Welcome to our New Parent’s Guide to Merrylee
Hello to our new Primary One families from your Parent Council and welcome to our community. We hope to meet you soon and get to know your family through the many events that take place throughout the year.
You will be getting lots of information from the school to help you prepare for the start of school but we, as parents, know that there are often little questions that you’d love to ask but feel daft, or things that haven’t even occurred to you yet. We’ve prepared a little ‘Parent’s Guide’ that will hopefully answer a lot of the questions that come up before school starts or in the first few weeks. If we haven’t covered it, please feel free to get in touch with the Parent Council to ask and we’ll add it for next year.
Buying school uniform
You will see lots of kids in the school wearing shirt and tie. You’ll also see loads that don’t! Either is fine. It is perfectly acceptable for boys and girls to wear the blue polo shirts with either the monogrammed sweatshirt or a grey v-neck and your class teacher will be hugely grateful if they are wearing these on gym days. A personal note from us – the grey sweatshirts look great with the school badge but they get can really grubby, really quickly. Marker pen does not come out!
There is absolutely no need to feel you have to purchase a blazer as they can be quite pricey but you can always ask around at school or come along to the summer fair as we often have second-hand blazers to sell. School logo polo shirts are often also available to buy second-hand but again, it’s absolutely fine to get the plain polo shirts as they are usually covered up anyway.They will probably need at least two pairs of trousers and at least three poloshirts if they don’t often wear a shirt and tie. Blue gingham dresses are easy to find and perfect for girls in the summer with a cardigan.
Areas of the playground can get incredibly wet and muddy at certain times of the year. The school office have a supply of spare clothing, particularly for the younger ones, should they have an accident or get in a mess. Alternatively you may occasionally find them coming home in their gym kit if they had to change.
Shoes – It’s important that all the children have separate indoor and outdoor shoes. Plimsolls (gumshoes) are cheap and easy to find but they do get very tatty, very quickly. Children are often seen wandering around the school with them torn and flapping and as they only come home at the end of term you might not know when they are worn out. A better idea, if you can, is to buy a cheap pair of trainers which can be classroom shoes and are more suitable for indoor gym. They will need an outdoor pair of trainers too. If you buy black ones, you can get away with them as their school shoes too in the drier months if you want.
Gym kit
Any old clean t-shirts and shorts are fine – don’t forget to label them and their gym bag. Tracksuits bottoms, trainers and a hoodie are a good idea as gym takes place in all weathers.
School bags
Branded bags are available but any sturdy bag will do fine. Most kids use a rucksack. Make sure it’s big enough to take a gym bag and at least an A4 folder. One with an outside water bottle holder is a great idea to avoid leakage. Our personal tip is that after many years of experimenting we love the Sistema twist top bottles as the kids can open them easily and more importantly, close them again...
There is really no need in P1 to send in pencil cases and stationery as the classroom will have everything the children need and they do tend to get lost.
Parking
Could we ask you please to respect requests to try to park away from the school? There are ongoing problems with the amount of traffic outside the school and with inconsiderate parking. If you need to drive to school its best if you can park a couple of streets away to keep the children safe.
Morning drop-off
Kids will be playing in the playground until the bell goes when they line up to go into their classroom. Unless the weather is awful they won’t be allowed in until then.From 8:45am the playground is supervised by the school janitor although he is not specifically manning the entrance. For the first couple of weeks your P1 will be accompanied into school by their buddy – how long this continues does vary depending on the kids, some hang out together for most of the year!
Please note that if your child is a little late there is no need to take them to the front door, the gates are kept open for around ten minutes after the bell goes so children should go in through the back as normal.
Breakfast club is a drop-in service, currently £1 per day, and runs from 8am if you have to drop kids early before work.
Breaks
Morning break is at around 11am. Most classes have a fruit break at some point in the afternoon so it is worth making sure they have at least one piece of fruit – they might just have this in class or go outside. When P1 start full days they will be given a break in the afternoon as they do tend to get very tired.
Kids will be able to have an additional snack at morning break but please, please don’t send in anything containing nuts as this does cause problems for kids with allergies.
Lunches
There are three sittings for lunch but Primary One children will always go in for first lunch and the children that have packed lunches will be able to sit with them. They have a teacher or teaching assistant supervising them so they will get help if they need it. You may find that they don’t always eat their lunch as they are desperate to get outside with their friends. Older kids have the choice to eat their packed lunch outside and many of them prefer this. P1-P3 are entitled to a free school meal and can choose to take this on any day, you don’t have to give notice. The teacher will take numbers first thing in the morning to pass to the catering team.
Money
If you need to send money into school for a class trip or event (letters come out in the school bags if this is the case) it’s a great help to the school if you can have the correct change, pop it in an envelope and clearly name it and send it in at the same time as the permission slip. Please don’t hand them into the office, payments are always dealt with by the class teacher so it’s best to put it in the folder. This sounds picky but if we make it as hassle free as possible for the staff then they have more time to teach our kids! Out of school events such as discos are run by the Parent’s Association and payments go to them – these can be handed to the office but again, clearly marked in an envelope and you won’t be able to get change. This avoids money going astray and kids not getting their tickets.
There are times when your child may need to bring some pennies into school if another class is holding a bake sale or a charity event. A wee purse in their bag is useful for that but make sure it’s named.
Meet the teachers
After the first few weeks of term you will be invited to come in and meet your child’s teacher who will talk you through the class routine and the goals for the year. We found this invaluable as what your child tells you may not actually make much sense! You can save up any general questions and chat to the teacher then.
After-school clubs
There are lots of opportunities to take part in clubs in primary school but you will find that most of these are for when your kids move up through the school. P1 can be given opportunities for lunchtime games sessions that come up but your class teacher will let you know about this. Saturday morning football is open to P1 and is very popular with the younger children.
We are always looking for willing parents to take on or help with clubs but you unfortunately cannot bring little ones along – don’t worry if this prevents you from contributing for the first couple of years as your time will come!
Making new friends
If your child is starting school without a group of friends from nursery you may be worried about them fitting in. Firstly, don’t worry as they will be fine! But there are things you can do to help them along and to make friends yourself. Bring snacks and drinks and go along to the swing-park at the end of Friarton Road for a play after school - it’s a great chance to chat to other parents and for the kids to meet up outside the school. Most of P1 can usually be found there when the weather is nice. If the kids are going to Afterschool or Fun Lodge they’ll have equally good chances to play outside class.
Play-dates are great for making friends. Invite a couple of classmates home for an hour or two after school – if you don’t know the parents to ask you can send a wee note in an envelope to go into the child’s folder. You can just let the teacher know through the homework diary that a different parent is collecting them although the kids tend to keep their teacher fully informed of any exciting plans!
One very pro-active parent, a couple of months into P1,would ask their child for the names of a few class-mates and invite them and a parent around one Saturday afternoon for a cuppa and cake. Or often parents from a class will organise a night out to meet other Mums and Dads – you can be that person! All you need to do is give a place and time and spread the word. If a pub isn’t suitable, maybe afternoon tea or a picnic would work?
Parties
Some children choose to have whole class parties for P1 – please do not feel obliged to do this. Many kids would rather have a smaller group so don’t feel pressured. The teacher is usually happy to send home a list of names for the class if you aren’t getting very reliable information from your child!
Homework
From P1 onwards your child will be given homework to do after school. The amount and structure does depend on the individual teacher but it is designed to consolidate their learning in class and to show you what your child is working on. It shouldn’t be stressful and teachers should be happy to chat if you are having problems, please ask. For the younger children it should only take 5-10 minutes per night and most teachers are flexible about spreading it over the week to allow for clubs, after-school care and parents who work. There won’t normally be homework at weekends unless they have a longer term ‘shared learning’ project (yes, that means shared with you ).
How parents can be involved
There are lots of opportunities to get involved during the school day and it’s a great way to see how the school runs. You could help in the classroom or adults are always needed for class trips, but also more generally paired reading, sorting lost property and any other specific skills you can offer the school are generally very welcome.
You are very welcome to get involved in the Parent Council if you would like to be more informed on school matters and involved in decision making. Our meetings are advertised on our website so just come along.
Our Parent’s Association sub-committee plans all the social events and fundraising for the school and they are always delighted to welcome new members and new ideas too – they meet once a month and again, the meetings are advertised online:
This guide is intended to stand alongside all the essential information that you will receive from the school and there is also a huge amount of information available on the Parent’s Zone section of the school website:
Hopefully these resources will cover most questions for you but please, do feel free to email us if you have any questions or leave a message at the school office. Please note you aren’t able to post questions on the Parent’s Association Facebook page but it is a great place to get information and keep up to date with events.
We always welcome new suggestions for how we can serve the school community so we’d be delighted to hear from you.
Thanks for reading!
Your Parent Council