Life @ EA
Headteacher’s Blog
Thursday 23 January
In assembly on Tuesday I described this as my favourite week of the year as we blend Scottish culture into our learning and teaching. The whole Junior School will be together in celebration before break on Friday and then the Nursery after break. The day will finish for the P6s with the Burns Lunch in the afternoon.
Also next week we will be celebrating heroism in all sorts of ways following Miss Komori’s excellent assembly about her own hero Mrs Harkins – a colleague in her previous school in Australia who is a volunteer firefighter. For obvious and tragic reasons she has been very busy recently. A separate letter about our ‘Come to School as your Hero’ will be sent out shortly. As ever, Miss Komori is being humble. In her letter she mentions Koala Prints that can be purchased for a donation on the day. These have been drawn by Miss Komori (a highly talented lady) and they are stunning.
Next week will see our children undertaking their annual standardised assessments. These should not be a source of any stress for parents or children but are a tool that we use in tracking the progress of the children. There will be a general statement reflecting the results of these assessments in the annual summative report in April.
As ever I would like to thank those people who represent the parent body for us at the Parents' Association – the meetings are really useful in terms of both briefing and hearing those issues of a general nature which parents wish to alert us to. Things discussed this time will result in several actions in future weeks and I would encourage all parents to read the minutes for further information. In particular I would like to thank Fiona Lane for her sterling work on behalf of the Junior School in recent years as she moves to take over the Senior School role from Rachel MacAulay (to whom I am also very grateful). In saying thank you to those two ladies for their service, I would also like to thank Mrs Caroline Orr in advance for agreeing to be the new ‘Super Rep’ for the Junior School. I look forward to working closely with her. I would also join the PA in politely requesting assistance in helping with stalls at the Big Picnic in June. Please contact the reps for further information.
And finally, you may have noticed in the small print on the website that, following consultations, the Junior School will be opening for full business in the middle of the week, (rather than on a Monday) next session. While the Senior School opens for all pupils on Monday 24 August (with Day Zero for Geits, new pupils and all Sixths and Sevenths on 21 August), the Junior School will open with a shorter week, on Wednesday 26 August, to allow for the children to settle better into a routine. Holiday Club will run on the Monday and Tuesday of that week and I will find extra staff if there is a greater demand than normal. As ever this policy has been considered from the position of the children and what is appropriate for each age and stage.
Kind regards,
Gavin Calder
Headteacher
