Summer Term 2008 Newsletter
Staffing
Mrs Murray should be returning next week, all is now well we hear! A huge thanks to Mrs Caldwell who stepped in for us and gave up an offer of more work to stay with us when we needed cover.
May Fair
Another great success thanks to such a great team of parent and staff helpers. We raised £1800!!!! The sponge throwing at the headie raised £60 on the day (a lot of sponges) plus a £100 cheque from Craigiehall Army Base. Now two teams can go ahead in the raft race. (I wish to send a personal thank you to the infant child who carefully squeezed all the water out of her sponges before throwing them)
Mrs Brown sends a personal thank you, supported strongly by us all, to all the former pupils who turned up and helped out.
Finally a thank you to present pupils who took on duties and to everyone who came along.
Pupil Reports
Remember these will be sent out on Thursday 5th June.. Please make use of the feedback form to make comments! I am reading the draft reports at the moment – and you can look forward to happy reading.
Art Prizes
Once again, lots of prizes won and to be collected on Sunday 1st June, 3.30 at the Ferry Fair Winners tent down in Queensferry.
The following Dalmeny pupils have won prizes.
Age Group 5-7 years 1st Prize Morven Hogg
3rd Prize Nicole Sheppard
Age Group 8-10 Highly Commended Ellika Moore
Age Group 11/12 1st Prize Hannah Glynn
High Commended Lewis Burden
Overall Winner for Queensferry Area Morven Hogg
Public Speaking Prizes
Dalmeny Primary School are now the Edinburgh Champions of the ‘Victim Support Public Speaking Competition and we go forward to the National competition on Thursday 22nd June. The finals will be in the presence of her Royal Highness Princess Anne. The subject is ‘Preventing crime in the local community’. Our speakers are: Lewis Burden P7 and Malcolm Stuart P7 with Chloe Innes P6 as technical support. The winning school will receive a cheque for £10,000 on the night.
Rugby Training
Every Thursday lunchtime for the next four weeks for P4s to P7s. Bring gym kit and outdoor trainers in a bag to be taken home on Thursdays.
School Uniform
Mrs Dalland (P1 and P3) has now opened the second hand uniform shop for the school. Using the website she will list what sizes and types of good quality 2nd hand uniform she has in stock and will sell it at around 1/3 price with money going to school funds. Old unwanted items of uniform (cleaned) can now be sent into the school for Mrs Dalland.
New uniform items should be ordered as usual from the school office.
Classes for next session
P1/2 P2/3 P3/4 P5/6 & P6/7
Each class around 22 pupils. This puts the school at about 90% occupancy. We are in the 1/3 of Edinburgh Primary Schools growing in size. All parents of children who might be affected by a spilt age group, will be contacted. i.e. next session’s P2, P3 and P6
Open Evening
On Wednesday 18th June 6 pm to 7.30 there will be a school open evening.
Art will be on display from every class! There will be a continual science workshop run by pupils for parents. There will be scribes ready who will write letters to your dictation (handwritten). A ‘Knex’ engineering competition for Senior Pupils will take place. (We will be inviting local engineers to decide on the challenge which will be kept secret until the day.) We hope to have more events demonstrating the range of activities in the school. All this will take place with the backing of a dance display from the Kids Rock Group who run the Wednesday after school club.
Events & Diary
Monday 19th May Edinburgh Primary Schools Closed
Tuesday 20th May is an Edinburgh Schools’ In Service Day - School Closed for pupils
Monday 26th May New Intake for August… Nursery to P1 Induction begins.
Wednesday 28th May M & M Productions visit Dalmeny ‘Treasure Island’
Thursday 29th May Kinetic Theatre Visit Dalmey.
Thursday 5th June Teddy Bears’ Picnic for next session’s P1s and present P1s and P2s.
Thursday 5th June Pupil Reports out today
Wednesday 11th June Olympic Sports Afternoon for P1s to P7s ends 3.15
Friday 13th June Nursery Sports day.
Wednesday 18th June School Open Evening 6 to 7.30
Tuesday 24th June All classes meet their new teachers.
Wednesday 25th June last pm Nursery Group
Thursday 26th June Sports Prizes and P1 and P2 prizes am. All P1, P2 and sports winners parents invited.
Thursday 26th June ‘Rose Day’ Prizegiving in Dalmeny Church 1.30 pm Parents of Leavers & Prizewinners invited.
Friday 27th June School closes 12 noon.
Monday 18th August In-Service Day for Teachers
Tuesday 19th August In-Service Day for Teachers
Earthship News
We are planning to try to build Scotland’s Largest Earthship (A building made entirely from Recycled or sustainable natural materials) within the school grounds.
Our next step is to canvas your opinion as parents and that of the local community.
Following that, we will approach council for various permissions and then seek funding.
We hope that you will support this endeavour by thinking of uses the wider school community can make of a building around 50m by 20m.
To this end we have attached a simple questionnaire. If you fill this in (one per family) and return it to the school it will be entered into a prize draw on Friday 20th June. (6 bottles of wine)
Website improvement
Two of our parents, Ms Penpraze and Mrs Hobbs have begun development of the school website helped by Mrs Wallace (Business Manager) and myself.
HELP x 2
The office phone is forever ringing and our administrator is snowed under. Please try to ring before 10 am or after 2 pm. In an emergency ring the school’s emergency numbers:
07796 607405 mornings or 07833 555709 afternoons.
We will ask P1s and P2s to go to the toilet before leaving the school at 2.45. We need to cut down on the number of times children are pressing the door buzzer to regain entry to the school between 2.45 and 3.15. The office is overwhelmed.