Weekly Round-up 15 (02.12.2022)

It’s December and in Abbeyhill it is already beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! The corridors are ringing out with the songs of the nativity and the decorations are beginning to appear all over the school.

Lots of excitement and some great teamwork!

So many of our children had such a wonderful time at the Hibs and Hearts derby last week. I am so glad that so many of our families were able to support the event.

The Who Cares team were in school working with Primary 6 and Primary 7 on Thursday – please ask you child what they learned about care experience during these sessions.

Drop-in sessions for children and opportunities for our wider school community to engage with the team will be offered as we move into January.

You can find out more about Who Care? Scotland at https://www.whocaresscotland.org

P6 sending Kieran their feedback via airmail after their Who Cares? Scotland input.

Our P2s to P4s showcased their Chinese dancing this morning at our Strictly Daily Mile, what a fantastic performance. The rest of the school had a taster session while sharing the learning.

We are looking forward to next week when our busy schedule of Christmas events really springs into action.

For this week’s update I include:

• Christmas Activities
• Booking School Christmas Lunch
• Christmas Jumper Swap
• School Photos
• Pupil Leadership at Abbeyhill
• Proposed Industrial Action on 8th December.
• Free Pantomime
• Parent Council Calender
• Homework at Abbeyhill
• Active Schools Club

Christmas Activities

Christmas Calendar of events is attached. Please continue to read e-mails sent by staff with the finer details.

Booking School Christmas lunch

Please ensure you book the Christmas lunch by the 7^th of December and that you select both main course and the pudding option.

Christmas Jumper Swap

If you have an old Christmas jumper or sweatshirt that your child has outgrown, please send these into school on Monday. Our House Captains and Vice Captains will be setting up a lost property and Christmas jumper stall on Tuesday at the end of the day in the playground (if wet it will be in the covered walkway)

School Photos

Our family and individual photos were taken on Tuesday. The proofs have been sent home. Please check your child’s school bag if you have not been given this yet. All ordering is done through Tempest- please see the details on the sheet.

Pupil Leadership in Abbeyhill

Congratulations to the newly appointed P7 House Captains and P6 Vice Captains.

Abbey: Captain – Komal, Vice-Captain – Suri.

Waverly: Captain – Ibrahim, Vice-Captain – Konan.

Holyrood: Captain – Rosa, Vice-Captain – Ella.

Regent: Captain – Kai, Vice-Captain – Georgia.

Abbeyhill Ambassadors for this session will be announced at assembly next week.

Proposed Industrial Action on 8^th December.

The proposed action by the SSTA and NASUWT unions on the 8^{th of} December will NOT affect our school or Nursery. Abbeyhill Primary School will be fully open.

Free Pantomime

Ms Wynn sent out information on a Free Panto- Beaty and the Beast- at Ocean Terminal on Friday 9^th December at 3pm. Please check the flier and book following the link if you are interested.

Parent Council Calendar

Our Abbeyhill Calendar is now ready to order. Please use the link below.

Huge thanks to the Parent council and Mrs Flowers for preparing this for us.

abbeyhill-parent-council.sumupstore.com

Homework at Abbeyhill

Please take 5 minutes to share your views on homework by following the link below.

I apologise for the delay in this policy being finalised, but other priorities have taken precedence. Thank you to the volunteers for the parent homework discussion group. If anyone else would like to join us, please let me know by Wednesday this week.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=af6sSGo3tUKfacnke7-5xBne8qIOZvBHjXo1Q9mnSGdUMVdSVkE5U1Q0M1pSUEo5UDIyWlo0ODlZTy4u

Active Schools Clubs

All Active Schools clubs finish next week. Netball has now finished.

Finally

Reminder – School will close on Tuesday 20^th December at 1pm. The children who are booked to have school lunch will have this between12.00 and 12.45 and return to class.

All children should be collected from the playground as usual at 1.00.

If you need to collect your child earlier, please call the office to let Ms Wynn know

As always, I wish you a wonderful, restful weekend.

Kind Regards

Moira Robertson

Weekly Round-up 14 (25.11.2022)

Another busy, busy week in Abbeyhill.

P6/7 enjoyed a trip to Edinburgh Castle.

Primary 2-4 have been developing their concentration, learning a traditional Chinese dance through our Artist in Residence programme.

Primary 1 are in fine voice learning their songs and parts for the nativity. Mrs Pender and the P1 team have been burning the midnight oil making sure the costumes are just right!

Mr Hamilton and I loved hearing about the creative inventions planned by Primary 4 groups today- we are all looking forward to these budding entrepreneurs next inventions.

We have had a brilliant response to our final consultation on Vision, Values and Aims which I am looking forward to Sharing with you very soon.

For this week’s update I include:

• Christmas – End of term
• Christmas Activities
• Nativity Arrangements
• Road Safety
• Playground Safety
• Parent Council Calendar

Closing times for the end of term

School closes on Tuesday 20th December at 1pm. The children who are booked to have school lunch will have this between12.00 and 12.45 and return to class.

All children should be collected from the playground as usual at 1.00.

If you need to collect your child earlier, please call the Office to let Ms Wynn know.

Christmas Activities

Planning for our very festive Christmas in underway and a calendar of events will be sent out shortly.

Primary 1- Primary 3 Nativity arrangements

Our Nativity will be held in Meadowbank Church on Friday 9th December. The doors will open at 10.30 with the performance starting at 11.00. All families from Abbeyhill are welcome to attend. There is no cost to attending the Nativity but there will be a donation box at the doors. All money raised will be split between P1 active play resources and P7 School Residential.

An e-mail from Mr Hamilton has been sent out to all P1-P3 parents with further details.

Road Safety

Please keep road safety at the forefront of your minds when travelling to school, at drop off and collection.

If you child is cycling to school, they should always wear a cycle helmet.

Playground safety

Please do not cycle or scooter in the school grounds. When you enter the playground, dismount, and walk your bike/scooter to the storage area.

Parent Council Calendar

Our amazing artists in Abbeyhill have been busy getting the calendar underway.

If you would like to purchase one please click on the link below.

Abbeyhill Parent Council

abbeyhill-parent-council.sumupstore.com

Finally

We are sending out a Microsoft form shortly, to gather our community concerns regarding road safety around our school. Please, please take 5 minutes to add your concerns to this so we can collate the information in readiness for our Travel Plan questionnaire in January.

A huge thank you to our parent council members who has offered to create some amazing and impactful banners for the fence at Brand Placeand to Illie and our Junior Road Safety Officers for their ideas for our application for a grant to raise awareness of our concerns through videography programme.

As always, I wish you a wonderful, restful weekend.

Kind Regards

Moira Robertson

Weekly Round-up 13 (18.11.2022)

Gee Whizz, what a wet and wild week we have had at Abbeyhill. We didn’t let that dampen our fun though.

Scottish Book Week has been wonderful, with classes all through the school focussing on all things book related.

We also had a lovely visit from Lorna French, our acting Head of Schools, on Wednesday. She visited each class and shared learning from across the curriculum. From Primary 5 whirling round the hall learning dancing in PE to Primary 6 developing their digital literacy skills and primary 7 sharing their knowledge of Pop Art. Mrs French was impressed with the enthusiastic learning taking place and how well primary 2 talked about their learning stations.

Thank you to all our helper who accompanied the children to the cinema trips this week.

For this week’s update I include:

• School Closure
• Primary 7 Christmas Ceilidh
• Road Safety
• Book Week Scotland
• Breakfast Club
• Christmas Holiday
• ASD Enabling Eating
• Vision, Value & Aims

School Closed due to strike action

School will be closed on Thursday 24^th November to all pupils due to industrial action. If you child requires a lunch from school, please let us know by Monday 21^st November and it will be sent home on Wednesday with storage instructions.

Further information will be sent out on Monday.

Primary 7 Christmas Ceilidh

I am delighted to say the Primary 7 Ceilidh will take place on Thursday 8^th December from 6 to 7.30.

The Primary 7 children are invited to a Christmas celebration in our hall. There will be dancing, fun and food. Many of the staff will be dusting off their glad rags and tiaras to come along on the night.

Dress code is smart, there is no expectation that this event should be an additional cost for families.

Road Safety

Road safety concerns have been raised by our lovely School crossing Patrol this week.

All Children and families should be using the School Crossing Patrol to cross at both front of the school and at the back of the school.

Using the school crossing patrols builds understanding of how to safely cross the road.  This is a very important skill which can then be transferred as our children grow older and are out and about on their own.

I continue to thank all families who are parking further away and striding into school.

Book Week Scotland P1-P3 Parent event

Thank you everyone who attended our Book Week Scotland events. I do hope you enjoyed the contents of the bookbags Primary 1-3 brought home.

Breakfast Club

Please remember Breakfast Club opens at 7.30. Please do not arrive before that time.

Christmas Holidays

Our school term ends at lunchtime on Tuesday 20^th December. We will be offering soup and a sandwich to children who require lunch. Please book as normal on parent pay.

More information will follow.

ASD Enabling Eating

Information was sent out this week for a parent session. The joining instructions are in the original e-mail.

Vision Values and Aims

Last chance to register your views in the survey. The survey below will close on the 28^{th of} November.

Vision, Value & Aims Survey

Finally

A wee reminder that if you child is physically sick or has an upset stomach, they need to be off school for 48 hours, (2 days) from the last episode.

Have a wonderful, restful weekend.

Kind Regards

Moira Robertson

Weekly Round-up 12 (11.11.2022)

Another busy week in Abbeyhill Primary school.

P7 launched our Rights Respecting schools work with a fabulous assembly. Their confidence delivering this important message to the school was very impressive. Mrs Graham was impressed with our excellent audience who listened so carefully.

All classes and our nursery have taken part in building their understanding of Remembrance this week. The classes observed a 2-minute silence and have decorated our windows with poppies. Please look up to see what talented artists we have in school.

Next week we will all be taking part in Book Week Scotland activities in our classes.

For this week’s update I include:

• Parent Council
• Road Safety
• Hibs Ticket
• Book Week Scotland P1-P3 Parents Event
• Big Book Exchange
• Cinema Trips
• Enrolment

Parent Council

Thank you to everyone who attended the parent Council on Tuesday afternoon.  We are already busy planning the next parent council event.

Road Safety

This was raised as a huge area of concern for many parents once again. Our Travel Plan will be reviewed in January.

I continue to thank all families who are parking further away and striding into school. 

There is parking in the car park at Sainsbury which is free and close to school which can be used at drop off and collection.

Parking on the double yellow lines or just after the bridge creates a dangerous hazard for our children and our Lollipop Lady.

Women’s Capital Cup Tickets

We sent out slips to book tickets for the Women’s Capital Cup this week. Please return to school as soon as possible so we can give numbers to the club.

If you want to book independently from school, please see the attached poster with the QR code for booking free tickets. Hibs would love to beat their previous record on attendance, so feel free to forward the poster to friends who may also want to book tickets.

Book Week Scotland P1-3 Parent Event

This will be held on 15^th November for P1-P3 parents. Please see the details on the e-mail from Mr.Hamilton.

Big Book Exchange

Big Book Exchange will run on the 17^{th of} November in school.

Children will come in classes to choose a book throughout the day and all families will have the opportunity to select books at collection time on Thursday afternoon.

Please bring your book donations into school from Monday 14^th so we can get set up before the big day.

Cinema Trips

Primary 4 to Primary 7 are attending the free cinema screenings, through the Into Film Festival, on Tuesday 15^th.

P1-P3 will be attending on Friday 18^th. The children are due to be back in school for collection at the usual time.

Thank you to all parents and carers who have volunteered your time to accompany these trips. We now have all the helpers we need.

Thank you to everyone who has returned their permission forms. We still have a few which are outstanding. Please check your children’s bags if school were asked to resend the forms to you.

Finally

A wee reminder that enrolment for P1 is still open. If you have friends or family in the locality who have not enrolled as yet, please remind them.

Have a wonderful, restful weekend.

Kind Regards

Moira Robertson

Weekly Round-up 11 (04/11/2022)

What a busy week in Abbeyhill. As restrictions continue to ease, we are starting to offer more opportunities for families to come into school. We were delighted to welcome parents and carers  into school to see our classrooms and how our children learn on Tuesday afternoon and to welcome new parents of children hoping to join us in August 2023 for Primary 1 on Wednesday. 

We have sent out a number of communications this week. Please look back at the e-mails sent for full details.

For this week’s update I include:

• Halloween party
• Road Safety
• Ask for Henry
• P7 Residential
• Parent Council
• Book Week Scotland P1-P3 Parent event
• Big Book Exchange
• Cinema trips
• School Nativity
• Homework
• Free Bus Travel for 5-21 year olds
• Vision Values and Aims 

Halloween Party

On behalf of all the children and the staff of Abbeyhill Primary school, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to all the volunteers from the parent council who organised such an amazing Halloween party experience for the children. The decorations, poetry, costumes and snacks were so creatively organised. Not to mention the very spooky volunteers who made the hallway of horror such fun.

A HUGE thankyou to all the school staff who came along to support as well, the children just love to have you there at these special events.

Road Safety

Thank you to all the parents that are parking away further away and striding into school. Sadly, once again,  the number of cars parking on the double yellow lines at Brand Place is beginning to increase again.

Parking on the double yellow lines or just after the bridge creates a dangerous hazard for our children and our Lollipop Lady. Please park safely and walk into school.

Ask for Henry

I sent out information last week regarding free baked potatoes at Morrisons café – offer ends on 6^th November.

P7 Residential

Our plans for residential are moving ahead. We will continue to fundraise to try to keep costs at a minimum.

Please let the office know if you have not received a PDF of the PowerPoint from the meeting last Tuesday. 

Parent Council

Our next Parent council is scheduled for the Tuesday 8^th November on TEAMs.

The link for joining the meeting is on the top of the agenda, which was sent out on Thursday.

Book Week Scotland P1-P3 Family Event

We are holding a P1-P3 Book week Scotland event on 15^th November where P1-P3 parents and carers are invited into school to take part in a variety of activities based on the Book Bags the children will be gifted. Please see the details on the e-mail from Mr Hamilton.

Big Book Exchange

Book week Scotland runs throughout the week of 14^th November when, all classes will be engaging in fun reading activities. To celebrate reading for pleasure we are organising a Big Book Exchange on the 17^thNovember in school.

Children and families will have the opportunity to bring in books and exchange them on the day.

Please see the e-mail sent by Mr Hamilton.

Cinema Trips

All classes will attending a cinema trip in November, it is essential that your child has their permission slip returned to school to allow them to attend. If you have not returned the outing permission slip sent at the start of the year or have mislaid it, please, contact the school office.

School Nativity

We are delighted to be able to welcome our whole school community to our Christmas Nativity this year.

The event will be held in our local church on 9^th of December. P1 will be supported by P2 and P3 during this event.

All parents and carers are welcome to attend.

Confirmation of timings will be sent out shortly.

Homework

As part of our school Improvement planning for this session we are looking at homework and developing a consistent approach across the school. If you are interested in being part of a short life working party please let Ms Wynn in the office know. 

Free Bus Travel for 5-21 year olds

Please see the information below on how to apply for free bus travel for all young people from 5-21.

I am writing to you about the Scotland-wide Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme for Under 22s.

As you may know, the scheme launched in January this year allowing children and young people aged 5-21 who live in Scotland to travel for free by bus with a valid National Entitlement Card (NEC) or Young Scot NEC.

We’re already seeing lots of young people benefitting from the scheme, and in September we launched a nationwide marketing campaign to increase awareness and understanding of the scheme and to encourage even more young people to apply.

Our website, freebus.scot, has lots of information about free bus travel, how it works, how to apply, the benefits and some tips for travelling safely too. It also includes a section with resources for stakeholders. I wanted to draw your attention to some bespoke resources for schools on this page, including posters and leaflets to promote the scheme, a guidance document to support conversations with young people and families about the scheme and a PowerPoint presentation about the scheme which could be shown in some classrooms. 

I hope that you find this information and the resources mentioned helpful. If you have any questions about the scheme please get in touch using the contact details on our website.

Vision, Values and Aims

We are nearly there! Please click on the link below for our final Microsoft form survey to consult on our new Vision, Values and Aims.

All the ideas from pupils, staff and parents have been pulled together, discussed, edited, discarded and re-organised into our final consultation survey. It will only take 4 minutes. Please complete by 11.11.22

The nursery team have been looking at our VVA too to create aims for the nursery which we will be consulting on next week.

And Finally

Have a fabulous and safe bonfire night.  Wrap up warm 😊

Kind Regards

Moira Robertson