Dear Parents/Carers,
I would like to start this newsletter by saying a big ‘THANK YOU’ to those parents who have been supporting our Building Our Skills at Stoneyhill (BOSS) clubs on a Friday morning. Your help in these has been very much appreciated by staff and pupils alike.
CHILD-LED PARENTS’/CARERS’ MEETINGS
In a change to previous practice, we will be holding child-led parents’/carers’ meetings between 5 and 8pm on Tuesday 27th March. This means that you have to bring your child with you and they will guide you through the work they have been doing and talk about the progress that they have made. Families, have been allocated a 25 minute slot in their child/ren’s classroom. Class teachers will be there to facilitate this event however they will not be able to talk about individuals as there will be more than one family in a class at a time.
EASTER HOLIDAYS
School closes on Friday 30th March, at the normal finishing time. The school will resume for all pupils, including nursery, on Tuesday 17th April 2011, at the normal time.
Pupils from P2 to P7 will be visiting St Andrew’s High Church for an end of term Easter service at around 10.00 on the morning of Friday 30th March. We need parent helpers for this so please let us know if you would be able to accompany us.
HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK
We are in the process of putting together our Health Awareness Week, which runs from Monday the 19th of March and finishes with Sports Relief Day. This year the Running Club and Global Citizens Group are putting together a fun Sports Relief day, more to follow on that. Back by popular demand, we have S-Cool Golf for the whole school so we’ll be looking out for Scotland’s Rory McIlroy! Other sporting events include Brazilian Soccer skills, Football and Hockey, all taken by some of our quietly talented parents. Thank you in advance to Mr McArthur, Mr Kerr and Mr & Mrs Wright. Mrs Nastaszczuk’s son, Andrew, who is studying sports coaching will take some basketball training and we are waiting to hear from a coach for Cheerleading, which is always popular. Remember children should have their PE kit in school all week.
We are taking the children on the journey of food and the importance of the different food types. Starting with P2 visiting a farm to understand where our food comes from. All classes will have the opportunity to bake and cook throughout the week and the upper school will then work with some QMU students to discover what happens to food once we have eaten it and the energy it produces.
Teachers have again offered to run morning aerobics sessions from 8.25-8.50. These are open to children and parents.
If you are reading this and would like to share your skills in another sport or you have experience of any other aspect of Health - be it nutrition, mental health awareness or medicine - please contact Mrs Shiells or Mrs Webster as we are always looking for as many ways to improve your children’s Health Awareness.
THE OLYMPICS COME TO STONEYHILL!!
To get our Health Awareness week off to a sporty start, we are going to hold an Olympic Day during week beginning March 12th. All children from P1-P7 will be coached in an Olympic Sport. There is a small charge of £1 per child for this event and children will also have the opportunity to get sponsors prior to Olympic Day to raise money for the school. Sponsor sheets and more details will come home with your child/children shortly.
OUTSIDE LEARNING PROJECT - UPDATE
Building a Sustainable Greenhouse.
A big “thank you” to all who have helped with Stage 1 of this community project. We have collected a 1000 bottles and now only have 500 to go. Please continue to collect the 2 litre poly bottles and send them to the nursery.
The children have worked hard at learning to use scissors to prepare the bottles for stacking into towers. There has been much discussion amongst the children as to how tall they can make the towers without them falling over!
Some nursery children have presented this project to other classes within the school to encourage them to help us to collect the bottles and this has been very effective.
A group of nursery children designed a poster to advertise our project at Tesco, Musselburgh. Tesco then donated a box for storing the bottles, as well as setting up a collecting point in the foyer of their store in January. They very kindly delivered the bottles they had collected to the nursery.
As we move into Stage 2 of the project we do require more adult skills and are hoping that our school community could again help with this. We need someone with joinery skills who would be able to help us build a frame for the greenhouse. However, if you don’t have woodwork skills but would still like to help us with more general moving of the materials, digging, etc. we would also welcome your help. Once we have our volunteers in place we can set a date to coordinate everything. Please don’t be shy and get in touch with a member of staff.
The children are looking forward to using the greenhouse that they have been working on for a few months. It is fast approaching the gardeners’ growing season and we would love to be able to use and propagate seeds in a sustainable greenhouse.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Mrs Banks
ILLNESS
We would like to make parents aware that following bouts of sickness or diarrhoea children should not return to school until 48 hours after they have recovered and the sickness or diarrhoea has stopped. Sending children back any earlier than this puts the rest of the school community at risk and can mean that children become re-infected. We really would appreciate your cooperation with this.
PFG
School discos will be held on the evening of Thursday 15th March. The P1-3 disco will be from 6pm- 7.15pm and the P4-7 disco will be from 7.30pm-9pm. Entry will be £1 which is payable on the door (no tickets will be getting sold before the discos).
We also have a date for the Summer Fayre. This year it will be on the 16th June, 10am-12 noon. Please keep that date in your diary as we would love to see you there. We will be looking for helpers nearer the time.
Also a quick reminder that some members of the PFG meet informally in the GP room from 12 noon on the first Friday of every month for a coffee and a blether before they collect their children. Please feel free to join them for a chat, you don’t have to be in the PFG to go along! The next catch up will be on March 2nd.
If you have any questions or would like to contact someone regarding the PFG please contact Dianne on .
NUTS
As we have a number of pupils in school with nut allergies, snacks or foodstuffs containing nuts are not allowed in school. It would be most helpful if parents could be aware of this when choosing items for their child/ren’s packed lunches. Please note that this also applies to food packaging sent in for junk e.g. no Crunchy Nut Cornflake packets.
SCOTTISH POETRY COMPETITIONS
Congratulations to all pupils who were successful in learning a Scottish poem or song this year and a special mention for George and Jake who displayed excellence in singing. Four successful pupils, P6-7 Murryn and Jamie, P4-5, Ramsay and Josh will be competing at the Regional Primary Schools’ Verse Competition at Tynecastle High School on Saturday 3rd March. We wish them well at this prestigious event, which is attended by pupils from schools across Edinburgh and the Lothians. Good luck all!
LIBRARY BOOKS
Your child has the opportunity to visit the school library every week to borrow a book. They have this book for two weeks and then they must return them so that they may take out a new one.We ask them to take responsibility for the book, as they will need to be replaced or paid for if lost or damaged.
EAST LOTHIAN SWIMMING GALA
On Friday 10th February, Stoneyhill Primary took part in the East Lothian Primary Schools Swimming Final at Prestonpans Swimming Pool.
We were represented by:
· Becca, Sarah, Sammy and Aimee in the P7 and under relay team.
· Abbie, Emma, Rachel and Regan in the P6 and under relay team
· Grant - who came 3rd in the P7 boys breast stroke
· Emma – who came 2nd in the P6 girls breast stroke
· Rachael – in the P6 girls freestyle
The children had previously qualified from heats held in Musselburgh. They were all a credit to the school and showed great sportsmanship by cheering on our own and other competitors.
Well done everyone!
HEALTH PROMOTION GROUP
A wee reminder to parents/carers of all P1 children that fruit is provided at break times on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It has been noticed that children are choosing not to take a piece of fruit, preferring instead to have crisps, biscuits or chocolate. This means that, not only are parents buying snack when they really don’t need to, but a lot of the fruit is going to waste. The Scottish Government provides the funding for this fruit, which is healthy and nutritious, and as a Health Promoting School we would urge you to encourage your child to take advantage of it.
Thank you
Health Promotion Group.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
· Thursday 1st March: World Book Day
· Friday 2nd: P2/3 Assembly. Parents of this class are welcome to attend. 9.00 am start.
· Friday 2nd: Parents/Carers’ coffee morning – GP room.
· Wednesday 7th: Primary 4 to attend a Badminton Festival at Musselburgh Sports Centre.
· Friday 9th: P5 Assembly. Parents of this class are welcome to attend. 9.00 am start.
· Wednesday 14th: Primary 7 will be going to Edinburgh to visit the Risk Factory.
· Thursday 15th: PFG disco
· Friday 16th: P3/4 Assembly. Parents of this class are welcome to attend. 9.00 am start.
· Monday 19th: Start of Health Week.
· Thursday 22nd March: Primary 4 to visit Pinkie for a Rugby Festival.
· Friday 23rd: Special Assembly
· Tuesday 27th: Child-led Parents/Carers’ Meeting
· Friday 30th: P2 – P7 to visit St Andrew’s High Kirk.
· Tuesday 17th April: Start of new term
· Friday 20th: P6 Assembly. Parents of this class are welcome to attend. 9.00 am start.
· Tuesday 24th April: P6, P6/7 and P7 will be visiting the Brunton Theatre to view a film called ‘Oceans’.
· Thursday 26th: Primary 5 will be off to Broomlee Outdoor Centre.
AROUND THE CLASSES
The Nursery children have come back from the February holiday with lots of enthusiasm! This term, we are learning about fairy tales and castles. We will be reading and exploring a range of traditional fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast. The children will be retelling the stories using a choice of learning styles, for example, they may choose to build Sleeping Beauty’s castle in the construction area, retell the story using small world figures, participate in role play or make their own Sleeping Beauty story through drawing and writing/scribing. It is great to see the children transferring their learning to all areas of the Nursery. Throughout the topic, we will also be learning about life in a medieval castle and using books, video clips and pictures to find out more. The children will be building their own model castles with construction materials and junk. Thank you for all the donations of junk. Unfortunately we are unable to accept any boxes which may have held items containing nuts, medicines, bleach, meat items, milk bottles or washing powder.
This term we will also be learning about 2D shape by participating in a range of games and activities throughout the playroom. The morning children are continuing to develop their ICT skills with the laptops, while the afternoon children will be exploring the class PC. In addition, the children will also have the opportunity to explore digital cameras and Flipcams. Towards the end of term, we will be turning our attention to the Easter story and will be learning about Easter traditions.
The morning class are continuing to have PE on Tuesday mornings with Mrs Jones. The afternoon class have PE on Fridays. When the children don’t have PE, they participate in outdoor play sessions. Thank you for ensuring that your child has appropriate clothing, including wellies, hats and gloves. The children are becoming more confident at dressing themselves and taking responsibility for their own clothing. Thank you for encouraging independence. The children in the afternoon session are enjoying their Skills for Life clubs on a Friday. Thank you for continuing to donate 2 litre bottles for our greenhouse. We still have many to collect before we can start building!
P1a are looking forward to learning more about their new IDEA ‘Farm to Fork’. Through this topic the children will be learning about foods that are grown on a farm. We will be finding out the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and making foods using farm produce. Our role play area is being converted to a farm shop and the children will be learning to use money to price and purchase goods. If you have any resources to support this topic please encourage your child to bring them in. When visiting the shops you may wish to encourage your child to pay.
Reading skills will continue to be taught on Monday and Thursday. Please continue to practise sounds and common words at home. If you require further ideas to encourage your child at home please ask. In writing, we are learning to write instructions and recipes.
We are continuing to focus on subtraction in Numeracy. The children are working hard to learn their number bond facts. We are also learning more about the seasons and linking key events such as birthdays and Christmas to months of the year.