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

Parent/ Teacher Consultations

Good to see so many of you in and around school. We hope you found the time useful and

informative.

School Photographs

This went well and you should all have the proofs and order forms at home by now.

Deadline for return of orders will be Wednesday 30th October.

Nuts and Allergies

There are pupils in Gullane Primary who suffer from a range of allergies. Some of these

allergies are managed relatively easily and there are those allergies that require more

vigilance.

We now have pupils in school with allergies to a range of nuts. A nut allergy can be

severe and sudden. Children with nut allergies are particularly sensitive to peanut butter. We are

also aware that many health ‘bars’ contains nuts. I am not asking that Gullane becomes a totally nut

free zone at present as this would be impossible to police but I would ask that you are careful

about packed lunch contents. It will also be important to emphasise that sharing snack is not a

good idea as many snacks contain nuts and we are not always aware of them. I appreciate your

understanding in this matter.

P1 Enrolment

This will take place on Wednesday 6 November. Times will be 0900-0930, 1130-1200 and 1500-

1530. East Lothian Council have provided an information leaflet which you should receive today.

What we require on enrolment day is a birth certificate, a recent utility bill (dated within 6

months), and your most recent council tax assessment letter (if you do not have this you must

obtain a copy of this from East Lothian Council). This is essential.

Sporting Success

Our hockey team played in the ELPSSA Hockey Tournament Meadowmill Sports

centre on the 8th October 2013. The team came home with a lovely trophy for

our cabinet! The team won praise for their sportsmanship and team play. Thank

you to Mrs Wilson, Mrs Walker and Mrs Chapman for accompanying and

supporting the team.

P6 ‘Desserters!’

The children in P6 were invited to create a dessert for the Golf Hotel menu. The

children sent their entries into Holyrood Partnership which is the PR company for

the Golf Hotel. The class were invited to watch the six finalists battle it out!

Which pudding tasted the best? Which one would win over the taste buds of the

judges? The six finalists were Mason Kerr, Shay Heaphy, Mia Lonie, Jasmine Hiles, Emma Chapman

and Freya Walker. The puddings looked and tasted super – Miss Smith and I had a sneaky taste

once the judging was over! In the end, after much deliberation Emma Chapman’s Chocolate Brioche

Pudding came first! Her dessert will appear on the menu for a month. All of the children received a

prize and Emma will be able to host a meal for six at the Golf and not have to foot the bill. Well

done all who entered.

Thank you to all the PTA and Parents!

The PTA handed a sum of £6000.00 to school at the end of the summer term. It was agreed that

this would pay for a high quality sound and vision system for the hall. This system will be used by

all staff for many things. We were so excited to see that it was installed and working by the time

we came back after the October break! We will ‘show it off’ to you all as soon as we can!

The PTA would also like to say a huge thank you to all of those who attended the Quiz Night in the

Golf. Also to those who gifted raffle prizes and auction items.

Mr Ben Walker was a star! He designed the quiz, hosted the evening and was an excellent

auctioneer- just FAB Mr Walker, just FAB! Thank you. The PTA crew worked extremely hard all

night and did a great job .

The Golf offered the PTA their facilities at no charge which was extremely kind of them.

The quiz and auction raised approximately £2500.00- wow! Well done all.

Gullane Sports Development Trust There is a letter in our community section from Mike Mackie, Chairperson for the above trust. This group

are working for the positive wellbeing of families and children in the Gullane area. They have already raised a

superb sum of money but there is much work to be done to realise their goals. Once completed the trust

have said the primary school will be able to use as often as we would wish throughout the school week. The

group have approached our own PTA committee and asked for some financial support. The PTA has already

sponsored a square of the new pitch. The group have asked that we gift the trust a portion of our funds

from last session and this coming session. In principal, the PTA and I feel that this would be a positive act

for all concerned but we realise that we have not consulted all parents on this matter. I work on the

assumption that the PTA represents the parent body and that you would all support this. The sum agreed is

£1500.00. The gift from the PTA emphasises the cross community support that Gullane is great at and which

serves to underline that we can make a huge contribution to our children's development both sporting and

educationally. This donation will not affect other commitments already earmarked. I felt that it was important that you

should be informed of this and please do speak to myself or any member of the PTA if you would like to

discuss this confidentially.

PTA Information

Monster Mash 31st October 5.30-7.00pm in the school hall

Children only but parents welcome to stay. £2 per ticket. Snacks, drinks and Halloween goodies for sale

Ticket order forms were sent home the week beginning 7th October.

Christmas Hamper Raffle

Sign-up sheet for donations were available at the parent consultations and more information in school bags

soon. Raffle tickets will be sent home from mid- November.

Christmas Calendar

Order forms will be sent home in November and calendars will also be sold at the school office and at the

Christmas concerts

Christmas Disco 19th December 7-8.30pm in School hall

£2 per ticket. Order forms will be sent home at the beginning of December

Thanks for your continued support! The PTA

Harvest Festival

The food bank was extremely grateful for the generous range of food gifts donated

by our families here in Gullane Primary. P4 children presented a super assembly –

lots of great songs and super narrators. My thanks to Mr McEwan, Mrs MacIver

and Mrs Cowie.

Adopt a School Charity Dinner Tuesday 29th October 2013

We have sold most of the tickets for this event. It is a super evening and

Albert Roux hosts and funds this. All the proceeds go to the charity

nominated by the P7 pupils. No ticket? £20 each (includes wine + 3 course

meal) and we have 18 tickets left. Hurry now!

Crossing Guide

We have a new crossing guide – well done to you all for that little bit of pressure!

Our new guide, Mr Gillies, has contacted me this week. In the interest of safe

travel, he would like all children and parents to wait on the pavement until he signals

for them to cross. There are sometimes parked vehicles or poor visibility and he

wishes to ensure that all cross safely and without injury. Thank you.

Coats and Kit

I appreciate that it has been mild but I would insist that all children bring (and wear) a coat to

school. Lots of cold little ones.

We are very, very short of spare gym shoes for emergencies. Do you have any your child has

outgrown?

Please remember that all of the children must have a PE kit in school at all times. This includes gym

shoes. Thank you.

Keeping Parents/Carers Informed – School Website Updates

We are currently updating our 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.

Achievements of all kinds outside school

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 also happy to accept the text for the information via email.

We also appreciate feedback on the work we do. Please feel free to email or write to school.

Well done!

Well done to… Congratulations to Lucy Lucas and Itske Hooftman (P6) who have successfully been selected

for the Basketball Scotland Future Starz Programme.

This programme will give them the opportunity to train and play with some of the best players and coaches

around the country and to trial for the Scotland National Development Squad. Well done girls!

And a well done to… Amber Waldman P1. Amber took a decision to fundraise for the Royal Hospital for Sick

Children. She held a bake sale in her garden and sold some of her books to raise a superb total of £62.50.

She received a lovely letter and a certificate from the Sick Kids Friends Foundation. They said she was a

‘kind hearted little girl’. Indeed she is!

Kind regards

M. R. Tremmel

24th October 2013

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.

Dear Parents/Carers in Gullane Village I am sure most of you reading this will be aware of either Gullane Athletic FC, the local football club aimed at

providing football to boys and girls from P1 onwards with currently 50 kids attending across 6 age groups or

Gullane Hockey Club (60 kids) or indeed the recently formed Gullane Cricket Club (45 kids ) that aims to provide

cricket to local kids. If you are involved or your children are involved in these clubs I certainly hope you are also

aware of the recently established Gullane Sports Development Trust which has been established to provide a multi-

use artificial sports pitch in Gullane along with a modest sized clubhouse. Although I have mentioned the above

clubs the proposed new facilities will be available for all in the community, particularly the primary school and

other local community groups.

We, the Trustees wanted to update you the parents of our progress thus far. We also wanted to thank the school for

their support, in particular Mrs Tremmel and Mrs Barclay the PE coordinator for the school as well as the PTA who

have kindly sponsored one of the pitch squares (see website for details of how to join them). The Trust has from the

outset sought to establish the proposed facility as close to the school boundary as possible to allow ease of access

for pupils and teaching staff during school time.

To date the Trust has raised in excess of £25,000 through various fundraising initiatives and donations. This is an

extraordinary amount of money and we will shortly be in a position to make our final applications to the major

grant funders who we continue to liaise with as part of the project process.

Our planning application continues to evolve. We had a positive response from the planning officer though we have

been asked to make good a couple of problems/ burdens that the council have at Memorial Park, including the area

of poor drainage next to the play park, an area of ground that the Trust are not looking to have use of, as well as

providing improved maintenance access for the council landscape department, which of course they have not

required until now! We are still in consultation with ELC on these points and we hope to have these rectified with

a compromised solution. Feel free to get in touch with the Trustees if you have any feedback on these points.

Please visit us at www.gullanesportsdevelopmenttrust.org to find out a bit more a bit more about what we are doing.

If you do have any questions or want to be involved please do contact us via our website

Mike Mackie Chairperson Gullane Sports Development Trust

Arts and Crafts Fair Saturday 9th November 2013 from 10am until 1pm in Gullane Village Hall. For more

information contact mandykerr@gmail.com

Hurrah! We are back after our long extended break and have decided on a great programme for the coming months. However, we would first of all like to put out a big request for VOLUNTEERS. Whether you just want to help serve the teas & coffees or get involved in the techie side of things, we would love to hear from you. If you have a 4th or 5th year child remind them that that personal profile will definitely benefit from some volunteering experience. OK, so here goes.. the next few screenings are as follows:

16 November - Monsters University & Quartet (with live music)

17 December - Muppets Christmas Carol (family Christmas show|)

11 January - Despicable Me 2 & Rocky Horror (dress up & sing-a-long)

We look forward to seeing you all in our newly renovated & decorated Village Hall! Little Big Screen@Gullane Village Hall aims to bring a broad selection of wonderful films to our Village Hall, for everyone

to enjoy. Our programme celebrates quality films from the local to the global; home-grown to mainstream. Little Big Screen is

a project of Gullane Community Association, run by volunteers. We usually show two films each month - a family matinee

and an evening show for teens and adultsVisit www.facebook.com/littlebigscreen.gullane - to find out about films. Entry is

free but donations are welcome which help to improve our Village HallGuarantee your seat-get tickets from Cool's Sweet

Shop, Stanley Rd, Gullane - tel 01620 845047Would you like to help out? We'd love to have you on board - just drop us an

email or call Veronica on 07919975097

Gullane Playgroup Christmas Fayre and Coffee Morning

Saturday 30 November - 10am – Noon

This year the Christmas Market will be on 30 November, nice and early so you can hopefully grab a few Christmas presents from the craft stalls. Enjoy songs from the Playgroup Children, visit Father Christmas, maybe win the Christmas hamper in the prize draw and take home some delicious home baking. There will be lots of activities for children, so please come along, have a cup of tea and some Christmas fun. Christmas Craft Fare

Saturday 9th November 2013 10-2pm at the Corn Exchange Haddington. Entrance £1 and children free. Please see posters

around school for further information.

October 2013

28/10/13 P1 through to P4. Giraffes Can’t Dance – in school (drama/music session)

29/10/13 P7 Charity Dinner with Albert Roux. £20 per head – great evening! Tickets on sale

now. There are only 18 tickets left so be quick!

30/10/13 P7 and P2 to Dynamic Earth

31/10/13 P3 and P3/4 Museum Visit – all day.

31/10/13 Monster Mash! PTA Halloween Event- in school hall.

November 2013

Early November Poppies on sale

4/11/13 P1 through to P4. Dance – in school (drama/music session)

13/11/13 Parent Carer Council Meeting 7 pm in Golf Hotel – all welcome

14/11/13 P5 Basketball taster in school

19/11/13 P5 Basketball Festival NBSC am

21/11/13 Saltire Storyteller for P5- in school

27/11/13 P7 Sportshall Athletics Meadowmill am

28/11/13 P7 Ceilidh at NBHS – more details to follow.

29/11/13 Concert Dress Rehearsal from 9.45 am

December 2013

4/12/13 Matinee Performance of concert for P1&2 children only 2pm start

4/12/13 Evening performance of concert – P1-7- 7pm start

5/12/13 Evening Performance of concert – P3-7 only. No P1&2 children. 7pm start

Tickets on sale soon -£3.50 per person. £2 for concessions. 3 per family.

On Thursday 5th and Friday 6th December the children will be allowed to come into school for 10am. All staff

will be in class areas if you have to have them here for the usual time. 10/12/13 Nursery Nativity am – in hall.

13/12/13 Brass Band will visit from NBHS

16/12/13 P3-4 Christmas Party in hall – pm

17/12/13 Church Service 9.45

17/12/13 P1-2 Party in hall pm

18/12/13 Pantomime in school hall ‘Sleeping Beauty’ – cost per child £3. Details of when to

send in money to follow.

18/12/13 P5-7 Christmas Party in school hall pm

19/12/13 Nursery Parties – details to follow.

19/12/13 PTA Christmas Disco – see letter above

20/12/13 School closes for the term at 12.00 for all P1-7 pupils. 11.00 for the nursery class.