Windygoul Primary SchoolMarch 18
Brotherstones Way
Tel: 01875 619739
Staff News
We bid a fond farewell to Mr Bonner our janitor who retires at the end of this term. Jimmy has been a real asset to the school and enjoys ‘local legend’ status. He has worked tirelessly to improve the school and has made many great friends here. He will be sorely missed but now has time to visit those far-flung places he has yet to explore. We wish him all the best for a long and happy retirement.
We are delighted to welcome Rhodri Thomas as our new permanent Depute Head. Rhodri is a very experienced teacher and is well known to pupils and parents. An advert is live for his replacement. We are also delighted to welcome Chris Kay as our seconded Depute. Chris joins us from Prestonpans Primary school and will take up post from the first of May. We look forward to him joining the Windygoul team.
It has been proving difficult to fill our maternity cover for the P5/6 class. Moving forward for next term, Miss Innes will job share with Mrs Sharp across P5 and P5/6 working Monday/Tuesdays and alternate Fridays in P5 and then in P5/6. There will be additional support for both classes from the SMT. With a bit of luck, our re-advertising of the maternity post will be successful and we hope to recruit at the start of next term. We thank you for your support in this.
Rookie Rockstars
A big thank you to all who attended and made the three nights such an enjoyable experience. We think we had around 600 parents, carers and family members join us. The pupils had a lot of fun and your support was amazing.
Car Parking – continuing complaints
The safety of your children is our number one priority and in the last few weeks it seems there have been a couple of near misses. There have been cars parking on the double yellow lines and even on the zebra crossing. We raise this regularly in our newsletters and are in touch with our local police representatives to help us monitor the situation. We ask again that you think seriously about where you are collecting your children from and the impact it has on some of our younger pupils. Please don’t wait until there has been a nasty accident to change your parking habits!
East Lothian Youth Summit
‘Ideas for Change, and Ideas for Action’ – East Lothian’s Youth Summit
Our first East Lothian Youth Summit 2018 took place at the Brunton Hall on Wednesday 7th March.This inaugural summit will hopefully create a benchmark for youth engagement across Scotland, and lay the foundations for a proposed bi-annual event.
Since our aim is ensure we acknowledge the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, we want to build an approach to engaging with children and young people which is co-productive, dynamic and responsive to ensure that all of the their voices, and their communities, are heard. We have a duty to collaborate with young people and allow this co-working to inform the education service as set out in the ongoing development improvement plan. The information generated on the day will influence the new cycle of East Lothian planning in 2018.
The idea was to spark on-going conversations that generate 'Ideas for Change, and Ideas for Action' that East Lothian can pledge on. The feedback from young people, facilitators and adult helpers was very positive and, excitingly, some initiatives have already progressed from the ideas that were generated.
Upcoming local events
Consultation now open
The consultation on School Session Dates for 2019/2020 will be open on the Council’s Consultation Hub from Tuesday 27 March 2018 until Friday 4 May 2018. The consultation on the draft school session dates for 2019/2020 is to seek stakeholder views. Our neighbouring authorities, City of Edinburgh Council and Midlothian Council have set, or are in the process of setting, their session dates and these dates are available on the respective websites. The East Lothian Council draft dates for 2019/2020 have taken cognises of our neighbouring authority dates and very much align with City of Edinburgh Council dates.
The link to the consultation hub is –
Competition Time
Term Dates for next session 2018/19
These have now been approved by the Council and full details can be found on our website or at
Late News – Darcy Gordon in P4/5 is competing on 31st March for a Scottish/Anglo title in Thai boxing. She wants to raise awareness of Cerebral Palsy because of her sister’s diagnosis. She is fund-raising through this competition for BOBATH Scotland. We wish her the very best luck.
We wish everyone a wonderful Spring break and hope that you have a relaxing and restful Easter. See you back at school on Monday 16th of April!
The Windygoul team