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East CraigsPrimary School November, 2017

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD TEACHER’S DESKWelcome to our November newsletter. Please read on to hear about events and school news which have happened throughout the month, together with those which we have planned in the lead up to the Christmas Holidays.

Christmas HolidaysPupils will finish for the Christmas holidays at 12:00 noon on Friday 22nd

December. The last session for afternoon Nursery pupils will be Thursday 21st December. All pupils should return to school on Tuesday 9th

January, 2018 at the usual times.

In-Service TrainingOur staff team will return to school on Monday 8th January, 2018 for In-service training. The day will be spent with Cluster colleagues engaging in further professional learning in the development of Nurture approaches which, as you are aware, is an Improvement priority this session.

Staffing NewsWe are currently in the process of recruiting for a member of staff to cover Mrs Scott’s (P1A) class as she goes on Maternity Leave after the Christmas holidays. We are also

recruiting for a member of staff to teach Primary 5A, Tuesday to Friday, as Ms Donaldson will be coming out of class after the holidays to lead the implementation of Nurture approaches in school. Ms Donaldson will also add to capacity within the Support for Learning provision enabling us to have greater focus on providing support to pupils who require greater challenge in their learning, together with those pupils who require further support in Numeracy & Mathematics. Unfortunately, we have had to re-advertise both posts, which are temporary, as the prospective candidates gained permanent posts in other schools. I will keep parents & carers abreast of any developments with recruitment at the earliest opportunity. I should like to inform you that Ms Sara Bruce, who currently works as a Pupil Support Assistant in Primary 1, has been successful in gaining the post of Pupil Support Officer in Ferriehill Primary School. She will be leaving on Friday 1st December. I would like to thank her for her commitment to East Craigs and wish her well with her new post. As a result, Miss Zahara Khan, who was previously appointed to a 27.5 hour temporary Pupil Support Assistant post, will now be appointed on a permanent basis. We are also interviewing for two further temporary 27.5 hour posts on Tuesday 5th

December to further boost our Pupil Support provision.

Choir Success As you are aware, our choir was selected to perform as part of the “Christmas Songbook” Christmas day

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programme on STV2, which will be shown on a loop throughout the day. They attended St.Mary’s Cathedral on 21st November to record their wonderful performance of “Oh Holy Night” and “It Was On A Starry Night.” The children were a credit to themselves, their families and our school, with the producer commenting on the beautiful tone of their voices. Huge thanks to Mrs Graham for all her work in preparing the children for their performance. I would also like to thank the parents who supported the school by accompanying the pupils to the recording.

East Craigs CDOur pupils also made the professional recording of the East Craigs CD on 16th

November. The CD will include a song performed by each stage in school, including the AM and PM Nursery classes, together with a separate performance by the choir. Although the CD will be available for you to buy at the Christmas Fayre, the songs are not Christmas songs, and were chosen by the children to create a lovely selection for you to listen to. This is to enable the CD to be on sale all year round, should families wish to purchase one at a convenient time for them. Pupils also took part in a competition to design illustrations for the CD. Many congratulations go to the following

pupils whose designs were selected as winners by the CD producer:-Conroy Zhang P7AMaya Drapala P6AEilidh May P5ACharlotte Lewis P4BJamie Cavanagh Anderson P3AElliott Parsons P5BAoife Brown P2AHanna Kelly P7BIsla Kenny P5BRachel Sherry P7BKatie Starkey P7BEffie White P6AHuge thanks go to Miss Allan for her preparation of the pupils for their performances, which were largely done in just one take! A fantastic effort by all.Many thanks also go to our PTA who are kindly funding the pupils’ prizes.

Review of Homework PolicyMany thanks to those of you who have completed our Homework Survey which was due to close on Monday 6th

November. Unfortunately we have only had 78 responses across the whole community, which does not provide a representative sample of views upon



which to base the school’s professional response. I am sure you will agree that this is an area of school practice which will undoubtedly divide opinion amongst parents & carers, which is already evident in those responses made. Therefore, it is essential in attempting to meet the wide range of views held, that we elicit a much larger response before making any changes to existing practice. To this end, I have arranged for the survey to remain open on the school’s website until the end of term to allow additional time for responses to be made.

East Craigs Twitter AccountHopefully, you will already have had the opportunity to follow some of the first “Tweets” on the school’s Twitter account. Our Digital leaders have been Tweeting during their Community Learning Team sessions, under the supervision of Mrs Scott and Mrs Millar, Curriculum leaders in this area. Please follow us @EastCraigsPS. You can also access the account through a link on the school website.

East Craigs Parent CouncilMany thanks to Mrs Susi Isler for the following article:-

We had our November meeting a few weeks ago and discussed a variety of items including a good discussion around playground and what we could possibly do to enhance the environment; we discussed whether the newsletter could be made available via the website or link issued on twitter; as well as a general discussion around social media and our desire to start using twitter as a means of communication both via the school twitter account (managed by the digital learning team leads) and the ECPC twitter account respectively and we also discussed a number of other items. Minutes from the meeting will be available on the School Website shortly.Our next session is scheduled for 24 January @ 18.45, please let us know if there are any items you would like to add to the agenda. We can be contacted by email [email protected] or via twitter @ecpcinfo or via the school office.

East Craigs PTA Many thanks to Mrs Jane Adams for the following update from the PTA:-

NEW MEMBERS REQUIREDWe are always looking for new members. If you would like to be part of our PTA and help raise essential funds for our school or if you would like more information of what this entails please get in touch at: [email protected] We understand that life is busy and that you may not feel you have time to commit to being a member of the PTA. If you can help just once at any of our events throughout the year please let us know. All help is very much appreciated. Please email your name


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


and contact number to the above email and we can then keep you on our files to contact prior to any event.

SCHOOL CHRISTMAS FAIRCome along to our school Christmas fair this Saturday 2nd December 9.30am -12.30pm. We have lots of things for the Kids to do including our wonderful ‘Hall of Fun’. There will be many gift stalls for ideas for Christmas as well as SANTA of course. Look forward to seeing you all there.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EVENTOur fantastic Christmas shopping event took place on Friday 3rd November at St. Thomas’ Church, Glasgow road. It was a very successful night as we raised a massive £1700 for the school. We would just like to say a big THANKYOU to everyone who came along and/or contributed to the night. A fantastic team effort and we couldn’t do it without all the support we get from parent helpers and supporters.

SCHOOL UNIFORMOrders for uniform can be made at any time. Just fill in the form which is available at the school office or online via the school website under parent’s zone and school uniform. The PTA will collect these orders weekly and process them.

EASYFUNDRAISINGThis is a great way to earn funds for our school when you order any goods or services over the internet. Go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk and search for our cause: East Craigs Primary PTA. Register with them and then every time you order online go to the easyfundraising site. You then go to the

website you are ordering from eg Argos via the easyfundraising site and they will donate money to our school. You can earn the school up to 4% of your sales from various retailers.

Assemblies

P4 Egypt AssemblyOur Primary 4 pupils delighted their audience with their wonderful performance of the Egypt Assembly on Friday 3rd November. Congratulations to all pupils and staff.

Children In Need AssemblyOur Children in Need assembly took place on Friday 17th November. During the assembly, we talked about the charity of Children in Need itself and learned that the money that is raised from all the events that take place supports many local causes. We also watched a video clip about ‘The Yard’ in Edinburgh, an organisation that supports children, young people and their families.

Members of P6A gave excellent presentations in both assemblies about ‘Celebrating Difference.’ They worked on these presentations in class and spoke so confidently about the importance of being yourself, as well as accepting that everyone is unique and special, no matter what they look like,


http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/


what clothes they wear, what religion they believe in or what culture they belong to. The children talked emphatically about everyone’s right to equality and that no-one should ever feel stigmatised because of who they are. The children also wrote their own poems on this same theme and shared these during the Assembly. The audience were captivated and gave a spontaneous round of applause at the end.

Anti-Bullying AssemblyAnti- Bullying learning focus week was during week commencing 13.11.17. This is an area which is central to the school’s ethos and vision all year round, with the profile of learning in this area being particularly high during that week. Pupils from P1-4 shared some of their learning in assembly last Friday, with P5-7 pupils sharing their learning on 01.12.17. The School Communication Community Learning Team also interviewed pupils about what they had learned throughout the week.

EPSSA/Interscholastics Events I am delighted to share with you that we are creating a parents’ & carers’ group to support the school with the running of, and preparation for, EPSSA & Interscholastics Sports events. We already have a small number of parents who have joined the group and, as per my recent groupcall, are seeking more group members. Group membership will be confirmed once finalised. Mrs Lynn Wallace, Co-chair of PTA, is undertaking the admin for the events

and has already consulted with Mr Cheung, our PE Specialist, to issue diary dates of remaining Interscholastics events, as well as the training programme team members will participate in. Neil Russell, our Active Schools Coordinator, is also keen to be involved and will attend the next meeting of the group to discuss how our parents & carers can support pupils in their preparation for forthcoming events and to share information with group members about relevant training they can take part in.PTA have kindly agreed to fund kit for each member of the Interscholastics Team comprising shorts, t-shirt and track-suit to promote the team positively, through our school identity, when participating at events. Pupils will return these at the end of the session, with the stock replenished year-on-year. Mrs Kelly, one of the group members, is also seeking sponsorship from local businesses to support the provision of kit for other teams we have in school.Many thanks to those parents and carers who have come forward to support the school in such a positive way. It will be greatly helpful in promoting this hugely important aspect of the curriculum and of the school’s culture and ethos. If you would like to join the group, please contact myself, or the school office.

Nursery NewsMany thanks to Miss Allan for the following article:-

Preparations are well underway for our



Christmas Nativity show ‘Donkey for Sale’. You are all invited to come and enjoy this show, which will be on Tuesday, 12th December 10.30 to 11.30am for the morning group and 1.45 to 2.45pm for the afternoon group. The children come in at the normal time. All parents/carers are invited. Please help your child by learning the words to the songs at home, song sheets have been sent home with all the children. All costumes will be provided.

From our Open Day, and the learning leaves on our planning tree, we have responded to the children’s interest in Space, Astronauts and Space travel. For the last few weeks, we have been learning about the planets in our solar system, reading fiction and non-fiction books about Space and working together to build a rocket big enough to take us into Space. There has been great excitement around our imaginary trips to the different planets and the creatures we meet there. Look out for our Space journal in the foyer which charts the children’s learning in words and pictures. Enjoy!

Christmas parties will be on Wednesday, 20th December for both the morning and afternoon groups. Mr Boom – “A Children’s One Man Band from the Moon!” has been booked for both parties. There will also be another

special visitor coming. If you would like to see Santa giving your child a present you can come at 10.45am, if your child is in the morning nursery, or at 2.45pm if your child is in the afternoon nursery. The parties are for children only and normal nursery times will apply that day. The children are welcome to come dressed in party clothes if they like. All cost for these parties have been covered by Nursery funds.

The school PTA have organised a Christmas Fair that will take place in the school on Saturday, 2nd December from 10.00am to 12.00pm. The nursery will have a stall and the children have made wonderful decorations to sell at the fair. Please do try to come along and help raise money for the school and if you are able to help on the nursery stall with your child please do sign up for this.



Remembrance ServiceI attended the Remembrance Service at Corstorphine on Sunday 12th November accompanied by four of the House Captains:- Jennifer Reid, Hanna Kelly, Brydon Douglas and Arvav Chakka, who laid the wreath on behalf of the school community. I should like to thank these pupils for giving of their time to attend this very moving event, and for representing school with such dignity.

Pupils’ AchievementsPlease read on to hear about the fantastic range of achievements our pupils have shared this month.

In P2/3, Anna Bendall has moved up to Level 1 at skating whilst Kirsty Reid has achieved her Pre-Primary Gold award at Highland Dancing.Blake Hatfield in P2/3 has achieved his Stage 3 Skills Development at his swimming lessons.In P3B, Dillon Scoular has achieved his green Judo belt. He is now 4th Kai.In P3B Hannah Kelly, has achieved a silver medal at a trampoline competition. She was competing against 13 and 14 year old girls.

In P3B Gracie Molloy, took part in a gymnastics competition and won a bronze medal for her floor work. Her club also took 2nd place overall.In P3B, Zak Adam took part in the Supernova run, three and a half miles around the Kelpies at night. Rayaan Jalali, also in P3B has achieved his 1st Kai at Judo.In P4A, Nathan Sherry took part in a production of Yuki and the Tsunami at his drama class. He played the part of Mr Wu, the teacher. Aaron Williams in P4A and Kimmie Williams in P7A have featured in the Evening News, dressed up in their Pudsey onesies for Children in Need. Both children donated their pocket money.In P4B, Amelia Isler-McCurdy has completed Level 4 at skiing.Isla Hopkins from P4B is now able to perform a backwards flip on the high bars at gymnastics. Excellent Isla!Jack Miller in P5A, was interviewed by Chinese Television when he attended the Chinese Lantern Festival at Edinburgh Zoo on Wednesday 29th

November. He was very excited to be asked lots of questions about his favourite parts of the festival.Joe Wilton, also in P5A, went to see the festival too and bumped into Jack right after he had been interviewed!Madison Leask in P6B, won 2 rosettes in a show jumping competition at Lasswade Riding Stables.In P7B, Simone Isler-McCurdy has completed her Level 5 at skiing.

Our After-School Dance Club took part in a show at Broughton High School on Tuesday evening. Well done to everyone who took part. All who attended had a wonderful evening.



The Gang ShowThe following pupils have been part of the Gang Show performance this year, giving a huge amount of their time and effort to create a wonderful show. Congratulations to all:-

Rea Norwood P4ALewis Dick P4BAIsla Tyrrell P5AMia Paterson P5AJacob Petrie P5BRachel Newby P5B

Isla Kenny P5BLily Evans P6BFraser Petrie P7BKatie Starkey P7B

Jackie ReidHead Teacher

Dates for Your Diary

Christmas Diary Dates 2017Wednesday 29th November

Brunton Theatre Visit for P4, P5, P6 pupils, leaving school at 12.30pm, returning approx. 4.45pm

Thursday 30th November Brunton Theatre Visit for P1, P2, P3 and P7 pupils, leaving school at 12.30pm,

returning approx. 4.45pm

Friday 1st December 9.15am in Games Hall - Primary 2 performance of “The Sleepy Shepherd”

Wednesday 6th December P6 SU Christmas Workshop in Church Centre, P6A 9.15-10.45, P6B 11-12.30

Friday 8th December All Active Schools clubs finish by this date

Monday 11th December 11am Primary 3 Christmas Party Primary 5b singing at Balfour Court Care Home 11am 1.30 Primary 5 Christmas Party 7pm Craigmount High School Christmas Concert at CHS



Tuesday 12th December 10.30-11.30 AM Nursery nativity in nursery room “Donkey for Sale” Primary 5a singing at Balfour Court Care Home 11am 1.45-2.45 PM Nursery nativity in nursery room “Donkey for Sale” 1.30pm Primary 4 Christmas Party

Wednesday 13th December East Craigs School Choir “An Evening of Carols” Craigsbank Church 7-7.45pm

Thursday 14th December 9.30am Primary 1 Nativity Performance 1 in Games Hall Nursery event - Christmas Film in School Hall Morning children come into nursery as usual and will be taken over to the hall

just before 9am. Parent/carers collect from hall at 11.30. Afternoon children are brought to school hall by parents/carers at 9am and

collected by parents/carers from school hall at 11.15. There will be an afternoon session as normal.

Friday 15th December 9.30am Primary 1 Nativity Performance 2 in Games Hall

Monday 18TH December 11am Primary 7 Christmas Party Last Community Learning Team of this term

Tuesday 19th December 9.30am Primary 1 Christmas Party 11am Primary 2 Christmas Party 1.30 Primary 6 Christmas Party

Wednesday 20th December Nursery parties

o Morning children have Christmas party with Mr Boom. Parents invited to join us for Santa’s visit at 10.45.

o Afternoon children have Christmas party with Mr Boom. Parents invited to join us for Santa’s visit at 2.45.

10.30am P1-3 Christmas Service at Craigsbank Church. 1.30pm P4-7 Christmas Service at Craigsbank Church.



Thursday 21st December• Nursery - Final session of the year for afternoon children

Friday 22nd December School finishes for Christmas Holiday at 12noon. Morning nursery session will end at normal time.


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