Dear Parents and Carers,

• Sharing the Learning: Scottish Opera with P6 was wonderful! We shall definitely want to book them for next session. I am pleased everyone enjoyed the whole experience and so many parents and carers were able to join us.
• P2 sang and presented beautifully at their Katie Morag Showcase today, well done everyone in P2!
• Internet Safety Week is during our February Break. The teachers will talk to the children about internet safety the week we come back.
• If, for any reason, you missed your Parent Consultation Meeting, please contact the teachers to arrange another time.
• The City of Edinburgh Council are working with partners the Scottish Football Association, Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and Lothian Disability Sport (LDS) to offer a new football opportunity for children and young people with a physical, learning or visual / hearing impairment at Forrester / St Augustine’s High School Campus on the 7th & 21st March, 4th April, 2nd, 16th & 30th May (10am – 11am) led by experienced coaches. Further information from neal.herbert@scottishdisabilitysport.com or  Jack.Beesley@ea.edin.sch.uk and booking forms on  https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=af6sSGo3tUKfacnke7 5xNZZVuiM2yxLoGCz5RwzAB9UQkhUODI5V0tJWEFYTDU0NURKUlgzOEhWVy4u
• Well done to our Euro Quiz entrants, Sylvie G in P6A, Cailean P6A, Skye P6C, Maurits P6C and Naomi C in P6C who performed very well on Monday 3 February at the City Chambers. The children were close to reaching the next round, but were pipped at the last round. Good luck to Carrick Knowe who are through to the finals.
• The P3s will have completed their 4 weeks of yoga on Friday. They have revised their ‘Human Body’ topic through yoga poses, talking about muscles and bones and learnt some Sanskrit. You may want to ask the children what ‘paschimottanasana’ is! The theme of Chinese New Year was included as they practiced some of the animal poses along with using their legs as chopsticks, to pass round yoga blocks, which was great fun and encouraged balance, proprioception and focus. Finally this week they will revise the poses and breathing techniques they have learnt and draw on their current topic ‘Inventors’ as they create yoga poses of their own.
• Edinburgh City Council are advertising for supply teachers, pupil support assistants and special school staff in both primary and secondary. Further information and application forms at  https://www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/councils/city-edinburgh-council/jobs
• The web link send in an email earlier giving information from the NHS on  NOVEL CORONAVIRUS has been updated to https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov

You asked about:

• Homework: please contact the class teacher if you are unsure of the home learning for the week, they will be more than happy to help.
• School Bell: the Facility Technicians are going to monitor the timing of the bell each week to make sure it rings at the correct time. Due to the electrical work happening in school this may have had an impact. We are hopeful, this work will be completed in February.
• School Library: As our School has grown from 420 children to 620 children all the spaces we had in School for storage and  resources have been condensed to make way for more classrooms. We have been fortunate the builders have been able to create additional storage places in the school to help us. As a result, we are now able to move all the resources around, to allow the Library to return to what it was originally planned for, enjoying books without storage cupboards attached! If you would like to help in the library, please contact Mrs Ramsay or Mr Wood. Our aim is to have it up and running when we return from the February break.
• The Daily Mile: All teachers do 2 hours of PE each week with their classes. Some do small blocks little and often, others do it in larger blocks. They have found the children like variety. The children may talk to their class teachers if it is something they would like to try.
• Packed Lunch Boxes: Each class has a large coloured bag with their class name on it for the children to put their packed lunch boxes in. The bags are taken back to the classroom and the boxes collected at the end of the day. Please remind your child to make sure they always put their lunch boxes in the correct bag. Several are left in the playground and are damaged by the children running into them. We shall remind them in class too.
• Assemblies: we have invited guests, musicians, pupil led activities, rewards, certificates and medals to present at Assemblies. Occasionally, there have been a few too many things to complete in the 50 minutes which has caused them to go on too long. We shall carry any items forward into the following week to avoid them running later from now on.

The School Closes on Friday 7 February and reopens to pupils and staff on Monday 17 February 2020.

Have a lovely week, safe journeys there and back if you are travelling.

Kind regards,

Carol Kyle