Dear Parents and Carers s11

Twitter: @DunbarPrimary Website: www.edubuzz.org/dunbarprimary

Dear Parents and Carers Welcome to the last newsletter of 2015 – how did that come around so fast? Our pupils have been working extra hard these past few weeks with all the additional activities we have been cramming into each day; Nativity play practice, enterprise activities, carol singing, dancing and musical instrument practice. We only have one week to go and, if you happen to be visiting, you will hopefully hear the sound of children enjoying their Christmas parties, Christmas lunches, the Panto and maybe even see Santa when he visits our younger pupils!

Charity Christmas Jumper Day On our final day of school on Friday 18th December 2015 we are asking all the pupils from Nursery to Primary 7 to put on their warmest, wackiest and most wonderful festive jumpers to raise money for ‘Text Santa Christmas Jumper Day.’ Over 1000 pupils will be joining millions of people in schools, offices and homes up and down the country as they don their daftest festive knits for the day and donate £1 for one of the charities. The money they raise will help three amazing charities – Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK and Save the Children – give hope to families in difficulty at Christmas. We look forward to seeing everyone in either a jumper they have decorated or a knitted festive number! We have put some ideas of how you can make your own Christmas jumper on the school website.

We are also delighted to be supporting this charity event this year as our very own P3 pupil, Eilish Balharrie will be part of the ITV programme promoting one of the charities - Make –A-Wish. Eilish was nominated by her specialist nurse, Karen Brougham, to make a wish and she is going to Hamleys toy shop in London.

ITV have already been up to film Eilish and Angela in Dunbar talking about Eilish's leukaemia diagnosis, treatment and their fundraising work and her wish trip. On Friday 11th December they will be filming them at Hamleys and then Eilish and her Mum will be appearing live on the This Morning Show with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby sometime on Monday the 14 December. Look out for them on This Morning between 10.30 – 12.30.

Staffing Update Mr MacRury, DHT at John Muir is unfortunately absent from school. He has an operation planned for January and hopes to be back just before or just after the Easter holidays. Due to this we have made the following arrangements: Mrs Gillanders will line manage Primary 3 and should be contacted to discuss individual pupils or for information relating to the P3 stage. Miss Eeles and Mrs Gillanders will manage Primary 4 and Miss Eeles will still have responsibility for Primary 7.

Congratulations to Mrs Whitehead who is expecting her second child sometime after Easter.

We welcome Mrs Mitchell who will be joining the school as an additional Classroom Assistant and will be working in the Primary 3 stage alongside Mrs Ambrozevich-Blair.

There is currently an advert for a playground supervisor at Lochend Campus on MyJobScotland and the East Lothian Council website. If you are interested please contact Mrs Gillanders or Miss Eeles for more details.

More Success at Athletics Event It is an amazing record and I am delighted to report that for the 6th Year running, our team of P6 and P7 athletes once again won the East Lothian final and will go on to represent the school and the county at the East of Scotland Finals at Meadowbank next term! Mrs Lyle has been working the team hard and they fully deserve the success they have had for all of their efforts. Congratulations to: Calum Richards, Niamh Richards, Amy Paul, Evie Welsh, Finlay Thomson, Joshua Bath, Aaron Gregory, Lewis Lancaster, Brandon Dean, Jake Douther, Poppy Fletcher, Lucy De Los Santos, Claudia Wight, Rhys Black, Charlotte Smith, Ellie Miller, Abby McGregor, Taelor Snaith, Angus Williams and Mikey Wimbledon-Hall.

Dunbar Christmas Lights Congratulations to Freya Ross in the Nursery, Isla Tooze in Primary 3 and Olivia Campbell from P7 who were winners in the poster competition organised by the Dunbar Lights Committee and got to switch on the Christmas Lights last Sunday. Children in Need An amazing £945.00 was raised by pupils and staff for Children in Need on Friday 13 th November – thanks for the donations of cakes and homebaking that were swiftly bought and consumed by pupils dressed in some lovely onesies, pj’s and great Superhero outfits.

Movember At Lochend Campus one of our P7 pupils, Ben Farrington, requested if he might take part in Movember to make his own contribution to money being raised to support charities aimed at helping and promoting men’s health. You may have seen some of his super moustaches in the article in the Daily Record. The whole of Lochend Campus decided to support his efforts and on Friday 27th November everyone wore a moustache and made a donation raising £127.50. Ben himself raised over £500.

Lunch Boxes Thank you very much for your support in helping us manage the lunch box waste. The pupils are hopefully bringing home empty lunch boxes and helping with the recycling, but if there is food being left, you are at least getting an opportunity to see what is not being eaten.

Community Wind Power Many thanks to Crystal Rigg, Community Windpower who have once again kindly donated two x 2.5m Christmas Trees, complete with integral fairy lights, they are making our school entrances look very festive.

Donations to School A big ‘thank you’ to Mrs Linda Coulter who through her work at HSBC enabled her to donate £500 to school funds – we will be purchasing some additional Net Books as they are being used heavily for Mathletics as it is proving a popular resource. Another big ‘thank you’ to Mrs Fiona Bower who also made a donation to the school that enabled us to buy bulbs for one of the projects the Eco group is working on.

RNLI Fundraising There will be a fundraising stall at break and lunchtime from Wednesday 9 December for the RNLI (Selling RNLI items from 75p to £1.95). Pupils and staff will also be able to purchase a ticket for 20p to win the chance to ‘Splat Mr MacKenzie’ (funds for this will also go to RNLI).

Shoe Boxes A big thank you once again to everyone who contributed a Christmas shoe box. We collected 46 shoe boxes and these will be going to the Ukraine.

Enterprise Events Coming Up A reminder that Primary 5 are holding their Enterprise Evening on Thursday 10 th December from 6pm – 7pm at Lochend Campus. Tickets are 50p and can still be bought on the night or from the school office. They will be selling the various Christmas craft gifts they have made, plus there will be refreshments and games to enjoy too! The money raised will be split between the Mission Christmas –‘Cash for Kids’ charity and Primary 5 classes to support their learning with new resources. Primary 3 are also planning a Christmas enterprise event for parents on Tuesday 15 th December at 9.30 am at John Muir Campus. Pupils will be selling Christmas crafts and entertaining parents with their singing. Half of the proceeds will be given to Shelter East Lothian, with the other half going to Primary 3 for resources of their choice.

Last Day – Leaving Time The Parent Council and I have agreed that it would make sense for everyone to leave at the same time on the last day of school, rather than have Nursery, P1 and P2 parents and pupils waiting around in the cold for the older brothers and sisters to come out. Therefore all pupils will leave both campuses at 12.00pm on Friday 18 th December.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year when it finally arrives. Enjoy the holidays and I look forward to welcoming the pupils back on Tuesday 5th January 2016.

Mrs Gillanders