CORSTORPHINE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Corstorphine High Street
Edinburgh
EH12 7SY
0131-3343865
Head Teacher – Mrs J Ross, B.Ed.
News Update 8th October 2015
Dear Parents / Carers
Please find below some information on recent school news.
The October holidays seem to have arrived incredibly quickly and we can hardly believe that this first term finishes tomorrow. We hope that whatever your family’s plans are you all have a really lovely time.
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Project Play Update
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Plans for Phase 1 of our ‘Project Play’ initiative are now well formed and almost all of the £60,000 monies raised. Please see attached our architect’s plans for Phase 1 in the playground together with a composite of photographs of some of the kinds of things you can expect to see in due course. Although originally the works were due to take place during the October break we have had to delay a little because the Project Play team have had to work in a way that is complementary to the Council’s plans for the new nursery build.
The Phase 1 of Project Play developments are expected now to take place in January with a six week build period. The plans have been presented to the pupils with feedback given to the architects by the Pupil design group led by Miss Nelson and adaptations made. Everyone is generally feeling excited at the prospect of these exciting developments which will transform our pupils’ experience at playtime and lunchtimes.
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New Nursery
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We have been informed by the Council that there have been unavoidable delays in the tendering process for the new nursery build (this has impacted Project Play plans) and the planned August 2016 opening is now in jeopardy. To date we have received no further updates but will keep you posted on developments
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Homework
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Many thanks to the more than 300 parents who took time to respond to our homework survey before the summer holidays. This was a fantastic response and has provided very rich and valuable feedback. The staff will consider this, alongside current research and considered good practice in homework, to revise our policy on the October in-service day. Following this, the new policy will be issued to all parents in draft form with a further opportunity to comment on changes made.
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Harvest Assembly
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Our annual Harvest celebration will be held on Friday the 23rd October after the holidays. We will be inviting you on that day to donate items for the Edinburgh North West food bank. We would be delighted to accept food donations in packet, tin or jar form on the Friday morning. Please do not send in perishable goods.
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Scottish Learning Festival
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We were invited to “man” the Edinburgh stall at the Education village at the Scottish Learning Festival on Thursday 24th September to share information about our work on creativity with professionals across Scotland. Mrs Richardson and Mrs Heatherill, together with pupils Jack Lance, Max Hampson, Mya Wilson and Emma Niven spent the day on the stall, speaking to many interested educationalists, giving away 300 leaflets on our work over the course of the day. The children were marvellous ambassadors for the work of our school and feedback from Head Teacher delegates included remarks such as “talking to your pupils was the highlight of my day. It was fascinating to hear Jack talk about creativity transforming our school since last February”. Well done to all concerned.
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Creative Exchange
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Mrs Richardson and I were invited to address a group of interested professionals at the National Gallery on the Mound one evening last week, once again on the topic of our approach to developing creativity. This was another interesting opportunity to share ideas and develop our networks with other interested professionals.
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Creative HUB
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Our creative Hubs have been an exciting addition to our programme this term and it is time, after the October break to do some initial evaluations of its success. If you would like to provide some feedback on your or your child’s/children’s views please use the slip at the end of this newsletter. One of our intentions after the break is to begin to develop children’s notion of the skills involved in creativity and to begin to tease out success criteria for the process. This will be an interesting stage.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
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P1 Nativity
Wed 9th Dec at 9:30
Thursday 10th Dec at 1:45
Information on how to choose your preferred day will follow.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Jennifer Ross
Head Teacher
Feedback on Creativity Hub:
What worked well?What didn’t work so well?
How can we improve the experience?
Other feedback?
Name of Child/Children
Class(s)