Prestonpans Infant School Newsletter

January 2014

It’s January. It’s cold.

It’s dark. So to cheer

ourselves up, we are inviting

everyone to wear slippers in

school this week. You don’t have to

wear baffies though. Some of the

children didn’t know what the good old

Scottish word ‘baffie’ was but they will all know by now.

It’s Scotland’s first Big Laugh Day in January. Laughter is

good for the soul, especially in dreich January so we are join-

ing in with the day on Friday 24th January 2014. We asked

the Pupil Council what we should do for the day and this is

what they have decided;

Dress up silly or funny.

Wear pants on your head.

Wear a onesie.

Paint your face before you come to school.

Everyone tell a joke.

Do a silly dance.

Watch a funny cartoon.

So our Assembly at 9.15am will be a great big laugh.

Don’t send in money because we are doing all this to cheer up

January. Watch our website or our Twitter for some funny

sights on the day.

Fiona O’Donnell, our MP, is bringing 3 MPs

from Tanzania to learn about Scottish Edu-

cation in Prestonpans Infants on Friday 24

January. I’m not quite sure what they’ll

make of Baffie Week or our Big Laugh Day

but it should be interesting!

It was Fiona O’Donnell who suggested to Save the Children

that our school would be a good school to bring their Families

and Schools Together project to. We have been AMAZED by

your enthusiastic response to this project. 30 families have

signed up already and other forms are still coming in! Thank

you all. Mrs Kettell is phoning everyone to tell them if

they’ve been accepted for the Project starting on Friday 7

February 2014. We will be running the Project again in Sep-

tember/October 2014 so if you don’t get on it this time, you

can put your name down for next time. The leaders of this

project are all from our school and community and they have

already been trained, as you can see here. They are;

Susan Graham, P3 teacher

Lorraine Stevenson, ASN Auxiliary

Chris Wilson, P1 teacher

Stephanie Valentine S3 student PL

Susan Savage, Nursery Nurse

Carolyn Wilson, Foster Carer

Iain Scott, parent

Jill Wallace, parent

Christine Knox, parent

A great team to lead a great project.

Thank you Fiona for recommending us.

P3 children will have the great opportunity in the last week of

term, 31 March to 4 April to spend 24hrs learning outdoors

and staying in Innerwick Residential Centre. The residential

trip will be led by Mrs Graham, a highly trained, very experi-

enced excursion leader. Parents and car-

ers are invited to a meeting in school on

Tues 4.2.14 at 6pm or on Thurs 6.2.14

at 2.15pm to find out more about the

trip. You can bring children along to the

evening session. Innerwick will be fully

funded so there is no cost to families.

P3s will be going to the Primary School again on Tues 4 Feb-

ruary 2014 for Scottish Country Dancing with P4s, as part of

our programme to get the P3s ready for their move to the

primary school in August.

We are celebrating the life of Robert Burns by asking P3

children to learn some Burns poetry in a wee competition.

The winners will be chosen by Mrs Jean Thompson, friend

of the school on Mon 3.2.14. Good luck P3.

Some children in P2 are reading to Hugo the

Labradoodle every Tuesday as this has been

shown to improve the children’s reading. The

children are so excited to snuggle down on our

new ‘sausage dog’s cushions and read to Hugo.

We also run a Reading Club Mon—Wed for children who need

some extra time reading. We have 2 volunteers that help Mrs

Mowatt with this but we REALLY need another volunteer. It’s

from 2.30– 3pm. Could you help?

Thanks to the Scottish Govern-

ment, Dynamic Earth and our own

Parent Council, the children all en-

joyed learning about Scotland and

how it was formed in their recent

visits.

Many of you dads, granddads, uncles and

male carers have enjoyed the two Go Mad

with Dad events. The most recent was a

film day at the Fraser Centre in Tranent.

More news will be coming soon but here’s

advance notice that there will be another

Go Mad with Dad film event in the February holiday on Wednes-

day 12 February from 1-4pm in the Fraser Centre. Tickets from

Dadswork as before.

At times, we have to leave our car park gates open to allow the

bins to be emptied or to give disabled parking access. We have

noticed many families walking their children through the car park

on these days. PLEASE DO NOT WALK YOUR CHILDREN

THROUGH THE CAR PARK ON ANY OCCASION. This is not safe.

The school will be closed for children from

Monday 10 Feb until Tuesday 18 Feb.

Monday 17 Feb is an In Service Day for staff.