SEAFIELD PRIMARY & NURSERY SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER –AUGUST 2016

Dear Parents and Carers

A warm welcome back to Seafield for Session 2016/17 and a special welcome to new families. I must say that this Indian Summer is suiting us all for going back to school, with the children enjoying outdoor play and learning.

If the sun is strong (we can but hope!), the children should have sun cream applied before they come to school / nursery. Sun hats are also a good idea.

A reminder that updated school information can be accessed as follows ~

  • Newsletters – these will continue to come home via school bag mail and are also displayed in Reception for the school community
  • Seafield Primary and Nursery School Website – Log in to stay up to date with what our pupils are learning at
  • Google Search – We are in the process of uploading our school documentation onto our new website but in the meantime, a google search brings up the Seafield 2016/17 Handbook with all the key documents and information you will need
  • Parent Partnership Facebook – this is a popular way of staying up to date through the Head Teacher Newsbites. Parent Partnership Chair, Mrs Kasha Mount and I meet at least fortnightly to add new and upcoming pieces of news.
  • Twitter – Looking for parent/carer volunteers to pick up this task as we made a start to Twitter last session and are keen to develop this further.

Seafield Upgrade – Completion Spring 2017

I’m delighted that Morrisons Construction and The Moray Council have worked so well in partnership to ensure that our brand new areas of the school were ready for the children to come back this week. A big thank you to all concerned, to staff here and of course our patient parents and carers. I have to say that the new upper stages building ‘The Hub’ is just beautiful and our refurbished infant wing too – the size of the classrooms is of great benefit to our pupils in allowing them to learn so actively.

School Office

Next we are going to see work on our hall then the main office corridor – the school office and HT office will shortly be set up in the Library and also a Reception desk in the Reception area. It’s going to be even more important that all visitors to the school adhere to the office opening hours as follows ~

9.00am – 10.00am and 1.30pm – 2.30pm

Please try where possible to send information via your child’s teacher so that we are not over-loading our school office staff as the administrative remit is considerable, thank you. Appointments should be made to see teachers too, as it’s important to set time aside for specific issues at a mutually agreeable time.

School Security

Please use only the front entrance to the school when visiting, this is for the safety of our pupils and so that we can monitor visitors to the building. Shortly, there will be a fully operational new security system so we need to get into the habit of following this procedure. Thank you for your co-operation with this important issue.

Staffing Update 2016/17

I’m delighted to welcome so many new staff onto or Learning and Teaching team. The children were briefed about these new faces at Assembly so I’m sure will be looking out for them as the week and term go on. New staff or staffing changes are as follows ~

  • Miss Milligan – Class Teacher P2
  • Miss Cameron – Class Teacher P6/7
  • Mrs Anderson – Class Teacher P1T(Fridays)
  • Miss Dick – DHT Cover

P2S (Tuesdays)

P1M (Mondays)

  • Mrs Kelly – Support for Learning (Mondays)
  • Mrs Harrison – Support for Learning Upper Stages

DHT Cover P5/6

Class Teacher P3M (Fridays)

Class Teacher P2M (1 day weekly)

  • Mrs Reid – Support for Learning Full Time

Expressive Arts - Visiting Specialist Teachers

We are pleased to be retaining the following specialists as follows –

  • PE – Mr Wormald (Mondays and Thursday afternoons)
  • Art – Mrs Kelman (Wednesdays)
  • Music – Ms Gray (Fridays)

Parent Partnership

We benefited hugely from fund-raising last session so I would urge all parents and carers to do their bit, even if small to help our committee. Look out on the page for meetings, thank you. We really need a parent/carer representative for each Primary and Nursery class in the school in order that the children benefit. This is an important way to gather your views too.

Gathering Views – Survey Monkey

Please go onto our website or the Parent Partnership Facebook page to give your views in our Survey Monkey, designed by a group of school staff. We are always trying to improve the children’s education so your views are important in helping us to do this. Thank you.

School Rules

We are reminding the children about the Golden Rules for class and playground this week. Please help us to maintain high standards of manners and behaviour at Seafield. See our School Handbook (available online) for details of the Good to be Green positive behaviour system and also our Seafield Points.

It is important that we all work together to make our school community a safe and friendly place. Please could all parents and carers send children to school with indoor shoes (plimsoles/gym shoes). This helps keep our school clean and tidy. A reminder that children should not walk on the school boundary walls and please walk bikes or scooters through the school grounds, thank you. Our P7 Playground Pals and new House Captains will help monitor this.

Seafield Uniforms

I must admit that the children looked so smart at our first Assembly on Tuesday in their uniforms. Please bear with us with regard to uniform orders as we are experiencing unusual delays with these. We do have a small bank of nearly new uniform items which can be handy to have as spares, please just ask at the school office or via your child’s class teacher. Thank you.

We will now only be keeping a very small lost property supply, as we need to be neat and tidy to make good use of space. Please name all items and contact school immediately with regard to missing items. P7 messengers are going round daily to keep this in check. At the end of every tem we will be doing a charity shop drop with unclaimed items so please come to check.

School Improvement 2016/17

This document can also be found electronically, however the school priorities are as follows ~

  • GIRFEC – Getting It Right for Every Child (Introducing Child’s Plans, Rights Respecting Schools’ Work)
  • Moray Learning Cycle – Learning and Teaching
  • Raising Attainment
  • National Improvement Framework

I will include progress reports throughout the year by means of newsletters, Parent Partnership Newsbites and also our school website.

Last session was particularly successful for us as a school with staff being asked to showcase good practice in Outdoor Learning (Mrs Mitchell) and Early Stages (Mrs Thornton and Mrs Mustard). Mrs Jones managed to set up our Rainbow Room – small Nurture Room to benefit the whole Area Schools’ Group.

It’s always nice to celebrate success in school. I hope this school session will prove to be an exciting one again for us all with the prospect of the building completion in the Spring. I look forward to seeing lots of you in and around Seafield this term and would remind you that we break up for holidays on Friday 7th October (See Moray Council Website for full list of dates).

Yours Sincerely

Morven Snodgrass

Head Teacher