Dear Parents and Carers
I hope you are all well. I am ever hopeful that the weather will stay dry for our picnic next Wednesday. We will be sharing a stay safe in the sun video with the children before we head off.
If you have not already done so please can you make a contribution, pay the full amount or a bit extra on ParentPay so that we know exactly how many children we are taking to Aberdour. As I am sure you will appreciate managing spaces on the coach, setting up groups and organising helpers takes a fair bit of time. Packed lunches must be ordered or cancelled by the end of today.
We have a lot of adults able to join us – if you have volunteered we WILL need you. Please use the form below to let us know if you will be coming along
Wed June 22nd : P1 – P7 Picnic to Aberdour
School hours : it has been brought to my attention that there is a need to clarify the school hours from August. I do apologise for any misunderstanding around these and hope that the following provides an explanation.
- The revised hours still provide the same amount of teacher contact across a school week
- Pupils in P3 – P7 have 25hrs of teacher contact. 22.5hrs of these hours are generally taught by a class teacher and 2.5hrs taught by another teacher – this might be PE, science, technology etc.
- Pupils in P1 and P2 have 22.5hrs of teacher contact
- This means that the start and finish times for P1 and P2 are different from those in P3 – P7
- Over the past two years we have had staggered start and end times with some stages starting at 8.30am, 8.45am or 9.00am and finishing at 2.55pm, 3.00pm or 3.10pm. Friday finish has been 12.00noon, 12.05pm and 12.20pm
- We are now able to bring start and end times more in line
- A survey undertaken by parents and carers expressed concern about the ‘gap’ at the start of the day and at the end with several families asking for the school day to be the same for all learners. This is not possible due to the difference in teacher contact hours
- The best compromise was therefore to have the ‘gap’ spread over the start and the end of the day – 15mins in the morning can be supported by attendance at breakfast club. 10mins at the end of the day on Monday – Thursday is not too long to wait and hopefully therefore manageable. Bringing the whole school in line on a Friday means no wait time.
- These revised hours were shared with parents and carers in October 2021 to help with planning.
I hope that this provides the rationale behind the decision as unfortunately whilst it is not possible to get this right for everyone as different families have different circumstances, we have aimed to take into account parents / carers comments.
Councillor visit : we are looking forward to welcoming Cllr Griffiths, the education convenor, to Trinity later today. We have a small group of P6 learners ready to share what makes them proud of their school!
I look forward to seeing many of you ‘on the beach’ next Wednesday
Best wishes
Jacqueline Scott
Trinity Primary School 