Prestonfield Press
Prestonfield Press
Prestonfield School Newsletter www.prestonfieldprimary.wordpress.comEdition December 2015
1
Our School Motto:
To go further than we thought,
To run faster than we hoped,
To reach higher than we dreamed,
To become the people we wish to be.
Right of the Month:
Every child has the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical, social and mental needs. Governments must help families who cannot afford this.
Article 27
United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child
Contents:
Welcome
New School Website
Moneywise Prestonfield
Thank You
Community Partners
House News
Priestfield Christmas
Card Competition
Wider Achievement
The Lion Award
Learners of the Month
Stars of the Week
Friends of Prestonfield News
Diary Dates
Welcome
A very warm welcome to our December 2015 Newsletter, the last newsletter of the year. A special thank you to the P1 and P2 children, the Choir and the staff for the wonderful production of The Sleepy Shepherd and to the Nursery children and staff for their super performance of Baby Jesus Story which the children wrote themselves! The Sleepy Shepherd also went on a successful tour to the East Neighbourhood Project and the Choir has been extremely busy carol singing at Park View Care Home for the Elderly and Cameron Park Nursing Home (together with the Woodwind Group), at the Community Lights Switch On and at Cameron Toll in support of Bethany Christian Trusts Caring Christmas Trees-thank you to Sainsburys for providing the children in the choir hot chocolate afterwards! It was lovely to see so many of you join us at some of these events. It was also great to see so many of you join us for the Learning Together Afternoon in November and for the Remembrance Sunday Service at Prestonfield War Memorial where Amber and Marison laid a wreath on behalf of the School. It was lovely to see parents and carers in school recently for their childrens Class Assemblies in P3, P6 and P7. We had a lovely Christmas Assembly last week where we were joined by Jared Hay, Minister for Priestfield Church.
We now look forward to a very busy last few days of term which will include the Christmas Talent Show, the pantomime Cinderella at the Brunton Theatre, Christmas parties and Christmas Carols in the Centre Garden.
We do hope that you can join us on Tuesday, 22nd December at 10.45 for our Christmas Carols in the Centre Garden. This is such a lovely event where we join together as a whole school community to thank everyone for their contributions in making our school such a special one. Please note that school will then close at 12.00 for the Christmas holidays.
New School Website
As promised, we have a new school website. We are working hard to update this as quickly as possible, so please bear with us in the meantime. You can access the new site at www.prestonfieldprimary.wordpress.com.
School Credit Union
Congratulations to Sarah Al-
Dubai who came up with the
winning name for our school
credit union Moneywise Prestonfield which will be launched during Money Week in February.
Congratulations also to Lewis Dailly, Abbie Kelly, Fajr Sarwar and Vada Wilkinson, who spontaneously came up with the snappy savers crocodile emblem together!
Thank You
A very special thank you to all the children and families who supported Evans Legs, the sponsored walk/scoot organised by the Friends of Prestonfield around Arthurs Seat, which raised over 500 for playground improvements. Evan and friends chose to spend this money on some fantastic new playground equipment which included a giant 4 in a row game, giant feet and mini stilts, giant footballs, ribbons and pom-poms, hula hoops, foam Frisbees and jumbo chalks. The children thought that Santa had already come to Prestonfield when the items were on display at the Christmas Assembly last week! Thank you very much for your generosity in support of The Scottish Poppy Appeal 2015 which raised a super 117.96. Thank you also so much for your continuing support of Rag Bag Textile Recycling which has brought in 134.80.
A big thank you to all our volunteers who give so much to the school in so many different ways whether through listening to children read individually or accompanying class trips. If you are interested in volunteering in school, please get in touch with the School Office, as wed love to hear from you.
Community Partners
Thank you so much to Mr Kenny Ferguson and Mrs Lorraine Dann, Priestfield Church who run our school Library for us twice a week, ensuring that children have regular access to a wide range of books, to foster that love of reading as early as possible. Thank you so much to Scottish Widows and CMS Cameron McKenna who have been supporting a group of P6 and P7 children with paired reading every week. Scottish Business in the Community has run a great enterprise workshop for P6 and P7 and P7s will be visiting CMS Cameron McKennas in January to learn about the different job roles at CMS and how each of these jobs uses literacy and/or numeracy skills. Thank you also to Rachel Bliss from the Dogs Trust who has been supporting a group of children in P5 with numeracy. P5-P7 children are enjoying learning French led by Edinburgh Universitys Modern Foreign Language Students. We are also very grateful to Howdens Joinery Co. who have donated 500 to school funds and to TSB at Cameron Toll who have given us 150. These wonderful donations will go towards our Expressive Arts Week in April. Nairns are very kindly sponsoring our Scots Poetry Competition again in January. All our community partners enrich our curriculum so much, giving the children greater opportunities to develop those skills for learning, life and work.
House News
A very big thank you to Mrs Pirrie (mother of Ava in P4) who has designed these stunning house emblems above using the childrens ideas and incorporating their house mottos. The originals will be framed and put on display in the school foyer for all to admire!
House Captains and Vice Captains have been working hard to encourage children to collect as many house points each week as possible with great success. Every house has won the weekly extra playtime at least once since we started back and Hume were overall winners for Term 1 and Paolozzi for Term 2.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us for our Rubbish Morning Out in November where the children were organised into houses and went on a litter pick together in the local community. Children have enjoyed working in their houses to make the beautiful banners on display in the Hall depicting different carols. Houses will go head to head in the first House Christmas Quiz to be held next week!
Priestfield Churchs Christmas Card Competition
Congratulations to all the children for taking part in Priestfield Churchs Christmas Card Competition. As in previous years, the entries were of a very high standard and were extremely difficult to choose between. However, special congratulations go to Katrina Mitchell P5 for the winning design and to the runners up Emily Lister Nursery, Selin Ergin P2, Riley Valette P3, Julia Morawska P4 and Aqsa Hayat P6. All these designs are displayed in the foyer at Waterstones Bookshop in Cameron Toll.
Personal and Wider Achievement
Many congratulations to the following children who have been developing their skills and talents in so many different ways: Poppy Welsh P1 for winning a trophy for second place in the Disco Dancing Competition at the Tower in Birmingham; Riley Lyall P2 for achieving his Learn to Swim Level 1; Nancy Corrie P2 for joining 127th Edinburgh Rainbows Unit and achieving her White Belt with Red Stripe in Judo; Mia McLelland P2 for joining 127th Edinburgh Rainbows Unit and for achieving her Red 2 in Junior Tennis; Rosie Stein P2 for achieving her White Belt with Yellow Stripe in Judo; Tineyi Matenga P2 for joining Braid Beaver Scouts; Louise Joyce P3 for representing Meadowbank Gymnastics Club and winning two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze Medal; Mahib Shahzad P3 for achieving his Learn to Swim Level 1; Prionta Anisa Ashek P4/3 for an intricate piece of art work depicting a tiger and Sam Robertson P4/3 for winning a Medal from Power League Soccer for being a great helper; Bethan Baillie and Samara Oliver P4 for achieving their Red with White Stripe Belts in Judo; Maisie Stein P4 for achieving her full Red Belt in Judo P4; Kris Fleming P4 for winning a Gold and Bronze Medal in Swimming; Brianna Ross P4 for achieving her Yellow and White Belt in Karate: Hannah Reid P5 for representing the Brownies in the Junior Gang Show; Sarah Al-Dubai P7 for participating in the Mega Final of the Chess Tournament at the WHEC and for getting her poem Cupcakes published in the Young Writers Pet Poetry Bundles of Fun; Lewis Robertson P7 for being awarded two Boxing trophies; Elle Mitchell and Aimee King P7 for joining the Girl Guides Association and Mae Hamilton P7 for winning first place in Kata.
Please look at our Reach for the Stars folder in the School Foyer and the display showing all the childrens achievements.
The Lion Award
Congratulations to Kiara Chwedoruk P7 for showing exceptional consideration towards one of our new pupils who has English as an additional language.
Novembers Learners of the Month
Congratulations to the following children who were chosen as learners of the month for November.
