“One School, Many Individuals”
Term 1 can historically be over in the ‘blink of an eye’ and this would seem to have been
especially so this year. Our pupils have made an excellent start to the new term, particularly our
new P1 intake.
Our key pupils have now been selected to help support
the general running of our school and “give something
back”. So far they have settled very well into their new
roles. You can find a full list on the back of this
newsletter.
Out of School Activities
All of our trips, outings, visits depend on an appropriate adult/pupil ratio. Without the help of
Parents and Grandparents etc., these visits cannot take place. Therefore, if you can spare any
time to ensure that they continue, please contact our school office team.
Parent Forum:
Our new Parent Forum groups have all been reformed and they have already met during our AGM.
Parent Advisory Team: (formerly our Business Group) Chair Mr C Kennedy – will have a new
direction firmly supporting the school by specifically looking at accommodation/resources budget
and staffing and ensuring that they communicate effectively with the other groups.
Fundraising Group: Chair Mrs D Kennedy – continues to support our pupils, both in providing a
“sporting fund” to try a range of activities and key resources such as televisions etc. They also
provide funding for Accelerated Reader, Mathletics and our new Golden Time Activities.
Health: Chair Mrs L Allan – will focus on travel to school, health promotion/hand-washing
programme, health and well-being, “childsmile” Toothbrushing programme and breast feeding
awareness.
Our Eco-group is contained within this and it is hoped that it will become a stand alone group
once more this year.
Nursery: Chair Mrs C Fowler - a large group of nursery parents have a clear remit of fundraising
for an interactive whiteboard.
Mr Richard Brough will take on the over-arching role as Chair of the Parent Council. He has
already managed to attend all group meetings.
Congratulations (1): Our Parent Council groups have been invited by the Scottish Parent Council
to organise a special display at their Annual Conference demonstrating the range of activities and
support they have provided over the year. This conference will be attended by over 100 delegates
including Fiona Hyslop Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning. Our Parent Council
Groups should feel very proud of this.
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New Build
The next Muirfield Construction Newsletter should be
with you soon. The floor of the new build is in and
significant work has taken place over the summer
holiday, both in preparation for the “joining up” to the
old buildings and in the planned completion of the
programme. Various groups have been visiting,
including our Pupil Council pictured with Doug
Caldwell.
Confident Individuals
Congratulations to Jennifer Spence who attained her black belt in Taekwondo recently.
Jack Metcalfe also won the 8-12
Wellsgreen Championship Golf
Tournament.
New Football Kit
Our long awaited football strips arrived this term.
Sponsored by Muirfield Construction,
our new sky-blue away strip (our “home” is in yellow)
modelled by Ramsay McVicar looks really good (the strip,
that is, not Ramsay…..). So good, in fact, that it’s a pity it has
to get dirty. Many thanks to Muirfield for their generosity!
Responsible Citizens
Our intrepid P5 pupils visited Gowrie House Nursing Home to turn a small area of the garden into
something very special. More visits are planned.
Safer Fifer
All P7 pupils recently attended
the “Safe Fifer” multi-agency day hosted
by Fife Constabulary, Fife Fire and
Rescue, Fife Ambulance Service,
Railway Police etc.
JRSO
Our new Junior Road Safety Officer’s have been selected to allow a voice for our pupils
concerning road safety issues both in the school and the local community. They are
Francis Allison and Michael Page.
Grandads and Grandmothers Topic
Well done to P2 who successfully raised £310.35 for
the McMillan Cancer Charity. Our GP Room was turned
into a café run by staff and pupils with pupils, parents
and grandparents all enjoying their hospitality.
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Harvest Festival
By the time you read this our Harvest Festival will not yet have taken place. However, all your
donations are going to our nominated Grandads/Grandmas/Neighbours and Elderly Residents as
well as to the charity “Shelter” to support local people in need. Thank you, in advance, for your
generosity.
Kirkcaldy Local Study
P3 have been very busy with their Kirkcaldy
study this term. As part of this, they visited
the local Fire Station, Museum, Library,
Dysart Harbourmaster’s House and High Street.
School Mascot
“McDunnikier” our school superhero mascot was
introduced to the pupils this term. Designed by Filip
Wojtas and Orianna Burrell this very Scottish
character was then created by Mrs Salisbury, not
once but 14 times! You’ll find him in every class.
Huge thanks go to her.
Effective Contributors
Positive Behaviour Initiative
As outlined in a recent booklet sent home, we have once again tried to build on the acknowledged
very good practice that we follow in school.
“Golden Time” is now much more structured, offering our pupils a range of activities from “baking
and book” to “having a party”. During a recent Get-Together – our pupils P4-P7 were consulted
on their thoughts about this, what they liked/disliked. The overall feedback was very positive
indeed. Almost all pupils felt that the new system was both fair and exciting.
Successful Learners
Author Author!
Congratulations go to the following pupils: Ellie Greentree, Kalyn Jack, Phoenyx Sibbald, Calum
McAndie, Beth Morrison and Megan Briers who were part of our lunchtime writing group run by
Mrs Main. As usual, they excelled and had their poems published in a National Poetry book
Poetry Explorers. Also included in an earlier version is work by Mhairi Laing, Mark Fowler, Jennifer
Spence and Sophie Forsyth.
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Confident Individuals
As part of their “Scotland” study our
P4’s went to Edinburgh one very sunny
Friday, visiting the capital taking in the
surroundings, having lunch on the grass
visiting the Greyfriars Bobby Memorial.
Other visits to the park have taken place for all pupils as part
of our Active Schools philosophy and once more we have
encouraged key groups of pupils to visit landmarks and various locations to stimulate writing –
Mrs Main has coordinated this.
Cross Country
Our Cross Country Relay team took part in a very soggy
competition in September. They performed very well,
although a snorkel may have been more help than
running shoes……
Many thanks to Mr Doig and Mrs Philbin for their help.
Collaboration with Adam Smith College
This session promises to be another successful partnership with Adam Smith College staff and
students.
Health/ PE
Our visits by P4-7 will resume next term with pupils taking part in a wide range of activities with
HNC/HND students and staff in the college Games Hall.
After School Clubs
Again this session we are very proud
of being able to offer the following with
help from our Fundraising Group and Liz
Anderson, Active School Co-ordinator. She is also
Delivering a Young Sports Leader course with our
Game Gang pupils.
Our Current Programme is:
Monday
- Homework Club (Miss Jamieson). Yoga bugs- P2/3 (Mrs M Hartigan). Golfing at
Cluny Clays (Mr A Caira). Netball Club (Mrs Hobson)
Tuesday
- Yoga P4-7 (Mrs M Hartigan) Taekwon-do (Mr Cunningham) Hockey Club
(lunchtime), Knitting (lunchtime)
Wednesday - Dance P2-4 (Mrs Scott) Archery (Cluny Clays). School Show. Writing Club (Mrs
Main: lunchtime), Hockey (lunchtime)
Thursday
- Tennis (Mrs Taylor), School Show Rehearsals
Friday
- Football (P4/5/6/7) Dance P5-7 (Miss McGregor)
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ICT
Tanya McAllister is once again coordinating our European Computer Driving Licence (Equal Skills)
for children with our P7 pupils. She is also supervising the new “E-type” keyboarding software
which our pupils can access at home on-line.
Congratulations! (2)
Miss Brodie has been invited to represent our school to present at a National HMIe Expressive
Arts conference in November about the uniqueness, effectiveness and overall benefits of our
P6/7 show as an example of very good practice within a Curriculum for Excellence as noted in our
HMIe inspection.
Book Fair
Once again our Book Fair has been an amazing success. Since it is still running we will have full
details next Newsletter.
Time Capsule
All pupils are busy writing/drawing a personal piece of work which will be inserted into a time
capsule which is to be place under the new staircase in the new building and marked with a
commemorative plaque. It is hoped that this will be re-opened in 30 years (2040). Our Nursery
are working on a similar idea, but theirs will be re-opened in 2017, when our pupils will mostly be
in P7!
Visitors
This term we have been visited by:
Mr J Brook, Education Psychologist
Mr C Molloy, Speech and Language Therapist
Alison Peden, School Nurse
Mr I McCauley, HT Pitteuchar East
Tara Vernalls, Gina Graham, Lesley McKay, Health and Well-Being
Finlay Smith, Aware student, BHS
Katie Carruthers, Aware student, BHS
Mr G Duffy, PGDE student
Miss L Connelly, B-ed student
Dylan Sibbald, Aware student, BHS
Calum Lawson, Aware student, BHS
Bethany Scott, Aware student, BHS
Romy Cobban, Aware Student, Kirkland HS
Chelsey McQueen, Adam Smith College Ashley Kane, Adam Smith College
Deep Sea World
Miss L McIntyre, DHT, BHS
Termly Snapshot
As part of our desire to continue to provide you with as much information as possible about your
child’s learning in conjunction with our PLP’s, this term pupils haveNursery- Planned a party and have all visited Ravenscraig Park to explore both the park and the
castle. Butterfly have played shops, visited the local shop and created their own toy shop.
Ladybird have been writing letters and are planning to make a Post Office. They have been using
“Thinking and Talking” books to answer questions asked by the children such as, “What makes
the wind blow?” Both rooms have discussed the changing seasons.
P1 – This term we have been finding out about “Our School”. We’ve been meeting people who
help us and learning how to keep safe. We visited Letterland and found all the letters of the
alphabet!
P2 have been busy finding out about their Grandparents. They have talked about what life was
like when they were young. Their Coffee morning was a huge success and a great way to end the
topic.
P3 – As part of our topic ‘Kirkcaldy’, we have been out and about visiting lots of places. These
have included The Harbour Masters House, the Police Station, the Town House, the Fire Station,
Museum, both Ravenscraig and Beveridge Park, St Bryce Kirk, the Old Kirk graveyard and we
have walked along the High Street looking for plaques put up by the Civic Society. Haven’t we
been busy!
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P4 – have been learning about Scotland. We all had fun on a train trip to Edinburgh to see
Grayfriars Bobby. We enjoyed our Scottish feast and working together to create our Loch Ness
Monsters.
P5 – have had an electrifying term looking at Energy & Forces. All the children have had the
opportunity to make circuits with bulbs and buzzers in their ‘Fab Lab!’ A team of P5’s even
managed to make a helicopter with rotating blades! In the children’s own words “this has been
the best project ever!”
P6 – have had an enjoyable start to the new session. They have been busy finding out about
Planet Earth and have carried out many practical investigations. Highlights include building a 3D
volcano (and the exciting eruption which followed) and their fossil hunt.
P7 - “This term we had great fun at the Safe Fifer event where we learned all about different ways
of keeping ourselves safe. We have also been lucky enough to have an afternoon’s visit from St
Andrews First Aid where we learned how to give the kiss of life!
In class we have been learning French/German and finding out all about space and the Solar
System. We have also been trying out our new Golden Time activities. We really enjoyed the
talent show.
Finally, 2 teams from our class competed in the Cross-country relay event at Beveridge Park. It
rained and it rained, then it rained some more!” (see photo)
Coming Soon……
Our Fashion Show has been rescheduled to take place on Wednesday, 5th February 2010 at 7pm.
This will now take place in our new Games Hall. Debenhams have kindly agreed to provide their
Spring range and we have around 50 pupils and 20 adults who have volunteered to take part.
More details will be released next term and rehearsals arranged. Many thanks to those who have
already volunteered. I can also share that Dom Migelle Hairdressing have kindly offered their
services for our adults and that the Debenhams cosmetic team will complete the makeover!
Useful Dates
Autumn Holiday – Monday 12th October 2009 to Friday 23rd October 2009
Christmas Holiday – Monday 21st December to Monday 4th January 2010
In-Service Training Days
Friday 13th November 2009
Monday 4th January 2010
May I take this opportunity to wish you a busy/restful break and to thank you for your continued
support.
CD Mitchell
Headteacher
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Key Pupils 09/10
Headteacher’s Prefects – Ramsay McVicar, Sam Brough, Rebecca Cooper, Jennifer Spence,
Kenan Yazilikaya, Caitlyn Brown.
House Captains –
Nairn – Sophie Forsyth (Capt)
Beveridge – Elliot Green (Capt)
Carlyle – Aimee McArthur (Capt)
McIntosh – David Morton (Capt)
Yousaf Idrees (V.Capt)
Kenzie Donaldson (V.Capt)
Luke Watson (V.Capt)
Leigh Bonthrone (V.Capt)
Cool Carers – Rachel Baird, Joe Hogg, Andrew Stewart, Esme Allen, Sky Robb, Megan Briers,
Robbie Hogg, Evan Thomson, David Leybourne, Robbie Laing, Leigh Bonthrone, Stephen Girvan,
Shaun Allan, Scott Birrell.
Monitors – Christopher Forbes, Amy Murray, Greg Surgey, David Morton, Lewis Fortune, Matt
Johnston, Cara Steedman, Yousaf Idrees, Megan McIver, Elliot Johnston, Reece Patterson, Azeem
Mohammed, Kenan Yazilikaya, Chloe McVicar, Kieran Adamson, Lewis Stewart, Owain Nicolson,
Callum Sarjantson, Lorcan Duncan, Ben Forrest, Ross Gibson, Luke Watson.
Game Gang – Caitlyn Brown, Mherrin Sutherland, David Morton, Karolina Damaszk, Kieran
Adamson, Charli Skinner, Rebecca Greig, Leigh Bonthrone, Robyn Taylor, Casey Heigh, Clara
Ghattas, Rachel Wishart, Owain Nicolson, Jack Hodson, Umaarah Rehman, Mhairi Laing.
Pupil Council – Joanna Hedley, Gregor Doyle, Stasha Smith, Abbie Struthers, Ellen King, Callum
Brown, Lewis Stewart, Sophie Forsyth.
Litter Squad – Stasha Smith, Abbie Struthers, Jamie Spears, Cameron Doyle, Reece Dickson, Abd
Al-Remal, Jack Metcalfe, Robbie Hogg, Dominik Ruta, Eilidh Gardiner, Zara Graham, Marco
Valente, Blair McHattie, Lianne Meechan.
Environmental Prefects – Blair Stewart, Morgan Stewart, Jessica Ruddiman, Jenna Downie, Mark
Fowler, Reece Martin, Robyn Trewavas.
Lost Property – Brooke Simpson, Phoenyx Sibbald, Callum McLay, Callum Christie, Lucy Geddie,
Kalyn Jack.
Bus Monitors – Ross Gibson, Kenzie Donaldson, Caley Hamilton, Liam McQuade, Robbie Hogg,
Kayleigh Innes.
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