Life @ EA

Thursday 20 June

At last, as I am looking out the window contemplating the ‘Big Picnic’, the sky is blue. Hopefully this will remain the case and we can look forward to a cracking day on Saturday. Junior School parents should have received a hopeful plea from me yesterday to do a bit of baking with their children for that stall. Please remember no nuts as we have children with allergies.

This has been a particularly busy end to the term with a recruitment round going on for Early Years Practitioners and a Junior School Intern for 2019-20. I will announce all new appointments in my end of term letter but I can confirm that for next session there have been some changes to those in leadership positions following the retirement of Mrs Paterson at Christmas and the forthcoming retirement of Mrs Macnair.

In summary, whilst I continue to oversee the whole of the Junior School and Nursery (ably assisted by Mrs Htet-Khin) the Nursery element of Mrs Paterson’s role is being taken on by Mrs Paula Howden Thomson with Mrs Petrie’s move into Denham Green becoming a permanent one. The space as Head of Department in the Upper Primary will be filled by Miss Jane O’Rourke. Her replacement in the Music Department is Mr Vaughan Fleischfresser, a well-known music educator, who is currently dividing his time between delivering teacher training at Moray House School of Education (Edinburgh University) and Scottish Borders Council where he is the visiting music specialist in several schools. We look forward to welcoming him to the Academy.

As mentioned and as I wrote to parents last term, our Head of Support for Learning, Mrs Pat Macnair retires at the end of next week after a decade of great service. Her ultimate replacement (and an exceptional one at that) will be Miss Louisa Wood. The observant amongst our parent body have noted that Miss Wood is about to start a period of maternity leave. For the start of next session Mrs Elaine Black and Mrs Colleen Reeve will be joined in that department by Mrs Elsie Murray who has previously taught with us in Support for Learning. I will personally take on the direct line management responsibility for the department until Miss Wood returns.

I have already mentioned Mrs Howden Thomson with regards to Nursery. I can also confirm that Mrs Kirsteen Laston will be the other teacher in Nursery whilst Mrs Gill Scott will move into a Room Leader role in Beech Room with Mrs Rosie Morrow moving over to our new Maple Room.

And finally, just to confirm that Nursery will finish at 11:45am on Wednesday 26 June with all Junior School classes finishing at normal times on that day. All P4 – 6 children should report to their classrooms at 10:00am on Thursday 27 June for Junior School Exhibition 2019. Holiday Club will run on Thursday and children can use this pre Exhibition if booked in. Children will be dismissed at the end of Exhibition at approximately 12:00 noon.

Kind regards,
Gavin Calder
Headteacher