Newsletter January 2014

Head Teacher: M.R.Tremmel Gullane Primary School

Muirfield Terrace Gullane

EH31 2HL Tel/Fax: 01620 843455

gullane.ps@gullane.elcschool.org.uk http://edubuzz.org/blogs/gullane

Dear Parents/Carers Welcome to a new year in Gullane Primary. You will all be back into whatever swing you have and the festive season will seem a lifetime away. The children took a little time to gain their energy-some exciting holiday tales! – but they all seem to have found their feet now. Illness seems to have plagued some families so I will take this opportunity to mention regular thorough hand washing to minimise the spread of any germs. The school is a busy place and we aim to take up as many opportunities as we can for our young people. The sport calendar is busy with Active Schools and Development Officers offering a good range of activities. P4 continue with their swimming lessons on a Tuesday and these are going well. I must thank the many parents who give up their time to accompany classes and groups when they are out of school. Without these volunteers things would be very difficult indeed – you are much appreciated! The staff are also very grateful that many parents give up their time to work in classes on reading and other various activities – a great support for classes.

You will also note from the diary some classes benefiting from Science workshops and road shows. Mrs Cunningham coordinates these and the funding is provided by the PTA. The children really enjoy these focused sessions.

P7 will be heading off to Ford castle with P7 children from Athelstaneford, Aberlady and Dirleton. This is a great event and the children enjoy meeting up with their peers in preparation for secondary school.

P5/6/7 are very fortunate to be working on a presentation of ‘Burke and Hare’ with a professional theatre company this term. We were offered a

block with this company and the funding is given through the Youth Music Initiative. The company is called ‘Charades Theatre Company’ and they write musicals for

schools to perform. They provide the score, the songs as well as costumes. Staff are expected to familiarise the children with the songs and these songs are worked on by Mrs Roberts our Music Specialist. This work is covered in the children’s expressive arts allocation. The company will visit school a couple of times to provide song and drama support. The whole show is then presented to our parents on the afternoon of Tuesday 11th March. ( approximately 2.30 – tbc)

Community Wardens and County Ranger Service We have been in discussions with both of the above services about various campaigns within the village. The County Ranger Service will be carrying out a clean-up of the Millennium Wood. This will take place on Friday 14th March from

2pm until about 4pm. The County Rangers would really welcome a turn-out of parents and children to assist with this clean. Bring gardening gloves if you have them! The team will be clearing rubbish, cutting back shrubs and generally making the area nicer to be in. Just turn up from 2pm on the 14th March. The Rangers will be delighted to see you. (children must have an adult to supervise them) Following up from that day the community wardens and the county ranger service are working with us to plan an ‘Action Day’. The date for our action will be Thursday 1st May. We will spend the day taking part in environmental activities across our school and community- litter audits, plant/animal awareness and such like. Parents will be asked to come along and support this! Please look out for more details in future newsletters. Parent Carer Council – important information which requires feedback Primary Management Review In my role as chair of your Parent Carer Council I attended the East Lothian Association of Parent Councils (ELAPCM) tonight, and was briefed officially by Mrs T last week. Background Council budgets have reduced year on year over last 6 years or so. To date required savings in Education have been achieved by reducing either head office costs or secondary school efficiencies. Current proposal Principal Teachers (PT) posts in primary schools are to be removed across East Lothian. This directly impacts 47 posts across the authority and, in our case, this is the role that Mrs McGrane fills so capably in Gullane. A PT provides both management support to the Head Teacher and, through their experience and out of class time, are able to develop specialist skills and assist other teachers in curriculum development. Additionally, the PT post provides a development opportunity for teachers wanting to develop their careers and take on more management responsibility.

To provide some balance to the loss of PT as a development opportunity, up to 4 full time roles are being created across the authority for Depute Heads in training, which teachers can apply for. The funding which is being removed is essentially the money that funds the out of class time for our PTs, which across the authority will save around £100k per year. The total primary school annual budget across East Lothian is around £30m. Having been to the East Lothian Association of Parent Council Meeting tonight, there is a great deal of concern from many parent councils. This is not the first time primary schools have felt the impact of cuts directly. It is the first time nominated posts have been deleted form the primary structure in staffing. Many parents are understandably concerned that this will in some way impact the quality of education our extremely hard working and already over worked teachers are able to provide. A number of schools of a similar size to ours, just over the 200 pupil mark, operate the model of only having a Head Teacher and Principal Teacher, this means when we no longer have PTs all management responsibility falls on the Head Teachers. For those who don't realise, our head teachers consistently put in extremely long hours and have massive responsibilities in the school. In this respect we should count ourselves lucky that we have the experience, energy and motivation of Mrs Tremmel. You should also know that funding that would otherwise provide additional management time in Gullane has for some time now had to be used to fund aspects of additional development and classroom support for our teachers, as due to council socio economic indicators we don't qualify for funding that schools in other parts of the authority are receiving. I have been asked to collate feedback and pass into the consultation process, which ends on 1st February, so would welcome any input parents might have. Interestingly there were other options considered, such as sharing heads across bundles of smaller schools which releases a similar amount of funding. This option may well also provide wider development opportunities for a greater number of teachers, as the PT role would be preserved, and potentially some depute headships would emerge. So in short, any concerns or feedback of any sort, I would welcome as long as I get it in time for me to collate, summarise and submit before 1st Feb Please email or phone me markedwardlucas@hotmail.com Mobile 07801498553 Scottish Assembly This will be on the 6th February and the children have been asked to prepare an item as class work. Staff will be asked to select two or three items for our assembly. Please look out for this piece of homework! You are very welcome to attend the assembly. It is usually a fun event and there is plenty of variety. Website It can be found at www.edubuzz.org/gullane. Please note that you can now do the following:

Subscribe for email updates for any new posts on the Main Site (Enter your email address on the right of the website).Subscribe to the School Google Calendar with your Gmail Account. This should sync diary dates to your phone, tablet or computer.

Parent/Teacher Consultations Week beginning 24th March Staff will send out information and timings for their consultations later this term. Over the past couple of sessions we have tried to adapt how we meet with you and each class teacher will work a similar programme of appointments but not always on the Tuesday and Thursday of that week. So far, these small changes have been well received. Money

Please put any monies in an envelope clearly marked with your child’s name and class + purpose. The class teachers do not handle money and if money is not clearly marked the office staff have a fair old job keeping track of things. Thank you in anticipation.

Labels on Belongings! I cannot stress enough how important it is to name your child’s belongings. No need for name labels if you haven’t time to source – just write with a pen on the label and then they can be returned to their rightful owner when left lying around. Far too many items lay unclaimed for weeks on end. Some are never claimed. (I say this every year- more than once)

Crossing Guide Children and parents are mostly remembering to wait on the pavement until the crossing guide signals for them to cross. There are sometimes parked vehicles or poor visibility and we wish to ensure that all cross safely and without injury. Thank you. We are still hearing reports that drivers are speeding through Gullane. Some are our own parents! Be aware and report cases to police to follow up.

Kind regards Maureen R. Tremmel Head Teacher 23rd January 2014 Please remember to let us know if your child has done something out of school no matter how small or large – we love to

know and we put up a card in school and mention the child and the achievement in our newsletters. We are happy to accept the text for the information via email.

We also value your opinions and comments- please let me know what your thoughts are – email/call or letters are all fine.

Well done to ... Sam Jones in P2 who received a badge from the Scottish Orienteering Association for completing his first 5 orienteering courses. He also came 3rd out of 23 participants in his first race of the New Year. Super news and well done Sam.

And well done to… Daniel Key in P6. Daniel entered a photography competition set by Miller Homes. The children were asked to take two photographs of their local area. The competition was held over various areas in Scotland. They were asked to support their photographs with a 100 word piece of text to say why they took the photo and what it meant to them. Daniel came second overall and received a gift voucher for his work. Well done Daniel! January 2014 24/01/14 Swimming Competition at Prestonpans Swimming Pool – team only 27/01/14 P3&P3/4 Expressive Arts Session in school 29/01/14 Compass Swimming Gala pm Team only 30/01/14 P4 Drama session in school. February 2014 3/02/14 P3&P3/4 Expressive Arts Session in school 4/02/14 P7 Enterprise Day – Cluster event at NBHS-details to follow 5/02/14 Parent Carer Council in Gullane Primary 7pm all welcome 6/02/14 P6 Rugby Taster in school 6/02/14. Scottish Assembly 9.15 in school hall. 6/02/14 PTA Disco in school hall. Information soon 7/02/14 Swimming Finals – Team Only

7/02/13 School finishes for the half term at usual times 17/02/14 Staff In Service Day 18/02/14 School resumes for staff and pupils 18/02/14 Swimming resumes for P4 19/02/14 P4 Athletics Festival pm Meadowmill-more information soon 20/02/14 P6 Rugby Taster in school 24/02/14 Science Road Show for P1&2 – in school 25/02/14 P5/6/7 Charades Theatre Music Workshop day 26/02/14 Community Wardens in school – various talks to classes 27/02/14 P6 Rugby Taster in school March 2013 03/03/14 Rotary Quiz with Cluster Pupils in GPS. P7 only 04/03/14 P7 Basketball Tournament at Meadowmill am 6/03/14 P3 Football taster in school 6/03/14 P6 Rugby Taster in school 11/03/14 P5/6/7 Performance of Burke and Hare in school pm – parents welcome 12/03/14 P7 outing to Museum of Flight – more information to follow 13/03/14 P3 Football Taster in school 13/03/14 P6 Rugby Festival at NBHS 20/03/14 P3 Football Taster in school

Week beginning Monday 24th March 2014 – Parent/Teacher Consultations will be arranged by

staff.

27/03/14 P3 Football Taster in school 28/03/14 P7 & P1 class Photographs 28/03/14 Orienteering – P5/6/7 – to be confirmed. 31/03/14 P7 camp at Ford Castle 31/03/14 Cross Country for P6 – to be confirmed 31/03/14 P3 &P3/4 Expressive Arts Session in Hall. April 2014 03/04/14 PTA Disco in school – more information to follow 04/04/14 P7 Return from Ford Castle

School breaks for Easter Holiday on Friday 4th April at the usual times. School resumes for pupils on Tuesday 22nd April

Community News and Information

Instead of many flyers going home and adding to a paper mountain we put all such events in this section. If you are organising an event please write what you would like as information and we will endeavour to include in this section for you. We do not take any responsibility nor do we screen the quality of any the community projects and events advertised.

Kids Clothes and Toys Nearly New Sale Saturday 1 February 10am - Noon Gullane Village Hall As the festive season is now over, why not have a clear out of your clutter? Gullane Playgroup is organising a nearly new sale for kids clothes and toys. If you have any good quality clothing and toys that you would like to donate to our fundraising event, please drop them into Gullane Playgroup in bags marked "Nearly New Sale" by Thursday 30 January. Tables are also available for £15 to sell your own clothes and toys. Please contact Katy Hill on 07795341653 or e-mail katyhill4@gmail.com So come along and grab a bargain! Tea, coffee and biscuits will also be available. Thank you for your help. Gullane Playgroup Taekwon do class Monday 4.30-5.30 in Gullane Primary. Please see David if you wish to join. ‘Hair O’ The Dug’ - Simpson Special Care Babies Special Fund Raiser Saturday 1st March 2014 at 7.30pm in Gullane Village Hall. BYOB £10 per ticket. Auction. See posters around village for further information. Tickets from Cools Sweet Shop or call Paul on 07885766448 and Emma on 07946375415 Gullane Tennis Club-Junior Tennis Coaching The new term for Mini Tennis will commence on Saturday 22nd February – Saturday 29 March 2014 (aged from 3 years & upwards). For more information or to download an application form, please visit gullanetennisclub.com or telephone Annette Fox (Head Coach) on 07989 743190