LPS Newsletter

Welcome Back Everyone

Welcome back to session 2025/26. And for any of our new parents/carers and children, a warm welcome to Leith Primary School!!

As always, it has been a busy start back for everyone with lots of new routines to learn and new names to remember. The classes have settled back really well after the summer and Mr Stuart and I were delighted to see such motivated and engaged learners during our Learning Walk around the school and nursery last week.

It was so lovely to see such a big turn out on Friday to our wonderful parent council-run, LPPC Welcome Picnic on the Links. Thankfully, the weather was still pleasant enough to sit out and chat with friends old and new.

As it looks likely that the weather will turn a bit wetter this week, a little reminder to ensure your child is dressed for the weather in waterproof jackets and shoes as they will be out at breaktime and lunchtime regardless. Like most schools, we only keep the children inside if the weather is dangerously windy or there is torrential rain.

If you feel you would benefit from financial assistance with purchasing appropriate school clothing like jackets and shoes, please make sure you have applied for the Free School Meals and Clothing Grant – even if your child is on P1-P5 – as you can receive up to £200 per child as well as free milk and free meals for children in P6 & P7. It is important you reapply every school year, so if you still have to do this, please find information about what to do here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/food-clothing/free-school-meals-school-clothing-grants Walma, our Family Support Worker can support with this, including booking a translator if required.

Reminders

At the start of the year there are a lot of new routines for the children to learn and remember. There are also a few matters we ask our parents and carers to remember so we can make sure the year goes as smoothly as possible:

• School Meals: Please remember to order pupil meals by the Wednesday of the week before (including the week before holiday periods). The kitchen cooks to order so if you have not selected meals for your child by Wednesday evening, the cook will not order food for them for the following week. NB: The ParentPay system will still allow you to order the meals after Wednesday but it will not be taken into account by the kitchen so your child will not have a meal prepared during the following week.
• Sickness: If your child is too sick to come to school, please can you call the Absence Line (Option 1) before 9am so your child can be registered correctly. Please do not select the option to speak to the office to report your child’s absence unless you have information you feel the school know eg; your child has been admitted to hospital.
• Reporting absences: Please ensure that you report your child’s absence each day of their absence not just on the first day. For safety reasons, we cannot assume that a child is absent on consecutive days for the same reason given on the first day of their absence so request that you call the absence line each day.
• Gates: Please can we remind you to always close the gates to both playgrounds, especially the black side gate where all nursery, P1 and P2 parents use. We have a number of new P1 children with additional needs who lack danger awareness and are very curious about their local environment. It is vitally important that we work together as a school community to ensure all our children are kept safely within the school campus area.
• Main Door Safety: We request we keep parents entering the building with their child to a minimum as this increases the frequency of the main door being opened to let people out. This is when some of our new P1 children with additional support needs attempt to get out of the door so having as few people as possible exiting the building in the morning is safer.
• Stairwell: Please can we request that parents keep the main front entrance clear at the start of the day for Primary 1 children to enter the school building at 8.50am when a member of staff will welcome them in.
• Late Slips: If you are running late, we request that you ensure your child gets a pink slip from the office window so they can be marked correctly on the register. This is especially important on Tuesdays and Thursdays for P3-P7 when the children have assembly.
• Named Clothing: Please can you ensure that all items of clothing and packed lunch boxes etc are named so we can return them to the correct order.
• Appointments: We kindly request that all medical and dental appointments are made out with school hours wherever possible. If your child does require to be picked up early for a hospital appointment or required dental treatment we ask that you bring proof of appointment ie; an appointment letter.
• Toys: To avoid any upset or distraction from learning, we ask that children do not bring in any toys or other precious items into school at any time.
• Bus Passes: We ask that all children apply for their free bus pass and use this for all school trips. We will issue information on how we can support your application in future newsletters but in the meantime you can go to your local library to apply.
• Smart Phones & Watches: We strongly discourage pupils from bringing in smart phones and smart watches into school. We understand that some parents use mobile phones as a way of communicating with their child after school to ensure their safe whereabouts. Please be aware that smart devices are brought in at the child’s own risk. Any phones brought in must be handed to the class teacher at the start of the day when they will be stored securely until the end of the school day when they will be handed back. Any phone not handed in to the class teacher will be confiscated and handed back to the parent/carer directly.
• Changes: A reminder to keep the school informed of any changes to your phone number, email address or home address so we can update our records. You may also wish to review who you have as your child’s emergency contacts as this can change over time. We also ask that you keep us informed about any change to your child’s change of home circumstances such as a parental separation, split care arrangement, new partner or close family bereavement. These events can have a huge impact on a child’s wellbeing and ability to learn and socialise positively. This information will be treated in strict confidence and our awareness used only to sensitively adjust our support for your young person during this period of change. We also need to know in advance if there is a new person picking your child up from school and may not release a pupil to someone we do not know or are not expecting.
• Subscribe to our website: If you have not yet done so, please subscribe to our school website leithprimary.org.uk You will be prompted to subscribe by a pop-up box if you go to the website. This will ensure that every newsletter will go straight to your inbox (if you make sure we do not end up in your Junk!) All our important information is passed on via the website so make sure you don’t miss out on anything.

Thank you everyone in advance for your support with these matters. Be assured, these are the things we know make a positive difference to the safety and wellbeing of your young people and the smooth running of the school. Do get in touch with us if you have any related questions.

Important Awareness of Immunocompromised Pupil

School Uniform

Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting their child to wear school colours to school every day. We do request that all children wear school colours and do not come to school in branded sports gear, character sweatshirts or t-shirts with slogans. There should be no football branded items of clothing worn in school at any point.

We use the term school colours to mean any type of generic non-branded school clothing such as grey/black/navy trousers, skirt, shorts, pinafore or blue gingham dress, white polo shirt and grey/black/navy sweatshirt, cardigan or similar and flat school-type shoes. These items can all be bought very cheaply at local supermarkets and popular clothing stores, in pre-loved clothing shops and from clothing banks. We believe this gives parents and carers a wide degree of choice in how they dress their children for school with low cost and free options available to all.

If parents would like to purchase Leith Primary School branded hoodies, sweatshirts and polo shirts it is possible to do so but is not a compulsory part of our uniform as per Scottish Government guidance. We find that there is a broad mix of children who wear branded and non-branded school uniform items, both of which are welcomed. We will encourage all our children to wear school-appropriate clothing and will support families to ensure pupils do this on a daily basis, including Fridays.

Here are some links, families may find useful:

Edinburgh School Uniform Bank
https://edinburghuniform.org/

The City of Edinburgh Council – Cost of Living pages
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/costofliving

The City of Edinburgh Council – Free School Meals, Milk and School
Clothing Grants
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolgrants

Attendance

A reminder again how important daily school attendance is for your child’s academic and social development. We know that most children get sick from time-to-time and do have to stay off to get better but at all other times it is imperative that pupils are in school and on time every day. We may be in touch shortly with some parents to find out how we can support their child to improve their attendance or time keeping during this academic year as good attendance links very closely to better learning, better behaviour and improved peer relationships.

Supports for Families

The Triple P programme is delivered over 8 weekly sessions and explores strategies to manage common behaviours such as aggressiveness, tantrums, shouting, answering back and refusing to follow rules. We welcome applications directly from parents and carers or you can apply on their behalf, thank you.   Apply for a place  Triple P Application

• Website for services and supports for families  Support for families – The City of Edinburgh Council
• To find out more about group parenting programmes  Parenting Programmes in Edinburgh
• Training calendar for staff working with parents and carers  Family Wellbeing Calendar 2024/25 Supporting our workforce in Edinburgh
• Solihull Online courses for parents and carers with children 0-19 https://inourplace.heiapply.com/online-learning/ enter access code TARTAN to register 

Supports for Parents with Neurodiverse Children

Are you the parent or carer of a neurodivergent child getting ready for the new school term and looking for a little extra support?

Check out supports available by visiting the Neurodiversity pages on the City of Edinburgh Support for Families webpages.

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/additional-support-needs/neurodiversity

Find a range of other supports at on the other Support for Families webpages.

or email supportingparentsancdcarers@edinburgh.gov.uk  

#SupportForFamiliesNeurodiversity2025

Holiday Hub Provision for Children with Additional Support Needs

Holiday Hub Provision for Children and Young People with Additional Support Needs – applications for academic session Aug25 – Aug26  – now open

The City of Edinburgh Council offer school holiday provision for children and young people currently in P1 – S6 with Additional Support Needs.

From June 2025 there is new eligibility criteria for Holiday Hubs. This criteria will make sure that holiday support is directed to children and young people in the City of Edinburgh with the most complex needs and vulnerability. The new criteria will be applied to applications for academic session 2025/26 and ensure that those with the most need will be allocated up to 4 weeks provision across the October break, February break, Easter and the Summer holidays.

Holiday Hubs operate each week of the school holidays from Monday to Thursday, 9am – 3pm.

Parents/carers of children who meet the criteria and wish to be considered for a place at a Holiday Hub, should apply online.

Families requiring support with their application should contact their school or email holidaysupport@edinburgh.gov.uk

Information can also be found here Inclusion and wellbeing for children and young people – The City of Edinburgh Council

Criteria

Holiday Hub provision will be available to children and young people, who are the statutory responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council, who have Additional Support Needs and attend/are on the school roll of:

• Specialist provision – either a City of Edinburgh Council special provision or placed by the Local Authority in an independent school; 
• Enhanced Support Provision (ESP) or Enhanced Support Base (ESB) within a mainstream setting;
• Mainstream school and in receipt of audit hours support.

Home schooled children and young people with evidenced level of need will also be able to access the provision. 

Additional weighting will be provided to children and young people who are: 

• Subject to Child Planning Meetings and recommended by senior education staff as requiring holiday support;
• In receipt of support from the Children Affected Disability team and recommended by the team as requiring holiday support;
• In receipt of child disability payment mid-level care and above;
• Recommended by out of school providers as requiring holiday support.

Holiday hub support can play an important role in preventing family breakdown and if oversubscribed priority will be given to those who meet the criteria above and are at imminent risk of family breakdown and especially subject to the additional pressure on some families who are facing poverty. If provision is oversubscribed priority would be given to families impacted by poverty and in particular: 

• Single carer families;
• Families living in temporary accommodation;
• Families in receipt of universal credit.

Transport for the Holiday Hub is the responsibility of the Parent or Carer.

Please direct any questions to holidaysupport@edinburgh.gov.uk

Our First Leithers of the Week

Brilliantly well done to these P3-P7 pupils for making a great start to the new school year. Our new P1 and P2 children will begin attending assemblies soon so look out for those stars too!

Grace	Primary 3A	Grace has shown she is ready, respectful and safe at all times and supported others too.  Well done!
Miles	Primary 3B	Miles put in an extra effort to finish his descriptive writing!  He tried his best to find the best describing words for the character and also to use his non-negotiables of a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop.  We done Miles, your perseverance paid off and you did a great job!
Dayana	Primary 4	Well done, Dayana, for making a positive start in your new class. Keep it up!
Silver	Primary 4/5	Silver has been following the school rules of ready, respectful and safe. She has been getting use to all the new routines and adjusting well. Good job!
Brooke	Primary 5	For being kind to others, working hard and contributing well to class discussions.
Tabitha	Primary 6	For being a positive and responsible role model to those around her. Well done Tabitha!
Ritaj	Primary 6/7	Ritaj demonstrates our school values every day. She is a responsible member of the class who treats others with kindness and perseveres with all tasks! Well done, Ritaj!
Erin	Primary 7	Mohamed has demonstrated all of our school rules this week. He is ready to learn and shows respect to all his peers.