Prestonpans Infant School Newsletter June 2014 Sports Day is on Tuesday 17 June at 1pm. Children can wear sports clothes/trainers to school but please also bring school jumpers for when we go to see the Queen’s Baton. The field will be split into 3 areas; P3 area, P2 area and P1 area. The chil- dren will run in groups and will be awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd for each race. There will be 5 races— egg & spoon, sack, obstacle and either bat and ball (P1& 2) or skipping (P3). This year, the flat races will be held on the day for you all to see. The winner of the flat races in each year group will win a medal. There will also be an overall boys’ winner and overall girls’ winner. Medals will be presented at Assembly on Friday. Tea and Coffee is available free for adults (donations welcome). Chil- dren will get an ice pole at the end. When the children have returned to class, you are welcome to come to class and take your own child home early if you wish. P1-3 are going to see the Queen’s Baton for the Commonwealth Games as it passes through Prestonpans. We leave school at 9.45am on Tues- day 17th to walk to High Street. P3s around War Memorial, where they will sing along with Alex Hodgson. P2s opposite the old dentist’s and P1 outside Auldhammer House and Bayne’s. You are welcome to join us and walk with us Then Alex is coming back to school for a wee sing- song. Come and join in. On Friday 20th June at 8.45 all children are invited to bring a dad or granddad or male carer for a ‘Pizza Back Massage’. This year, we ask that P1 children bring their dads straight into the gym hall and P2 and P3 children bring their dads straight into the dining room for a cup of tea and biscuit (Sorry, no bacon rolls this year, the event has become too big for us to cook for!). Once the P1 dads have been massaged, their dads should take them back to class. Then the P2 dads will come to the hall for massage, followed by the P3s. We should finish by 10am.
Transcript
Prestonpans Infant School Newsletter
June 2014
Sports Day is on Tuesday 17 June at 1pm.
Children can wear sports clothes/trainers to school but please also
bring school jumpers for when we go to see the Queen’s Baton. The
field will be split into 3 areas; P3 area, P2 area and P1 area. The chil-
dren will run in groups and will be awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd for each race.
There will be 5 races— egg & spoon, sack, obstacle and either bat and
ball (P1& 2) or skipping (P3). This year, the flat races will be held on
the day for you all to see. The winner of the flat races in each year
group will win a medal. There will also be an overall boys’ winner and
overall girls’ winner. Medals will be presented at Assembly on Friday.
Tea and Coffee is available free for adults (donations welcome). Chil-
dren will get an ice pole at the end. When the children have returned
to class, you are welcome to come to class and take your own child
home early if you wish.
P1-3 are going to see the Queen’s Baton for the Commonwealth Games
as it passes through Prestonpans. We leave school at 9.45am on Tues-
day 17th to walk to High Street. P3s around War Memorial, where
they will sing along with Alex Hodgson. P2s opposite the old dentist’s
and P1 outside Auldhammer House and Bayne’s. You are welcome to join
us and walk with us Then Alex is coming back to school for a wee sing-
song. Come and join in.
On Friday 20th June at 8.45 all children are invited to bring a dad or
granddad or male carer for a ‘Pizza Back Massage’. This year, we ask
that P1 children bring their dads straight into the gym hall and P2 and
P3 children bring their dads straight into the dining room for a cup of
tea and biscuit (Sorry, no bacon rolls this year, the event has become
too big for us to cook for!). Once the P1 dads have been massaged,
their dads should take them back to class. Then the P2 dads will come
to the hall for massage, followed by the P3s. We should finish
by 10am.
What a lot of fun we all had at the School Fair in
May. Thank you to the parents on the Parent
Council fundraising group for their hard work.
Thank you all for coming along. It was great to
see so many, especially our new P1 families. The
event raised £750 for the Parent Council to support the school.
Over this year, a group of S3 students at Preston Lodge, led
by teacher Katherine Balsillie, have been working hard to improve
our school grounds. They have planted a wildlife garden behind
the gym hall and they did this in the pouring rain! They have built
a tepee in the woods. They have created a muddy kitchen in the
woods. They helped us plant a lot of vegetables too. We want to
show you this work and publicly thank the young people of
Preston Lodge. So please come in with your children on
Thursday 26 June at 3.10pm. We will thank the young people
then go and look at their work. The children can play. There
will also be a showing of Project Wild Thing for those who
want to stay. A letter will follow.
We say a huge thank you and farewell to our retiring staff: Mrs
Mowatt (Support for Learning Teacher) Mrs Ellis (Nursery
Teacher) and Janet Franklin (head cleaner). Fiona Sellwood (PE
teacher) is off to the Primary School, Miss Bremner (P2 teacher)
is off to teach at Windygoul, Rachel Savage (Dining Room) is off
to be a Nursery Nurse. Temporary staff in the nursery have
worked so well as part of our nursery team but their contracts
have ended. Thank you Christine Knox, Gillian Burke and Jill Wal-
lace. Victoria Gordon and Emily Macdonald return full time to be
class teachers and Miss Anna is now a Nursery Nurse in nursery.
Mr Wilson is staying on for one more year as P1 teacher. Miss
Louise Silk joins us as P1 teacher.
P3s recently took part in Thread of our
Past to celebrate their own stories as
part of the Diaspora Tapestry. Emma
Montgomery and Megan Burns told
their own stories and the whole P3 year
group sang The Promise, Toun O’
Prestonpans and Auld Lang Syne beautifully, as ever.
On Friday, P3 met their P4 teachers. Mrs Peterson will teach
P3/14, Miss Moss will teach P3/13 and Mrs Scott will teach P3/12.
P3 parent meetings at the Primary are on Wed 18th at 1.45 with a
crèche OR Thurs 19th at 7pm (no crèche). Then P3s will go to the
Primary on 26 & 27 June to spend 2 days in their new school.
P3 will also be going on an outdoor learning adventure led by Mrs
Graham on Tuesday 1 July. Then on Thursday 3 July, they will
have their Special Leavers Assembly. Each P3 child will get 2
tickets for this. Sorry but only P3s parents/carers can attend.
P2s will enjoy their own sports adventures at Meadowmill on Tues
24 June. A great activity session has been organised by Mrs
McBirnie for the year group.
P1/2, P1/3 and P1/4 parents and carers are invited to a ceilidh and
P1/5 and P1/6 parents and carers are invited to come and hear
about the classes’ dinosaur learning on Wed 25 June in the after-
noon. More details to come. (Note that this date may change if Sports Day
is cancelled because of the rain as that is our alternative Sports Day!)
On Thursday 19th June, M & M Theatre Productions will present
Treasure Island to all classes at 1.45pm.
This amazing project will run again starting on Friday 19 Septem-
ber for 8 Friday afternoons. We are looking to recruit 30 new
families to take part. It’s a way to spend time with your family
and other families in structured activity time. You have a meal
with 9 other families, you might even get the money to cook the
meal! You get play time with all your children and special play time
with just one of your children. The children get to go and play in
the gym while you chat about (well I don’t quite know what be-
cause I don’t get to go! Ms L!). At the end of the 8 weeks, you
have a special graduation and a family photo is taken for you to
keep. You can then choose whether to stay involved in FAST-
WORKS or not. If you are interested in taking part, please tell
Ms Laing, Mrs McBirnie or Mrs Kettell or let the office know.
There will be more about this next term.
As part of the 3 Harbours
Festival, P1/5 went to
Prestonpans Library to
make a hairy coo. It was a
great visit and here’s their
coo!
Here are the new nursery times.
8.30—12noon for morning children
12.45—4.15pm for afternoon children
Children will attend nursery every 2nd Friday from 8.30—12 noon.
Children can be dropped off between 8.30 and 9am or 12.45 –1pm
Children can be picked up between 11.45 and 12.
In the afternoon children can be picked up at 2 times:
3—3.10m OR 4-4.15pm
Children MUST BE collected on time.
P1a Mrs Bell/Mrs Shedden and P1b Mr Wilson– main P1 door
P1c Miss Silk and P1d Mrs Macdonald—door by gym hall
P1e Miss Gordon, P1/2 Mr Thomson & P2/1 Mrs Wright—dining
room door
P2b Mrs Mackenzie/Mrs McBirnie, P2c Scott, P3s are all to come
in the current P3 door.
You should all have had a letter telling you that you will be able to
pay for trips, cooking and other expenses online from August.
School meals still have to be paid in cash to school, in an envelope
with your child’s name on the front.
In August, Mrs Susan Calderhead, our Business Support Adminis-
trator, is setting up an email system so that we can email you
newsletters and other information instead of printing hard copies.
This saves money and is better for the environment.
International Mud Day is 29
June. On Monday 30th
June, Tuesday 1 July and
Wed 2 July, Mrs Leitch, our
P1 Nursery Nurse has
planned a special outdoor
learning session in the woods
for all children.
Children will be able to play
in the sandpit, the mudpit,
the muddy kitchen, den-
building and with water play
outside. We will be going
out whatever the weather and children will be dressed up in our waterproofs
and wellies if it’s raining. Each class will go out for one session at some point
over these 3 days.
Once we have organised the timetable, we will let you know when your child is
going outside with Mrs Leitch and other support staff. On that day, your
child should wear old clothes to school instead of school uniform and should
bring a change of clothes in a carrier bag to change into once they have had
lots of outdoor fun. Thank you Mrs Leitch for thinking up such great ideas
for our children to learn outdoors.
A number of P2 children have
had the great experience of
reading to Hugo, the Labradoo-
dle on Tuesday afternoons this
year. It’s developed their con-
fidence and their reading has
come on well as a result of their
great motivation to read to
Hugo. We are grateful to Hugo
and his owner, Angela Thompson
for coming to school on Tues-
days for this reading project.
Our 118 new P1 pupils have had
4 visits to Prestonpans
Infants so far. One more visit
and they will be ready for
school, as you can see from
this photo of P1b Mr Wilson’s
new class with his new
Additional Support Needs
Auxiliary, Mrs Nicky Campbell.
They’re ready to go!
Tues 17.6.14 Queen’s Baton 9.45am
Tues 17.6.14 SPORTS DAY 1pm
Fri 20.6.14 8.45am Father’s Day Massage for dads/male carers
Sat 21.6.14 Prestonpans Gala Day
Mon 23.6.14 Bingo to support Prestonpans Gala—7pm
Thurs 26.6.14 P3s to Prestonpans Primary School all day
P1b, P1d, P1e Meet the Teacher in your class.
Fri 27.6.14 P3s to Prestonpans Primary School all morning
P1a, P1/2, P1c Meet the Teacher in your class.
29/6—2/7 INTERNATIONAL MUD WEEK
Wed 2.7.14 Some teachers/classes will move classroom
Thurs 3.7.14 P3 Assembly for P3 parents/carers 1.30pm
Fri 4.7.14 12 noon SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
Wed 20.8.14 BACK TO SCHOOL 8.45am for P2 and P3
New P1s start at 9am until 11.30am.
We have been teaching Cursive Writing for almost a year now. We’d love to
know what your thoughts are about it. Please take a few moments to jot
down your thoughts. YOU DON’T HAVE TO USE CURSIVE writing to do
this! Then send the slip into school.
How do you think your child has got on with cursive
writing? (Please tick.)
1. Very easy
2. Easy
3. No difference
4. Tricky
5. Very tricky
How has cursive writing changed your child’s writ-
