It has been an even busier November than usual for the staff and pupils at Leith Primary. We have had our first Parent Teacher Consultations at the start of the month, the P1-P3 had the Road Safety Magic Show and the Book Bug and Read, Write Count events. We had The Big Switch off and Blue Friday last week to celebrate Universal Children’s Day and the end of Outright Campaign run by the Rights Ambassadors, Anti-Bullying Week and assembly run by the Equalities Group. We’ve had cycling training for P4, Blaze Basketball and SHE Scotland supporting a group of older girls, rugby sessions for P5 and P6, parkour sessions for two mixed groups, Playground Buddy training for P6 and a P7 and P6/7 project with the Dunedin Consort. A number of classes have also visited and joined Leith Library.
Two weeks ago, we welcomed a small party of council inspectors to the school to see our classroom learning, development work, pupil achievements and to speak to small groups of pupils, staff and parents. The children and staff did an amazing job of sharing current and recent learning and achievements both in class and with the leadership groups they are part of. Inspectors were delighted to see how calm and purposeful our classes were and how engaged and enthusiastic pupils were in their learning. We look forward to receiving and sharing the final report with you in the next few months and beginning work on our identified next steps on our improvement journey.
This month, we welcomed new PSA Emma MacDonald and said goodbye to long-serving PSA Jill O’ Rourke, who has moved to the young adults with disabilities sector. We also congratulate two members of staff on promotions; Ashley Hamilton, our EYO in the nursery, has successfully be appointed as the new SEYO at the Nether Currie Nursery and Anna Hind, who has been on secondment with Stenhouse Primary, was successfully appointed as their permanent Principal Teacher. Thank you to all these hardworking and committed members of staff for their support of the young people, staff and parent/carers of Leith. We wish them well in the next chapter of their lives.
Plans for Christmas
Now that our busy November is past, we can look forward to a range of fun events over the Christmas period.
Wednesday 6th December – P1 & P2 will attend the S3 Winter Show at Leith Academy (Performance 1.30pm to 2.30pm).
Thursday 14th December – Christmas Lunch for pupils & Christmas Dress Up Day (optional donations to UNICEF are welcomed in place of Christmas cards and staff presents)
Friday 15th December– LPPC Afternoon Christmas Event in the Hall – details to follow.
Monday 18th December – Christmas Parties – Party clothes can be brought in to change into.
Tuesday 19th December – Christmas Movie Day
Wednesday 20th December – P1 – P7 will attend St Andrew’s Parish Church for a Christmas Sharing Assembly – Time 1.45pm – parents/carers are welcome to attend.
AND P6/7 & P7 Trip to Queen’s Hall – Children’s Messiah – 4.00pm
Thursday 21st December – P4 – P7 trip to the Edinburgh Lyceum to see The Snow Queen – coaches leave 9.30am, back to school 1.15pm. Permission letters to follow.
AND Santa – Nursery, P1 & P2 – after lunch
Friday 22nd December – End of Term (usual Friday finish times for year groups)
LPPC Easy Fundraising
Leith Primary Parent Council are registered with easyfundraising, which means you can raise FREE donations for us every time you shop online. Over 7,000 brands will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself! These donations really mount up and make a BIG difference to us, so we’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to sign up and support us. It’s completely FREE and only takes a moment. You can find our easyfundraising page at: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/leithprimarypc/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pmc&utm_content=gs-email1
Thank you so much!
A Note on Cards & Presents
Our pupil Eco Group have asked for pupils not to give multiple Christmas cards to each other this year in a bid to cut down on the 30 000 tons of Christmas cards that are thrown away after each Christmas, equating to £2.8 million worth of landfill costs. In a similar vein, staff are donating to charity instead of exchanging cards and presents.
Our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors would like to encourage anyone who may wish to give presents to school staff this year, consider donating instead to our chosen charity UNICEF. Whilst staff are always very grateful for small tokens of pupils’ and families’ appreciation, we would prefer that if parents and pupils’ wish to, a small donation is given to the school UNICEF fundraising page. Each year we are happy to welcome pupils and their families to Leith Primary who are fleeing war-torn countries. We know that UNICEF provides support to children in desperate circumstances such as those we are seeing regularly, and not so regularly, in the news. Our Rights Ambassadors are keen to support UNICEF as part of the fund-raising element to their Gold Award action plan. If you feel you would like to contribute any amount to this fund, you can do so via our UNICEF Just Giving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/leithprimary?utm_term=D3YG4BXZZ
Welcome to Our New Citadel Family Support Worker!
We are delighted to welcome Kristy Johnston, our Citadel Family Support Worker. Kristy replaces Danni Taylor, who worked with us for five years, supporting multiple families with a wide variety of challenges and supports, including family learning, parenting and behaviour supports, home routines, sleep hygiene, working with other agencies, concerns around additional support needs, worries around school matters, poor mental health, friendship and relationship issues and many many other matters. Kristy will now take on this role and is keen to say hello to parents who worked with Danni previously and those who may be interested in finding out how she can support them now. You can get in touch with Kristy On Tuesdays and Wednesday at school on 07518 74451.
Creating a Smoke Free Generation & Tackling Youth Vaping
The UK Government are currently consulting on the additional steps which they can take to create a smokefree generation by tackling youth vaping Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping: your views – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
This consultation seeks feedback on the proposed measures, to inform future legislation. On youth vaping, there are a number of options proposed, to ensure the UK Government and devolved administrations take the most appropriate and impactful steps, building on existing evidence.
The consultation closes on 6 December 2023 and you can respond via the online survey.
Headlice
A reminder to all that it is the responsibility of parents and carers to regularly check your child’s hair for headlice. Long gone are the days of the ‘nit nurse’ and letters sent home to affected classes. Up-to-date guidance can be found via the NHS here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice-and-nits/ Our school nurse Mel Davidson is happy to talk to parents about ways to best manage this issue as well. Mel can be contacted via the school nursing service office number 0131 446 4644.
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