Kippen Primary School

Kippen Primary School

Newsletter

August 2016

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome back to the new school year at Kippen Primary. It’s great to have everyone start the year with such a positive and enthusiastic attitude. Our new pupils have settled in very quickly. All the staff would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new pupils and their families.

The classes remain as they were set at the end of last term, with 112 pupils in 5 classes.

Classes 2016/17

23P1/2Mrs Stirling (permanent class teacher)

21P3Mrs Mier (permanent class teacher, Acting Principal Teacher Wed pm, Thurs, Fri)

22P4/5Miss McGillivray (newly qualified teacher)

23P5/6 Miss Alexander (permanent class teacher)

23P6/7Mrs Stone (permanent class teacher)

Mrs Street (Principal Teacher Mon, Tues, Wed am) will continue to work in all classes for a period

Monday – Wed lunchtime

Staffing

We welcome Miss Katie McGillivray to P4/5. Miss McGillivray is a newly qualified teacher and she will be at Kippen for the 2016/17 school year. We also welcome Mrs Emma Newall, who will teach P4/5 on a Wednesday. We will have a Learning Community permanent supply teacher, Mrs Deborah McLernon, based at Kippen Primary for a period of time Mon - Thurs. When Mrs McLernon is not allocated to cover teacher absences in classes within the Learning Community, she will support Mrs Stirling in P1/2 as well as working across other classes at Kippen Primary.

As you will know from the End of Term Service, Mrs Joanna Small did not leave us as expected at the end of term. Mrs Small remains at Kippen until she is allocated a permanent position within the Learning Community and will work across all classes.

Mrs Wendy Shuttleworth, Mrs Grace Middlemass, Mrs Lois Simpson (Mon –Wed) and Mrs Morven Cattigan (Thurs-Fri) will continue to support pupils and classes across the school as Support for Learning Assistants.

Mrs Karen Leask is available in the school office 8:30-3:30 (Tues & Thurs) and 12:30-3pm (Fri). Out with these hours we do not have administrative support. You may need to leave a message on the phone out with these hours if no one else if available to answer.

Mrs Sandra McLean joins us as a Learning Support Teacher on a Monday to cover Mrs Laing’s maternity leave. Mrs Laing and her family celebrated the safe arrival of a baby daughter, Zoe.

Our Learning Community

The Balfron Leaning Community consists of the schools in our immediate area and includes Kippen, Buchlyvie, Fintry, Balfron, Drymen, Buchanan, Strathblane and Killearn Primary Schools, Balfron High School and Arnprior Nursery School. Staff from the Learning Community Schools work together on projects and developments and Head Teachers meet on a regular basis.

School Improvement Partnerships

Kippen Primary is also part of a School Improvement Partnership trio with Gargunnock and Killearn Primary Schools. These partnerships aim to:

• Raise attainment and achievement and improve outcomes for children.
• Enhance learning experiences for children, embedded within Curriculum for Excellence.
• Build our skills in self-evaluation and school improvement.
• Develop a shared moral purpose and collective responsibility for all children in all ourcommunities

School regularly self-evaluate in order to make and maximise improvements. As part of the School Improvement Partnerships model, schools will engage in a 3 year rolling programme of visits to Validate Self-Evaluation (VSE). Kippen will have a VSE visit in November of this year, involving Head Teachers from the Partnership trio, a Learning Community Head Teacher and an authority representative. We will keep you informed of parental and pupil engagement that may be required nearer the time.

The Dragon Project

All classes will be using the theme of dragons within the curriculum this session, with a literacy and expressive arts focus. We will be working with 2 local artists, Jaine Marriot and Morna Tinto to create a mosaic, using funds raised at the Community Christmas concert last year in memory of Matthew Gardner.

We would like to invite parents and families to visit us on Friday 28th October at 2pm to share in the literacy and expressive arts work that we will have been doing between now and then. Please put the date in your diary.

Breakfast Club

Breakfast club is open each school day between 8am and 9am and all pupils from the school are welcome to come along. No prior booking is required for the club - just come along on the morning and choose from a healthy and tasty selection of breakfast food and drinks. There are also games and drawing materials available to allow pupils to have fun with friends within a safe, supervised environment - all this for £2.00 per day.

There are always 2 adults in attendance, Heidi (catering staff employed by Stirling Council) together with a parent/carer helper organised via a parent rota. The club is self-financing, it takes no funds from Stirling Council and in particular no funds from the School.

Can you spare 1 hour? The Breakfast Club are always looking for parents/grandparents/carers to volunteer for the rota and help keep breakfast club open. If you can spare 1 hour from 8 till 9am- even occasionally - please get in touch with Kirsten () More details about the club are available on the school website.

PE Kit

Please remember that pupils should have a PE kit in class throughout the week. PE kit should consist of shorts, a plain tshirt (no football tops), socks and gym shoes/trainers. Long hair should be tied back and jewellery should be removed or pierced earrings covered with tape. You may wish to include a pair of tracksuit bottoms for when children are outside for PE as the multicourt surface can cause scraped knees if pupils trip or fall. Class teachers will communicate with you regarding regular PE timetable, but as always timetables are subject to change and having kit in all week allows for this.

Active Kids Programme

Here is the link to the Active Kids Programme for this session.

Active Schools

All classes will receive sports taster sessions with Active Stirling coaches over the session 2016-17 with follow up events for P3-7 at events involving pupils from the Balfron Learning Community.

Absences

Please communicate absences and appointments to school by a note to the class teacher (if the absence is known in advance or there is a sibling in school) or by phone call to the school office 01786 870 372. Please leave a message on the school answer phone when necessary. We endeavour to follow up all unexplained absences by 9:30am.

Please do not use email for absence reporting as we do not have full time office staff or access to other staff members emails if they were to be absent or out of school that day. Word of mouth from a sibling is not a suitable notification of absence.

Parental holidays in term time should be communicated to the Head Teacher in writing and will be recorded as unauthorised absences unless in exceptional circumstances.

Medication

If you have not already received and completed forms for your child to receive medication in school (e.g inhaler/piriton/epipen) or for special diets, then please contact the school office. If your child requires medication for a short period then we need the appropriate form completed before we can administer any medication in school.

School Dinners

Where possible please order and pay for school dinners on a Monday. A supply of slips can be accessed from the school office. Children can ask their teacher, an SLA or Mrs Leask for more slips.

Bikes and Dogs

If cycling to school, please walk with bikes from the school gate to the cycle rack and back. Please note that dogs are not permitted in the school playground at the start, during or end of the school day. We would kindly ask dog owners to stand away from the playground gate while waiting outside the school to allow for those less comfortable with dogs to enter and exit the playground.

Wishing you all a very successful and settled term ahead. As always please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Kind regards

Carole Logan

Head Teacher

twitter @kippenprimary

Please see Diary Dates below

Diary Dates August 2016