Capshard Primary School
Newsletter August 2014
Welcome back to the new school session 2014-2015 after what I hope
was an enjoyable and relaxing summer for everyone. I am delighted to be
at Capshard for another year, both the staff and children are committed
and hard working and the school has a friendly, inclusive ethos and
atmosphere.
It was lovely to see the children returning to school on Wednesday.
They all looked very smart in their new uniforms – they are a credit to
you.
Our seventy primary one children seem to have settled well into school
too. They are still on morning only sessions this week but by Monday 1st
September they will be in school all day.
Staffing
We now have 399 children in school. We have 15 classes, 2 more than last
session. I am delighted to welcome our new teachers Ms Bernadette
Easton, Ms Caroline Robertson and Ms Nicole Pelan to the staff.
The classes are arranged as follows –
P1a, Rm1 Mrs Karen Anderson
P1b, Rm2 Mrs Carol Fenton
P1c, Rm3 Mrs Kathleen Ivrisse
P2a, Rm7b Ms Caroline Robertson
P2b, Rm7 Mrs Sarah Templeman
P2c/3a, Rm4 Ms Nicole Pelan
P3b, Rm6 Mrs Clare Greig
P3c, Rm5 Mrs Nicola McLean
P4a, Rm8 Ms Catriona Lumsden/Mrs Rhoda Ramzy
P4b, Rm9 Mrs Carolyn Marshall
P5b/6a, Rm10 Ms Amanda McAlpine
P5a Rm11 Mrs Claire Brown
P6b Rm12 Ms Bernadette Easton
P7a Rm14 Mrs Donna Paoli
P7b Rm13 Mr Derek Cobb
We also have Mrs Annie Carr, nursery teacher, Mrs Dorothy Andrews who
remains our learning support teacher and Mrs Bewes who will be doing
some NCC cover this session. Mrs Elizabeth Thomson will also be doing
some NCC cover on a temporary basis.
The management team consists ofAngela Welsh, temporary Headteacher
Morag Macinnes, Depute for Early Years
Sharon Thibert, Depute for Upper School
Ms Carol Jenkins and Mrs Marie Coppola have joined Mrs Helen Peters,
Mrs Margaret McNab, Mrs Gail Smith and Mrs Tracy Aitchison to
complete our team of support staff for this session. We also have Ms
June Jack with us on a supply basis.
In the office we have Yvonne Grainger who is an admin assistant and
Margaret Evans who is a clerical assistant. Margaret will be retiring at
the October break. She started work at Capshard in 1994. On behalf of
all the staff and children, past and present, I would like to thank
Margaret for her hard work and dedication over the past twenty years.
We will all miss her cheery smile and her kind, caring approach. We wish
her all the best for a long and happy retirement.
Staff Training
During the two in-service training days earlier this month all school staff
benefited from updates in Child Protection and Fire Safety. They all had
a samba based teambuilding activity.
In addition all teaching staff had training in new maths resources and in
updating their class page on the school website.
As well as in-service training days teaching staff attend a variety of
training sessions throughout the year. For example this week we will all be
at Fair Isle Primary School for a twilight input on numeracy.
Diary Dates
We are currently working on assembly dates for this session and hope to
be able to share them with you very soon.
Wed 27th August – “Friends of Capshard” meeting in school at 5.15pm.
This is a small group of parents and staff who meet to plan and organise
fundraising events for the school. The meetings are very relaxed and
informal. Please come along if you can spare the time – it would be good to
see some new faces!
Thursday 28th August – the Fife Free Press photographer will be visiting
school to photograph our P1 intake.
Friday 29th August – Nursery Welcome Chat for new parents.
Thursday 28th August – Rugby sessions for all P7 pupils start today and
will be weekly for four weeks.
Thursday 18th September – School closed for the election.
Wednesday 1st October – Nursery Open Evening 6-8pm
Friday 10th October – last day of term
Monday 27th October – first day of term 2
Thursday 9th October – School Nurse administering Flu Immunisations
(Nasal Spray)
More information will be sent out from NHS regarding this nearer the
time.
Before/After School Clubs
Last session we had two “before school” clubs running –
Tuesday - Karate
Wednesday - Kiddy Kickers
We also had the following “after school” clubs running Monday – Netball
Tuesday – Choir for part of the year then Dance
Thursday – Football
Friday – Dance
We hope to resume most, if not all of these clubs this session. Letters
will be issued as soon as possible.
Karate resumes this week for all children who started last session.
Some parents have enquired about a child-care type after school club,
which would take children every evening from 3.05pm. We have been
working on this for some months and hope to have more information for
you soon.
Road Safety
All nursery and school children should be entering school via the main
gate in the morning. Nursery children/parents should walk around the
school building to get to the nursery safely. This decision was made in
order to keep all children safe after an incident in the car park last
session.
Parking in and around the school continues to be a problem around 9am
and 3pm. We have already had complaints this session both about the
volume of traffic on Barry Road and about cars being parked
inappropriately. If you drive your child/children to or from school please
consider parking a short distance from the school and allowing the
children to walk the last part. This would really help ease the congestion
on Barry Road.
The school car park is for staff use only, except for the one disabled
space which is used by the parents of two children in school/nursery.
Nursery News
The nursery team continues to be led by Mrs Annie Carr for the moment
although Annie will soon be moving on to a well-deserved principal
teacher’s post elsewhere. She will be missed at Capshard but we
congratulate her and wish her all the best for the future.
The nursery team consists of Mrs Carol Alexander, Ms Naomi Barbour,
Mrs Barbara Christie, Mrs Catherine Crawford and Ms Bernadette
McComiskie.
A big thank you for all the donations made for the “Sponsored Listen”
last session. £1,359 was raised, an amazing amount, to be spent on
literacy resources for the children.
The five winners of Usborne books were Millie who is still in nursery and
Lexi, Leo, Madison and Kevin who are now all in P1.
Any parent of a pre-nursery child is welcome to bring them along to the
Teenies group which meets every Friday between 9-11.30am in the hut
adjacent to the nursery.
Other News
Some of you will have known May Fraser, who was a librarian who visited
Capshard and other local primary schools to promote reading with the
children. She loved books and thoroughly enjoyed sharing them with
children. She was popular and well loved by children and staff alike. She
was also a grandmother to two of our Capshard children. She sadly died
quite suddenly in June of this year. Her family and friends have had a
fund-raising football match in her memory and have donated £150 each
to the nursery, playgroup and school to be spent on books for the
children. We would like to say a public thank you for this very kind and
thoughtful donation. The children in Mrs Paoli’s class are currently helping
to reorganise the library in school and will help choose the books we buy
with this money.
And finally….
Something to think about……….
The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a
child's home.
William Temple
Angela Welsh, Temporary Headteacher.