Stenton Primary School
Autumn 2016
“Anything is possible. All it takes is an opportunity.”
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As we all prepare for our October break, we hope you manage to enjoy some of the Autumn sunshine before the dark nights set in.
Last half-term seemed to speed by, not least because of the wide variety of learning experiences in which we participated. We enjoyed visiting Ruchlaw Mains Farm to harvest apples a couple of weeks ago . We are storing these apples to make apple pie for our Harvest Festival Celebration! Our P7s enjoyed a hugely successful week at their residential outdoor environmental experience at Abernethy Barcaple - facing new challenges and making new friends. We were visited by the SSPCA who talked to the children about food and farming and have been working with Zero Waste Dunbar to learn more about sustainability and how to conduct fair experiments .
Congratulations to Serena Amos and Alexander Thomson who successfully applied to become our new Junior Road Safety Officers. They have completed their action plan and will be holding their first information event with the other children soon.
Forest Schools
Beginning Thursday 3rd November until 24th November our P1-3 class will be venturing into our local woods to develop their knowledge and understanding within this fantastic learning environment. Led by Fiona Wilson-Beales, who is a qualified Forest Schools instructor, the pupils will take part in a wide variety of active and cooperative activities. Primary 4-7 will also benefit from this wonderful experience later in the academic year. Further details of this will follow- but please put these dates into your diary for now.
Sharing in our Learning Journey –Harvest Festival
We continue to hold our Open Mornings for everyone to share in their child’s learning journey the last Friday of every month. Friday 28th October will be our Community Walk and Harvest Festival Celebration-the Pupil Council have organised this event-details of which are in your child’s school bag. Thank you in advance for your kind contributions for local food banks at our Harvest Festival Celebration .The pupils would like to continue helping this charity throughout the year.
We do hope that you will be able to join us for all or part of the morning. All parents and family members are welcome.
Mathletics
Once again we will be using the ‘Mathletics’ website. As shown by the children at the last open morning Mathletics is an inspiring and engaging online platform for improving and reinforcing maths skills. Tasks are set by the teacher which link to maths being taught in school. They are designed to encourage independent learning as children are given instant feedback and are encouraged to revisit and improve on their scores. This will continue to build on our pupils’ confidence in mental maths strategies and the quick recall of important number facts. The website has an in-built reward system and is very easy to use.
Zero Waste Project
As part of our Making and Growing topic we have been working in partnership with Zero Waster Dunbar to investigate further ways that we can protect our environment by reducing waste. Susan Carleton, the project education officer, has been working with the children to further their understanding of sustainability and how we can all reduce, re use and recycle.
Groups
Our Pupil Council, Eco-Group, Global Citizenship and JRSO groups have met in order to put together their action plans for this session. Lots of creative ideas came from this, such as organising a community walk as well as continuing to support our local community through the Foodbank scheme. If you would like to see the full action plans please visit our website at http://www.edubuzz.org/stenton
Topics
Primary 1-7 will be learning about People, Past Events and Societies through their family’s history-they will be comparing aspects of people’s daily lives in the past with their own through imaginative play, historical evidence and experience of recreating historical settings.
The second topic this term will be learning about Buddhism through Beliefs, Values and issues and Practices and traditions.
All learning and teaching will be differentiated and age appropriate. Details outlining each topic for study will follow.
Staff Professional Development
As you may or may not be aware, our staff take part in regular professional development courses and workshops aimed at enhancing our practice and improving the learning expereinces for our pupils. Here is a flavour of some of the areas we have been exploring in recent months:ICT Connected Learning, Movement Support programme, Wellbeing, Maths and Numeracy workshops, Autism-inclusive practice. If you would like to hear about any of these in more detail please do not hesitate to ask.
We have a Twitter account (@StentonPrimary) which we will use to keep you updated on school events and to communicate any short messages and reminders. We hope that you will find it a useful tool.
Mile Run
Continuing with our healthy school ethos we are suspending our Shake to Wake and returning to our ‘Mile Run’ –back by popular demand by the children! We will all jog/run around the playground for ten minutes on two mornings of the week. Each child will run at their own pace, collecting and adding a counter to our ‘Mile Bucket’ for every lap they complete – collectively ten laps equate to one mile. We started last year at Stenton to run around Scotland’s coastline and we begin next term at Fort William—how far will we get this term?. We will begin after the October Break at 8.50 am on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning (weather permitting) please join us if you wish.
Blythswood Shoebox Appeal 2016
The pupils would like to take part in this fantastic appeal again this year. The closing date for handing in shoeboxes is Friday 4th November. If you would like to take part in this appeal then please see the leaflet in your child’s school bag. If you would like to see a video showing where the shoeboxes are delivered to and the impact they have please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cRC1BXne1w Thank you all so much for your continued support- for a small school we produce a shoebox mountain!
Thank you for your co-operation and support with the following:
· Dropping off and picking up of children on time.
· Any changes for pick up or bus arrangements - please notify school.
· Checking post bags daily.
· Clearly naming all items of clothing.
· Providing your child with rainproof jackets, hats, gloves and appropriate footwear as the colder weather arrives - we try to get the children outside as much as possible, whatever the weather!
· We have an amazing attendance record- thank you.
We look forward to seeing you at one or all of our events over the next couple of months.
Thank you for your continued support.
Veronica Brunton
On behalf of all staff and pupils at Stenton Primary School
(See reverse for diary dates)
DATES FOR YOUR DIARYDate / Time / Event
October
Mon 24th / Staff In Service Day
Tues 25th / 8.50am / Pupils resume
1.15-2.15pm / P4-7 Rugby
Wed 26th / 8.50am-12.130pm / P4-7 Paddleboards, Musselburgh Lagoons
Thurs 27th / 11.45am / Tempest Photography – Individual School Photographs
If you would like your child to have their photo taken with their younger sibling, please bring them to school for 11.45am.
Fri 28th / 9.15-11am
11-11.30am / Pupil Council Community Walk in Pressmennan Woods & apple pie back at school.
Harvest Festival celebration - Reverend Scott
Mon 31st / 9am-12.30pm / P1 Enrolments
November
Tues 1st / 9am-12.30pm / P1 Enrolments11.15am-12.30pm / P1-7, Pitch & Pulse music workshop – Trumpet & Tuba
Thurs 3rd / 10.30am-12.15pm / P1-3 Forest Schools*
Fri 4th / 8.50am / Blythswood appeal Christmas Shoeboxes due in to school
Tues 8th / 9am / Flu vaccinations
Thurs 10th / 10.30am-12.15pm / P1-3 Forest Schools
Fri 11th / 9.15-10.15am / P1-3 Football skills taster through Active Schools
Mon 14th / 11.30am-4pm / P7 visit to the Risk Factory, Edinburgh (Packed Lunch required)*
7.30pm / Parent Council meeting in school – all welcome
Thurs 17th / 10.30am-12.15pm / P1-3 Forest Schools
Fri 18th / 9.15-10.15am / P1-3 Football skills
Thurs 24th / 10.30am-12.15pm / P1-3 Forest Schools
Fri 25th / 9.15-10.15am / P1-3 Football skills
11am / Reverend Scott Assembly
12-12.30pm / Sharing our Learning Journey Open Morning*
December
Fri 2nd / 9.15-10.15am / P1-3 Football skills
Thurs 15th / 12.30pm / School Christmas Lunch*
Tues 20th / 2pm / School Nativity at Church*
Wed 21st / 1.30pm / School Christmas Party in the village hall*
Thurs 22nd / 9am-12.30pm / School trip to the Brunton Theatre to see “Aladdin”
3pm/3.20pm / All break for Christmas holidays
* Details to follow
We all resume on Monday 9th January 2017 at 8.50am.