25^th February 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

Following interviews this week Miss Amanda-Jane Thomson has been appointed as DHT on secondment to Dunbar Primary School until June 2021.

Miss Thomson has been working at Law Primary School as a Principal Teacher with responsibility for Early Years and has been developing a play-based curriculum to support learning from Nursery to Primary 2.

She will be line managing Primary 2 and working with pupils across the campus as part of our support programme in RWInc, writing and numeracy.

Miss Thomson will start with us on Monday 1^st March and you will see her out and about at drop off and pick up, and she will make contact with Primary 2 parents later next week.

Mrs Wight and the two members of the nurturing team will be focusing on supporting any pupils needing help settling back into school and working with groups who need some additional support in a specific curricular area.

Mrs Wheatley is supporting Primary 1 and is providing support for the SLT every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I will continue to line manage Primary 3 alongside Mrs King until the end of term.

We have planned our transition programmes for Nursery to P1 and P3 to P4 but it will all be based on the actions the Scottish Government takes as we move forward next term as to what activities will be on-line and those that can take place at John Muir or Lochend Campuses. We will review this regularly to reflect changes and will send details after the Easter holiday.

If you need to contact someone at school regarding your child this is who to contact;

P1 Mrs Wheatley

P2 Miss Thomson

P3 Mrs Gillanders

Yours sincerely

Helen Gillanders

Headteacher

Although it was extremely cold and wet,  Primary 3 had a fantastic time practising their skills at the football  festival on Monday.

We enjoyed an afternoon of poems, songs and dancing as well as a break for shortbread.   Megan  McD’s favourite part was the Grand March because she  was first with Leah.   Lewis F liked singing the Jeelie piece song best.   Well done to those selected to recite  poems.   Everyone had a fantastic time.

This knife see rustic labour deight.

On the afternoon of February 8th all the P6 pupils in the school and their guests enjoyed haggis neeps and tatties, irn bru and shortbread as well as great entertainment.   The haggis was piped in  and addressed, the laddies spoke about the lassies , the lassies spoke about the laddies and ,of course ,  there was an Immortal memory.  The children sang  ‘White Cockade’,  ‘The diel’s awa’, ‘Bonie wee thing’, ‘My love she’s but a lassie yet’ and there were recitations of  ‘Tarbolton lassies’,  ‘To a mouse’, ‘Address to a haggis’ to name a few.  They also entertained  everyone with some dancing too.  They danced the Gay Gordons, The Virginia reel and the Flying Scotsman.  It was a great afternoon with enterprising learning ,  a real experience  with all the organisation having been done by the pupils in P6M who all had different jobs,

We made coiled clay snake pots. Aren’t they sssssssspectacular!

 At the beginning of term P6/7 made their own maths games. We played the games with them and gave them constructive feedback.

We thought P6/7 had worked very hard and their games were great!

Here are some of the things that have been happening in Cockenzie since the October holidays. 

Primary ones have been looking at the weather and both classes had fun finding out about  the wind.  P 1T designed and made wind socks and P1L had great fun trying out their kites on the grass in front of the school.  They also made candle holders and Christmas plates to  raise money for the school at the Christmas Fair on the 29th November.

P2 have been finding out how to keep safe in different situations and have had visits from the police and the fire brigade.   They also had a visit from two people from the coastguard service who came and talked about their job and how they help people at sea.  They don’t normally visit schools but one of the  officers has a niece in the school and came in when he was off duty.  

P3 have been studying Day and Night.  P3D made a display of everything they found out and P3M  looked at the moon at night and then recorded what they saw on a poster.   P3/4 have been finding out about the Romans and had a visit from a Roman centurion to their class.   P4 have been designing and making safety gates in their Dangersville topic.  

 Before the October holiday P4/5 were working on an eco theme and began a model made out of recycled materials.   He is now finished and standing in the hall for all to see,  2 metres tall and made of milk cartons, plastic bottles and newspapers contained in chicken wire.  His name is Mr Globby.   They also had a visit from the Eco lab showing interesting creepy crawlies.

P5/6

The two P 6 classes studied the second world war and held a Festival of Learning and  Remembrance .  They organised themselves in groups and decided what they wanted to research.  They pulled it altogether on the 14th of November for an invited audience of family members, the British Legion  and a representative from Poppy Scotland.  Mr Glover minister of the Chalmers’ church  gave the blessing at the end. They also sold poppies in the school and raised £225.92.   It was a very informative and moving occasion. 

P7V ran a bookfair for the school which lasted 2 weeks,  they organised  the times for visiting and buying , took  orders, sold books, phoned in the orders and made sure the books balanced.  It was a challenging experience but a real taste of running a bookstore!  The school now has £1415.63 to spend on books.  P7D have been interpreting music and a group of girls shared with the school at assembly the dance they made to Homeless. 

Both classes had a visit from a parent who is in the police.   They are studying  the Victorians   and were delighted with his presentation comparing policing then and now.

Last week we took part in Walk to School initiatives at the nursery. All the children received their Walk to School information leaflet along with “sound detective” stickers. On two mornings we had Walking Buses and everyone was encouraged to join in. We were delighted with the response and everyone enjoyed walking together. Of course, we remembered to be “sound detectives” as we walked. As well as lots of traffic noise we also heard different types of birds and some interesting noises from the building site on route, especially as on both days large lorries were delivering different materials. The children also took part in a survey to find out how they came to school on another day during the week. Through this we are able to promote walking as the health option as well as being good for the environment. Parents did comment that the street outside the nursery was definitely less conjested and how pleasant it was to have less traffic.

P6/7 decided to ask all the classes in school to fill a water bottle with their spare pennies. Each class was given an empty bottle to fill and when the pennies were counted the amazing sum of £200 was raised. This money is going to help children in The Gambia have access to clean water. The children were inspired to do this through their ES topic which was about Africa. They have also been making tie-dyed material which they are going to turn into cushions, selecting their colours very carefully. Well done P6/7.

P6N and 6D pupils at Cockenzie primary organised a fantastic Burns supper for nearly 200 people on Tuesday 29th January. All the P6 pupils in the school took part in the Burns supper including the P6 children from P6/7 and P5/6. They managed to run the Burns supper without it costing too much and make money at the same time. McKirdy’s donated the haggis, the Co-op gave £50 in vouchers which bought the juice and shortbread and to help the day go with a swing the children made sashes, badges, corsages and held a Wear Tartan Day on Rabbie’s birthday. The haggis was piped in by Struan , one of the P6 pupils learning to play the chanter and Robbie gave the address to the haggis. The assembled parents and grandparents enjoyed the afternoon’s entertainment of songs and dancing, poetry readings, recorder playing, piano recitals and speeches which were all introduced by by Jordan, the master of ceremonies.
Miss Nisbet and Miss Daly were extremely proud of the children in their classes who all worked hard so hard to make the occasion a great success with their excellent organisation.