Newsletter HT August 2020 final

Fenwick Primary School and Early
Childhood Centre Newsletter

August 2020

Welcome back!

Read about what’s happening in Fenwick Primary and ECC

Mrs Robyn Davidson Twitter.com/
Head Teacher FenwickPrimary
1-3 Kirkton Road
FENWICK https://
KA3 6DH blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/
fenwickprimaryschool/

Welcome back from ...
The Head Teacher

I am delighted to welcome everyone back after the summer
break and hope you had a lovely time with your families.

I would like to begin by thanking all of you for your wonderful
support and partnership working at the end of last session
during the period of lockdown. This was a very difficult and

anxious time for all of us. The staff at Fenwick Primary School
and ECC are delighted to be back to school and working with the

children again.

This session is going to be quite different for all of us and
guidance may change at various points, however, we endeavour
to work extremely hard to keep you updated and to support the

needs of all of the children.

I look forward to working with you and your children to
‘Be the Best We Can Be!’, and to working together as a team to

have the best impact for every child.

Kind regards,

Mrs Robyn Davidson

Health and Safety at Fenwick
Primary School and ECC

Please be advised that our H&S measures are reviewed
regularly and all new COVID-19 related risk assessments
are created by our H&S team at East Ayrshire Council and
adapted to each individual school’s needs. We endeavour to
keep you informed of any changes to our current
procedures as and when they arise, taking account of
guidance from the Scottish Government, NHS, HSE and
EAC.

Any updates or changes to our current procedures will be
shared via the school app.

We also have a new page on the school website which
details our current procedures, please access it here:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/
fenwickprimaryschool/

Please contact the school if you have any
queries regarding procedures, via the main
school email address.

The ECC Newsletter for this term will be
shared via the app on the 1st September.

Attendance and Latecoming

Attendance
Please contact the school to inform us of your child’s absence no
later than 9.00am. Contact us on 01560 600403 and press 1 to
leave an absence message or press 2 to speak to a member of
staff.
Where possible, medical or dental appointments should be made
outwith school hours, however, if your child has an appointment,
please telephone the school to inform us.
If any holidays are taken during term time, these are recorded as
an unauthorised absence. Reasons such as cost, parental holidays,
weather conditions and availability of accommodation are not
considered valid reasons for holidays in term time. The Head
Teacher cannot give permission for holidays taken during term time
and the school does not provide work for holidays taken during
term time.

Late coming
The school gates are open from 8.45am-9.05am each morning. Any
pupil who arrives after 9.00am must report to the main office.
Please telephone the school if your child is going to arrive after
9.05am as the gates will be closed.

Contact details
Please ensure we have your most up-to-date
mobile phone number.

Committees, Masterclasses and
After School Clubs

Committees and Masterclasses
Unfortunately, due to current guidance, we cannot ask parents to
be part of our Committees or Masterclasses. As soon as the
guidance changes, we will be in contact.
It is important the pupils have their voice in the school,
therefore, we plan to elect Pupil Council members this term and
will make arrangements for the meetings to be held safely and
following current guidance; this may be via online meetings or
outdoors. The other Committees will not resume at this time until
we receive further guidance from the Scottish Government and
East Ayrshire Council.

After-school clubs
We are liaising with our Active Schools
Coordinator to discuss possible clubs and
make arrangements. We will be in touch via
the school app once we have decided on
plans. We hope to have some clubs up-and-
running this term, where possible.

Getting it Right for Every Child

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act
2014 is about improving the wellbeing of children
and young people in Scotland. The Act is wide
ranging and includes key parts of the Getting it
right for every child approach, commonly known
as GIRFEC.

GIRFEC is the national approach in Scotland to
improving outcomes and supporting the wellbeing
of our children and young people by offering the right help at the
right time from the right people. It supports them and their parent
to work in partnership with the services that can help them.

Wellbeing sits at the heart of the GIRFEC approach and reflects
the need to tailor the support and help that children, young people
and their parents are offered to support their wellbeing.

We all want our children and young people to be fully supported as
they grow to be (wellbeing indicators):

 Safe
 Healthy
 Achieving
 Nurtured
 Active
 Respected
 Responsible
 Included

School Uniform…
Reminder

We encourage all children to wear their school uniform every day. This can be
black trousers, skirt or pinafore. Children can also wear the yellow tartan skirt
or pinafore as shown in the photographs. A black sweatshirt or cardigan, and a

yellow polo shirt or white shirt. All clothing deemed not to be part of school
uniform should not be worn in the classroom or to assemblies. Appropriate

black shoes should be worn and a change of footwear for PE is required.

Remember to put names on all clothes, items can get mixed up very easily and
lost property is usually full!

We open the windows every day to increase ventilation, therefore, the
classrooms may feel slightly colder. We encourage children to bring a school
jumper or cardigan each day. If children are bringing ‘hoodies’ to school, it

preferable that these are worn outdoors only and not in the classroom, as
these are not part of our school uniform.

Digital Communication…
School and ECC app and Twitter

Download our app to keep
track of what is happening in
school. Most correspondence

is sent via our app. If you
have any issues with this,

please see Mrs Stark.

There are regular
posts on our Twitter

feed:

Twitter.com/
FenwickPrimary

Digital Communication…
Website and Blogs

Blogs are regularly updated
by the pupils and their
teacher - please have a

look to see what your child
has been learning. These
are available through our
school website:
https://
blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/
fenwickprimaryschool/

Parents’ Evening, Sharing the
Learning Events and Homework

Parents’ Evening
No visitors are permitted on the school grounds or in the building,
without the consent of the Head Teacher or without an appointment.
We are awaiting further updates and guidance regarding visitors
accessing the building. We are unsure what form Parents’ Night will
take this session but we will inform you via the school app.
Sharing the Learning
We usually enjoy welcoming parents and visitors to celebrate the
children’s learning through showcase events. As these cannot take
place just now, we aim to share photographs and videos of the children
on their class blogs. Please ensure that you check the class blog
weekly for updates and information about what the children have been
learning.
Permission
Forms will be sent via the school app this week for parents to
complete to give their consent to photos/videos being taken and
shared. Until we have these completed, we cannot share photos/videos
on the blogs.
Homework
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our survey about
homework. We have collated the results and have adapted our
homework policy for this term. Details about homework will be shared
via the app this week and homework will begin on
Monday 7th September.

Parking and Road Safety

Parking at the school gate continues to be a serious issue, We are working
with the Community Council and Ayrshire Roads Alliance to address these

issues.
We are pleased to inform you that the school and ECC have purchased 2

parking buddies which are now in use. The Parent Council have also
offered to purchase a further buddy.

Mr Risk, our new janitor, is also trained to support the children in
crossing the road. Please ask your child to cross the road with Mr Risk

and then make their way safely to you.
Please DO NOT park directly across from the main entrance as this

blocks the view of the road to children crossing from that side.

Curricular Focus…
Literacy, Numeracy, Health and
Wellbeing (HWB) and Outdoors

Our main focus this term will be Literacy, Numeracy, Health
and Wellbeing and taking some of this learning outdoors.

The infant classes will participate in active and play-based
learning, where possible and practicable.

The senior classes will participate in independent and paired
activities.

All classes have timetabled times for accessing the outdoor
space and will be outdoors at least 3 times per week. Please
ensure that the children are dressed appropriately for the
weather and bring a waterproof jacket each day. If the
weather is deemed unsafe or unsuitable, the children will not go
outdoors that day.

The ECC use the garden daily for drop-off, pick-up and to play.
We hope that next term, we will be able to arrange a timetable
so that the infant classes in the school can also begin to utilise
this wonderful space.

Parent Council

We have a very active and supportive Parent Council. Our new
PC Chair is Donna Vivers. If you wish to contact the PC please
email: [email protected]

The PC also run a Facebook page, which provides regular
updates about what is happening in the school and also some
information about their fund raising events.

The Parent Council work extremely hard to raise funds to
support the school and most recently have supported us in
purchasing a brand new reading scheme ‘Bug Club’. They have
also been hard at work over the summer holidays to clean and
up-keep our garden. The support they provide is invaluable.

The PC are currently recruiting new members to form a
separate fundraising group. If you would like to be part of the
fundraising group, please email Donna or give them a message on
Facebook.

They are also in need of some dads to join the Parent Council to
ensure we have everyone’s perspective in discussing school
matters. If you would like to support the PC, contact Donna.

Minutes of PC meetings can be found on the school website.

Questions or Concerns

If your have any further questions regarding any of this
information, please email the school:
[email protected]

If you have a concern about your child, please email or phone
the school to arrange a phone appointment with the class

teacher or with Mrs Kelly, Principal Teacher and Additional
Support Needs Coordinator in the first instance.

If you feel your concern has not been addressed, then please
arrange a phone appointment with Mrs Davidson, Head Teacher.

Thank you for your on-going support and understanding at this
time and we will keep you updated via the school app.