LETHAM PRIMARY NEWS

Tel: 477550; 07909 896 626; Absence message line: 477555

E-mail: letham@pkc.gov.uk
Website: http://www.lethamprimary.org.uk/
Dear Parents & Carers,
We are coming to the end of what has been a very busy but successful term. We have lots to
be proud of and I’ve shared some of our highlights below. I’d like to take this opportunity to
thank our children for their hard work this term, our staff for their ongoing dedication and
commitment and to you for your support.
Please note our new absence line above.
On behalf of all of the staff, I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy
2019! We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 7th January.
Kind regards,
Jo White, Acting Head Teacher Thursday 20th December 2018
Improvement Agenda
Thank you to those who attended the public meeting which was held
on 28th November. The purpose of this was to share with you the
strengths identified during our recent HMIE inspection and also the
areas for improvement.
Our areas for improvement are:
-Ensure consistent learning and teaching across the school – this will
lead to children being stretched and supported in their learning
where they need to be
- Aim for our learners to reach the expected standards in literacy and numeracy.
- Make our curriculum appropriate to Letham and our learners
- Give our learners the very best start by building strong foundations in literacy and numeracy
skills.

We have already begun lots of work on these and are really pleased with the progress we
have made so far. You can check out our ‘Getting better and better’ wall in the Blue Area to
see exactly what we are working on and our progress in this.
SeeSaw
This term, instead of written reports, we have held SeeSaw Shared Learning events to share
pupil progress with you. Almost all classes have had the opportunity to share our new digitial
profiling tool with parents and carers. Parents and Carers should have received a personal
QR code which allows you access to your child’s profile so you can see what they have been
learning at school and the progress they are making. We have also produced a leaflet for
parents and carers which provides guidance as to how to use SeeSaw and how to have a
learning conversation with your child. If you have not received this or still require to give
permission then please contact the school office.
Please also take 2 mins to click on the link below to complete our SeeSaw survey. Your
feedback will help us to improve!
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKf9V2ineysd
JmyrYVWvuTKlUQUFXVDNOTlpGNFpFVDIxMEw4MEs1UjNLTy4u
 Vision, Values and Aims
We recently consulted children and families about our school Vision- Learning for Life, Values
(based on our Bounce Back Health and Wellbeing Curriculum) and Aims- Learning,
Respecting and Believing. Following a review by our Pupil Council, our new school values are:
RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, FRIENDLINESS, HONESTY, COOPERATION.
We also ran a competition to design a school logo which features our Vision, Vaues and
Aims. We had lots of wonderful entries and the winner was Adam Goodbrand from P5! We
are currently investigating who can support us to create a very large mural of this for the wall
outside the gymhall in the playground.
Property Update Parent Council
Phase 2 of our school property developments is well Our Parent Council are always
underway! P4/5 and P6/7 decanted to temporary classrooms looking for new members to
while their classrooms had a total makeover! This included new come along and support the
school. We meet 4-6 times per
flooring, heating, lighting, redecorating, new blinds and new
year, both in the evening and
Promethean boards. They are delighted with the results. Term 3 in the afternoon. Keep an eye
will see the remainder of our classrooms experiencing a out on the website and school
makeover! app for the date of our next
You will get an opportunity to come and see our new rooms meeting!
soon!
Staff News
We said a very sad farewell to Mrs Forbes, who has been headteacher at Letham for 7 years.
We’d like to thank her for her dedication and wish her all the best in her new job. While
recruitment begins for Mrs Forbes’ HT post, Mrs White will remain as Acting HT. We are pleased
to share that we have been successful in appointing acting DHTs who will backfill Mrs White’s
DHT post. Further information wil follow in the New Year.
We also say a very sad goodbye to Mrs Whitfield and Mrs Colley, Pupil Support Assistants. Both
Mrs Whitfield and Mrs Colley have worked at Letham for several years and are much valued
members of the team. During their time at Letham, they have shown absolute commitment
to the children they have worked with and made a real difference to the lives of many of our
children. We will miss them very much and wish them well in their new adventures.
We are delighted to welcome Mrs Northcott, who has been appointed as our new Centre
Leader for Nursery.
Anti Bullying Christmas Fayre
In November, we held a really
successful Anti- Bullying week. We We had a brilliant afternoon on Friday,
used this as an opportunity to refresh hosting our Christmas Fayre. We raised
our school strategy which can be over £1200 which will go towards
found on our website. We organised redeveloping our playground. Thank
an ‘Odd Socks Day’ to celebrate you so much to all
that we are all unique and different. those who helped
Alana in P4/5 designed this fabulous poster to to organise such a
show what we should be doing to bullying! successful event!
Fundraising Children were very
Thank you to those who kindly made a donation creative
to Cash for Kids during our recent Christmas entrepreneurs with
Jumper day. We raised a fantastic £116! their own class stalls:
Instead of buying a Christmas Jumper, Amy Lee in Thank you!
P5/6, kindly decided to donate the money she Thank you to all community partners who
would have spent, to Cash for Kids. What a kind have made kind contributions to our school
gesture! Well done and thank you Amy Lee! recently; Tayside Ambulance Service
donated 120 advent calendars, Cash for
 School Video
We are super excited to share our school video
with you! The purpose of the video is to promote
our school to the wider community and to share
what we are all about far and wide!
Thank you to Oakbank Primary and to Elyssa, Cole,
Nicki and Nathan, P7, who created the video. You
can watch at the link below:
https://vimeo.com/306847677/141d2d5232
Kids supported with vouchers for winter
jackets and Perth Foodbank, Tesco
Fareshare and Co-op all continue to support
our Social Snack. Lakeland have also given
us £300 towards improving our playground.
We are so lucky! Thank you all for you
kindness!
Dates for your diary
Please check our website:
http://www.lethamprimary.org.uk/Diary/

Fancy a cuppa and a chat?
Come along to Gail’s
drop in for parents
and carers which is
held on a Monday
morning between 9 and 10 am
in Room 5!
Christmas Concert
Thank you to the pupils and staff
who worked together to put on a
wonderful Christmas Concert!
Highlights included the
‘Alternative 12 Days of
Christmas’ by P5/6 and a
performance of ‘Do they know
it’s Christmas?’ by P7.
Thanks to everyone who came
along to watch!
Thank you to our wonderful
Tayside Contracts kitchen
team who served up a yummy
Christmas dinner for us on
Monday
17th
December!
Gymnastics Success!
We have our school
We were delighted to win a Foodbank which is fully
bronze medal at the annual Perth stocked, not just with food
and Kinross Gymnastics
products but sanitary
Competition. Despite
participating for a number of
products also. This is
years and doing very well, this located in the main school
was the first time we have won a foyer. Please help yourself
medal. Well done to Casey, to anything you may need.
Yasmin P, both P7 and to Robyn,
P6/7!
We love our new school
banner which was created
by the Pupil Council, who
gathered the views of
parents and children as to
what makes our school
unique:
Thank you to our Parent
Council for purchasing this
for us!
Communication P7 Parents- please keep an
eye out for a letter with the
Please ensure you have allocated secondary school
downloaded our school app for your child. You should
as this is our main form of receive this week beginning
communication. We aim to 7th January. Please read this
update the website regularly carefully. If you have any
and also use Twitter. You can questions then please
follow us @LethamPSPerth. contact our school office for
help!
 P1 Registration for August 2019

Please note that registration for starting P1 in August 2019 will take place during week of 14 th
January 2019.Please keep an eye on our website for specific dates and times when you can
pop in to complete this!

PKC Education and Children’s Services are working towards the expansion of Early Learning
and Childcare (ELC) as outlined in the Scottish Government’s Blueprint for 2020: The
Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland.

By 2020, all 3-5 year olds and eligible 2 year olds will have access to 1140 hours of fully funded
ELC. This means that in PKC most children will experience early learning and childcare in a
funded provider for at least two full days a week and some full days for 5 days a week.

As a result of the changes to a child’s experience prior to beginning their Primary School
education across PKC, Primary One children will attend school for a full day from August 2019
and therefore will no longer access ½ days for the first two weeks of term.

In this circumstance, children will have access to the benefits of full time education and a
school meal experience from their first day. It also affords parents greater flexibility in terms of
work and childcare at this time.