be continuing to use Learning Profiles for children in P1-5. Children have an opportunity to discuss their learning one-to-one with their teacher, and you will be able to see their progress when the learning profile comes home. The pupils in P6-7 are starting eprofiles, which are the more sophisticated big brothers of the learning profile. Pupils can set themselves targets, write blog-style posts about progress with their learning, and upload photos and scanned images of their best work to illustrate their growing skills and understanding. Once these are fully up and running, parents will be able to view these at home. Keen pupils will be able to update them at home too!
Dates for your Diary November 20th Nursery visit to Haddington Library December 6th Christmas Fayre (Village Hall) 10th School Christmas Lunch th 12 Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day Milk and Fruit Payments to be in 15th Nativity (village Hall 2pm) th 16 Rag Bag Collection 9.30am: Nursery Christmas Party 1.30pm: P1-7 Christmas Party th 18 Pantomime (Brunton Hall) th 19 9.10am: Church Service (All Welcome) End of Term
. Please remember to keep an eye on the school blog http://edubuzz.org/blogs/athelstaneford/ for the most up to date information. If you have any concerns or queries please do not hesitate to contact me. Iain Dervereux Acting Head Teacher
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