It has been a lovely first week back in school, despite the weather and our unexpected fire alarm at 9.00 am on Wednesday! All our classes have settled so quickly and we are looking forward to having P1 in school for the full day from next week. We are loving our new slide and embankment climbers – thank you to everyone for supporting the PTA events throughout last session as the PTA helped fund these new resources. A safety surface around the slide is still to be fitted plus some den building posts are to be installed, which I think the children will also enjoy.

One bit of staff news to share – congratulations to Miss Murray, our Nursery Teacher, who is expecting her first baby In December 2019, due in the middle of December 2019.

We have a meet the Teacher event planned for Monday 2 September 2019 from 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm. Parents and carers are very welcome to pop into school to meet your child’s teacher and see their new classroom between these times. We look forward to seeing everyone then.

A note to wish everyone a lovely summer holiday! It was a very emotional day in school today saying goodbye to all our P7s and other pupils across school who are all leaving to move onto new schools and also to staff to moving on to new adventures. One bit of exciting news today was that were allowed back on to our field to play at break time!

We would like to thank everyone for your ongoing support of our school over the last year and everything we do. We hope everyone enjoys some time off over the holidays to rest and relax and hopefully enjoy some sunshine.

School starts back on Wednesday 14 August 2019. We will look forward to seeing everyone then.

Dear All

The following messages have been sent to parents by Seemis text this morning inviting them to complete the relevant survey.

Primary

Scottish Government would like to hear your views on your child’s school

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/EdPiePrim/

Secondary

Scottish Government would like to hear your views on your child’s school

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/EdPieSec/

Special

Scottish Government would like to hear your views on your child’s school

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/EdPieSpec/

The survey closes on 12^th August 2019.

Further information about Parental Engagement is available on the Council website:

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20073/parental_engagement/132/parental_engagement_strategy_and_action_plan

Many thanks

Claire Thompson

Operations Manager

Email:   claire.thompson@edinburgh.gov.uk

Tel:       0131 529 4970 (Internal 34970)

It has been brought to my attention that there was a problem with the communication we sent out yesterday evening re class organisation for next session and the letter for some reason did not attach. I apologise for this as I know everyone has been very patient waiting for this information.  I do not have access to the ParentPay system so please see below for a copy of the letter that should have been sent out. We will resend this on ParentPay on Monday morning.

Sally Hourston                                                                                                                                Head Teacher

Dear Parents and Carers

Class organisation for 2019 / 2020

Staffing in school for the new school year has been more complicated than ever this year for many reasons and we appreciate your patience as we put together our teaching staff team for 2019 / 2020. We have this afternoon interviewed to fill our final vacancies and I am now able to let you know who will be teaching which class.

We are delighted to be welcoming back Mrs Turnbull as she returns from her maternity leave and Mrs Jack who is returning from her secondment.  Also joining our staff team as a permanent member of staff is Mrs Johnson who has been teaching P3 since October 2018. Mrs Collings is staying on to job share with Mrs Turnbull next session on a temporary contract as Mrs Turnbull has opted for flexible working for a year. Mrs Yule is staying for another year, job sharing with Mrs Morrison. We are looking forward to welcoming 2 new members of staff next session, firstly Miss Semple who will be teaching in P5 and sharing with Mr Mackenzie and Miss McPherson who will be taking one of our P2 classes until Easter as Mrs Fulton is expected to return from her secondment then. Miss McPherson is an experienced P2 teacher currently working in Aberdeenshire but relocating to Edinburgh over the summer. Unfortunately, she will not be able to meet her new class before the holidays as she is unable to get any more time out of school to come down and do this. We are also looking forward to expanding the range of specialist teachers we have in school next session and are excited to be working with Miss McGavan. Miss McGavan works at Currie Community High School and will be in school one day a week teaching drama to some of our older classes.

We are also looking forward to welcoming some new staff to our Nursery team. Mrs Corfield as an Early Years Assistant and Mrs Ross and Mrs MacNamara As Early Years Officers. We are delighted that Our Pupil Support Assistants team are all remaining with us next session.

We are very sad to be saying goodbye to Miss Sharpe as she moves to Manchester at the end of this term, and to Mrs Reid who has been teaching in our Nursery this session and Mrs Ramsay who has been teaching in P6A 2 days a week, as their contracts have come to an end.  I would like to thank Miss Sharpe, Mrs Reid and Mrs Ramsay for all the work they have done for our school in the time they have been here. We wish them all good luck as they move on to new adventures in other schools.

Next session we are up to 18 classes. The children were told today which class they would be in next session and who their teacher would be. They will get the chance to meet their new teacher and spend time in their new classrooms on Monday afternoon.

Our teaching staff organisation for school year 2019 / 2020 is as follows;

Nursery – Miss Murray (Principal Teacher)

P1A – Miss Mckay

P1B – Miss Kyle

P1C – Mrs Peutherer

P2A – Mrs Moyes / Mrs Cunningham

P2B – Mrs Hattersley

P2C – Miss McPherson

P3A – Mrs Holt

P3B – Mrs Johnston

P3/4 – Mrs McGlynn

P4A – Miss McLean

P4B – Mrs Nethercote

P5A – Mrs Turnbull / Mrs Collings

P5B – Mrs Yule/ Mrs Morrison

P6C – Miss Semple / Mr Mackenzie

P6A – Mrs Jack

P6B – Miss Wilson

P7A – Mrs Strange

P7B – Mr McArthur

Additional Support for Learning – Miss Nicholson

Nurture HUB – Mrs Pope

Music – Mrs Rubatto

P.E. – Mrs Elliot

Drama – Miss McGavan

Violin instruction – Mrs Millar

Brass instruction – Mrs Storrar

Mrs McAndrew will continue to take responsibility for Nursery and P1, I will have responsibility for P2, P3 and P4 and Mr Mackenzie for P5, P6 and P7.

Please contact me at school if you wish to discuss our class organisation for next session.

Yours sincerely

Sally M Hourston

Head Teacher

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Many thanks!

We all enjoyed dancing the night away at our P7 Quali last night to the sound of Iain McPhail and his Ceilidh Band! P7 all looked amazing and it was lovely to have so many staff and parents and family members come along to join in the fun! A huge thank you to Mr Frew for the beautiful photographs.

On the 3rd of June 2019 15 students went to George Watsons College to participate in the Interscholastics Athletics Event.
The students who participated were:
P6 girls – Charla Pretorius, Katie Kemp, Kelsey Reid, Callie McIver, Skye Marshall.
P6 boys – Scott Campbell, Ben McDonald, Seby Lumsden, Josh Mckenzie
P7 girls – Anna Ryce and Jess McCann.
P7 boys : Sam Beaton, Sandy Bishop, Euan Ingles, Aaron McGinty.
There was boys and girls cricket ball, 300 metre relay and 80 metres sprint. The boys won a gold medal for the boys relay and Ben McDonald also won a gold medal for the boys 80 metres. We managed to set a new record for the boys P6 relay and the boys won gold medals and are the champions of 2019. Ben also won the 80m sprint and we got into the semis for the P7 relay. Callie managed to get into the semi-finals for the P6 girls 80m sprint. Skye did really well running against P7 girls in the 600 m.
Charla, Katie, Kelsey and Callie were in the P6 girls relay.
Anna, Jess, Katie and Kelsey were in the P7 relay.
Ben, Josh, Seby and Scott were in the P6 boys relay.
Sam, Sandy, Euan and Aaron were in the boys P7 relay.
Charla Pretorius and Sandy Bishop were doing the cricket ball.
Callie, Anna, Ben, Sandy for the 80 metres.
Euan for the 600m
Skye for the 600 m

We enjoyed a busy day in school yesterday with Nick from STEAM CO. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and maths. P1- P3 learned about rockets in assembly then built one, while after assembly P4 – P7 rotated around 4 different workshops, based on building rockets, coding, inventing and robotics. The day ended with everyone in the playground as some of our older children launched their rockets before Nick launched his rocket using dynamite. It flew really high before the nose come fell off and the rocket parachuted safely back to earth!

P2  were given a special space mission yesterday! We read the story ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ and received the terrible news that some special pants were still being kept hostage on the moon by the aliens. Luckily a rocket was due to leave the school playground this afternoon and a brave puppy had agreed to take the flight and rescue the pants. Unfortunately he was completely unprepared for space travel so P2 eagerly took on the task of making everything he would need for his mission. They created space suits and a range of equipment to keep him safe, made him a packed lunch, designed and made flags for him to place when he landed, drew maps so he would know how to get there and even made sure he had some home comforts like toys and blankets as it would be a long journey. We were amazed by their creativity and teamwork. Our pup went up on a test flight before the big launch in the playground and we look forward to hearing how he got on when he returns. If he returns!