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FERBRUARY 2006
Dear Parent,
INDIAN LUNCH
Preparations go ahead for the Indian lunch to be held next Tuesday.
The main purpose of the lunch is to help raise funds for Tamil Nadu region
of India. The dining hall has been decorated with Indian flags, garlands
and balloons. Primary 7 pupils have also taken part in an exchange of
posters with some pupils in the Indian city of Ahmedabad. These posters
will also be displayed for the lunch (if they arrive here in time).
Pupils can pay 50p to have their handprint placed on a large Indian flag
in the dining room. They can also wear traditional Indian costume for the
lunch, if they wish.
TILE ARTIST
The mosaic tile artist Jan Kilpatrick has now finished working with
the pupils in primary 6 and 7. Her large wall mosaics are now finished and
have already been erected in the “square” area of the school. They make a
very interesting addition to this area. The small wall which marks the
entrance to this area has no coping stone on it.
One of the next jobs to be done to improve
and renovate this area, is to create a new coping stone. Lybster based
artist David Mackay has been asked to create Caithness flagstone pieces to
be set on the top of these walls. The flagstone pieces are to show the
handprints of children from Hillhead as well as from school in China and
Brazil. The children from Hillhead whose handprint will be sand blasted on
to the flagstone were drawn from a list of class names at the whole school
assembly on ?? January. They are:
Nursery: Bryony Munro and Abbie Thomson
Primary 1 Megan Coghill, Primary 2 Ailish McNeill Primary 3 David
Meiklejohn, Primary 4 Deanna Paul, Primary 5 Stephan Colquhoun, Primary 6
Vicky Rosie, Primary 7 Chloe Graham.
Staff Member Miss Oag in the nursery.
BURNS AFTERNOON
The traditional Primary 4/5 Burns afternoon once again proved to be a
very successful event. Special thanks to Eric Farquhar who addressed the
haggis for the pupils, Kevin Gunn who piped in the haggis and the many
parents who assisted in providing food, drinks and assisting with dancing
outfits etc. The afternoon was heartily enjoyed by the Primary 4 and 5
pupils as well as the afternoon nursery children.
PRIMARY 1 ENROLMENTS
The primary 1 enrolments took place last week and a total of 27 pupils
have been enrolled for Primary 1 next session. Nursery enrolment will take
place in the week beginning March 20th.
VISIT of MSP
The MSP Jamie Stone visited the school on the afternoon of Friday 27th
January :Mr Stone enjoyed his visit to each of the classrooms and you may
have seen his picture in the local press as he added his handprint to the
Indian flag in the school dining room. He was also most favourably
impressed with the Primary 4/5 Burns afternoon.
SWIMMING ACHIEVEMENT
Four Hillhead pupils took part in the Scottish Schools Swimming
Championship held in Glasgow on January 28th. The four girls all put in a
tremendous performace against the very best swimmers in the country. In
back stroke, Rona Plowman came 4th, in freestyle Rachel Munro was 7th and
Lauren Sinclair achieved a personal best time in the breast stroke event.
The three girls, joined by Erin Mackay in the relay team, came in a very
impressive 6th place.
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HILLHEAD COLLECTIONS
Last month’s newsletter ran a short article about Primary 5 pupil
Craig Muir and his rubber collection. I also asked if there were any other
collections at home which the owners would like to tell their class and
school about. The picture shows Primary 5 pupil Kyle Gunn with his mega
elastic band ball. Kyle says that it contains 1357 elastic bands. His
unusual collection began when he started his ball with some elastic bands
which had been dropped by his postie. We’d still be happy to hear about
any other pupil collections.
Kyle Gunn with His Rubber Band Ball
HEAD
LICE
Parents are reminded about the need to be vigilant for head lice. It
is only through careful checking of hair and prompt treatment that this
problem can be completely eradicated in the school. The school nurse is
always available to offer parents any advice about this problem.
AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS
The after school clubs are now in full swing with a club of some sort
taking place every evening. Much thanks is due to the staff who organise
these clubs. I know of no school in Highland Council which operates so
many after-school clubs.
One small difficulty we have had with these clubs is a large number of
pupils who wish to phone their parents at the end of the day to tell them
that they are going to go to a club. Children who have not told their
parents that they are going to a club after school will now have to miss
that club. This should hopefully give pupils a greater responsibility for
organising their after school activities.
BRING and BUY SALE
The Bring and Buy sale at Hillhead raised some £384.28 for the Primary
7 trip to York. Some super pictures of the event are available on
www.caithness.org. Many thanks to all those who contributed or bought
items. Hopefully any cupboards you cleared out for the sale, were not
filled again with otems your child took home from it!
CRYSTAL CLOCK
At the Bring and Buy Sale, a small clock set in a crystal housing
which had the name “Celtic” on it was sold. If your child has taken such
an item home from school, could you please get in touch with the School
Office immediately.
MUSIC FESTIVAL
The Caithness Music Festival will take place in the week commencing
June 5th . The poems for the verse speaking are now available. Should your
child be interested in entering the verse speaking, a copy of the poem can
be obtained from the school office.. Entries for the verse speaking cost
£1.50 per child. All those who wish to enter must do so by March 1st 2006.
FEBRUARY PARENT TIP SHEET
The February edition of our Parent tips sheet will accompany this
newsletter. I hope you will find some of these ideas useful.
FRIDGE MAGNETS
Finally a free gift for you all which would grace any kitchen. The
accompanying fridge magnet is hopefully a handy memo which you can place
on your fridge door. It gives details of the ways in which you can
discover if the school is closed due to bad weather. You will be familiar
with the telephone line and Moray Firth broadcasts. In addition details of
a new website are also given which you can access to see the current
schools closed in the area. To date the weather has been remarkably mild
but school closures for snow have in the past, tended to take place in
February and March. So do keep that fridge magnet handy.
EXTRA SHEET on SUPPORT for LEARNING.
Please find an accompanying sheet which details some important changes
in Scottish legislation regarding additional support for learning.
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 |
