We held our annual Scots Assembly and everyone looked fantastic in their kilts, tartan scarves, hats, shirts, football and rugby tops etc.! It was a lovely assembly and we were delighted to welcome so many parents, grandparents and little sisters along to share it with us.  We enjoyed hearing the winners from each class reciting their Scots and Burns poems.  The children in all the classes did a great job over the last couple of weeks to learn their poems and it was very difficult choosing just one winner from each class! A very well done to the children who performed their poems in our Scots Assembly this morning, Nicole, Georgia, Toby, Murray, Daniel, Kai, Fraser, Fergus, Jack, Kelsey, Jess, Grace, Kyle, William, Rose and Adam. As well as the poetry we enjoyed entertainment from Catriona, Kyle and Ethan who opened our assembly by playing their drums – a huge thank you to Mr Duncan and Mr Kirkland who came in to play the pipes and drums with the children. We were also entertained during the assembly by Toby and Harry, Murray and Fraser and Kelsey and Caragh dancing, Karis singing, Rosie playing her guitar and Han playing his violin.

We are once more collecting the Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers which opened in Sainsbury’s stores yesterday. Over the last couple of years we have managed to get some lovely additional resources for school from this scheme, some cooking and baking resources and games and toys for the playground. If you are shopping in Sainsbury’s over the next few months and receive any of these vouchers, please send them into school.

As part of our 1 +2 work where everyone in school is learning French we are introducing a ‘Word of the Week’ which is displayed in classrooms and around school to try and encourage everyone in school to learn it and use it! This week’s word of the week is

‘s’il vous plaît’

which means please. It would be great if you can encourage your child to try and use it at home too. We will let you know each week what our ‘Word of the Week is!

We are currently following a programme in assembly called ‘Building Resilience’ that has been devised by staff in schools in the City of Edinburgh to help build resilience in children. Last term we introduced this theme by looking at what resilience means and linking it to our ongoing work on Growth Mindsets.  The topics with this programme all centre around a character called Skipper, who is navigating his boat along the river of life. This week we introduced the first topic called ‘Keeping Connected’. Each topic lasts a few weeks and comes with a parent’s leaflet and suggested activities you might like to do at home – see below for more details. We will focus on this theme in school over the next few weeks. We will send out information on each new theme within this programme as we move onto it in school.

Parent and Carer Guide

In general, people with caring and positive relationships are happier, healthier and live longer. Close relationships with family and friends provide love, meaning, support, and an increase in our feelings of self-worth and our sense of belonging. Having caring and positive relationships is one of the most important factors of our ability to cope with life’s ups and downs.

During this unit, the children will be thinking about people who are special to them. They can be people we see regularly or not very often, young or old, family, friends or anyone we come into contact with in our school or our community.

Skipper helps the children to learn how to be   more resilient.  In this unit Skipper gets his boat   stuck in the reeds at night and can’t see a way   out without some help from his Back Up Team.    Skipper explains that we need to work at   building up a strong Back Up Team of people   who we trust to be there for us through the ups   and downs.

In this unit, we will be learning that:

• Relationships are important for our health and wellbeing
• Belonging to a group can be a good way to build friendships.
• Good relationships are a two way thing.

Talk it Over:

Share with your child the people who are in your Back Up Team.

Family Task:

Who is in your Back Up Team?  Create a Team Sheet of the important people in your life. What makes them special to you?

You can add drawings/photographs of each person.

Key Book: ‘The Snail and the Whale’ by Julia Donaldson

We will be holding our Scots Assembly in school on Friday morning (27.01.17) and we are all looking forward to being entertained by the winners from each class reciting their Scots Verse. In addition, we have a number of children demonstrating their skills and talents in highland dancing, drumming, violin and singing throughout the programme. Parents of children performing in this assembly are very welcome to come and join us for this assembly in the main hall which will start at 9.00 am. We will let you know as soon as we can if your child is involved once the children have all had a chance to perform their poems in class. The children might like to wear something Scottish or tartan (kilt, skirt, shirt,  hat, scarf etc.) or a Scotland strip to school on Friday.

Mrs Callander is leaving Currie Primary School at the February break, as she is moving to live in Jersey due to her husband’s job being relocated there. Mrs Callander has worked at Curriehill Primary then Currie Primary for the last 14 years. Although we are all very excited for Mrs Callander with this  move and the new opportunities it will bring her, we will all miss her as she is very valuable member of staff. We wish her well. Mrs Callander’s last day will be Friday 10 February 2017.

Merry Christmas from everyone in school. We hope everyone has a relaxing time over the holidays and enjoys spending time at home with family and friends. We wish everyone a very happy New Year too, when it comes!

We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday 10 January 2017 at 8.45 am.

Everyone seems to have had a good time at the parties this week in school with lots of games and dancing. It’s always a busy few days but so worth it as the parties are so enjoyable. These are just a few of the hundreds of photos we have taken this week!