Summer Term 2009

23 June 2009

Thursday and Friday saw one of the highlights of the session for the Junior School and that is the Primary 6 Musical: what a show it was!  It could have rivalled many a West End production of Guys and Dolls!  It was a great team effort from both the children and the teachers, with particular thanks being due to Mrs Russell and Mr Dean.

Now as we race towards the end of term, all that is left for me to say is a huge thank you to you, the parents, for your continued support over the year, and I hope that you all enjoy this long and most welcome summer break with friends and family. I look forward to welcoming you and the many new families who will be joining the Edinburgh Academy community next session. Bonnes Vacances!

16 June 2009

As we race towards the end of term, there are a lot of tired but happy faces around the school! The Primary 4s returned on Friday from a very successful camp and that now completes all the various excursions for this term. Efforts can now be concentrated on the impending P6 musical, Guys and Dolls, which looks as if it is building up to be a resounding success with a huge amount of work being put into the production by Mr Dean, Mrs Russell and of course the children themselves. Mrs Richardson is putting the final touches to her Art Exhibition and I do hope that you will have time to view this, either when you come to the musical itself or the Exhibition will remain in situ until Tuesday, 23rd June and may be viewed any time after School from 18th June. The majority of pieces will be displayed in the Art Studio itself.

End of Session reports should reach all households by the end of the week. I would be most grateful if you could complete the return slip, and any written comments pertaining to the reports are most welcome.

Finally, all children, both ‘old’ and new meet their new teachers this week. There are a lot of new girls and boys joining the School and we remain busy with admissions right up until the end of term. New colleagues are joining the team, who undoubtedly will add to the calibre of staff we already have in the School so we are already looking forward to a very exciting 2009-2010 academic session - but only after a well earned summer break for one and all!

9 JNune 2009

Saturday saw the return of a very successful Primary 6 trip to Holland. Sincere thanks to all the staff involved and to the children, who behaved impeccably throughout and who were terrific ambassadors for the school.

We also managed to dodge the rain clouds last week to ensure that both the Nursery Sports Day and the P1–3 Sports Day were able to run. These were great events and in both there was plenty of healthy competition and super examples of sportsmanship and camaraderie. I am sure the P4–6 event will be no less successful, and, without tempting fate, the forecast looks favourable.

Other dates for the diary are:

Wednesday 10th June: Primary 4s depart for Loaningdale

Monday 15th June: P1 New Parents’ Evening 7.00 pm

Tuesday 16th June: P2 – 6 New Children’s visit 2.00 pm

Thursday 18th June: P1 New Children’s visit 3.00 pm.

Thursday 18th and 19th June: P6 musical – Guys and Dolls, and Junior School Art Exhibition

2 June 2009

Last Friday saw the opening of our new Nursery by Alexander McCall Smith. The sun shone, which helped proceedings, not least because it meant that all 90 2–5 year olds, who were dressed in their party best for the occasion, could be outside. This enabled all our invited guests to have the opportunity to have a close look at our magnificent classrooms. My thanks to all involved in the organisation of this event, especially our nursery staff and Mrs Murray Brown.

As I write this bulletin, great excitement abounds in the Primary 6 camp as they leave for Holland today. Let’s hope the good weather lasts, but at least the immediate forecast ensures that they will have a smooth crossing over the North Sea this evening. Sunshine would also be a bonus for both the Nursery sports and the Primary 1–3 Sports later in the week. I look forward to catching up with many of you at these events.

19 May 2009

Following our very successful Health Week, our catering team, who very kindly provided some prizes for our Healthy Lifestyle Awards last week, would like to invite any parents who might be interested in tasting for themselves what they provide for lunch. We have received questions about what the children actually have for lunch, and although menus are provided, children are not always accurate when it comes to reporting back! If you would like to accept this invitation, please do get in touch with me directly and I will organise a day which might be suitable for you.

On Friday 22nd May in the Main Hall at 1.40pm, we have our Composers’ Concert. Parents are welcome. The concert will feature the Junior Orchestra, P3 Recorders, and P6 Original Compositions.

Can I take this opportunity of wishing you a very enjoyable half-term break, if work commitments allow you to take some time off for relaxation! We shall certainly need all our stamina for the second half of the term, where there is a host of different events to look forward to. Let’s hope we get some real summer weather to enjoy them in!

12 May 2009

I am delighted to be able to report to you positively for once on the matter of car parking! Last week I was informed by our local councillor that the Transport Committee had agreed last week to proceed with controlled parking in Kinnear Road / Arboretum Road. This will greatly ease the traffic congestion outside the school gates and for our neighbours on both roads.

I would like to thank all of you who attended our recent Parents’ Seminar, ‘Your Children, Their Future’, and for the very positive feedback which we received. For those of you who were not able to attend, we would like to distribute copies of the booklet and a brief synopsis of the main points.

Finally, some of you may have been fans of the American hit TV show ‘Happy Days’ and the particularly well-loved character Fonzie, I am delighted to report that Fonzie, alias Henry Winkler, will be visiting the Junior School next Wednesday to speak to some of the children about his books. More information about this visit will follow in school bags!

5 May 2009

We are fortunate to once again have support for the Junior School’s Health Week which starts today, from the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa. They have kindly offered to provide us with prizes for the Healthy Lifestyles Awards. Many of you will remember that we worked with the Sheraton Grand’s Santini Restaurant some years ago, when our prizewinners had the opportunity to go into Santini’s kitchen and learn how to make fresh pasta and other Italian dishes with the chef! This year pupils will be bringing home a food quiz which we hope they will have fun completing; the winners of the Healthy Lifestyles Awards, who will be chosen by teachers following a wide variety of activities on offer this week, will all have the chance to enjoy a meal with their family at the Sheraton’s Terrace Restaurant, and the hotel is also offering a Summer Bliss session for mums and dads to enjoy!

On a somewhat related note, I am afraid to say that the way in which some of our parents are driving into the school may start to affect the health of both our traffic managers, that is to say Mr Paxton and Mr Harvey. Unfortunately, a minority of parents have been reported to me for driving into school in a reckless manner with little regard to the directions they are being given. If the situation does not improve and I continue to receive complaints about the car parking in the Junior School, then we may sadly have to reconsider whether or not we can allow cars into the campus at all. I would be most grateful for your support in this very important matter.

28 April 2009

We were extremely fortunate last week to have a sunny afternoon on which to hold our annual Spring Fair. The children had a marvellous time running their respective stalls with many displaying highly developed sales and marketing skills; who knows, perhaps there is  a future candidate for The Apprentice out there? However, the bottom line is that we managed to raise the fantastic total of £1000 in one afternoon’s trading!  I know that our African friends will be thrilled with this amount as it will be enable them to purchase  much needed resources. Once again, thanks to you, the parents for helping make this happen.

Next week sees the launch of our Health Week, and I hope that you might be encouraged to take part in a variety of the joint activities which are planned as part of our very important Health Programme. More details will emerge this week, so please do search the schoolbag for some important communications!

Lastly, I would like to invite you to our annual Parents’ Seminar – “Your Children, their Future” - which is being held next week, on Tuesday 5th May at 7.30pm in the School Hall.  We very much hope that this will be of interest to many of you, and we are once again very grateful to the Parents’ Association for hosting this event. Key note speakers will be Mr Dean and Mr Bertolotto, with a short introduction from myself.

 

21 April 2009

I do hope that you all had a relaxing Easter break. Many of you, like me, spent some time on the ski slopes of Europe, where we were fortunate to enjoy almost optimum conditions. The school ski trip to Alpe d’Huez was a huge success, enjoyed by pupils and staff in equal measure. We look forward to 2011!

This week we look forward to our annual Spring Fair, which is run almost exclusively by the children of P3–6. The main focus of this fundraising event is to raise money for the Music for Life Junior Academy, Komatipoort, South Africa, which opened its doors in January of this year to 51 children in grades 3 to 7. The school is situated 10 km from the Mozambique Border, 100 km from the Swaziland Border and 8 km from the Crocodile Bridge Gate Entrance to the Kruger National Park, home of the Big 5!   Our aim is to raise enough money for them to purchase a reading scheme for the children. Many of these children visited us last year so our children are very keen to help them buy some much needed resources for their new school. We know that you, as parents, are always wonderful supporters of our fundraising ventures, and I would like to thankyou in advance for your support.

Caroline Bashford