MORAY PRIMARY SCHOOL AND NURSERY CLASS : January 2010

Welcome back to school and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope that you
had an enjoyable festive period and that the weather did not affect your
plans too much.
While the weather is so bad and the ground so slippery, the children will
be brought into the building first thing and will remain in all day until
home time. I appreciate that this is difficult and that the children need
fresh air but I can’t run the risk of accidents by falling or by thoughtless
children who take pleasure in throwing ice balls!!! I’m sure you will
appreciate my position and understand that pupil safety is important.

I am very pleased to tell you that Miss Reid – Depute Headteacher – has
now started at Moray. She is a welcome addition to our school at this
time and I’m sure you will get to meet her in time and will enjoy working
with her.

Mr Connochie continues to have treatment in Glasgow and is due to have a

scan this week. He is overwhelmed by the good wishes and cards etc
which have been sent by many of you – the word he used is “humbled”. He
is taking great comfort from these good wishes. We all know that this is
a tough time for the Connochie family and our best wishes and thoughts
are with them constantly.

This is a busy term within school and we have some outings planned for
certain classes. Letters will be sent home as appropriate for you to sign.
Some money is required but our trips are subsidised by PTA funds. P7 will
be particularly busy with events from now almost until they leave us and
we will try to limit what we expect in payment as we do not want anyone
to be disadvantaged.

We are aware that many of our pupils have a mobile phone and obviously
some were newly bought for Christmas. However, the policy here is that
we cannot be responsible for the safety or security of such items and so
we ask that they are left at home. If a mobile phone is brought into
school it must be switched off, labelled and handed in to the main office.
Please appreciate that we are not liable or responsible for the
safekeeping of these or other items which your child may bring to school
e.g. DS machines, toys etc
Teachers are busy writing interim reports just now and these will be sent
home to you just prior to your parent appointment time. We have planned
these for two Monday evenings – February 1st and 8th. An appointment slip
will be sent home with your child. It may be that you have two or more
teachers to see and we try to co-ordinate this within one evening.
However, at this time I am unsure if our Nursery meetings can be done on
these dates due to Mrs McElhatton’s absence from school. I will know
fairly soon though if she is likely to be back by Feb. 1st. If she is still
absent, we will reschedule nursery meetings.
Children just starting our nursery this term will not have a planned
meeting but will be given information though about settling in etc.

We are about to start our enrolment for August Primary 1 intake and this
is being done during the following days and time:
MONDAY 18TH AND TUESDAY 19TH JANUARY
BETWEEN 9.00 – 11.30 A.M. AND 1.30 – 3.00 P.M.
PLEASE NOTE WE ARE NOT ENROLLING DURING THE LUNCH BREAK
If your child is due to start school in August and you are in our catchment
area please come to the main office at these times. You will need your
child’s birth certificate and proof of address where the child lives. We
will be happy to help if you are unsure about your catchment school.

We are having our Scottish week this month beginning on 25th with a
whole school get together to celebrate our own culture. All children have
a piece of poetry to learn and the best pupil at each stage – Pre School to
P7 – will take part in a Grangemouth cluster competition on 29th in
Beancross School. Information will be sent to the parents / carers of our
8 children once we have decided who they are. You can help at home by
listening to the piece of poetry which your child has. There is a different
piece for each stage and these were given out just before the Christmas
break.

I hope that this letter finds you well and that we can count on your
support on 2010 at Moray. Take good care and be careful on the roads
and pavements.