St Ninian’s R.C. Primary

School Newsletter Please note that this newsletter can be

found on the website www.st-ninians.btik.co.uk

Week ending

18th December 2015

Dear Parents and Guardians,

CHRISTMAS FAYRE

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make this Christmas Fayre such

a success! It was wonderful that so many parents and children were able to

come along and enjoy the fayre. Thanks to you the fayre raised just over

£2,000 which will be used to support the purchase of new reading books.

PARENT/TEACHER/PUPIL—THREE WAY CONFERENCING

It was great to see so many parents in last week to meet with the teachers to find out how the

children are progressing with their learning. A few parents were unable to make their appointments

but kindly let us know in advance so that changes could be made. Thank you also to the parents who

made purchases at the Book Fair as this means that the school earns the commission which will be

used to buy books for the school.

This next week is very busy and hopefully will be filled with lots of excitement. We are looking

forward to the Infant Nativity on Thursday and lots of parties throughout the

week.

Christmas Jumper day raised £180.43 thanks to your very kind donations and

this is now being sent off to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

One last thank you that I would like to make is to our Parent Council. Through their fundraising

work last year they have been able to offer financial support to the school and are kindly paying for

the refreshments for the class Christmas Parties and have also part funded the Pantomime which

will be performed on Monday 21st December.

This has been a very busy term and I am sure all of the children and staff are ready for a well-

earned rest. I hope that you all manage to have a peaceful and joy filled Christmas and that 2016 is

filled with good things for you and your families.

Mrs. Angie Brack

Head Teacher

NURSERY

Well I don't need to tell you that the children have been very busy over the last few

weeks.

They have been very busy preparing their Nativity Play, making and writing

Christmas cards, letters to Santa and making all sorts of lovely decorations to

decorate their nursery and preparing food for their Christmas Parties. It is hectic

but lots of fun. We have really enjoyed reading the letters to Santa and learning all about your family

traditions, so thank you for sharing this with us.

We have a little bit sad news to share with you all. Miss Hay will leave us at the end of this

term. Miss Hay has been a much treasured part of our team and we will all miss her but we

wish her every success in her new venture and I know you will all want to say thank you along with us for all

her work with your children.

The nursery team would like to wish you all a very happy and holy Christmas.

Nursery opens on Thursday, 7th January at 8.30a.m. Mrs. Merry and the Nursery Team

PRIMARY 1A

Hello from Primary 1A

The big news from Primary 1 is that we have just completed the alphabet – hurray! We

now know the sounds for all 26 letters and will be using them all from now until the end of

term to make lots of words. A huge thank you to everyone at home for helping with

homework.

I have been amazed at the children’s response to our new “Word Boost” programme. We read a story each

week and learn the meanings of 4 interesting words from the story. This will help us to develop a wide

vocabulary. The children have been fantastic at remembering the words and their meanings and have been

using them in conversations.

In maths we are learning about money. We have been sorting and naming coins and are

beginning this week to use them in our pretend shop. We are also learning to be

creative with 2D shapes and are very good at making pictures with circles, triangles,

squares and rectangles.

Our science topic is called “Materials”. We have been sorting lots of toys and other

objects by thinking about what they are made of. We have also been using our senses

to find out what things look and feel like. We know that things made of wool feel soft

and things made of metal feel hard. This week we will be examining the materials the “Three Little Pigs”

used to build their houses in the well-known fairy tale.

We have used much of our gym time recently to practise our Nativity Play. The class are very enthusiastic

singers and are looking forward to the big performance which is quite soon. Hope to see you all there.

Mrs. Howie

PRIMARY 1B

Merry Christmas from primary 1B!

We have had a very busy term in Primary 1B. The children have really

enjoyed learning the songs for our nativity play and they can’t wait to

perform for you this week.

We have spent our final weeks of this term finishing the alphabet and we

know all 26 letters! As we move into the New Year we will be looking again at those tricky words, CVC

words and sentences. The class have liked getting to know our reading book characters: Biff, Chip and

Kipper over this term and they can’t wait to read about their new adventures after Christmas.

We have got even better with our counting and numbers this term. We are going to continue working on

addition after Christmas. We have also been looking at some 2D shapes: triangles, circles, ovals, squares

and rectangles. Next term our maths topic will be on money.

Thank you again for your continued support and it was good to catch up with you at our parents’ evening last

week.

Happy holidays!

Miss Jackson

PRIMARY 1/2

What a busy end to the term it has been!

After working hard on our new Maths topic – 2d shape and completing our P.E lessons in Gymnastics we are

now excited to focus on Christmas!

The Primary 1’s have worked very hard and are delighted to have now finished all the initial sounds of the

alphabet.

The Primary 2’s have been wizards at the magic ‘e’ spelling rule and will be moving on to new spelling after

Christmas.

We love Christmas in P1/2 and this week we have a fun filled week to get us ready for the festive season.

We had a lovely day on Monday preparing and cooking our own class Christmas dinner and had great fun at

the class party on Tuesday with some good dancing on show!

We have put in a BIG effort into our Nativity this year and we do hope you all enjoy it, the children are

excited to perform in front of an audience!

I hope you all have a lovely break over the holiday and am looking forward to seeing all the children back in

the New Year, ready for a new term.

Miss Hayes

PRIMARY 3

Hello,

I hope all the Christmas preparations are going well! It is a very busy time of year in school. Primary 3

have been working very hard on making board games together. They have carefully created fun games,

taking inspiration from games they know and current learning. They can’t wait to show you their hard work!

We are learning lots about Advent and what we can do to prepare ourselves for

Christmas. Every day, we talk about a new part of the Christmas Story and

discuss how different it is to today’s life.

The children enjoyed their party and are very excited about the panto and

Christmas movie in the next week .

It was lovely to meet you all again during the parents nights last week. Thank

you for your support this term!

I hope you all have a great Christmas,

Miss Denning

PRIMARY 2

Primary 2 have been very busy working hard this term. They have been

enjoying learning about the Sun Moon and Stars and would like to thank

everyone who joined us in our Space Museum to view their wonderful

creations. In class we have been reading ‘The Owl who was Afraid of

the Dark’ while we have been exploring day and night. In this story the

baby owl is very scared of the dark and the children have also been discussing and writing about their

feelings in class. As part of this topic we have also been exploring the language of time and exploring

calendars.

In P.E the children have been working really well on object control and enjoyed sharing their own games

that they had created with balls and beanbags.

As part of our preparations for Christmas we have been focusing on the story of ‘The Grinch’. All the

children have really enjoyed learning and discussing this story as well as creating their own artwork both

for our hall display and our class book. Primary 2 are looking forward to all

their Christmas activities in the run up to the school holidays.

I very much enjoyed having the opportunity to discuss your children’s learning

with you at the recent parent, teacher consultations and would like to thank

you all again for your support.

Merry Christmas.

Mrs Mooney

PRIMARY 4/5

We are now coming to the end of our first term in P4/5. The children have worked hard in all areas of the

curriculum and have particularly enjoyed learning about Mary Queen of Scots.

We have covered a variety a topics in Maths and will be learning about

fractions next term.

In language we have been learning ways to make our writing more interesting

and will be developing our writing of newspaper articles next term. In P.E.

We have improved our skills in basketball and gymnastics.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Mrs. Grant

PRIMARY 4

Dear Parents/Carers,

First of all, thank you so much for your continued support with homework at home. The

class have been working really hard and should be really proud of their work.

We have now almost finished our topic of Castles and we are looking forward to our new topics next year of

Electricity and Communications. The class have really enjoyed all we have done with Castles and have

learned a lot.

In maths we have been challenging ourselves by learning about 4, 5 and 6 digit numbers and again the class

are working very hard.

We have finished our class novel of ‘James and the Giant Peach’ and next term we will start a detailed

study of ‘The BFG’.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday and that Father Christmas is good to you!

Miss Healy

PRIMARY 6

Hi,

This term has been super busy for Primary 6! We have had a fantastic time

learning about planet Earth and Space. The children enjoyed making paper rockets

and trying to get them to launch, investigating the earth’s atmosphere and learning

about people who have been in space. Each child presented a planet presentation

with pride in their work. I was amazed with the facts they found about their

chosen planet! Well done to all!

In literacy, the children have been exploring different writing forms. We have looked at letter and diary

writing. Next term, we will continue to explore the many forms of writing to improve our writing skills.

We have continued the 'kicking it math' programme to help us get quicker at recalling our times tables

facts. I can see lots of improvement but please continue to encourage your child to practice their times

tables regularly. All pupils should now have a pack of coloured times tables cards to help them at home.

For those of you who have been using class dojo, please note we will no longer be using it on a daily basis.

Instead we have decided to have a dojo week once a month!

I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mrs. Rensburg

PRIMARY 5

At the moment in Primary 5 we are working on perimeters and area in maths.

This is meaning that we are also working on addition, subtraction and

multiplication as well!!

We are also looking at creating stories in writing that focus more deeply on

the characters we create so that the reader has more connection with them

and wants to read on. We will be looking to keep this character going into

other stories as well, and perhaps even meet up with other characters from

other stories in the class. This is backing up our topic of looking at Superheroes, both fictionional and non-

fictional and the various good deeds they do to support the people around them. We will continue this over

the holidays.

After the holidays we will be taking up swimming in our different groups with all of the Primary 5 children

getting a turn to go along to Abbeyhill Primary School pool. More details to follow on this.

Lastly both Mrs Cole-Hamilton and Mr McCann wish you and your families a very

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mr. McCann/Mrs. Cole-Hamilton

MILK MONEY

Milk money of £4.10 to cover the period 16/11/15 – 22/12/15 is now overdue. If you haven’t

already paid please send the money to the class teacher as soon as possible. Milk money of

£4.10 will be due again on 07/01/16 to cover the period 07/01/16 – 26/02/16.

Edinburgh’s Budget Challenge

The City of Edinburgh Council has an acute budget challenge. It has published its budget proposals and is

inviting feedback, views and new ideas by the 17th December. There is a wide range of proposals across all

council services and areas, including some which will be of interest to parents/carers of school age pupils.

You are invited to look at the proposals and engage with the consultation if you have views or ideas. You can

also share the budget consultation with colleauges, family and friends.

Please note the timescale for feeding into the consultation. It is important that you do so by the deadline

if you would like your feedback to be considered by the Council at the meeting on 21st January 2016.

PRIMARY 6/7

Hello,

A massive thank you and congratulations to the Primary 6/7's who managed to raise

£984 at the recent bag packing event last weekend. We also managed to raise £40

at the Christmas Fayre so this will be added to the total. Thank you to Mrs Creaney

who spent so much time working with the children to produce the crafts which went

on sale. This will go a long way to supporting our children at camp.

We will try to squeeze in another couple of events before February but if anyone has any more ideas for

fundraising then please don’t be afraid to get organising!

In maths we have been learning about fractions, decimals and percentages and the children have been

working well using the games and activities that are provided for them. They have also been enjoying their

work on multiplication and have been solving a range of problems using these skills. I’m sure they will

continue to work hard!

Thank you for the continued support with Home Learning, it really does make a difference to the children's

learning. Could we please ask that you spend some time with your child practising their times tables

whenever you get the chance, you can never be quick enough!

It was great to see so many of you at parent consultations this week, please remember that if anyone has

any questions or queries at all, don't hesitate to get in touch. We are very conscious that we don't get to

see many of you at the end of the day as the children often walk home by

themselves but, as always, our door is always open.

We hope you all have a lovely Christmas when it comes.

Louise Murray and Laura Creaney

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - EAL (English as an Additional Language) Team

As we head towards Christmas and New Year celebrations we thought it would interesting to learn about

some of the festivals and events from around the world this time of year.

November

Diwali: The Hindu festival of light

The Hindu festival of Diwali traditionally symbolises the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and

knowledge over ignorance. It's celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains all over the world. For

Hindus it's the most important annual festival when they celebrate New Year and give thanks to the

Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi. Sikhs celebrate the release from imprisonment of the sixth Guru Hargobind.

For Jains, it's the day when, in 527BC, the sage Mahavira gave his last teachings and achieved ultimate

liberation.

Edinburgh celebrated Diwali with a free fireworks event in Princes Street Gardens on the 21st of

November.

December

St Nicholas Day: Polish Christmas Traditions

Polish children celebrate St Nicholas' Day on 6th December and are given small presents from Santa.

Often the gifts are placed under pillows or hidden in the shoes so the shoes have to be cleaned

and polished well. If the child was behaving badly this year, he or she could expect a lump of coal or a

twig.

Polish families begin their Christmas celebrations on 24th December with a Christmas Eve dinner. The meal

starts as soon as there is the first star in the sky (the Bethlehem Star). Before the meal, the whole

family shares a Communion-like wafer (opwatek), blessed by a priest. Traditionally there should be twelve

different dishes on the table: barszcz (beetroot soup), different kinds of fish (often carp and herring),

pierogies (Polish dumplings), sauerkraut with mushrooms and lots of cakes (e.g. poppy seed cakes and

cheese cakes). After the meal it is time for opening presents, so Polish children get to do that

much earlier than Scottish children. Many families go to midnight mass (Pasterka) to sing carols and light

candles by Jesus' manger.

Here is how to say "Merry Christmas" in Polish "Wesołych Świąt" (ve-so-wih shvyont)

Hanukkah: The Jewish Festival of Light

Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival also known as the Festival of Lights. Jews observe the festival by

lighting one candle on a nine-branched menorah - or 'hanukiah candelabrum' - each day.

In the western calendar, Hanukkah is celebrated in November or December.

The holiday begins on the 25th day of Kislev – the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew

calendar – and is celebrated for eight days. This year, Hanukkah will begin on the evening of Sunday

December 6th and end on the evening of Monday December 14th.

Eid Milad un-Nabi

Eid Milad un-Nabi marks the anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad's birth. It falls on the 12th or 17th

day of the Islamic month of Rabi' al-awwal. This year Eid Milad-un-Nabi is going to be on the 24th of

December (see note).

The celebrations generally consist of lectures, speeches, poems and spiritual songs on the life of

Mohammad and the Islamic lifestyle. Many Muslims may fast during daylight hours, say special prayers or

eat a communal meal. Some events concentrate on telling the story of Mohammad's life to young children,

as well as organising for children to tell the stories. Activities may last for a week or even the whole

month of Rabi' al-awwal in some communities.

Many Muslims see Eid Milad un-Nabi as an important time to learn about and reflect on Muhammad’s life.

The lectures and speeches are often recorded and published as podcasts. Some communities broadcast

the celebrations live via radio or Internet so people can hear or watch them at home.

Note: Regional customs or moon sightings may cause a variation of the date for Islamic holidays, which

begin at sundown the day before the date specified for the holiday. The Islamic calendar is lunar and the

days begin at sunset, so there may be one-day error depending on when the New Moon is first seen.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at St. Ninian’s.

Please note that the STAFF return to school on Wednesday, 6th

January 2016 and the CHILDREN return to school and Nursery on

Thursday, 7th January 2016.