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JANUARY 2006
Dear Parent,
Welcome back to the start of another
calendar year at Hillhead Primary School. I hope the year will prove to be
a happy and healthy one for you and your child. It promises to be another
busy term at Hillhead with lots of things happening.
TILE ARTIST
The mosaic tile artist Jan Kilpatrick will be working with pupil in
Primary 6 and 7 this week. The pupils will be working on large wall panels
which will be used to decorate the “square” area of the school. Members of
the pupil council had written to schools across the world and asked them
to design a wall panel which represented their country. We had responses
from schools in Brazil, China and Romania. In addition Primary 6 pupils
designed a wall plaque for Caithness and Scotland. A further panel is to
be made up of flags from countries which some of the Hillhead pupils and
staff has fore bearers from. These include England, Spain, Germany,
Poland, France and the United States. The artist’s web site at
www.wildtiles.co.uk shows an
interesting selection of the work she does.
RAG RUGS
The Dornoch based artist Sally Orr will be working with pupils in
Primaries 4 to 7 on Rag rug making in the second week of March. The plan
is that each class will produce small squares which can be made in to
large wall hangings. A request for suitable cloth and material to produce
these items will be made later in the term.
SWIMMING ACHIEVEMENT
Four swimmers from Hillhead have qualified for the Scottish Schools
Swimming Championship in Glasgow on January 28th. They are Primary 7
pupils Rona Plowman (backstroke), Lauren Sinclair (breast stroke) and
Rachel Munro (freestyle). In addition Erin Mackay (P.6) joins these three
girls to make up the relay team who will also be competing. This is a
considerable achievement by these four swimmers .
SCHOOL WINDOWS
The work on the new school windows and doors is now almost complete. Only
a very few pieces of tidying up work remains to be done. The school now
looks significantly smarter and pupils and staff are both very pleased
with the outcome. As the new window panes are double glazed, we have
recommended to pupils that they do not take heavy plastic or leather balls
to school. The school is responsible for all accidental breakages and each
pane is several hundred pounds to replace.
STAFF CHANGES
Mrs Begg will commence her maternity leave on Friday 20th January 2006.
Her replacement Miss Jarvis will commence duties on Monday 23rd January.
Student teachers Miss Risbridger and Miss
Mackay are currently placed with Primary 7 and 5 respectively. Primary 2
also has an HNC student placement this term where Laura Buchan will be
assisting in five week blocks.
FEIS ROS
Pupils in |Primaries 5 and 6 will be learning about traditional Scottish
music over the next four weeks. Traditional musicians Addie Harper and
Gordon Gunn will be visiting the school to work with the pupils in these
classes.
BRING and SALE
The Bring and Buy Sale has changed dates. It will now take place on
Tuesday 24th January. The Primary 7 pupils organise and run this event and
we felt it was going to be too a busy a week if we kept it on the original
date. We would be most grateful of any donations of items. The pupils
absolutely love this event and items are sold very reasonably. Do ensure
that your child is able to participate in this fun by having some pennies
with them. All profits go towards the cost of the York trip. I will try to
show some pictures of the delight which the pupils have at picking up a
bargain in our next newsletter.
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE COMPETITION
A small number of pupils took part in the Christmas general knowledge
quiz. The winning entries were:
Disney quiz Primaries 1, 2 and 3: Ryan Campbell
Animal quiz Primaries 4 and 5 : Murray Grant
Caithness quiz Primaries 6 and 7 : Matthew Thain
The name of the man who had the last horse
and cart in Wick was given as Alex Matheson or (Matt) by almost all
entrants. However the name of his horse caused greater difficulty. Two
different answers were most popular – Jock and Polly. I tracked down his
niece who now lives in Ross-shire and she told me that his last horse was
in fact Jock but the one before that was called Polly. Polly was a
friendlier horse and therefore many people can remember her well. So in
the event both answers were marked as correct. Now you know! |
PARENT/CHILD ACTIVITIES
There is an increasing understanding of the importance which parents can
play in the education of their child. The general knowledge quiz is only
one way in which we try to encourage parent/child interaction at Hillhead.
Parent/child activities were strongly encouraged by the education
authority which I visited in Canada last session. They published a monthly
list of activities. As it is the first month of the year, I thought I
would try to produce such a list for the first three months of this year.
If parents find these ideas useful we will then continue with them.
January’s activities accompany this letter.
RUBBER COLLECTION
Primary 5 pupil Craig Muir recently took his collection of rubbers in to
show his classmates. Craig has been collecting rubbers for two years and
now has over 300. Rubbers in a huge variety of shapes and designs. His
favourite rubber is one in the shape of the darts board which you can see
him holding in the picture.
If your child has a collection of any
items, let us know. It is always interesting for classmates to see and we
can feature the collection in future newsletters.
MSP VISIT
The MSP Jamie Stone to visit the school on the afternoon of Friday 27th
January :He has asked to visit each of the classes and will stay all
afternoon. This is part of a program of visits which Mr Stone is making to
schools across his constituency.
AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS
The following after school clubs will take place starting this week
(January 16th).
Monday Chess 3.15 – 4.00pm with Mr Henderson, Mrs W.Mackay and Miss Gray.
Tuesday Netball for pupils in Primary 6 and 7 with Miss MacDonald.
Wednesday French club for pupils in Primary 4 and 5 with Mrs Sinclair and
Mrs Falconer. also
WRI Craft Club: For pupils in Primary 6 and 7 with Mrs Bruce (retired
secretary), Mrs J. Cormack. Mrs F. Mackay and Mrs K.Mackay.
Thursday Football with Hymie. Primary 6/7 one week, Primary 4/5 the next.
Classes will start with Primary 6/7 on January 19th Also
Singing Club for pupils from Primary 6 and 7 with Mrs Elder. Pupils will
sing a range of contemporary songs.
Friday Badminton for pupils in Primary 7 with Miss Mowat and Mrs Frame.
The rugby club will start after the Easter holidays
CHRISTMAS BABY for HILLHEAD
Primary 2 twins Ailish and Alicia McNeill had a very special present on
Christmas morning. Little brother Lewis was born at 8.41am on Christmas
Day and weighed in at 9lbs 2oz. Ailish says her little brother is
beautiful and she loves him very much. Alicia says that he is cute and
doesn’t even waken her up in the middle of the night when he cries for his
bottle!
TERM DATES
School will be closed to pupils on Thursday 9th (in service day), Friday
10th and Monday 13th February.
The school will close for the Easter holidays at the normal time on Friday
31st March. It will re-open for pupils on Wednesday 19th April.
Yours faithfully,
A Budge
Headteacher |
