Category: Parents

Children in need pudsey bear biscuits

We have been advised by the school kitchen that they will be selling Pudsey Bear biscuits for 35p on Friday 15th November at break time.  The biscuits will be sold for CASH only on this occasion (and not via ParentPay) as they will be sending a donation to charity (Children In Need). 10p per biscuit will be donated to Children in Need.

During each school year we rotate our focus between Children in Need and Comic/Sports Relief in order to support a balance for our families.  So although we are not actively supporting Children in Need with specific learning activities, children are welcome to wear celebratory accessories/clothing on Friday 15th November (however they should still wear school uniform).  If you do wish to send in a donation with your child we will be happy to send these on to the charity on behalf of all our school.

British Basketball Final

Please find attached a fantastic opportunity to watch high level sport at the Emirates Arena on Sunday the 15th March. We have been offered reduced price tickets of £5 for a child or adult for the Finals of the British Basketball Trophy. Should you wish to take advantage of this offer please use the link on the document below to book and input the code provided.

British Basketball Finals Letter Nov 19

Parent Council

This week at Parents’ Evenings members of the Parent Council will be available to answer any questions that you have about the school community and how you can get involved.  We are often asked about what is involved and we understand that the main concern is around time commitment but we know that so many of you are keen to contribute as you can.  We thought it would be useful to outline the ways in which you could do that.

Parent Council
The Parent Council meets twice a term with an AGM which is held in October.  The meetings are scheduled in advance and are shown on the school calendar. We try to hold meetings at various times with morning, afternoon and evening times to suit as many as possible. The meetings usually last approximately one hour.

All parents / carers are welcome to attend.  You do not have to be a member of the Parent Council and there is no requirement to attend a set number of meetings.

It is our intention going forward to send reminder emails to the whole school community as to when these meetings are taking place as well as circulating an agenda. If there are any topics which you wish addressed at a Parent Council meeting you are welcome to contact us and suggest an agenda item.

We are currently looking for someone to take the role of Secretary. We would love to hear from you if you think this is something you could help with.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 14th November 7pm – please come along.

Fundraising Committee
In addition to the Parent Council the fundraising committee meet to plan and organise fundraising events and activities for the school year. We currently have around five members who regularly meet to plan these events and again would like to remind you that all are welcome to get involved. These meetings happen more sporadically and normally take place at a committee member’s house. We would welcome new members as we do have quite an ambitious event schedule and fundraising target in mind.

Other ways to get involved in supporting our school community:

  • Volunteer to help at an event – we are always needing helpers for on the days of events and also in the lead up to help prepare activities & games
  • Consider any special skill that you have that may be of benefit, for example we have lots of generous graphic designers that help with our marketing, and joiners who help to create games etc. Can you be of practical assistance? Are you handy, creative & happy to help?
  • Do you own a business or work for a company who would be interesting in sponsoring an event?
  • Do you have experience fundraising and have ideas to share?
  • Can you offer your expertise in a particular area that could enrich the learning and school experience of our children either for an after school club or sessions / presentations during school time. For example, there has been interest in an after school chess club, are you the person to take that forward? A couple of our nursery mums are running a gardening club and sharing their passion with the nursery children.
  • Cook-along, reading groups, helping on school trips, Bikeability and even Forest Days in Eastwood Park with our Nursery children; there is so much going on within the school that needs volunteers so please get involved where you can.

We will be located within the Achievement (‘brown’!) Hall on both Parents’ Evenings. Please do come along and say “hi”; we will be happy to answer any questions that you have.  We will also be selling our Giffnock Primary School pencils for £1.

P3 Read Write Count Bag

Your child will soon receive a free bag of books and activities from the Scottish Government’s Read, Write, Count campaign.

Your child’s P3 Read, Write, Count Bag will contain:

  • two picture books
  • Galactic Fantastic card game and reversible story and routine cards
  • multi-sided dice
  • a notebook with a writing pencil
  • a guide with all the information you need to use the bag at home

The bag is designed to help you and your child to have fun with reading, writing and counting at home.

Giffnock Primary will be welcoming Primary 3 parents and carers on Wednesday 27th November 2.15pm to 2.45pm. There will be a short parental workshop and small information session. Followed by an interactive visit to your child’s classroom to share in the gifting of their ‘Read, Write and Count’ bags.

 

Parent Club: parentclub.scot
Simple, fun ideas to help parents to build reading, writing and counting in to everyday life, whether that’s at the shops, on the bus, at mealtimes or simply playing at home.

Scottish Book Trust: scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount
Information about Read, Write, Count bags in your area.

Parentzone: education.gov.scot/Parentzone
Up-to-date information about learning in Scotland, practical advice and ideas to support children’s learning at home.
The Primary 3 Read, Write, Count Bag is given out to children around Book Week Scotland (18 – 24 November 2019). You and your family can take part in many events happening in libraries and other venues all over the country

P2 Read Write Count Bag

Your child will soon receive a free bag of books and activities from the Scottish Government’s Read, Write, Count campaign.

Your child’s P2 Read, Write, Count Bag will contain:

  • two picture books
  • a rockets and meteors game with dice and counters
  • reversible dot pattern board with dry wipe pen
  • story cubes
  • a notebook with a writing pencil
  • a guide with all the information you need to use the bag at home

The bag is designed to help you and your child to have fun with reading, writing and counting at home.

Giffnock Primary will be welcoming Primary 2 parents and carers on Wednesday 27th November at 9am to 9.30am. There will be a short parental workshop and information session followed by an interactive visit to your child’s classroom to share in the gifting of their ‘Read, Write and Count’ bags.

Parent Club: parentclub.scot
Simple, fun ideas to help parents to build reading, writing and counting in to everyday life, whether that’s at the shops, on the bus, at mealtimes or simply playing at home.

Scottish Book Trust: scottishbooktrust.com/readwritecount
Information about Read, Write, Count bags in your area.

Parentzone: education.gov.scot/Parentzone
Up-to-date information about learning in Scotland, practical advice and ideas to support children’s learning at home.
The Primary 2 Read, Write, Count Bag is given out to children around Book Week Scotland (18 – 24 November 2019). You and your family can take part in many events happening in libraries and other venues all over the country

P1A parent appointments

Mrs. Downie is unfortunately not well today and is unable to come to school this morning. Therefore, we have had to take the decision to cancel all of our P1A Parents’ Evening appointments this evening. We are very sorry for the invonvenience that this will cause you.

We will be re-arranging the same times for all our families from this evening to a new date, which we hope to be in the next few weeks; once Mrs. Downie has returned to school in the coming days we will be able to confirm this for you.

We apologise again for this and look forward to welcoming you into school very soon.

Jotters

As you are aware jotters were sent home with pupils on Friday 1st November to be returned to school today.

Thank you to those of you who have returned the jotters but could we please ask those of you who have not returned them to do so tomorrow as they will be needed during parent appointment on Wednesday and Thursday.

Jotters Home

Your child will be bringing home Literacy jotters and/ or other paper-based learning today for you to share with them.

As you know, a wide range of active, exploratory, digital, problem-solving and indeed game-based learning activities take place throughout the week and not all of these are appropriate for recording in jotters. We hope however that the jotters remain an interesting part of learning to share, in particular in the build up to Parents’ Evenings next week, and we would ask they these are returned on Monday 4th November.

We look forward to welcoming you into school next week.

Thursday December 12 Election School Closure

We have been advised by East Renfrewshire Council that Giffnock Primary School will be used as a polling station for the General Election on Thursday 12th December 2019.

The school will therefore be closed to all primary pupils however we have been advised that it will be open to nursery pupils (this is possible as they use a separate entrance to access the building).  Nursery classes will therefore operate as normal that day and wraparound provision will still be provided.

Tempest Photography

The photographer from Tempest will be in school on Tuesday 5th November 2019.

Could primary school pupils please wear full school uniform (shirt and tie) on this day.

This year only WHOLE CLASS photographs will be taken.

Proofs will be sent home together with the information package detailing about costs/orders. H. Tempest will be dealing directly with payment for the photographs so please ensure that exact money or cheque, made payable to H. Tempest Limited, is returned to school at the appropriate time.

Please telephone the school office if you do not wish your child to have their photograph taken.

P6 and P7 Movie Night

We are excited to invite all P6 & P7 pupils to a movie night on Thursday 14th November at 6pm. Cost of the evening will be £5 per child, which will include dinner, drinks & movie snacks.

Forms will be sent home early next week and can be returned with money to class teachers in a used envelope. Please remember to include any dietary requirements including any allergies.

 

Giffnock Family Support Team Autism Sessions

We have been asked to share this information with you regarding supporting children and families with autism.

Mark Mulhern has passed on these details and should you be interested please contact the number below.

We hope you find these of interest and are able to attend.

There are spaces on both of the Autism Sessions planned for November 2019, which will be facilitated by Tanya Tennant (details below)

TO BOOK ONTO ANY OF THESE SESSIONS, PLEASE CALL THE OFFICE ON 0141 638 4888

1. Wednesday 20th November : 6.15pm – 8.45pm : Talking to your child about their autism diagnosis

Aimed at parents of children in primary and secondary school

This session will offer opportunities:

  • To examine the challenges involved in helping young people to understand their diagnosis
  • To explore and discuss strategies to support families to explain a diagnosis to their child
  • To discuss different reactions to diagnosis and how to support those reactions

To discuss books and resources which might assist in the process

2. Tuesday 26th November 9.30am to 2.30pm: Managing Anger

Venue: The Edge, Barrhead Rd, Newton Mearns

NB IF YOU ARE BOOKING ON TO THIS WORKSHOP, TANYA HAS REQUESTED THAT YOU HAVE FIRST COMPLETED EITHER THE CYGNET TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR PARENTS OR HAVE COMPLETED A FULL DAY AUTISM AWARENESS SESSION. * due to funding restrictions, we are unfortunately unable to provide lunch at this session. Please either bring a packed lunch or you could purchase a snack in the nearby Asda store.

This one day session is aimed at parents of school age children and the seminar will support families to:

  • Discuss why children with autism often have challenges with anger
  • Identify a low arousal approach for support through stressful situations
  • Explore the cycle of anger and possible support strategies
  • Examine strategies for managing feelings

The Giffnock Family Support Team

P6 & P7 Premiership Experience

PRIMARY 6-7 (ONLY PUPILS ATTENDING TRIP)

Dear Parent / Carer

Our Primary 6/7 children will soon be off on the Premiership Experience trip to have a fabulous day at the Etihad Stadium for the Manchester City V Southampton match.

In preparation for their visit, we will hand out an Administration of Medicines (Light Green) form which needs to be completed, if relevant, and returned with the medication, clearly labelled showing the child’s name, in a bag on Saturday. Please also include travel sickness medication if needed.

Due to the road works on Fenwick Road, on Saturday morning we ask that the children meet at the bus stop across from Sainsburys.

Please note the following itinerary for the trip:

  • Arrival to Fenwick Road – 06.45
  • Depart from Giffnock at 07.00
  • Comfort break at service station on journey down
  • Estimated to arrive at Etihad Stadium – 12.00
  • Pre match activities at City Football Academy – 12.30
  • Match kick-off: 15:00
  • Comfort break at service station on return journey
  • Returning to Giffnock PS around 22.15 allowing for traffic

Children will need food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They can bring food with them, purchase other food at service station stops, or indeed purchase all of their food at stops. Please make sure your child has packed food and/or money with them for the entire day.

Children are permitted to bring electrical devices to keep themselves entertained at your discretion (mobile phones, tablets, etc.). Please be aware that any electrical items brought are at the responsibility of the child and the school cannot accept any responsibility for damaged or missing items. We are happy for the children to take photographs of this wonderful experience but to be respectful about taking photos of others and not posting on social media.

P7B Assembly

You will have already received an email to advise you that the P7B class assembly will be held on Friday 22nd November.  Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we are unable to proceed with this date and therefore the class assembly has been re-arranged and will now take place on Friday 27th March 2020.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Mindfulness Workshops At Rouken Glen Park

We have received information regarding parent workshops on Mindfulness from Katy McGregor, an Activity Ranger at Rouken Glen Park.

TWO PART MINDFULNESS BEGINNER’S WORKSHOP

Following the success of our previous Mindfulness events, we are very excited to offer this unique two part event over two evenings as follows;

Part 1 – Wednesday 30th October, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Part 2 – Wednesday 6 November, 6.30-8.30pm

Part 1 – We will be looking at why and how our modern day lives can create an imbalance and result in stress, anxiety, sleep issues and depression. There will be a working session to review how we experience these directly in the mind and body and the opportunity for a question and answer session followed by an introduction to the foundation of mindfulness and an experiential practice. You will receive a guided audio practice to do at home every day for a week until the next session for discussion and reflection in Part 2.

Part 2 – There will be an opportunity to reflect on our experience of mindfulness over the week and a question and answer session with time for individual reflection and in the group. We will discover various techniques that we can use in everyday life to help ourselves regain perspective and a sense of spaciousness when life feels busy or overwhelming and introduce another practice that can be continued at home following the final session to reduce stress and anxiety in everyday life.

The event will lead by Julie Griffin, Mindfulness Teacher with the charity Cultivating Mindfulness based in East Renfrewshire.

Please email to book your space to Katy.McGregor@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk

BOOKING
This two part workshop is FREE and limited to spaces. It will only be of real benefit when both workshops are attended as Part 2 builds on Part 1, so please only book this event if you are committed and available to attend both sessions. Minimum age is 18 years.

Yours faithfully