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Photos from the Gelston Bloggers!

Hello, we are the Gelston Bloggers and each week we will add some photographs and news about what we have been learning in school.  Here are some photos of what P4-7 learned in Art today.

From the Gelston Bloggers!

Stewartry Dance Competition –  Tuesday 10th December

(10am-12pm in Castle Douglas Town Hall)

There are 16 pupils involved in the dance competition and they have been attending an after schools dance club with Mrs L-Scott on a Wednesday.  (The last session is on Wednesday 4th December from 3-4pm in the Village Hall.)

Travelling Arrangements: Just to confirm that these 16 pupils will be travelling to and from school to Castle Douglas Town Hall with:

Mrs L-Scott (4 spaces)

Lucy’s Mum (? spaces)

Darby’s Dad (? spaces)

Kaiden and Bonnie’s Mum (? spaces)

Please can these parents confirm how many spaces they have in cars and also if car seats are required?

Costumes: Mrs L-Scott has bought white t-shirts and is transforming them into snowmen costumes for the 8 snowmen.  The eight other pupils will be wearing casual clothes including a Christmas jumper if possible, or a casual jumper if not. (Mrs L-Scott will confirm this with parents in person on Wednesday after the club.)

Our dance will be shared with parents at our Achievement Assembly on 13th December too.

Parent Council

Please can I remind you to complete the short survey to help us make our Parent Council as accessible as possible?

Click link to access survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KYGDMHL

Diary Dates

Best wishes,

Mrs M Lidstone-Scott

Headteacher

Welcome to our New Clerical Assistant

This week we welcome Mrs Georgina Benson to Gelston Primary School.  She will normally be in the office from 9am-3pm on a Tuesday and Friday.  This week she is joining us on Monday 25^th and Wednesday 27^th November to enable her to work alongside Miss Campbell and Miss McNeill.  We hope that you will make her feel very welcome.

Communication and Data Protection

In the interests of Data Protection, we wanted to ensure that we are no longer holding pupil details on unused apps or websites.

I have contacted the administrator of the old websites and I have asked them to delete the websites and URLs.

We continue to send GroupCall texts to your mobile phones.  GroupCall is directly linked to data from our Council based SEEMiS system.

The Expressions app is also linked to GroupCall and SEEMiS but we do not use it after gathering feedback from parents.  You may delete the Expressions app.

Parent Council Survey

Our Parent Council have prepared some information to introduce themselves and this is included on their blog: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/dg/gelstonpc/ .  (This is also located on the right hand side bar of the school website under the heading, ‘Gelston Parent Council Updates’.)

One of the first things that they would like to do is to try and make our Parent Council as accessible as possible. To help them to work out how they might achieve this they have prepared the following short survey:

Click link to access survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KYGDMHL

The survey will remain open until 5pm on 10^th December 2019 when it will close and they will review the feedback received.  Please see the Parent Council blog for more information. 

Dear Parent/ Guardian,

Open Day – Gelston Primary

As discussed at a recent Parent Council meeting it was agreed that holding an open day where parents would be invited along to spend some of their day in school, working alongside the children, would be a good way to give everyone a better idea of how some of the activities that we carry out in a school day.

It is entirely up to you how long you stay, half an hour or the entire day. I realise it is impossible to arrange a day to suit everyone but we are going to try our first open day on Tuesday 17^th December.

P1-3 timetable:

P4-7 timetable:

This is a rough guideline as to the type of activities in each classroom but sometimes these can alter slightly. In addition to these timetables Mrs. L-Scott will be working on Positive Relationships and Mrs. Maxwell will be working with groups from both classrooms.

You are also welcome to stay for lunch at 12.30pm and can purchase soup and a scone for £2.50.

Please contact the school via the office email gw08officegelston@ea.dumgal.sch.uk to let us know:

1. If you are able to attend on 17th December and
2. If you are staying for lunch.  (Please send in £2.50 if so.)

(We are also sending out a paper letter with a tear off slip.)

We hope you can come along and join us.

Yours sincerely,

Norma Maxwell

Principal Teacher

Primary 7 Open Evening

We would like to invite you to a Primary 7 Open Evening at Castle Douglas High School on Tuesday 26^th November from 6.30 – 7.30pm.  Tea and coffee will be available from 6.15pm.

 The purpose of the evening is to inform you about the transition programme and to explain how your child will be supported through the process.  Some S1 pupils will talk about their personal experience of transition and the Junior Leaders will explain their role in supporting the P7 pupils.  The evening will end with a tour of the school where you will have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

We realise that moving to High School can be an anxious time for both pupils and parents and we hope that we can put your mind at ease and make it an enjoyable and exciting experience for the young people. Please do not hesitate to contact the school should you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Cook

Depute Headteacher, Castle Douglas High School

Dumfries & Galloway Parent Council Forum

There is a meeting on Thursday  (21st November) at 7pm at Castle Douglas High School open to parents.  The main focus will be on sharing and discussing next steps for Education Services within the Council as we face budget savings.  We cannot continue to spend money in the same way so we need to ‘transform’ our approach.  Several meetings were held across the region to discuss ideas and this meeting is a chance for you to find out more about what this will mean for our school and our children.  It would be extremely helpful if some parents could attend and feed back to the Parent Council.

Stewartry Dance Competition

I now have a groups of pupils from P1-7 who will be entering the Stewartry Dance Competition on 10th December.  In preparation for the event we are learning our dance over three weeks from 3-4pm in Gelston Village Hall.  Keep dancing!!

Edina Trust Bulb Project

Our pupils are involved in the ‘Spring Bulbs for Schools’ project which is a long running climate change investigation.  It gives pupils the opportunity to be part of a real science investigation. Pupils have planted daffodil and crocus bulbs and will spend time from Oct-Mar recording the rainfall and temperature each school day.  They will watch their daffodils and crocuses grow and record when they flower, and the height of the plants when the flowers open.  Results will be shared between schools all over the UK and pupils will begin to draw conclusions about the impact of climate change.

Active Schools Jigs and Reels

Louise Coupar from the Active Schools Team will be working with pupils in P4-7 one afternoon this week  in preparation for a Scottish Dance event happening in Term 3.

P2 and P3 Postcards of Kindness Project

Clerical Assistant

We are delighted to announce that Georgina Benson is our new Clerical Assistant on a Tuesday and Friday.   We are waiting for paperwork to be processed so that she can start working with us soon.  Miss Vicky Campbell, although based at Crossmichael, will continue to receive telephone calls on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Communication

We are always keen to keep in touch with you.  Here are the main methods of communication:

• write a note in your child’s homework diary
• post comments on the Blog under ‘Recent Posts’
• telephone the school office on 01556 502415 and make an appointment to speak to your child’s teacher
• email the school office: gw08officegelston@ea.dumgal.sch.uk
• contact the Headteacher directly on 07741 686730

P4-7 Feis Rois Ukulele Performance in Gelston Village Hall

At 11.30am on Monday 25th November, P4-7 pupils would like to invite their family and friends to listen to them as they perform some of the pieces that they have learned on the ukulele.  We wish to thank Feis Rois for their enthusiasm and support over the weeks.  The children have really enjoyed learning a new instrument.

P7 Open Evening at Castle Douglas High School

P7 pupils and parents are invited to attend an open evening at Castle Douglas High School on Tuesday 26th November at 6.30pm.

PE Kits

We have noticed that some pupils are forgetting to bring a full PE kit to school with them.  A PE kit should consist of a separate T-shirt, shorts/ jogging bottoms/ leggings, socks and PE shoes (PE shoes can also be used as indoor school shoes).

Clothes and Personal Items

Please label all clothes and shoes with you child’s name.  Also, please check that your child has not accidentally brought home another child’s clothing.  We have a few missing cardigans and jumpers at the moment.

Snippets of Learning in School

Pupils in P1-3 are learning to use interesting verbs in their poems, which they wrote collaboratively with Mrs Stevens.

P4-7 have been enjoying playing more complex songs on their ukuleles.

P4-7 Feis Rois Ukulele Performance in Gelston Village Hall

At 11.30am on Monday 25th November, P4-7 pupils would like to invite their family and friends to listen to them as they perform some of the pieces that they have learned on the ukulele.  We wish to thank Feis Rois for their enthusiasm and support over the weeks.  The children have really enjoyed learning a new instrument.

We had a fantastic time at our Halloween party this afternoon.  Children played games such as ‘Mummy’s Brains’, a spooky version of ‘Kim’s game’, pin the spider on the web, eat the rings on the string and they were doukin’ for apples.  They also played team games where they used a broomstick to dribble a balloon and played hoopla with witches’ hats.

Special thanks to our parent helpers ‘Creepy’ Clare and ‘Poltergeist’ Pam!

PLEASE CLICK ON INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS AND LEAVE COMMENTS IF YOU WISH!

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 2 at Gelston Primary School.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to this term.  Last term, we raised an amazing £811 on our Sponsored Autumn Walk so thank you very much to everyone who contributed.

Halloween Party

We are having our Halloween party on Thursday 31st October in the afternoon.  Pupils can change into their costumes after lunch.  They may wear non-uniform instead.  It should be SPOOKTACULAR!!

P4, P5, P6 and P7 Biosphere Explorers!

The Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere has a vision to make life in our Biosphere better while caring for the natural environment. A key strand of this is the education of the next generation biosphere residents in sustainable development, increasing awareness and connections with the ‘working countryside’.

The Biosphere Explorers project, run by the Crichton Carbon Centre and funded by the Hollywood Trust and the Galloway Glens Scheme, is working towards this aim with an education programme delivered in schools consisting of a series of workshops aimed at increasing knowledge of the local natural environment and human interactions with it. This project will run for two years and will be focussed on school age children, with elements for all residents of the area.

Our P4, P5, P6 and P7 pupils will be participating in these workshops each each Thursday afternoon (from 7th November) led by the Biosphere Explorers Officer, Shalla Gray. The sessions will include:

Please ensure that pupils have brought their outdoor clothing with them on these days.

Paper Free Communication after the Holidays

Please remember that after the October holidays, we will be sending out weekly newsletters via email and they will be available on our website under the heading ‘Recent Posts’:

Gelston Primary School: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/dg/gelston/

Please let us know what you think and feel free to leave comments under posts. (All comments will be checked before being made public.) We are keen to provide you with more information about your child’s learning and hope that the websites will evolve with your help.  We are aware of children whose names and photos will not appear online but please contact the school if you have any questions.

Sponsored Walk

Thank you to everyone who joined us on our sponsored autumn walk around Gelston Castle Estate on Tuesday.  We have a lovely time and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  We have received many sponsor forms and would like to thank you for raising so much money.  We will share the total amount raised after the October holidays.

October Holidays

We hope all pupils have a wonderful October holiday and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 28^th October for the new term.

Indoor Shoes

After the holidays we ask that all pupils change into indoor shoes at the start of the school day (not slippers) to help keep carpets clean.  Indoor gym shoes will suffice as pupils wear these for PE lessons anyway and it will save extra expense.

Halloween Party

Teachers are organising a Halloween party in school on Thursday 31^st October from 1.15pm-3pm.  Pupils are invited to bring in their costumes and will change into them at lunch time.  Our Parent Council have kindly agreed to contribute to the cost of apples and other items.  Teachers will be in touch after the holidays to arrange parent helpers.  We would appreciate it if parents could help decorate the village hall from 2pm on Wednesday 30^th October.  Thank you for your support.

Staffing

We welcome Mrs Amanda Kirkpatrick who is studying for her HNC in Childhood Studies and will be with us each Monday and Tuesday in P1-3.  We also welcome Abbie who joins us from Castle Douglas High School as a work experience student for a few hours each week.

ALDI Fundraising Campaign

ALDI have launched a fundraising campaign where parents receive a sticker for every £30 they spend in store.  We are collecting the stickers at Gelston and Crossmichael schools.  When we have a poster full of stickers we can enter a prize draw to win £20K for each school.  Please start saving your stickers for us!

‘Scottish Football Association’ After School Club

The SFA continue to run two after school clubs on a Friday at Crossmichael Primary School from 3-4pm and from 4-5pm.  These are open to pupils from both Crossmichael and Gelston schools.  For further details and to book sessions, please contact Castle Douglas Swimming Pool on 01556 502745.

Parental Volunteers

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us to help out in school.  I plan to set up a timetable soon and we will get in touch with you after the holidays.

Special thanks go to Holly Young for helping to cut the hedge beside the path.  I am hopeful that the Community Payback Team will be available to cut internal hedges and bushes in the October Holidays.  Nevertheless, if any parents are available to help trim some bushes/ hedges then we would welcome your support too.

Clerical Interviews

I am interviewing for the Clerical post on 11^th October and we hope to have someone in post soon.  Thank you very much for your patience this term.  I know that it has been difficult to contact the school at times.  In case of emergency my Headteacher’s mobile number is: 07741 686730.

Best wishes,

Mary E Lidstone-Scott

Partnership Headteacher