Dear Parents and Carers,
Be Kind to Others – Building Resilience Health and Wellbeing Topic
Both of our assemblies launched our next Building Resilience topic – Be kind to others:
‘It is always lovely to be on the receiving end of a thank you or a kind act. However we know that kindness also benefits the giver as well as the receiver. When we are kind, it strengthens our connections with others. Sadly, when we are not treated kindly or are isolated from others this can have a detrimental impact on our wellbeing.
Through this unit we will help the children to recognise the importance of being kind to ourselves and others. Interestingly, one of the hardest people to be kind to is often ourselves and yet, self-compassion is associated with enhanced motivation, better ability to cope with difficulties, greater wellbeing and reduced anxiety and depression.
Skipper will teach the children about being a ‘bucket filler’. They will learn that everyone carries an invisible bucket that holds our good thoughts and feelings. When our buckets are full, we feelupand when our buckets are empty, we feel down. We can be bucket fillers and bucket dippers through our actions, words and behaviour.
In this unit, we will be learning that:
•Kindness makes a difference to ourselves and others
•Being unkind hurts others, and it hurts us too
•It is important to be kind to ourselves
Talk it Over:
Share with your child any acts of kindness you have shown recently to help others.
Family Task:
Try to do an extra act of kindness every day, e.g. offer to help someone who is struggling, pay a compliment or make someone smile. Share ways you have been kind with your class.
Key Book: ‘Have you filled a bucket today?’ by Carol McCloud’
‘Meet the new Pupil Support Officer’ Coffee Morning
We were delighted to welcome some of our parents to our first coffee morning hosted by our new Pupil Support Officer, Mrs Tait. We used the opportunity to chat and find out what we can do to help our families within our school community. We got some fantastic ideas including coping with child anxiety, information on classroom activities and curriculum and sharing resources between parents. We hope to hold these mornings regularly on a Friday morning. Everyone is welcome! We’ll be back in touch with our first information meet.
Scotland Women’s Football Team
It was great to see an ex pupil – Emma Watson come on as a second half substitute for The Scotland Women’s Team versus Hungary. Scotland won 4-0 at Easter Road. Bruntsfield School also appeared on the screen at half time!
Late Coming
The amount of children arriving late is on the rise. This amounts to lost learning time. Please ensure your child arrives to school on time to join the lines.
‘The Chat’ – A helpful service for parents
For the past year parents have been talking about how theysupport their children at home when it comes to learning about friendships and relationships, growing up and puberty, being safe and topics like consent. Parents have also talked about wanting their teenage children to understand about relationships and sexual health. We have also taken time to talk about what parents know and think about nursery and school-based learning. In nursery or school this will be called Relationship, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) learning. We have talked about what parents want to see in terms of how school and home should work together to support learning. We are now launching our report and celebrating the fact that parents are their child’s most important educator on all these matters. Find the Chat report at www.thechat.scotAs well as the full report there are some graphic representations of what we have learned, and a narrated short PowerPoint that will help share news of the Chat findings.
We are inviting interested parents and colleagues to come to a lunchtime webinar to hear more about the project and the findings. This is on Thursday 21st November 12.30 -1.15pm. Book here https://link.webropol.com/ep/thechat
Polwarth Pre Loved Sale
Polwarth Pre-Loved Sale is back again. We are an entirely volunteer-run sale offering 5000+ pre-loved items for children and babies, including clothing, toys and equipment. It provides a great way to reduce waste and beat cost-of-living increases. Sellers can declutter and make some cash; buyers are guaranteed a great selection of bargains across all areas. Proceeds from the sale go directly to our chosen charity, currently Richmond’s Hope, who work tirelessly supporting bereaved children across Edinburgh and Lothian. Unsold clothes can be donated to Kids Love Clothes. We still have a few seller spaces and are also looking for more volunteers.
The next sale is 23rd November, 11am-1pm. Email polwarthprelovedsale@gmail.com for more information.
Kind regards,
Stephen Gilhooley