King’s Meadow Primary School

The last time the School Bank will be open before the Summer will be Wednesday 23rd June 2010.

 Thanks to all pupils who have opened bank accounts and used the school bank to pay in.   Thanks too to all the pupil staff in P6 and P7 who have all done an excellent job this year.

Children are reminded they can pay-in to their account, take money out or open accounts at RBS Branches until we open again after the Summer.

P 5 went river dipping in the River Tyne with Caroline  Freeman.  We had fishing nets, plastic tubs and glass containers  to see what we could find.   We did not find any fish because the water was too shallow.  We saw a herrin and we found lots of insects.  We were in groups of three or four to help us find more things.  We also had peoples parents or granparents to help us so a big thank you to them.  Caroline also went on our nature walks with us. Caroline gave us a sheet that said what the animals were that we were most like  to see.  Some times if you were lucky Caroline would put your animal in a jar and show the class.  When we found  insects Caroline told us what they were called and what they do.

We all enjoyed our River Dipping

By Marny and Amy

A couple of weeks ago p.5 went to Haddington libary and met the author Oliver Eade .

He told us about his new book  Moon Rabbit.  It was very interesting .

He told us that the book was about a little Chinese girl and a Scottish boy who live in Peebles in the Scottish Borders.  They fell in a river and ended up in ancient China  where they had to save the  blue dragon by getting his red pearl back.

Oliver Eade’s Chinese wife came along to and told us a lot of stories about China.

Some of us have read the book and we think it is great.   The author left signed copies at the library to buy.

                                            Emily and Jamie 5 c

A couple of weeks ago King’s Meadow P7 pupils were invited to Edinburgh University to receive awards for high achievement in the Scottish Maths Council maths challenge. The maths challenge is run across Scotland every year and every school is invited to enter. Over the course of the academic year, pupils are given a series of nine problems which they have to solve without help. Marks are not only given for the correct answer, but for how good the written working is in solving the problem. This year King’s Meadow won eight awards – the highest haul made by a local authority school, and on par with many of the Edinburgh private schools that entered. Well done to Rebecca, Holly, Natasha, Brenainn, Ewen, William, Katie, and Cory.

Thursday the 27th of may, P7 had the opening of there common room during the Bring An Adult to School night. There was a BBQ – which by the the way was a big hit. Even when it was chucking it down with buckets of water. Thanks to the P.T.A who were  determind to do the BBQ . Through Wind, Rain or snow they managed to keep it going. To open the common room, Mr Ledingham ( head of education in East Lothian ) came to cut the ribbon so the common room was open. As well as the common room the school was open to parents to view what their child had been doing over the last few months.

Choices for Life is a pop concert based on learning about drugs and alchohol, which was held at the Royal Highland Show Grounds.  The P7s really enjoyed listening to all the singing and pop groups performing live. Some of the groups that performed were Pace theatre group, girls can’t catch, Stevie Hoang & Bandito.Hip Parade also performed. We hope that choices for life will continue for all to see.

by Hannah Green & Claire Aitchison.

As you will no doubt be aware the annual P.T.A festival cafe is once again looming. The P.T.A are looking for donations of home baking for the cafe. If you are able to donate some baking it should be handed in to the school office or directly to the Corn Exchange on the morning of the 31st of May.

Many thanks

P.T.A and Miss Swanston

This term in P6 we have been taking part in the Robokid project. Robokid is a little robot. The robots, supplied by Heriot Watt University, come ready built apart from the pen holder and the motors. We assembled the robot, plugged in the controller, and found out which switch position on the controller did what. We constructed covers for our robots out of paper and other materials (E.G. PVA Glue) Lately we’ve been racing our robots. The Robokid project has been very fun so far, so watch this space for updates

Here is Robokid:By Isaac Smith P6B

The budget is now in place for financial year 2010 – 11. This year King’s Meadow has to find an additional £4,979 on top of the cumulative cuts made last year and the year before. This effectively means that King’s Meadow now has over £20,000 less to spend each year, than it did three years ago. Mr McGillivray is looking at several options to make the savings, however they all mean cuts to staff, including a possible reduction in Support for Learning. In terms of staffing King’s Meadow will be running with 12 classes next session, giving three classes per year, and near maximum class sizes all round. As yet we do not know who the teachers will be for each year group.

A couple of weeks ago a conference was held by Don Leddingham (Director of Education) at Queen Margaret University, to outline some of the thoughts and ideas behind this new way of working. Invitees included all East Lothian headteachers, union representatives, local elected members, parent council representatives, community council representatives, and guests from other local authorities, Scottish Government and Queen Margaret University. The new idea that Don Leddingham is proposing is to give more say to the local community of how our schools are run. Headteachers would be supported by a team of volunteers, similar to the school board of governors system in England. Things are very much at an early stage, and there were few specifics to report, but the plan is to submit recommendations to East Lothian Council in December, and a pilot of the scheme could be up and running as early as August 2011.