CHANGE – IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR ALL PARENTS/CARERS ON NEW CASHLESS CATERING SYSTEM

From Tuesday 22nd April 2025 we are introducing a new Cashless Catering system in your child’s school.

Catering Services recognised that it was time to update their cashless payment system. They researched and engaged with companies to find a system that is straightforward and easy for you to use. They have also ensured that the system utilises the latest technology available.

The new ordering system will therefore make the process quicker for your child at lunchtime and by ordering in advance will help Catering Services reach climate change targets by reducing food waste.

All meals will be ordered by parents through ParentPay, using your existing Parentpay login.

The system will be easy to use. You will log in to ParentPay and select school meals. Then all you have to do is check the menus, select a meal for your child, then they collect it at lunchtime as normal.

ParentPay knows if your child qualifies for a free school meal so you can order with the knowledge that no payment is required. If your child pays for their school meal, you will have to make payment within 2 hours of the meal being ordered.

Meals must be ordered by 8am and can be ordered up to three weeks in advance.

You will be able to make your first meal bookings on ParentPay on the evening of Friday 11th April.

The link below will take you to an instructional video on how to book school meals.

PARENTPAY – HOW TO BOOK A MEAL

Additional allergen and dietary information:

The new system will also have improved allergy and dietary management, so you can be confident that special dietary requirements are observed. Make sure this information is up to date by contacting your school.

If you have provided current dietary information for your child, this will be updated on the new system and will block any meal choices that contain approved allergens.

The system is also a useful information tool for parents and carers in displaying allergen information linked to each online menu item this includes all information for pupils following religious and lifestyle diets.

Boost Learning Update

We are aware that some of you are having difficulty with the new online reading books loading. We have been in touch with Boost Learning and they have recommended the following.

Boost Learning System requirements

  • Supported browsers

    Windows:

     

    • Google Chrome
    • Firefox
    • Microsoft Edge

    MacOS:

     

    • Google Chrome
    • Safari

    Please ensure your browser has been updated to the latest version before using Boost. 

Pop-up blockers

Some Boost resources open in a new pop-up window or tab. If you have a pop-up blocker enabled, you will need to allow all pop-ups or add https://boost-learning.com/ to your exceptions list in your browser settings to view them. 

 

JavaScript

Boost requires JavaScript to work. It is normally enabled by default, but you can check your browser settings by following the links below to make sure:

 

If parents/children are using any iOS tablets (apple) they need to ensure that the mobile website is enabled. Once parents are on the Boost website they must click on the AA on the menu and request ‘Mobile Website’, there should not be any access issues after that. Please note, sometimes it needs to be enabled several times, unfortunately Apple has not given us an easy solution for this issue.

If anyone continues to have difficulty accessing books, please get in touch.

Big Walk and Wheel Event

Nether Robertland Primary School will be taking part in this years’ Big Walk and Wheel event which starts on Monday 24th March and runs until Friday 4th April. We would like to encourage you all to walk, cycle and scoot to school every day, but particularly over the 2 weeks that we are promoting.

Big Walk and Wheel is the UK’s largest walking, scooting and cycling challenge. It inspires pupils to make active journeys to school, improve air quality in our neighbourhood and discover how these changes benefit our world.

Active travel is a great way to build physical activity into our daily routine. It helps us arrive at school more relaxed and alert, and is great for our mental wellbeing.

Posters will be displayed around the school and our notice board in the gym hall for a reminder of the details.

 

 

 

Scottish Child Payment Campaign 2025

As part of the Scottish Child Payment campaign, please see the information below.

Social Security Scotland are encouraging parents and carers to apply for Scottish Child Payment.

Parents and carer can apply for the payment, which is over £100 every 4 weeks, if they:

·       get Universal Credit, tax credits or other qualifying benefits

·       have a child or children aged under 16

Please help raise awareness of Scottish Child Payment with your network by sharing resources and familiarising yourself with the eligibility criteria.

    You can find resources on the Social Security Scotland website including:

·       Factsheets in multiple languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Polish, Romanian, and Urdu

·       Posters and flyers

·       Social media posts

Social Security Scotland – Guidance & Resources

There is an opportunity for you to ask questions and be pointed in the right direction.

Please see the link for these events below:


Scottish Child Payment Stakeholder Event Tickets, Wed 26 Feb 2025 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

 

Scottish Child Payment Stakeholder Event Tickets, Thu 27 Feb 2025 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

 

NSPCC – Online Safety

The NSPCC has published a news story to help parents/carers learn more about artificial intelligence (AI) content and tools. The article explains what AI-generated content is and offers six tips to support children to use AI safely. If you would like to learn more and discover ways to help your child stay safe online, click on the link below.

NSPCC – Online Safety

Parent/Carer Communication Consultation January 2025 – Feedback

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on how we currently communicate with you. We have carefully considered your views and plan to use this information to help us improve on how we communicate with you.

You shared the following:

  • 77% of responses shared that communication is effective – 23% shared that communication can be unclear and/or difficult to understand
  • 40% of responses indicated that they get all of the required communication they need
  • 53% of responses indicated that they get most of the communication they require
  • 38% of responses indicated that the notice time for upcoming events needs improved upon.
  • 77% of responses indicated that they are happy with a one week’s notice for events – 23% would like a two week notice for events
  • 80% of responses indicated use of the app for reminders

Taking all the views into account, we have identified a series of actions which should support us in communicating more effectively.

AUTHOR VISIT – 7TH MARCH

Exciting News! P4-7 Author Visit – Friday 7th March

We are really excited about an upcoming event in our school.  We have invited the author Simon Lamb to visit our school to lead an assembly for P4-7 pupils.  Simon is a really funny and engaging author and we are so lucky to have him coming to visit.  Each pupil will be allowed to invite along one adult guest if they wish to do so.  There will be an opportunity to buy Simon’s book as Sarah from the Book Nook will be accompanying Simon on the day.  Pupils will be asked to preorder the book prior to the visit and the first 33 children to preorder will be involved in a workshop taken by Simon following the assembly. More details to follow!

Rag Bags – Fundraising

For many years now, we have been taking part in the ‘Rag Bags’ recycling scheme. For those of you who may not know, this is an easy way for us to fundraise for our school. The scheme also increases awareness about textile recycling and by increasing recycling rates we can help the environment by ensuring less material goes to landfill. An added bonus is, the scheme is completely FREE, and our school is paid for every kg recycled.
Since June 2021, with your support, we have raised a total of £556.40!
Moving forward, we have decided to have a recycling bin in our school grounds. This will allow us to continuously fundraise, rather than it being at certain times of the school year. As soon as our recycling bin arrives, we will provide you with more information. Thank you for all your support now and in the future.

JUNIOR CHESS TOURNAMENT EVENT – 4

Please find attached the entry form for the next event to be held next week

Please also be aware that there are road signs up advising of road closures at Stanecastle Roundabout and along Long Drive in Irvine from 17th Feb for two weeks – we would assume that diversions will be in place, but please make your travel plans accordingly

Junior chess tour event 4 Greenwood

John Montgomery

Secretary

On behalf of Ayrshire Chess Association

MISSING JACKETS!

Please check that your child has the correct jacket as we have a few children who have lost their jackets. Some missing jackets do have names on them, eg, inside pockets etc.

Many thanks.

URGENT! CHESS UPDATE

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will have to cancel the junior chess event planned for Tuesday 17th December 2024 to be held at Greenwood

We hope to start them again in the New Year and will advise you when that is planned

Thanks for your attention and patience in this matter

John Montgomery

Secretary

On behalf of Ayrshire Chess Association

FAMILY FUN WITH NUMBERS

here is a Family Fun with Numbers Event at the Scottish Maritime Museum coming up soon, linked to Maths Week Scotland.-see below.
Come along and explore the Scottish Maritime Museum and take part in some fun family activities with their Learning Team.
Get hints and tips for learning at home and resources to take away.
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀:
  • Saturday 23rd November 2024
  • Saturday 7th December 2024
  • Saturday 11th January 2025
  • Saturday 1st February 2025
Between 1:30pm to 3pm!
𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 entry, includes entry to the Museum, food and drinks.
Booking is essential. Spaces are limited, book vis the link below for a fun packed afternoon!
For more information on the sessions please email education@scotmaritime.org.uk or phone 01294 278283

HALLOWEEN DISCO UPDATE

Halloween Disco Update
  • We hope all the boys and girls had a fantastic time at the Halloween disco. They all looked incredible in their costumes. We are delighted to announce that the disco raised £637, £500 of which we will donate to our reading resource campaign, with the rest added to our general fundraising pot. We appreciate all of your support.

    A special thank you goes to Mr Howie for his amazing experiments, Miss Orr, Mrs Beveridge and Mr Gilroy for keeping the disco flowing, our P7 volunteers who helped run the door and support our younger pupils, and our brilliant helpers who applied glitter tattoos and staffed the tuck shop and lucky dip. We hope wehaven’t missed anyone but we really appreciate everyone’s efforts to make the night so much fun for our children.

JRSO Seminar

JUNIOR ROAD SAFETY OFFICERS SEMINAR

On Tuesday 24th September 2024, we went to Kay Park Church Hall for our seminar. This is the event that helps train us for our roles as Nether Roberlands’ Junior Road Safety Officers.

We arrived early to school on the Tuesday so that we could get the bus to take us to Kilmarnock. We left school at 8.45am and we walked to the bus stop on the Robertland Hill. When the bus came, we got on and sat together up at the back and it took us to the bus station.

We used all the correct crossings when we got off the bus to keep us safe and when we arrived at the hall, we were met by a lady who registered us and gave us a goody bag which included our JRSO notebooks.

Lots of other schools were attending and we were in the green group with 2 other schools.

The first activity that we were doing was with Barbara, who works for Ayrshire Roads Alliance. She talked to us about The Green Cross Code and got us to make posters. We used different coloured paper and we had the choice of lots of crafty items to use.

The next station we went to was to listen to a new initiative that JRSO’s are being asked to join in with. It’s called ‘STARS, we strive for 5’. We are being asked to do 5 things over the year and aim to get 5 starts. The things we have to aim for are….

  1. Sustainable Travel Initiative.
  2. Bikeability/Cycling
  3. Road Safety Campaign
  4. Run a school travel or road safety competition.
  5. Create and maintain a noticeboard or school blog.

We are looking forward to the challenge and hope to earn the 5 stars.

We then stopped for a snack. There was juice and biscuits provided for us and we were extra lucky as Miss McMillan bought us snacks too!!

After snack time, we joined Chloe who asked us how we arrived at school. We were asked if there was different ways we could encourage pupils to walk, cycle etc, rather than taking the car.

We had to use our imaginations for her next task. We were to come up with crazy ideas to get to school without using electricity! Water slides, trampolines, jet packs and flying carpets were just a few of the funny ideas!!!

Before we knew it, our morning was over. It had been really enjoyable and we have taken lots of new ideas away with us.

It was time for us to get the bus back to school. When the ladies heard that we were using public transport, they were very impressed that we hadn’t used cars or taxi’s to get there…..a big gold star for us!

Macmillan Coffee Morning Update

We are delighted to share that our whole school community came together this morning to raise money for this amazing charity and in doing so, we manage to raise a whopping £1035.10!

Huge thank you to every single person involved!

Children and families – For all the donations of cakes
Parents/carers – For helping with the set up and running of the morning and for your very generous donations
Our Parent Council – For making it a reality with all your planning
Doreen and her team – For helping with all the crockery and for catering for our children with allergies
Sandy (Janitor) – For helping with the setting up
P7 Helpers – For being super leaders before, during and after the coffee morning
Mr Gilroy – For all his coordination
Stewarton Academy – For supplying us with all the crockery
Miss Orr – For all she does!

 

Yearly Overviews for Session 2024/2025

Our class teachers have planned learning for the session for their classes. If you would like to see what the planned learning is to support with this further at home, please take a look at the document for your child’s class by going to the ‘Sharing Learning’ page in the menu above. The planned learning is subject to change.

MACMILLAN COFFEE MORNING 27TH SEPTEMBER 2024

We are delighted to invite you to our Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 27th September 9:30am – 11:45am. All donations raised on the day are made to Macmillan Cancer Support. Children are asked to bring a donation (cash) and they will be given juice and a piece of home baking. Baking will not be on sale for children, it is available for adults only. If any baking is left over, children will be offered it after lunch.

We will be very grateful for any donations of home or shop bought baking. Donations can be brought to school from Wednesday 25th September. Please ensure any containers are labelled with the name of your child and their class so that they can be returned after the Coffee Morning. Due to allergies, we kindly ask that you avoid baking containing nuts. The school cafeteria will kindly provide a piece of baking for any pupil with an identified food allergy.

Due to allergies and personal preferences, we would be grateful if you could complete the permission Form below for your child. If you have more than one child in the school, please complete an additional form.

Each class will visit the Coffee Morning for a short time to enjoy a piece of baking and a juice. Please see timetable below for the time slot each class will visit.

If you would like to make an online donation towards Macmillan Cancer Support, please click the link – Donate to Macmillan Cancer Support

Coffee Morning Pupil Permission Form

Many thanks

Class Time
P1B and P1W 9:30am – 9:50am
P2H and P2S 9:55am – 10:15am
P3M, P3T and P4H 10:20am – 10:40am
Playtime Playtime
P5L, P5/6F and P6MG 11am – 11:20am
P7D and P7H 11:25am – 11:45pm