School Newsletter January 2015
Happy New Year It was lovely to see all the children again after the holiday. The mornings may be dark and blustery, but the children have returned to school with renewed energy for the new term. We are all very jealous. Where do they get all that energy from? Staff Absence We are very sorry that Miss Hutchison is unwell just now and hope that she will be back very soon. In the meantime, Mrs Wright and Mrs MacKinnon have been teaching the class. Both teachers know the class well and have been following Miss Hutchison’s plans. Reading homework is continuing as normal. If you do have any concerns and would like to speak to Mr Devereux, please get in touch with the school office. School Website Since the last newsletter, we have completed our overhaul of the school’s website. Each class now has its blog where you can keep up-to-date with learning and events specific to that class. On the P4-7 blog, many of the posts are written by the children themselves. Save the Children Fund Many thanks to Mrs Little who organised the Christmas Jumper Day, and to all the children for taking part. There were some cracking Christmas jumpers around the school on the day and the children raised £65.70. This is hot on the heels of the Children in Need day which was organised by the pupils’ Fundraising Group, and raised £122.80. The Fundraising Group also has exciting plans for later on this term – see below.
Issue 3
Pupil Parliament Last week we hosted another Pupil Parliament meeting. The three working groups met and made plans. The Working with Others Group hope to invite in folk from the community to talk to P4-7 about their memories of World War II. The Fundraising Group is planning an event to raise money to fight ebola, an issue which is a particularly important one in the children’s minds at the moment. The Outdoor Opportunities Group has planned further improvements to the playground which they hope to begin working on in two weeks’ time.
Cross Country Club The cross country running club, run by Mr McCann, has been enormously successful. Last term this was open to pupils in P4 and P5. This term the club will be open to pupils in P6 and P7 and will restart on Wednesday 14th January. Pupils taking part need to bring a packed lunch as the club starts at 12.30pm and the runners have their lunch after school dinners are no longer being served.
Active Houses! Last week we re-launched the house system and this week the first inter-house tournament is taking place. This is taking the form of a football match involving pupils from P3 to P7. The House Captains have been making difficult decisions about the composition of their teams, and the positions of the players. Mr McCann will be refereeing the match. We will allocate 10 house points to the winner: Peffer or Pendrachan. The lines outside the door have been much quieter and straighter now that a house point can be won for the best line. As the year progresses we are looking forward to other inter-house sports competitions, and the children have asked for an inter-house quiz. We can’t promise a Hogwarts-style sorting hat when children join the school (who’d want to be in Slytherin?), but we have Mrs Cameron who is much better than any sorting hat.