LPS Newsletter

Welcome Back Everyone!

Welcome back to all our pupils, families, staff and friends who are new to the school. It has been a really great start back to the term, with a wonderful Welcome Picnic on the Links on Friday after school for all our new pupils and their families who are now part of the Leith PS family. We are very excited about the new school year and are looking forward to supporting our children to flourish.

School Development Plan 23/24

Every year, schools select areas to further develop based on feedback from parents/carers, pupils, staff and our professional partners. Some areas of development are driven by the council’s wider Education Improvement Plan 2021-24 and some by quality indicators from Education Scotland or from the Scottish Government’s National Improvement Framework.

This is a summary of what we will focus on this year:

School Colours

Our new Primary 1 pupils have had a super first week at ‘big school’ and look so smart in their school colours.

The rest of our pupils have been back on good form and have really looked part of Team Leith in their school colours. Thank you to our parents and carers for supporting the wearing of school colours on all days (including Fridays!) as it supports inclusivity and equality and hopefully streamlines the morning routine. By offering school branded hoodies, sweatshirts, polo shirts whilst equally welcoming generic, non-branded school wear from supermarkets or high street shops in dark school colours (navy, grey, black, blue gingham) we hope to offer a range of practical, flexible and affordable ways to enable our pupils to dress the part. We can also offer further support to obtain school uniform if finances are tight. Please let us know if this is something your child would benefit from.

School Paperwork and General Communications

As an Eco School, we rarely send information home to parents in paper form. For this reason, it is vitally important that you check the contact details you have provided the school and continue to update us should you change your phone number, email address or home address. This also applies to emergency contact details.

Details of planned events and important information will be sent to your email, often within a newsletter like this one. Please make sure school emails do not go to your junk/spam email folder.

Nursery and class teachers in P1-P3 will continue to communicate with parents via Online Learning Journals which will be accessed two-three times per week. P4-P7 class teachers will communicate with parents either through the admin email address or their own school email address. Your child’s class teacher will let you know how best to get in contact with them in the class newsletter.

We will send reminder text messages to parents at times but as they can be costly, we will try to limit these to reminders and communication with individuals. There is a character limit so we apologise if they appear a bit abrupt at times!

If you would like to arrange to speak with a member of staff, please make an appointment through the school office or catch us in the playground at the end of the day. We are sorry that class teachers are unable to have lengthy conversations with parents/carers in the playground at the start of the school day as getting children to their classroom is the main priority.

All urgent messages for pupils or class teachers should be directed to the school office.

School Lunches, Snacks, Water and Milk

Please remember to order school lunches on Parent Pay by WEDNESDAY of the week before as anything selected after this will show on your Parent Pay account but will not have been ordered by the kitchen who only cook-to-order.

If you are experiencing problems with Parent Pay, please check the Parent Pay website in the first instance here or get in touch with them directly through their online support.

A reminder that pupils are not allowed to bring in fizzy drinks to school as part of a packed lunch or snack. We strongly encourage healthy packed lunches and request that sweet treats are limited to one small item, if at all.

We encourage children to bring a piece of fruit for their snack or a similar small item. If pupils bring very large bags or packets of crisps, biscuits, cakes or sweets or multiple snack items staff will ration these appropriately for your child or swap the item for a piece of fruit. Your child may then collect remaining food items at the end of the school day.

Children can bring in a filled water bottle with plain water to drink through out the day. Children are not permitted to sip on fruit juice through out the day in class due to the damage it can do their teeth.

Pupils who have applied for and receive free school meals (Clothing Grant) are also entitled to free school milk. Milk can be ordered and paid for via Parent Pay if you would like your child to have this too.

Welcome to Leith PS Place 2 Be!

This year, Leith Primary School begins our partnership work with Place2Be, a national charity supporting schools to improve the confidence and wellbeing of children and young people.

Place2Be provides emotional and therapeutic support to children and young people, families and staff in more than 450 schools nationwide. 

It gives children and young people a space to express themselves through talking and creative work, and to think about any worries they might have. Place2Be also provides support for parents and staff too. Some information is enclosed to tell you more about Place2Be and its work. 

Place2Talk

One of the most popular aspects of this service is called ‘Place2Talk’. It’s open to all children and young people at Leith Primary School, and they can make an appointment to spend 15 minutes with a trained counsellor, either by themselves or with a friend. On average, about a third of children and young people who access the service in schools take advantage of this service every year. Children and young people often talk about friendships or any worries they may have. 

Place2Be will record your child’s name, date of birth, year group, gender, ethnicity, the broad topic of discussion and any actions taken as a result of the session.  This information is stored securely. It is used in key coded form to evaluate Place2Be’s service and improve our work.  

Parental Agreement for Accessing Place2Talk

Unless we hear otherwise from you, the school and Place2Be will assume that your child has parent/carers’ permission to come to Place2Talk.

If you would like to find out more, or would prefer that your child does not use this service, please contact Amelia Burns (Place2Be Mental Health Practitioner) on amelia.burns@place2be.org.uk who will be very happy to answer to any questions.

Welcome to Leith PS CHAI

Community Help & Advice Initiative

For many of us, money is a big worry just now. To support families with concerns around money, housing, benefits and more, Leith Primary welcomes a new dedicated Money Advice Worker on Thursdays. Kerry Anderson, from the Community Help and Advice Initiative (CHAI) will be based in our family room (where our Family Support Worker, Danni Taylor is based) every Thursday morning. Kerry will offer three appointments each week at 9.30am, 10.30am and 11.30am which can be booked through the school office in the usual ways (Tel: 554 4844, email: admin@leith-pri.edin.sch.uk, text: 07860 029 682). Kerry will start on Thursday this week, 31st August, so please get in touch to see if she can support you with your concerns. A translator can be booked if you let us know in advance.

Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic Mother’s Play and Chat Group- Craigentinny Community Centre, Wednesdays 12.30-2.30pm.

Run by MCFB and Homestart with support from the Health Visiting team, this group is a fun way for Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic mothers with young children who may be new to the area or feeling isolated to get to know other local families in a relaxed supportive environment. Mums can attend with their little ones or if their children are at nursery are also welcome to attend on their own.

There is no need to book, families can just drop in. For more information on the group contact Vanja 07789 731888 or Dammy on 07562 792653

Tell Us About Your Achievements

Our Pupil Council would like to help celebrate pupils’ achievements in and out of school with Achievement Boards on each floor of the school. If your child has achieved a medal, a new coloured belt, a new badge, a certificate, taken part in a show or any other achievement after school, please email or send in a photo so it can be added to one of our Achievement Boards.

School Attendance

As you may already have noticed, excellent school attendance is the top priority for the Leith Academy Learning Community. It cannot be stressed enough just how important regular attendance at school is for our young people. We can see a clear, direct link between children who are not achieving at their expected levels in reading, writing and maths with poorer school attendance. For some, those gaps will not be made up and will last until secondary school where pupils who may have been capable of achieving good exam results do not fulfil that potential and may have reduced options when they leave school.

We want all our children to achieve their fullest potential whatever that may be. Good school attendance is the best indicator of achieving academic potential, maintaining positive relationships with friends and staff and overall wellbeing and positive mental health.

We know that there are exceptions to this rule and for those pupils who have medical or personal reasons for not attending full time, an individual child’s plan will identify supports and track targets that address these barriers.

Please consider the attendance percentage from your child’s end of year report in June and look at the following table for the anticipated outcomes for your child.

Please get in touch if we can support you or your child with improving school attendance. We are here to help.

Leither of the Week

Each week the class teacher selects one pupil who has demonstrated the school values, the school rules, personal progress in an area or has been a great role model to others in some way. We are all Leithers, but these guys are the Leithers of the Week.

Lori	Primary 1/2	Lori has shown exceptional kindness since starting back at school. She has been such a positive role model supporting the new P1s settling into their new school. Thank you Lori for being such a great friend!
Nina	Primary 1a	Nina has settled in beautifully to P1! She sets a super example for the rest of the class, is always kind to others and follows the school rules. Well done, Nina!
Dhanvika	Primary 1b	For demonstrating excellent responsibility in class and setting a good example to others. Great start Dhanvika!
Ahmed	Primary 2	Ahmed has been very responsible this week and has gone out of his way to help to tidy up his things and also his classmates things, after an activity.  Well done Ahmed, you’re a good example to your classmates!
Zerin	Primary 3	Zerin has been showing her very best work in P3 so far. She has persevered through some tricky spelling words and has been a kind and helpful member of the class this week. Well done Zerin!
Tabitha	Primary 3/4	Tabitha for showing the Leith school values-particularly responsibility.  She is very organised and has even helped me keep organised this week!  Well done Tabitha.
Jayden	Primary 4	Jayden has had a great start to P4, he has been kind and helpful and supported his classmates. Well done!
Jayden	Primary 4a	Jayden has had  great start to P4, he has been kind and helpful and has supported his classmates in their learning.  Well done!
Sophie	Primary 5	Sophie is such a great example to the rest of the class. Responsible, kind and helpful at every opportunity. Well done and keep up the good work!
Henry	Primary 5a	Henry has tries his best at absolutely everything. He has shown all the school values especially Kindness and being a great class helper. Well Done Henry
Marley	Primary 6	For showing kindness by asking a class mate to join in their game of football which was really appreciated by the other child
Maddison	Primary 6/7	Maddison has settled in well to her new class, making a real effort to mix with all of her classmates and proving to be a responsible member of the class.
Arthur O’	Primary 7	It has been brilliant having Arthur back in class.  They have worked hard in all curricular areas, but I was particularly impressed with their snow leopard research.  They found interesting facts and re wrote them in their own words as well as creating some great illustrations to go with them.

School Attendance Race

We know that so many of our pupils attend school brilliantly. We want to recognise and celebrate the year groups that do this well each week and acknowledge those who work hard to improve their overall attendance. In our first week, we have two clear winners:

Full Staffing List for this Session

A summary of our main staff team and their roles this session:

Class	Teacher/s	Support Staff in Class (at various times)	Room Number
Primary 1a	Mrs Kinnell (Mon-Wed)/ Ms Richardson (Thurs/Fri)	Ms O Rourke Ms Ramos	Room 4
Primary 1b	Ms Kirkwood	Mrs Gatton Ms Ramos	Room 3
Primary 1/2	Mrs Slattery (Mon-Tue)/ Mrs Scott (Wed-Fri)	Mrs Aitken Mrs Stiven Ms Weir	Room 5
Primary 2	Ms Harris (Mon-Thurs) Mrs Swinson (Fri)	Mrs Aitken Mrs Stiven Ms Weir	Room 2
Primary 3	Mrs Young	Mrs Elbekhti Mrs Gatton	Room 22
Primary 3/4	Ms Scott-Dickins	Mr Cochrane	Room 19
Primary 4	Mrs Watson (Mon-Wed)/ Mrs Buchan (Thurs-Fri)	Mr Matthews	Room 15
Primary 5a	Ms Christensen	Mr Cochrane Mrs Aitken	Room 10
Primary 5b	Mrs Fraser (Mon-Wed)/ Mrs Moloney (Thurs-Fri)	Mrs Stiven Mrs Thomas	Room 8
Primary 6	Ms McDonald (Mon/Tue, Thurs/Fri) Mrs Clarkson (Weds)	Mrs Saleh Mrs Begum	Room 9
Primary 6/7	Ms Downie	Mrs Thomas Ms Shafiq	Room 11
Primary 7	Mr Mackenzie	Ms Shafiq	Room 13
Support for Learning Teacher (Literacy)	Mrs Ciechanowicz (Tues-Fri)		SfL Room (Room 14)
Support for Learning Teacher (Maths)	Mrs Clarkson (Tues/Thurs)		Maths Support Room
Reduced Class Contact Time (RCCT) Teacher	Ms Richardson (Tues/Weds)		Art Room
Leith Academy Transition Teacher (P7)	Jessica Chapman
Senior Early Years Officer	recruitment in process		Nursery
Early Years Officer	Mrs Ashley Watt		Nursery
Early Years Practitioners	Sabela Rivas-Vazquez Syeda Showli Ali Bego Barrena Hanan Eltayieb Cally Little Cherri Stewart		Silver Birch & Elm Rooms
Early Years Assistants	Katerina Michailidou Irina Malych Pauline Morrison		Silver Birch & Elm Rooms
Early Years Domestic Assistant	Piera Migliorelli		Lunch Room
English as an Additional Language Teacher	Mrs Maide Thomas (Thursdays)		Various
Pupil Support Officer (Nurture Base)	recruitment in process		The Loft
Cluster Pupil Support Officer (Attendance)	recruitment in process
Family Support Worker (Citadel)	Danni Taylor (Tues/Weds)		Family Room
Money Advice Worker (CHAI)	Kerry Anderson (Thursdays)		Family Room
Art Therapist/Counsellor (Place 2 Be)	Amelia Burns (Mon/Tues)		Room 17
Educational Psychologist	Fiona Gorrie (approx. one day every three weeks)
Additional Support for Learning Service (ASLS) (Acting) Service Leader (Leith Academy & Drummond Hugh School Clusters)	Shakila Hunter
Educational Welfare Officer	Jamie Thomson
Cello Teacher	Lyndsey Martindale (Mondays)		Room 21
Violin Teacher	Sandra Hollingdale (Tuesdays)		Room 21
Active Schools Coordinator	Aidan Haughey
School Nurse	Mel Davidson
School Business Manager	Mrs Louise Beattie (Tues/Thurs)
School Administrator	Ms Alex Kennedy
Facilities Technician (Janitor)	Mr Wilfred McShane
School Lunch Manager (Head Cook)	Mrs Michelle Stewart
Principal Teacher	Mrs Dawn Moloney
Depute Headteacher	Mr Hugh Stuart
Headteacher	Ms Fiona Craig