Just to remind you that school will begin again on Thursday 21st August at the usual time of 8.50. Primary 1’s day will end at 12.15pm until 1st September. Please remember to send your children in with lunch money for Thursday 21st August (£1.90). Letters will be sent home regarding prepayment of school lunches up until 9th October.
Preparations are well under way for the start of the new term and we look forward to seeing everybody.
Facing up to the Lockerbie Challenge on PhotoPeach
Lockerbie Manor on PhotoPeach
All slept like logs last night after a full day of canoeing, mountain biking, climbing, abseiling,rifle shooting…. More to come today plus rope work, zip wire and of course the dreaded disco tonight! The weather is better than forecast but we are still a bit muddy and wet at times but there is a good drying room and we are coping. All in good spirits, even the staff and raring to go for another hectic day. Big Happy Birthday to Matthew Neilson-what a way to spend your 9 th birthday!!
Lindy et al
All safe and well. Great location and good food. Some have slept better than others! All off canoeing this morning.
Lindy
Just a last minute message before the end of term. We have a busy week ahead with P1/2 Nativity on Tuesday night, Panto on Wednesday for school and party for Nursery, Service on Thursday and party on Friday.
It has been a good term and seems to have shot past very quickly. There have been many highlights- the new P1 children settled in quickly and each class group seemed to fit together well; we have had 2 very successful HATS Days with Humbie; the P5/6 class has established itself as a school management team- each group has clear and agreed responsibilities and are taking them on board enthusiastically; we reached our Mary’s Meals target; house groups worked together to explore a variety of topics in our Maths Week.
The learning has been lively and active and there is visible (and aural) evidence that the children are engaged in what they are doing. The P1/2 children produced a thoughtful and thought-provoking display at the end of our “I Wonder” topic and were able to describe many of the things that they found wonderful in the world. P3/4 went on a journey round Scotland, stopping for a while at the Tunnocks Teacake factory in Uddingston- and learning about where important places are on the map of our country; P5/6 have been engrossed in World War 2 and have produced some impressive pieces of writing, as well as learning to dance a mean Jitterbug! All of this, of course, is underpinned by the bread and butter of Literacy and Numeracy. Most mornings are spent on these old favourites and we are fortunate enough now to have a Classroom Assistant in each class every morning to support the work going on these areas. We look forward to Rebecca Young joining us in January as our new Classroom Assistant. She will be working initially with the P3/4 class.
As a staff in our professional meeting time, we are exploring ways to continually improve teaching and learning and this term we have been focussing on key expectations at each level of CfE- in plain-speak: what do we expect the average child to know and be able to do at the end of each year? Having agreed on these- and set the bar high- we are now looking at our resources and programmes of work to see that they can deliver.
We are about to bid farewell to Jacky Baillie. Jacky has worked in the school for about 19 years and will be sorely missed. Her role in school is wide and varied- and I suspect that in the coming months there will be many moments when we have to deal with matters which would automatically fallen under her remit. I personally would like to acknowledge her help and support to me in the past 3 years- my transition into the Saltoun and Humbie headship has been greatly eased by Jacky’s efficiency, calmness, ability to look ahead and anticipate and above all her sense of humour- she has laughed at every one of my awful jokes- no mean feat!
And what of 2014- well lots of exciting things to come. The first being the celebration of handing over £6000 to Mary’s Meals. Please join us, if you can, on Wednesday 8th January in the Fletcher Hall. The programme for this is a little hazy yet, but it is certainly an occasion to celebrate. The classes are working together on a theme of “Wheels in Motion” in January. Suggestions for activities for this are very welcome. To round this off there will be a HATS Day with a technology theme on 5th February. All offers of help greatly appreciated. We have some student teachers about next term and so if you see some new faces about the building, please make yourself known.
And… the mid-term break begins on Friday 7th February.
I expect to see many of you in the course of the week, bit if I don’t can I wish you all a very happy Chrstmas time and all the best for 2014.
Lindy Lynn
You will know that we have reached our target. We plan a big splash to formally hand over the money on Wednesday 8th January 2014 in the Fletcher Hall and would like to invite you all to come along. We will give more details nearer the time. For just now we would just like to share these pictures with you.
Mary’s Meals on PhotoPeach
The Great Tapestry of Scotland, to which some of our children contributed with Mrs Daly, is now on view at Cockenzie House from 10am-3pm. It will be there until December 6th and is well worth a view.
21st September 2013
Apologies for the two week gap in the blog- the schedule now that we are back to school is somewhat hectic. However I am sure no one has lost sleep over the lack of an epistle from me!
Some thoughts this week about our HATS Day. Although we generally try to build in some exciting activities in each of these whole-schools days, the main focus is on specific experiences and outcomes from our beloved Curriculum for Excellence. This first one of the year was earmarked for team building and problem solving. We had planned to go Saltoun Big Wood as we thought September would be a fair bet for weather. Well, as you know, September 18th was, and so was September 20th. September 19th- not so much! We had always agreed that we would cancel in the event of strong wind but would carry on regardless if it rained. As this was early in the year for little ones to cope for the whole day, the plan was that they would come back to school at noon, so all along there was the option that we could call it a day if we needed to.
As you know, the day dawned dry- I have a photograph of an amazing sunrise with an unbroken rainbow over my house, taken at seven o’clock. From then on in it was pretty wet!
Beth Leslie and I met Richard English in the woods at eight o’clock to get activities organised and resources in place. By the time the children arrived at 9.30, we were fairly damp. But at least it was not too cold. There is a British optimism about weather probably born of years of disappointment. I can’t count the number of times I have heard people say “it won’t be much” or “it’s getting brighter” when the conditions outside are nearing monsoon proportions. I guess without this spirit, we would be a nation of pasty-faced couch-potatoes who never smelled or tasted barbecued sausage; had our complexions exfoliated by arctic winds or enjoyed the sheer adversity of a picnic at the beach in several layers of clothing.
Back to the Thursday in question. The weather in some ways conspired to help us meet the outcomes we had planned. We certainly had to do some problem-solving to cope with it and had there not been gallons of team-spirit around, it would have been utterly miserable. The children were stars! Not one complained about the conditions or asked to go home. They just got on with what was required with gusto and enthusiasm- one of these words is probably redundant but I am on a literary roll. I would be interested to hear what they said at home about their day- to us they were unfailingly positive. When we made the decision to come back to school at one o’clock, they were happy to do so, but I think they would have just carried on if that had been required. Richard, our Countryside Ranger friend remarked that he hadn’t worried about going out in the weather with Humbie and Saltoun kids because he knew they would come well-equipped and prepared to get on with it. Congratulations to all of you for turning your children out clad for the conditions.
If you would like to see what they did and -more importantly- the spirit in which they did it, look at the photo peach of the day. I had listened to that Enya track while driving to school that morning and it somehow seemed to fit the bill.
Thanks to staff as always for yet another extra mile and to Jill Jeans, whose hat may never be the same.
Have a good week,
Lindy Lynn
What a day to bring to a wild child on PhotoPeach