The School Day

SCHOOL HOURS

Monday-Thursday

School starts: 8.50am

Break time: 10:30-10.45am

Lunch time 12.30-1.15pm

Finish time 3.15pm

 

Friday

School starts: 8:50am

Morning Break: 10.30-10.45am

Finish time 12.25pm

 

Collection

In the event of a parent/ named adult not collecting their child at the end of the day the school’s procedure is as follows

  • the child is asked to wait at the main reception in the foyer
  • the school will contact the parent or the emergency contacts listed in the pupil’s school record (these contacts are the only adults to which the school is able to hand over the uncollected child)
  • if these attempts to have the child collected fail then Children’s Services will be called and will assume responsibility for the child until the parent can be located
  • if you are collecting your child from the main reception by the school office, you will be asked to sign them out

 

In addition

  • if your list of emergency contacts changes please inform the school
  • it is acceptable to write a list of other parents with whom you have an agreement to collect your child after school should you be late – please give this to the class teacher
  • if your child attends after school club or their arrangements for the end of the day change, please give a letter to the teacher

Sometimes other parents offer to take the child.  Although this is always offered in the spirit of goodwill and seems a sensible solution, the school cannot allow this unless the parent has given their permission.  School staff will always ask the office to check the emergency contact list and will not allow you to help in this way unless they have the parent’s permission.  Please do not ask school staff to allow you to take another parent’s child.

 

Bikes and Scooters

If your child comes to school by bike or scooter, these should be parked in the bike and scooter bays in the playground. All users of bikes and scooters (including skate boards etc) MUST walk their wheels in the school playground. This is to minimise the risk of smaller children being hurt. 

 

ABSENCE

If you know in advance that your child will not be attending school, a letter should be sent to the class teacher to communicate the reason for the child’s absence.

In cases of emergency or short notice, please phone the school office in the morning on 0131 271 4675 to report your child’s absence.

If your child is leaving early, please inform the class teacher which adult will be collecting them and at what time.

If the arrangements for your child going home change, please inform the class teacher or the school office.

Pupils going home early should be collected from the school office. You will be asked to sign your child out at the office. If your child is late, please bring them into school through the main entrance. 

You will receive a phone call from the school office asking for an explanation if you have not called the school. This is Midlothian Council’s policy that has been implemented for the safety of children. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Holy Communion

1stcommuniongroups2015 1 1stcommuniongroups2015 2 1stcommuniongroups2015 3 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f 1g 1hCongratulations to all of the children who received the sacrament of first Holy Communion for the first time. They have now taken the next step in their spiritual journey and are now full members of the church family. May we keep them in our prayers as they continue to grow and spread the word of the Lord.

Trip to London

From the 2nd to the 4th of June, P7 went on a once in a lifetime trip to the Big Smoke for two nights with Mrs Marc, Miss O’Brien and Miss Chidgey. This was a great chance for P7 to make lots of amazing memories and to spend some quality time with each other before we take the big journey up to the high school. We all arrived at the school at the early hour of 8am so that we could get a bus to Waverly station to then get the train to Kings Cross in London.

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After a long but exciting train journey, we arrived at Kings Cross Station at about 2 o’clock. After that, we headed to platform 9 ¾ for some photos of us trying to get through the wall! Then we dragged all our bags to our hotel, The Royal National, and we relaxed for a small amount of time before we were up again and on our way to the Rainforest Cafe where we had an amazing time looking at the exotic fish and lifelike animatronics. We then walked to the Victoria theatre to watch ‘Wicked’, which was SPECTACULAR (and that was only day 1!). You can imagine how tired we were seeing as the show finished at 10:30pm meaning we got back to the hotel at about 11:00pm!

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The next morning, we were up for breakfast at 7:30am. We were so excited because we were going to Harry Potter world/Warner Bros studio tour. During the tour we had an insight into the creation of this spectacular franchise. This included: trying butter beer, getting pictures of us on broomsticks in front of a green screen, looking at the biggest ever model of Hogwarts and lots more. It was AMAZING!!

We then got changed and started our journey to the next show, ‘Matilda’. This show was exhilarating at points, sad at others and it was also quite funny. The changes they made improved the story and made sure that the story was not boring. We then walked back to the hotel and passed out for the second night. We were certainly happy to see our pillows!IMG_2643

We then woke up for the last day in London, it was a long day of walking as this was the day we went on the London eye and we went sightseeing. From the London eye we could see most of London and it was wondrous. We then walked around London looking at all of the big attractions like Big Ben, 10 Downing Street and lots more.IMG_2654

After a long few days we were finally ready for our trip home on the train. We got home about 9 O’clock on Thursday, leaving with memories we would never forget!

 

P5 and P3 Farm Day at Dalkeith Country Park

It was a exceptional day out in Dalkeith. P5 and P3 went to Dalkeith country park to a farming and food event. They were divided into groups of 3 one with Miss Chidgey, Miss Kelly and Miss Cornwall.

They learned about the different sheep breeds the male is called a runt. They learned about the different wools that are of sheep . They then learned about the different foods that grow in Scotland. They learned that barley is used to make  whiskey.

They learned about how many seeds a tractor can hold 100.000 seeds.

They learned how to milk a cow.

 They went on a tractor.

They had a food taster were they had to try different foods . They learned about the sheep males and females .

What farmers can provide that is good

Dairy milk , wool flooring ,

Matrices bedding , fruit and veg

Strawberry ,peas , carrots

 Oranges , apples , potatoes broccoli , collie flower , pares, wheat , cabbage and other veg and fruits .

  They learned about farming to encourage them to eat healthy food and to build  on there learning of forestry and farming and to help them on their topic. I would add in a station about how to grow fruit and veg. There next steps could be that they could download apps on their iPads or watch a farming video on the smart board.

Thank you to the staff and teachers and thanks for having us Dalkeith country park!

Primary 7 Triops

Primary 7 Triops

Christin and Robert have a big secret. Primary 7 has a class pet! The pet is not a hamster or a guinea pig; it is even better. It’s a type of shrimp called a ‘Triop’, which comes from the group ‘longicaudatus’ and is great for observing for science.

Triops shed their exoskeleton several times a year which you can take out the tank and keep or just let them eat it – yum yum.

It all started when we had an idea, we wanted to learn new things and we thought “How about a class pet of some kind, we can’t have a hamster or anything like that…” then it came to us: Triops. Robert had hatched them at home and was very fascinated with them and Christin wanted to find out more about them.

It started with us going to Mr Currie with our heads held high to pitch our idea to get primary 7 a class pet. Then, after a lot of perseverance we finally got a yes to getting Class Triops.

It has now been about 2 weeks and he is doing great he should be laying eggs soon which we can give another class to use next year.

 

 

St David’s HS Maths Challenge

On the 26th of May P7 and P6 went to a maths challenge at St David’s High school and had lots of fun.

We earned lots of points and won three awards: we came third in the ‘Measurement’ poster competition (which we made at school before the event) and came 1st and 2nd   in the overall competition. We were really excited to win scientific calculators as prizes! We would also like to say a big well done to St Andrew’s for winning the best school prize.

During the day, we took part in some fantastic active maths challenges as well as problem solving activities, which were lots of fun!  The third years gave us scores for how well we completed the activities and sometimes they even helped us to get on the right track with finding the solutions.

After such a successful and enjoyable day, Primary 6 have already said how excited and determined they are about going back next year! We hope that all the other schools had fun and will come back next year too. We would like to say a big thank you to the high school for inviting us to the maths challenge. We had the coolest time ever we also like to say thank you to all the staff and third years for taking time out off class to help all of us. We would also like to say thank you to Miss O’Brien, Miss Gilmore and Sandra for taking time off their time table and looking after us. Primary 6 and Primary 7 also feel that they represented St David’s well by trying their hardest, working really well together and showing manners to other schools and staff at the high school.

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