All together now

While worrying news is all around us, we have kept life at Abbeyhill as busy and as upbeat as ever this week. Primary 1B have set up a garden centre in their classroom and P2 did a book scavenger hunt for World Book Day! P6 celebrated WBD with P1A and it was just lovely to see larger groups being able to meet again like this. P3 shot informational videos of their model International Space Stations and P5 went on their first proper trip of the year yesterday, to the Museum on the Mound. They seemed to have had a fantastic time and apparently it was worth missing assembly for… P7 haven’t stopped (apart from their Read and Relax session) and have done everything from making pancakes to carving out book character potatoes! Thank you to Mr Hamilton for organising our World Book Day events and to Mr Woodhouse who ran a suitably cheesy book-themed Disco Daily Mile for the occasion! It was great fun seeing everyone’s outfits, especially when we call came together for our first ‘in person’ assemblies since early 2020.

Cooking pancakes in P7

P1A and P6 enjoying some books together

Come and visit the garden centre in P1B!

All dressed up for World Book Day

Our family update today includes details of our latest Warn and Inform letters, information on how the lifting of restrictions is affecting us in schools as well as details of Easter clubs and wider support for families. Please check your emails or contact the school for more details.

If current world events are worrying your child or family, please consider some of the advice from the British Psychological Society . If you want to do something to help, the Ukrainian Catholic Church on Dalmeny Street and the Ukrainian Community Centre on Royal Terrace are accepting donations for those who have lost everything, as are other Ukrainian centres around the city.

Best wishes,

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

From Truth Pixies to SEAL via 16th century dragons!

World Book Day

We’ve had a very Literary week at Abbeyhill as we geared up to celebrate World Book Day yesterday! Lots of exciting activities were going on across the school from dressing up and reading new stories in the Nursery*, visits to our new local bookshop Toppings for P1-3, a Book Treasure hunt in the playground, a Big Booky Swap in the hall and audio books for everyone! We enjoyed ‘The Truth Pixie’ by Matt Haig and loved hearing the first few chapters of ‘The Boy Who Made the World Disappear’ by Ben Miller. I can guess what some of those book vouchers will be spent on! Well done to Ms Howson and P5 who did the lion’s share of organising our in-school activities.

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*The Nursery children would love to have some parents come in and read to them in a range of home languages. Please speak to the Nursery staff if this is something that you’re interested in!

SEAL in P1 

I was lucky enough to spend some time in P1 earlier in the week and was given a guided tour of the play based learning environment by one of the children who demonstrated how the children are encouraged and supported to have independence in their learning as well as to challenge themselves with the tasks they choose. I took part in a SEAL (Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning) group but couldn’t catch any of the P1s out, they were very confident in what they were doing and were very much enjoying the learning activity. Well done P1!

Team P2

P2 spent some time in the sun creating a flower with our Loose Parts Play equipment. They used their knowledge of different parts of a flower as well as excellent team work and communication to carry and display the flower. Well done P2!

P7/P2 collaboration

Mr Woodhouse took half of his P2 class with half of the P7s to the Palace of Holyroodhouse as part of the P7s ongoing project on Leonardo da Vinci. P2 joined their P7 buddies to learn about Leonardo and in particular his work on costume design to entertain King Francis I of France. P2 were then expertly helped by their buddies to create a dragon mask of their own!

 

The children left behind were kept very busy as Mr Forde set the P2s and P7s the task of designing something that would help the planet; did they want to battle climate change or an alien invasion?! The P7s helped their P2 buddies to think through the concept and then they built it using Lego before ‘writing up’ their ideas in poster form. Next week, this group will go to Holyroodhouse while this week’s dragon mask makers will get the chance to save the world!

Parent Literacy Course 

We had the first of 3 sessions designed to support parents to understand how various concepts of Maths and Literacy are taught in the classroom so that they are better able to support their children at home. Teaching methods change over time, and can be different in different countries, and the feedback was that it was useful to hear from teachers about exactly how they teach certain things. Thank you to Ms Macdonald who talked about how she teaches Maths across the school. Next week Mr Hamilton and Ms Howson will be talking about Literacy so if you are booked on I look forward to seeing you there!

Parent Council

We had our second Parent Council meeting of 2020 on Wednesday evening and it was lovely to see a few new faces there! Our agenda was wide ranging and covered topics such as our new Outdoor Classroom and Community Garden, Loose Parts Play, P7 leaving gifts and upcoming family events such as the Summer Garden Party on Saturday 30th May! We all thanked the Parent Council, particularly our Chair, Simon Preston, for the fantastic 3rd annual Burns Supper that was held in January and was a sell-out event as ever.

Parents’ Evening 

Our Parents’ Evenings bookings are now open and you should have received an email or letter inviting to book your appointments. Please do so as quickly as possible to avoid missing the timeslots that are most convenient for you.

Traffic laws on Abbey Street

Please remember that Abbey Street is closed to all traffic except those with valid permits and emergency service vehicles between the hours of 0820 – 0905 and 1505 – 1540, Monday to Thursday and 1210 – 1240 on Fridays. This is to reduce traffic congestion and pollution around the school gates at key times which helps to keep Abbeyhill children and families safe. If caught ignoring this, drivers face a £60 fine and 3 penalty points on their license. Please support your children and do not ignore the law.

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

 

 

Have you got that Friday feeling?

…which for us is happy exhaustion! It’s been an incredibly busy week at Abbeyhill with the Talent Show, Euroquiz, World Book Day, plenty of cooking and a soundscape! Read on to find out more.

Last night saw the Parent Council Talent Show which was a fantastic celebration of a diverse range of talent, taste in music and interests. We had a ventriloquist, a berimbau performance, Highland and Scottish dancing, a poetry recital, stand up comedy, ballet dancing and lots of amazing singing. It was a wonderful celebration of all the things that make us unique as well as the things that bring us together; happiness, laughter and good times with friends and family. Thank you to the Parent Council for the many months of organisation and planning that went into a very well organised event that was enjoyed by everyone who attended. Thank you also to Russell McLarty for hosting us at Meadowbank Parish Church. The whole event was filmed so I’m sure copies will be available before too long!

On Monday, Mr Hamilton took 4 P6s to the City Chambers to take part in Euroquiz 2019. They spent week practising and came a very respectable 14th out of 24. Congratulations to the teams from Sciennes and James Gillespie’s who will go forward to the national event. It was a great opportunity for us to see inside a building we’d normally only walk past as well as a chance to represent Abbeyhill at a citywide level whilst also meeting P6s from other schools. Well done Team Abbeyhill!

On Wednesday, P2 had a very special visitor (Miss Stephen’s mum!) who is a trained chef and helped them to make delicious carrot and apple muffins in the Cooking Classroom. Everyone got a chance to weigh, measure, stir and most importantly, TASTE!

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Our Cooking Classroom is being really well used thanks to our Food for Thought grant and the P7s cook (or prep!) up a storm most days to keep our healthy tuck shop going. Our Food Champions met with colleagues from our local LIDL store who popped in yesterday with some exciting offerings…a George Forman grill, a Nutribullet and plenty of tupperware for all our culinary handiwork – thank you to LIDL!

As part of our World Book Day celebrations the children participated in a “Where’s Wally” hunt in the playground. Everyone had to find Wally and either crack a code or answer book related questions. It was great to see the children searching so enthusiastically- some light rain didn’t stop the fun! The winners will be announced at Monday’s assembly. In the afternoon Mr Martin held a whole school World Book Day assembly where we played charades, unscrambled book titles and guessed the hidden book character. The assembly ended by watching the animated version of the popular story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. The assembly was a great chance for everyone to share the fantastic book related activities they had been doing in class.

On Wednesday evening, our Curator in Residence, Iliyana, co-hosted a very special meeting in school with Citadel Arts Group where anyone who has been involved with Abbeyhill at any point in their lives was invited to come in and share their stories. Together with P4 and P6 they will work to transform these living memories into a book and a binaural soundscape to be premiered at Colony of Artists 2019 (21st and 22nd September). Don’t miss it!

Next week it’s RED NOSE DAY! Everyone has been getting very excited about the official red noses that have been on sale in school and these will continue to be available next week. It’s also an optional dress down day on Friday with a suggested donation of £1 for Comic Relief. It’s also Parent Council on Wednesday from 6.30pm and bookings are now open online for Parent’s Evening on 19th and 21st March – check your inbox for the link!

Phew, that’s it for this week – have a good weekend everybody!

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher