Rayyan Zeeshan	Primary 1a	Rayyan has been showing lots of hard work and determination this week. He keeps going even when things are tricky and has been showing lots of confidence when speaking in front of the class. Well done Rayyan!
Ibra Diabate Chele	Primary 1b	Ibra has been a very respectful member of our class this week and has come into school happy and ready to learn. Ibra has worked particularly hard in his phonics group and has produced some fantastic pieces of writing independently. Well done, Ibra!
Lucia Munoz	Primary 2a	She deserves to be recognized for being a fantastic student who is always willing to learn and support others with their learning. She is also a very responsible student, and this has been seen this week when looking after our plants.
Taisia	Primary 3b	Taisia has been a wonderful friend to our new boy Kamil this week. She has been working hard translating and explaining school routines to him in their home language. Thank you Taisia for being a fantastic classmate and super help!
All of P4a!	Primary 4a	I’ve been so impressed with the children (and their adults) for all their Home Learning. Particularly using Teams. They have quickly developed their skills by: for example joining calls, using Word, completing assignments, saving, uploading and sharing work. I’m also proud of them for how well they have persevered when things were new and challenging. Well done !! Great Job! I’m looking forward to seeing you all in person on Monday 🙂
Yanis Georgiev	Primary 4b	Well done Yanis for being a super home learner! This week Yanis demonstrated a good understanding of symmetry and completed his numeracy tasks accurately. Keep up the good work Yanis!
Charlie Hawkins	Primary 5	~Charlie presented his information handling task in an Excel document, it was absolutely brilliant!!
Noel	Primary 6a	Noel has been to all our meetings during lockdown and is always full of answers and ideas. He puts lots of effort into daily tasks and made a fab Count Olaf head piece on World Book Day!
Eva Gildner-Dell	Primary 7a	For her piece of writing on her ‘wonder’ inspired by the novel ‘The Nowhere Emporium’. Eva not only fulfilled the steps to success but used sophisticated language and created a real sense of place for the reader. Well done Eva!
Sarah McLean	Primary 7b	Sarah has been resilient and hardworking during this session of remote learning. She has attended every call, taken part with enthusiasm and tried her best in challenging circumstances. Well done Sarah!

Sharan Suddala	Primary 1a	Sharan works very hard and goes out of his way to help his friends and teachers in the classroom and playground. Well done Sharan!
Harris Pendleton	Primary 1b	Harris has shown kindness to all from his very first day in P1.  His love for learning shines through everything he does and it’s been a pleasure to see him grow in confidence since August.  Thank you Harris for being such a positive and caring member of our class. We wish you the best of luck in your new school!
Gloria	Primary 2a	She has been working very hard on her numeracy and literacy skills. She has also been really supportive with other students. Her behaviour has been excellent, as always, and she needs to be rewarded for this! Congratulations 🙂
Struan	Primary 3b	Struan has worked very hard with his reading and writing this week. He wrote a super story about a bear and has tried really hard with his reading book questions. Well done Struan!
Alexander	Primary 4a	Alexander actively participates in all our live sessions. He has shared his work with others during calls and developed lots of new ICT skills. Great work Alexander!
Erin Shepherd	Primary 4b	Erin created a super model of her favourite book character – Isadora Moon – from a toilet roll tube! We have also enjoyed seeing and hearing about the activities and crafts she has completed at home. Well done Erin!
Holly Reid	Primary 7a	Holly is in the Recognition book for her reading task on the Nowhere Emporium. She made sure she answered in sentences and put in a lot of work to ensure she had all the relevant details in her answers. Well done!
William	Primary 7b	William always participates with enthusiasm and contributes well to our Teams chats!
Faith	School Hub Bubble	Faith has shown a great attitude, commitment and responsibility towards her learning this week, trying really hard on her Maths and the Power Point of the United States. Well done!!
Judy Ataleeb	Support for Learning	Judy has consistently attended live lessons and has completed all of her tasks. She has worked very hard while learning at home. Well done, Judy!

Mariam Al Sayed	Primary 1a	Mariam has been trying very hard this week to help some of her friends who have been feeling unsure about coming back to school. She offers her time, her friendship and a smile to anyone she thinks needs it! Well done Mariam!
Jessica Saggu	Primary 1b	Jessica is a hard working member of our class who respects everybody’s right to learn by listening carefully during teaching time.  She enjoys learning and tries her very best everyday. Thank you, Jessica!
Gabi Szczepanek	Primary 2a	Gabi has been really patient, understandable and nice with the other classmates this week. She has also worked really hard and improved her numeracy and literacy skills. Thus, she deserve to be recognised.
Jack Hawkins	Primary 2b	Jack has been nominated by his classmates as he is always Ready, Respectful and Safe. He always works hard and listens well. Well done Jack!
Seren	Primary 3a	Excellent concentration and listening throughout the week; excelled at various sports and games when we were outside.
Hadley	Primary 3b	Hadley has had a brilliant first week back at school! He has been enthusiastic to learn and he has shown kindness towards his friends. Well done Hadley!
Bikari	Primary 4a	Bikari has been working hard, he has been completing his work and assessments and developing his life skills. Well done !
River  Hall	Primary 4b	River has been an amazing home learner participating in all our class meetings and completing his daily tasks to a high standard. Well done River!
Alistair Sweeney	Primary 5	Alistair created and shared an impressive PowerPoint that showed us around his secret super hero/villain Base
Keira Ross	Primary 6a	Keira has been fabulous on class calls. She always has her hand up ready to give an answer and is super quick at answering riddle questions! Keira has also impressed me by handing in all her daily assignments. Such a hard worker! Keep it up.
Louisa Bamford	Primary 6b	Louisa has worked hard consistently over lockdown and is a very conscientious pupil.  She has also worked hard on her Maths this week. Well done Louisa 🙂
Alexander Allison	Primary 7a	For his hard work on learning his doubles! Well done Alexander!
Christina Alexa	Primary 7b	For consistently completing all her tasks to a high standard and taking pride in what she does.
Meenu Rawat	Primary 7b	Meenu showed great perseverance and resilience when completing a task that she found very challenging. She did some research and asked some questions, to make sure she completed that task to the best of her ability, and within her deadline! Well done!
Leon Anderson	School Hub Bubble	This week Leon has been determined to challenge himself at Maths and worked not only on his maths group assignments but also did more complex multiplication and division calculations. That’s the spirit!! Well done Leon!
Taha Afzal	Support for Learning	Taha has been working really hard at his Support for Learning tasks and always tries his best in group meetings. Well done Taha!

Thanks to the kindness of our local guardian angels and the generosity of our own Parent Council, LPPC, we have been able to open up a school food store for any family who needs it. A wide range of non-perishables have been stocked in our former upper school cloakroom. Parents and carers are welcome to come along at 11.30am-12 Noon and 2.30pm-3.00pm to take whatever they need for their family. You may wish to bring a couple of shopping bags along to in which to carry items home however boxes and bags are available for those who need them.

We have been struck by the increase in the number of families who have indicated a need for support with food since the first lockdown last March. Many of our parents and carers have lost their jobs or are working reduced hours since the pandemic began last year. Being at home for long periods of time can put an additional strain on household finances, especially during the colder months when heating, electricity and food may be consumed much more. Any one of us could be a month or two away from finding ourselves in challenging financial circumstances so it is in the spirit of solidarity that we offer our families this free support for as long as it is needed.

Jakub Kautsky	Primary 1a	Jakub has been working very hard at home and has made great progress in phonics and writing. Well done Jakub!
Harris Pendelton	Primary 1b	Harris has really shone this week and has been working hard learning new sounds and writing sentences with our tricky words. He has also been a super scientist and has enjoyed taking part in our ice experiment! Thank you for trying your best everyday.
Kenia	Primary 2a	Kenia has been working really hard during this week. She has improved her numeracy skills and now she is able to do some sums.  She has also developed her creativity skills when writing her comic! I am delighted with her progress 🙂
Jack Hawkins	Primary 2b	Jack has very much enjoyed our whole school theme of STEM Week and has been working hard at home with all of his learning this week.
Kieran	Primary 3a	Kieran has been working hard on his independent reading at home. Well done Kieran!
Angus	Primary 3b	Angus has been a wonderful home learner. He has enjoyed lots of different creative activities, and has really tried his best with reading and writing. Well done you Angus!
Stanley	Primary 4a	Stanley has been working very hard. He has been learning new skills and using them independently. He has structured his work and completed his tasks with great organisation and accuracy. Keep up the good work !
Vivienne Trawinski	Primary 4b	Vivienne has been a responsible and hard-working home learner. This week Vivienne applied her multiplication tables skills to create super division word problems. She then shared them at our class meeting for us to solve. Keep up the fantastic work Vivienne!
Liam Gunn	Primary 5	Liam has worked hard to complete all his numeracy & literacy tasks this week with Mrs Kelly. Keep up the good work Liam!
Lewis Granger	Primary 6a	For a fabulous Scots poem about Leith and for his enthusiasm and participation on our daily lessons, well done Lewis!
Edgar	Primary 6b	Edgar has been working hard over the last few weeks submitting all the work required of him daily.  He regularly goes above and beyond, challenging himself and trying most of the tasks from the home learning grid. He communicates well and shows enthusiasm and positivity towards his home learning.  Well done Edgar! Keep up the good work 🙂
Holly Reid	Primary 7a	For his effort in completing her home learning tasks. She demonstrated her confidence and understanding with the work she has submitted, including an excellent poem using onomatopoeia! Well done!
Christina	Primary 7b	Christina completes every task to a high standard and is always willing to help others. Well done!
Keirin Cattell	School Hub Bubble	Keirin has set an excellent example to others. He has been able to complete his tasks online and join in with lesson in the hub. Well done!

Dear Parents/Carers,

HEADTEACHER’S FEBRUARY HALF-TERM UPDATE

I hope that this letter finds you in good health and spirits. 

Although it has been short, we are already at the half-way point in our spring term. Next week, schools will be on their half term break. Learning, whether online or in the school hub, will resume on Tuesday 16th February.

Hard Work of Staff

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Leith Primary School staff for all their hard work and resilience over the last month. They have thrown themselves in at the deep end, becoming as much online presenters they have been class teachers. I hope that I don’t lose any to CBeebies over the coming weeks! Thank you to staff for manning the school hub, supporting individual pupils online and over the phone and offering to go the extra mile when needed. Thanks also to Angie Brack and Hugh Stuart who have been our resident IT Helpline for many of you. What they don’t know about Microsoft Teams now is not worth knowing!

Hard Work of Parents/Carers & Pupils

Thanks of course must go to all of our amazing Leith Primary parents and carers. We have been overwhelmed with how well the majority of our pupils have been engaging with learning at home and that can only be with the support and encouragement of you. An enormous well done to all of our wonderful Leith Primary pupils who have demonstrated responsibility and perseverance in spades by adapting to learning in this very different way. We know it’s not easy so thank you.

Food Support 

My gratitude also goes to the Leith Primary Parent Council (LPPC) who have very generously agreed to fund our school subscription to The Cyrenians who will provide us with food every Wednesday along with the Hibs Community Outreach Team so we can support the large number of families who indicated that this was a need within our school community. Thank you as well to two very generous members of the public who wanted to support our families at this time with very welcome donations of both money and food. We will share more information about our food store shortly.

We await to hear further plans about schools returning from the Scottish First Minister in today’s statement in parliament. Parents and carers will be informed as soon as plans for a return have been confirmed with the City of Edinburgh council.

Online Survey Response

Thank you to everyone who completed our Snap Surveys on home learning. Some of the feedback was really helpful and will inform our planning for after the February break.

Question Theme	Parents/Carers (129)	Pupils (74)
How are pupils coping emotionally with lockdown?	66% well/very well 17% neutral	50% good/very good43% Ok
How are pupils coping with learning at home?	63% well/very well19% neutral	60% quite well/very well35% Ok
What is helping pupils to cope with lockdown?	Daily Teams calls/videos with the class teacherInteraction with friends either online or in-person outsideSpending more time with family	Daily Teams calls/videos with the class teacherChatting to friendsSpending more time with familyGoing outside for a walk
What is helping pupils to manage home learning?	Seeing the class teacher every dayThe routine of daily tasks or a daily class check inBeing able to ask the teacher questions	Support from mum/dadSeeing my teacher every dayAsking my teacher questions when I am stuck/unsureHaving an iPad to work on
What more can school do to support pupils and families?	More time with the teacher onlineSupport with ITWorksheets	More help with TeamsShorter videosTeams meetings with the class

Families Online

Find the new edition of the online magazine Families Edinburgh here.

Support for Families

 Please check out our updated Support and Information page on the school website with a huge range of supports and contact details: https://leithprimary.org.uk/coronavirus-info/

Practical Pupil Supports 

We have stationary, learning supports, keyboards, toys and clothes available 

at the main front entrance. Please take what you need.

Thank you again for your continuing support both of your children 

and of school at this challenging time.  Keep persevering!

Yours sincerely,

Fiona Craig

Headteacher

Leith Primary School