Life @ EA

Thursday 30 January

At the Academy a big part of our role in equipping our children for life beyond the school is ensuring that they realise that they are part of a wider society.  This manifests itself in several guises such as our environment effort.  It also underpins our charitable efforts.
 
I mention this for two reasons.  Hopefully you received the notification via Firefly last week sent on behalf of an EA pupil Jennifer Lane.  She is volunteering brilliantly for the charity ‘Kids Love Clothes’ who, in recent years, have helped out around 2000 children in the Lothians whose parents cannot afford adequate clothing.  I am delighted to be able to provide the Junior School Dining Hall for an annual ‘sort day’ and am hoping that members of the EA family can help in two ways. Firstly, by donating clothing (with grateful thanks to those who have done so already) but also, very importantly, by donating a bit of time at some point on Saturday to help sort the clothes into age appropriate piles.  There will be a morning session from 9 – 12:30 and an afternoon one from 1 – 4:30 but parents, children and friends can drop in to help at any point during those time periods – many hands make light work!  If you can help (or know anyone else who can) please let Jennifer Lane know via the following email address:
seniorschooloffice@edinburghacademy.org.uk  
 
The other reason, as mentioned last week, is our ‘Come to School as your Hero’ day on Friday.  If anyone sees me looking like a Headteacher at any point this is because I am spending most of the day with representatives of the General Teaching Council and I would hope to be kept on the national register for another few years.  I am, however, looking forward to seeing a wide variety of heroes represented.
 
This week in the Junior School we have been doing some learning about healthy living as part of our Erasmus project.  Mr Zbikowski has been carrying out experiments using olive oil (a staple of the Mediterranean diet) and Mrs Petrie has been discussing the importance of drinking water at our departmental assemblies.  She showed the Early Years a visual representation of the 5 cups that they should ideally be drinking on an average day.  This increases to 6-8 cups as the children get older but everyone is (of course) different and has differing needs.
 
In Nursery and Junior School we will shortly be talking about the importance of sleep, based on some information Mrs Howden Thomson, Mrs Laston and I were discussing at a conference yesterday.  In summary, the ideal situation is that a 2 year old should be looking to sleep for 11–14 hours of every day, a 3-5 year old for 10 -13 hours, a 6-13  year old for 9-11 hours and teenagers for 8-10 hours.  If any parent, child or young adult is having worries about sleep there are excellent resources available via www.sleepscotland.org  I will write in much more detail about this vital, but sometimes neglected, area of health in future weeks.
 
And finally, I am aware that as our Music Department is gearing up for the Spring Concert on the penultimate day of term, they have had several children who have been part of the school choir all year informing them that they will not be here as they are going on holiday early.  This also happened with the Christmas Carol Service.  Whilst this is frustrating for the Music teachers, it is also distressing for the children who have worked hard and have realised that they won’t get the chance to perform on the night.
 
I would remind parents that they need to request any term time holiday leave for their children from me (via my PA Mrs Maguire) for Junior School and Nursery pupils and via the Rector for Senior School.  I would also politely request that parents try to avoid putting children in  the situation described above as it is upsetting for them.

Kind regards

Gavin Calder
Headteacher