30th March 2020

Dear Parents, Carers and Children of Craigroyston Primary School,

I do hope you are all keeping safe.  It seems a very long time since I saw you all and I know that all the staff at Craigroyston Primary are missing you. I hope you enjoyed reading the letters from your teachers and having a go at some of our challenges. If you have not had time to read them yet, the letters are on our website and are a great read!

Last week we opened up as a Hub school for Craigroyston Primary and Davidson’s Mains Primary. Children, whose parents are working in key jobs and are carrying out really important work, can come to our school from 9am -3pm if they signed up for this service. This means their parents can continue to work in our hospitals, food stores, care homes and to do all the many things we need at this time to keep us safe and well. We are delighted to be able to support these families.

0n Friday, our fabulous staff helped to deliver 60 Food Parcels to some of our families. These parcels help people who are not able to get out of their homes because they are self isolating, are ill or may not be working as so many businesses have had to close for the time being. We were glad to help.

I know that this seems quite a strange time for you and you may feel a bit unsure about things at the moment.

If you need anything or if we can help you in any way email us at school on admin@craigroyston-pri.edin.sch.uk.

Stay strong

Lorna Stewart

Head teacher

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) UPDATE – SCHOOL CLOSURE

Dear Craigroyston families,

It is with a very heavy heart that I write to you today but, as I’m sure you are already aware, as of Monday 23^rd March 2020 Craigroyston Primary School will be closed for an unknown length of time.

There is much information and many details around this that we do not yet have but please be assured that we will share all information with you as and when we receive it. Facebook will be key in our ability to communicate with you over this time so please make sure that you are following our page ‘Craigroyston Primary School’.  This also includes our Craigroyston Nursery page.

It is also very important that you make sure the school office has up-to-date contact information for you (phone number, address, email and emergency contacts).

Our fantastic teachers and support staff have been working tirelessly to put together Home Learning Packs for each child P1-P7 so they can continue to work hard, have fun and learn at home. (Details of what the pack contains is at the end of this letter.)

Our nursery too, are putting together some ideas for activities you can do at home.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for their hard work, care and dedication. If your child has not been attending school this week, Home Learning Packs can be collected from the school office on Friday 20^th March.

There is no doubt that the weeks and potentially months ahead will be challenging for us all and we want to do everything we can to support our children and families.

If you need to contact the school for any reason at all, please send an email to admin@craigroyston-pri.edin.sch.uk and we will get back to you.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of our school community – it is always appreciated. Together, we can get through this.

Kindest  regards,

Lorna Stewart

Head Teacher

 

Home Learning Pack Contents

Letter from head teacher

Letter from class teacher

Home Learning Grid

Activities related to Home learning grid

Sumdog login (P2-P7)

Bug club login (P4-P7)

List of useful websites

ASL group work (for some of our children)

Social story about  Coronavirus

Jotter

Pencil

Rubber

Sharpener

Coloured pencils

As we experience darker nights and approach the busy festive period it’s a good time of year to review the security of your home and outbuildings such as sheds and garages. For crime prevention advice and further information that will help secure your homes and sheds from intruders please visit our website on the link below.

https://www.scotland.police.uk/keep-safe/home-and-personal-property/secure-your-home

Keep Safe This Christmas

Home Security Guide

Shed Security

With the increase in traffic to the area, we are inviting parents/carers to complete a short survey on how your children are transported to school, what you feel are the main issues regarding transport and traffic management around the school and what your views are on potential solutions to ease traffic congestion around the school.

The survey will be available to complete until 22nd October. You can access the survey by clicking on the link below or scanning the QR code.

Parent Travel Survey

Thank you for your help.

Over the last few weeks we have found some children arriving for breakfast club before 8.00 a.m. Our breakfast club starts at 8.00 a.m. and children can access it from this time or after.

Many schools have a system, whereby, parents/carers sign their children into breakfast club each morning, but we have avoided this option as it is more inconvenient for our families to do this. However, if this continues it may be an option we need to explore.
Children are not allowed on the premises before 8.00 a.m. So if you are allowing your children to come to the school at 7.45a.m., which is when certain children are found to arrive, you are responsible for them and you are leaving them unsupervised until 8.00 a.m., as they will not be given access to the school.

We are not insured for children to be unsupervised on our premises before 8.00 a.m. and staff are not on duty at that time. Please help us to keep your children safe by sending them to school at the correct time.

We’re pleased to have the Maximise team (Esme, Nikki & Val) working with us at Craigroyston on Thursday mornings. They can help you with welfare rights, income maximisation, money advice, housing advice, family support and employability support.

The ladies can also help you investigate if your child should be getting free school meals.
If you would like an appointment please contact the school office.

Staffing news

Mrs Cameron, who has taught for 26 years in Silverknowes and Craigroyston Primaries, will be retiring at the October break. Mrs Cameron was a class teacher for 21 years before taking up the post of Principal Teacher. Mrs Cameron has enriched the lives of the children and staff in many ways. She has worked tirelessly to improve our school by leading and developing many initiatives in our curriculum, working with parents and carers and not least of all leading the school to 8 Green Flags for its Eco work.
As a class teacher she was well known for her dedicated and thoughtful approach to
supporting the learning of the children in her classes. Mrs Cameron is an enthusiastic and hard working member of staff. She has made a huge contribution to the life of the school.
A huge thank you, Mrs Cameron for all the support, kindness and fun you have given to the hundreds of families, staff and children of Muirhouse. You will be greatly missed in our school and community.

 

Edinburgh Sumdog Challenge                                                                                                           Every term there is a Sumdog Maths Challenge open to every school in Edinburgh. This term over 2400 pupils in 105 classes took part and 10 of our pupils finished in the top 50 with 4 of them in the top ten.  This was a brilliant achievement by our pupils. In addition, two classes P4k and P5a won the daily challenge — again a fantastic effort by our classes.
I am absolutely delighted to also announce that Craigroyston had the top class with Primary 4s winning Edinburgh’s Sumdog Challenge.
This is an amazing achievement by our pupils. They have had lots of fun using Sumdog to build on the numeracy skills taught in class. Well done to everyone who took part.

Craigroyston Arts Festival
“Art Exhibition keeps on getting bigger and better with each year” Edinburgh Evening News Friday 15th June 2018.
We were delighted with the turnout at our Arts Festival this year and all the positive feedback we have been given. It has attracted a lot of attention and you will have been very impressed by the articles in the NEN and Evening News. I am sure you were very proud of your children and their work.

 
Rights Respecting Schools
I am delighted to announce that our school has been awarded the Bronze Award for its work. We have been teaching the children about their rights; and showing how these rights are shown through our relationships in school.
We will now work towards our Silver Award. Well done.

 

Please find attached a link to the North Edinburgh News article highlighting the success of our Arts Festival last month.

http://nen.press/2018/05/25/craigroyston-primary-stages-arts-festival/