Week beginning St ‘s R.C. Primary 22 March 2010 School Newsletter Please note that this newsletter can be found on the website www.st-ninians.btik.co.uk

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Have you bought your Easter Eggs yet? I was told by a shop assistant just last week that they didn‘t have the kind of egg that I wanted in stock and that they wouldn‘t be getting any more in because already they were getting towards the end of their stock! This was said when there was still over three weeks to Easter! Therefore don‘t be disappointed, if there is a particular kind of egg that you like, whatever you do, get out there for your Easter eggs as soon as possible.

Fundraising during Lent St. Ninian‘s, as with every Roman Catholic school, has an ethos that includes justice and peace throughout the world with a focus on service towards others. In a world where everyone seems to be concerned with their own needs; often with an ‗I‘m alright Jack‘ approach, it is always refreshing and heartening to see the care, love and consideration that the pupils of St. Ninian‘s have for those in our world who need their support.

Lent is a time for growing in love. During this six week period of Lent, we prepare for Easter and the celebration of the risen Christ on Easter Sunday. Lent offers us the opportunity to reflect on how we can live better with others and is a time to ask for forgiveness for all our transgressions. It is time to reflect on our relationship with God and how we talk and pray to Him; and over the centuries Lent has always historically been a time for giving – a time to give to charity. As you know, the children have been asked this year to give their pocket money and raise funds for SCIAF/L‘Arche this Lent.

When we ask for monetary support for any of these ventures, and we try to keep our requests throughout the year to a minimum, we only expect people to give as and when they can afford to give, particularly during this time of recession. Any amount big or small is always appreciated. It is even better when the children give up their own money instead of spending it on sweets or treats for themselves.

A big thank you to all of our children, parents and wider families who have kindly supported the charities this Lent and throughout the year.

Meeting with the Management Team Thank you to the many parents who are kind enough to ask me about my health. As some of you may know, I have a chronic rheumatoid illness which impacts on my mobility. I find it difficult to stand or walk around for long periods of time and often when I go shopping or to an event, I have to use a wheelchair (so if you see me out and about in a wheelchair, please don‘t think that something new has happened). This means however that I am in the playground less and miss out on the social opportunities to meet with parents. Therefore, for a trial period of April, May and June, Mrs. Brack and I would like to offer you the opportunity to come and meet with us informally. If you would like to share your thoughts, ideas or just come in to say hello, we would welcome that. The first meeting offered will be on Thursday, 29th April at 4.30 until 5p.m. If you would like to come along to meet with Mrs. Brack and me, please do come along.

Edinburgh Council – Children and Families - Follow Up to Inspection:

After every school inspection when the inspectors are very happy with the inspection they have just completed, they invite the local authority to do a follow up to their inspection within two years. I hope that everyone managed to read their copy of that follow up which was sent out in early March. You will note that we continue to be a very good school offering ―a very good standard of education for its pupils‖, and that the school has progressed ―well since the inspection‖. This is high praise indeed. This is added to the high praise that the nursery received from the Care Commission when they did their unannounced inspection recently and judged the nursery to be ―very good‖.

It may be of interest to know that many of the newly enrolled children to our school, come here because their parents have researched schools and asked within the community, advising us that they have chosen St. Ninian‘s RC Primary School because of its reputation for being a very good school. Curriculum For Excellence – Curriculum Evening – 31st March 2010

We continue to implement our new Scottish national curriculum called a Curriculum for Excellence. In the past our curriculum has focused very much on knowledge, this new curriculum expands on this work with a focus not only on knowledge but on skills for learning, for work and for life. Please do come along to our Curriculum Evening on Wednesday 31st March from 6–7p.m. when we will share information about Reciprocal Reading and our new writing programme ‗Big Writing‘. I hope that many will be able to come along as both topics are taught to all children in the school. Three Way Conferencing

Thank you to all parents who came along with their children for our three way conferencing recently, it was good to see you. This opportunity truly allows for important dialogue and agreement from the three partners involved in the education of your child; the parent, the teacher and of course your child! The practice that we have developed here at St. Ninian‘s is being recognised as very good practice throughout our City. We have also evaluated this way of working together and the evaluations from parents, staff and children are extremely positive, as we previously shared with you at a Curricular Evening. Please note however, that if there is a need for you to speak to a member of staff without your child being present, please telephone the school office, or come into the office to make a mutually agreeable appointment to see a manager or, as appropriate, the class teacher. Your views are always important to us. Easter Holidays

The Easter holidays will be upon us before we know it. We finish up on Thursday, 1st April at the usual time at the end of the day; this is 3.05p.m. for the pupils in Primary 1 and 2, and 3.20p.m. for the pupils from Primary 3 to Primary 7. We return back for the summer term on Tuesday, 20th April at the usual time of 8.55a.m.

I wish you and your family, the peace and happiness of the Risen Christ over the Easter holidays.

H. Massaro Head Teacher THE OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

For those of you who come into the school playground I am sure you have seen the wonderful job that Mr. Park has done in creating a fence to separate the top section of the meadow from the other area. You may also have noticed that the area has been cleared. All of this has been done in preparation for the creation of our Outdoor Classroom. On your return from the Easter Holidays there should be more happening in this area. The staff are really looking forward to the development of this area as it will open up so many learning opportunities to the pupils. Keep your eyes and ears open!! Angie Brack Acting Depute Head Teacher

NURSERY It‘s nearly the end of another term and life in the nursery is a busy as usual. The children are learning all about Easter and with luck will have a lovely surprise for all parents and carers on Wednesday, 31st March. Thank you to all parents who attended parent‘s evening - it was good to have a chat with you about your child‘s learning. As Spring has arrived it is time for us to start planning for growing in the garden. A few parents and grandparents have already volunteered their services and are planning to tidy up the bottom area of the garden first. Keep an eye on the noticeboard for any further plans and please feel free to volunteer your help - just speak to one of the staff. We are also looking for ground covering plants so if you have any cuttings from home or happen to be in the Garden Centre you could perhaps buy something extra for your child to plant in our garden. We have a special Easter Craft Day on Wednesday, 31st March for parents and children. Plenty of activities for the children, some wonderful Easter baking and a special treat for the adults. Please come along and have a fun day. Remember if mum or dad can‘t make it, grandparents, aunts, uncles or friends are welcome - the children really appreciate it that someone from their family has come along and they are working hard on your treat. PLEASE support them, Nursery closes for Easter on: Thursday 1 April at 11.30a.m. Nursery resumes for Term 3 on: Tuesday 20 April at 12.30 p.m.

Thank you as always for all you support. Margaret Merry and the Nursery Team PRIMARY 1 Hello from Primary 1 Primary 1 had a lovely time on Thursday baking cakes. A very big thank you to everyone who came to join us for snack on Friday to celebrate Down‘s Syndrome Awareness Week. It was lovely to see you all.

We have been enjoying our mapping and weather topic this term. The children came up with some very interesting questions about the weather and we have been trying to find out the answers. We had great fun catching the wind in our plastic bag ―kites‖ the other day. We have drawn lots of maps and plans of real places and imaginary journeys.

We have also been learning to use words for position and direction (over, under, around, left, right, through etc). These words helped us with our big obstacle course in the gym hall.

Before the break we hope to investigate signs of Spring.

Our writing is going well. We have been thinking about WOW words to make our stories exciting.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make our planning meetings a success. All of the children have excellent plans in place for their next steps in learning.

Gym will be on a Monday and Friday from now on. Caroline Howie

PRIMARY 2 Primary 2 have been considering the signs of spring in the natural world. We planted flowers and bulbs in the 2 flowers pots in the playground and are eagerly waiting to see the bulbs beginning to grow. We have been working very hard in maths, learning about numbers up to 100, 3D shapes and even measuring our own height. We are coming to the end of our Space topic and have enjoyed all the art work, music, drama and dance that is linked to this topic. During our ‗Equality‘ week, we were thinking about how we can value our differences and not judge others. Gill Cole-Hamilton

PRIMARY 3 Hi all, We are very busy and excited preparing for our First Reconciliation in Primary 3. This is such a special time for the children, parents, school and Parish. Thanks for all the support that you have given with this, it has been very special. It would be lovely to see all of the children from Primary 3 there on the evening of 25th March at St Ninian‘s Church at 6:00pm. Please come along if you can. Can I put out a plea for shiny sweetie papers for an art project in Primary 3? These are building slowly at the moment and we need lots. Thank you. Thank you for your support with gym by sending gym kit in every day so the children are all organised and able to take part fully. Thanks. Julie Baker and Haiying Luo PRIMARY 4

This term Primary 4 are really excited about our topic ‗Castles‘. We have been creating castles in Art and writing letters to the King and Queen.

To celebrate St. Patrick‘s Day we have been learning Irish, singing Irish songs, learning about Irish instruments and acting out the story of St. Patrick in Drama. We even had a go at Irish dancing!

We are trying our best to remember to bring in our homework everyday and also a pencil, rubber and ruler so we are fully equipped for the days learning.

We are looking forward to celebrating Easter and having a well deserved rest. Elaine Murphy

PRIMARY 4/5

P4/5 really enjoyed their previous topic about Mary Queen of Scots and have learnt a great deal! They have now started their new Science topic of ―Keeping Warm‖. Within this topic the children will estimate temperature by touch, make a simple thermometer and take and read temperature scales. They will monitor their classroom temperature throughout the day and identify differences and reasons for this. The class will look at how heat travels and the importance of insulation when keeping ice or hot drinks. Furthermore, the children will experiment with metal, wood and plastic when identifying effective conductors and insulators and will research some famous inventors such as Anders Celsius. This topic is fun packed with lots of practical activities that the children will enjoy, so lets get started! Jessica Ferguson

PRIMARY 5/6 P5/6 have had another busy term. The class are becoming more confident about talking about personal targets for term 3 and their next steps, well done! We have been learning about the Water Cycle in Science and Land Use for our topic. The class have been working in groups and researching different places in Scotland, looking at conservation in Scotland and comparing Edinburgh and St Andrews. They have an increased knowledge of Scotland and they have been able to talk about their own experiences in Scotland. The P6s continue to learn French and the P5s Italian. We have had taster Cricket sessions that have been enjoyed by everyone. The class are continuing with ‗Big Writing‘ and are working well on their writing and becoming more independent about checking written work. We are looking forward to Easter activities next week and more Spring sunshine! Enjoy your holidays, Mrs Gunstone and P5/6 PRIMARY 6 This month Primary 6 have been busy looking at air resistance and how this works in the world. They have been making parachutes and will start work on their own wind tunnels to see the effects of air resistance on objects. Primary 6 have also been looking at the from the beginning of land formation to the merging of the Picts and Scots on to the story of Macbeth. In the coming weeks the whole of Primary 6 will be looking at the Human Reproduction course and then working on Keeping Myself Safe, learning about ways to look for danger when they are out and about. Two excellent courses to throw up questions and debate within the class. Martin McCann

PRIMARY 7 Hello from Primary 7 It‘s hard to believe that our time at Camp has come and gone – it was a wonderful experience for everyone concerned. I hope your child has been telling you about all the great activities we were involved in – especially the skiing. This was a fantastic opportunity and personally I have never seen so much REAL snow! Our thanks go out to all the staff at Lagganlia who made our trip such a memorable, successful and safe one. I hope you enjoyed viewing the photographs whilst in school for our recent meetings. Our next adventures will be to the Risk Factory which is a great learning opportunity for the class and also to the where we are going to have the opportunity to question our local MSP! I am sure the class will have no problem posing some tricky questions. I look forward to seeing you all again at the end of next Term but in the meantime I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Easter – enjoy the holiday and let‘s hope that the sun shines! Warm Regards from Mrs Laidlaw and Primary 7

GLOW Glow is the world‘s first national intranet for education. It is a national learning and teaching initiative funded by the that will transform the way education is delivered in Scotland. As you may be aware Glow is currently being rolled out across Edinburgh‘s schools. A few of our classes have logged on and are beginning to use this resource. We are very excited about this and are looking forward to the new learning opportunities that it will provide. If you would like to find out more information is available on www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland

ST. NINIAN‘S SCHOOL COMMUNITY COUNCIL Many thanks to all the parents who volunteered to help out at the Christmas Fayre—it was a great success. If any parents would like to join a fundraising sub-group of the Parent Council please contact me via the school office. Please note that we are postponing our planned Car Boot Sale on Saturday, 27th March due to the low number of cars booking a pitch. We hope to offer this again in the future. Kirsty Corr, Chairperson, The Parent Council LENTEN FUNDRAISER Thank you so much to everyone who took part in the sponsored Hokey Cokey and walk and also to the P7‘s who took part in a Sponsored Silence. So far we have raised £1,011.30 but I know we are still waiting for some money to come in. Please could you send any money in to school this week.

If you didn‘t manage to take part don‗t worry you can still support this worthwhile cause and send in a donation. Thank you. Margaret Merry

MILK MONEY Milk money of £3.00 to cover the period 24/02/10-01/04/10 is now overdue. If you haven‘t already paid please send the money to the class teacher as soon as possible. The next date milk money is due is 20/04/10 to cover the period 20/04/10-28/05/10.

SAINSBURY‘S ACTIVE KIDS ‗10 Once again, we are taking part in Sainsbury‘s Active Kids this year. This represents an excellent opportunity for us to acquire lots of extra equipment and experiences that we may not usually be able to provide. The vouchers will be available in store until 8th June—please save as many vouchers as you can and send them into the school office. Thanks for your support.

TESCO FOR SCHOOLS AND CLUBS 2010 Tesco have re-launched their Schools and Clubs vouchers scheme. The vouchers will be available in store until Sunday, 9th May—please save as many vouchers as you can and send them into the school office. Once again, thank you for your support.

IS YOUR CHILD ENTITLED TO FREE MEALS? If you think that your child may be entitled to free meals please contact the school office for an application form. Even if your child doesn‘t want to have school lunches, please apply if he or she is entitled because free meal entitlement influences staffing and resources for the school.

ST. CHRISTOPHER‘S CHURCH—NEARLY NEW SHOP St. Christopher‘s Church on Craigentinny Road run a Nearly New Shop once a month on a Saturday morning. They sell good quality clothing for £1.00. Phone 529 4980 for any enquiries.

LETTER FROM MR. DEMARCO AND FAMILY The following letter from Mr. Demarco and family appeared in the recent edition of The Speaker. Dear Editor We would like to thank the staff, pupils and parents at St. Ninian‘s school and all Margaret‘s friends who donated towards Margaret‘s Memorial Bench. It is greatly appreciated. P. Demarco and Family