Category: Parents

Giffnock Primary Community Cafe

A reminder that we are opening our first ‘Community Café’ at Giffnock Primary School on Friday May 11th 3-4pm, run by pupils from P6 and P7.  The event will be an informal opportunity to share ideas, learning and company with other families at the school, with pupils taking on a variety of leadership roles. We hope that a range of children and adults will be able to spend a little time together at the end of the school day. There will be no need to ‘sign up’ for these events but rather just come in for as long as suits you. In time, we hope that these Community Café events will become an important part of our school community.

In preparation for this event in sharing optional refreshments that will be available (at very reasonable costs!), and in the spirit of being environmentally friendly, we are looking for donations of any unwanted cups/ mugs and plates that you might have which are taking up space at home.  If you can help the school with this, please give whatever you are able to donate to your child to bring into school.  Any items will then be collected in by your child’s Class Teacher. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Parent Curriculum Workshop

Dear Parent / Carer

We previously shared information and the date for this event which we very much hope that you will be able to attend. Following our November 2017 Parental Survey, we have tailored some of the sessions to meet areas of interest that you highlighted and so we hope that you will find the information very useful.

There will be seven sessions available to you, with the opportunity for each parent/carer to attend one of these sessions at each of the three separate timescales (17:30 Session / 17:50 Session / 18:10 Session)

Homework – Maths

Reading

Using a Growth Mindset

Curriculum and Learning Pathways

Sleep

Technologies and Digital Learning

Talking & Listening

Each session will run for 15 minutes and will focus upon sharing information about how your children learn, and about how you can support that learning.

To organise the evening, we are using the same electronic booking system as we have done for our Parents’ Evenings. Please visit http://giffnock.parentseveningsystem.co.uk to book your session. As you are already aware only the main carer can log onto the system but they will be able to book a maximum of 2 sessions per timescale if both parents/carers would like to attend the same or different sessions. Please login with the following information:

Student’s First Name

Student’s Surname

Date of Birth

If you require assistance with booking your sessions please contact the school office. I look forward to seeing you at this event.

Yours sincerely,

Rob Lawson Head Teacher

Mental Health Awareness

This year again we will celebrate and raise the profile of the importance of Mental Health Awareness.

We will be using a variety of activities and workshops during the week from 14th till 20th May 2018 to discuss this area with our children.

Should you wish to see some of the information we wil be sharing please visit: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week/resources

For those who wish to support and  wear a green ribbon during the week, these can be purchased via: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/green-ribbon-pin-badges

Community Cafes

We are opening our first ‘Community Café’ at Giffnock Primary School on Friday May 11th 3-4pm, run by pupils from P6 and P7.  The event will be an informal opportunity to share ideas, learning and company with other families at the school, with pupils taking on a variety of leadership roles. We hope that a range of children and adults will be able to spend a little time together at the end of the school day. There will be no need to ‘sign up’ for these events but rather just come in for as long as suits you. In time, we hope that these Community Café events will become an important part of our school community.

 

In preparation for this event in sharing optional refreshments that will be available (at very reasonable costs!), and in the spirit of being environmentally friendly, we are looking for donations of any unwanted cups/ mugs and plates that you might have which are taking up space at home.  If you can help the school with this, please give whatever you are able to donate to your child to bring into school.  Any items will then be collected in by your child’s Class Teacher. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

 

Assembly Dates

Giffnock Primary School – Assembly Date

Dear Parent/ Carer,

During the school year each class will present their own assembly. Your child’s class will send you an invitation in advance to attend; please reply to this so that we know for seating arrangements.

Pushchairs:

Parents/ carers with pushchairs can access the school via the front ramp entrance and pushchairs can then be ‘parked’ in the Brown hall (for Health & Safety reasons please do not leave buggies in the corridors).

Secured entry system:

As the safety of our pupils is a priority at all times and following Health & Safety guidelines, can parents/ carers please remember not to ‘buzz’ other parents into the school building as everyone should gain entry via the main office door. Thank you.

We look forward to welcoming you to share in the children’s learning!

Assembly starts at school at 9.50 am and finishes at approximately 10.20am. Dates Classes who are presenting at assembly
20.4.18 Mrs Downie & Primary 5b
4.5.18 Mr Hendry& Primary 2b
11.5.18 Mrs Sibille/ Mrs Brown & Primary 1a
18.5.18 Nursery afternoon class at 2.15 pm with

Mrs Bradley

1.6.18 Mrs Hall /Miss Stead & Primary 1b
End of term Summer Service Wednesday 27th June 2018 Summer Service at 11 am

Hosted by Primary 7s

All welcome.

Church Service Thursday 29th March

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to all to join us at Orchardhill Parish Church to celebrate with the children and staff at our Church Service on Thursday 29th March 2018 at 1.30pm.  If your child normally has a home lunch it would be appreciated if they could remain in school on Thursday or be returned by 1.00pm at the very latest as the children will be leaving early to walk to the church. All pupils will return to school after the service to be dismissed.

Please note that the primary school will finish early at 2.30pm on Thursday 29th March 2018 and the afternoon nursery class will finish at 4.00pm.  There will be no PM wrap sessions that day.

The primary school and nursery will resume as normal on Monday 16th April 2018.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and happy holiday.

 

Autism Awareness Week

The Primary 7 Support Buddies have been practising their presentation for Autism Awareness week which runs from Monday 26th March. They will be sharing their knowledge of what autism is and some top tips on how we can all support people who are autistic. Please check back here and on Twitter next week for links on further information about autism.

 

Music Tuition

We would like to share the opportunities our children have to learn an instrument at Giffnock Primary and within East Renfrewshire Council.

If you child is currently in Primary 3 or Primary 5, you will have received a letter about the instrumental tuition available at Giffnock Primary.

Primary 3 – violin or viola starting August 2018 when your child starts Primary 4.

Primary 5 – brass, woodwind or guitar starting August 2018 when your child starts Primary 6.

Within the next few weeks, our instrumental instructors will visit the classes to tell the children about the instruments available to them.

If your child is interested, please return the letter by Thursday 29th March 2018. After the Spring holidays, the various instrumental instructors will collate the returns and they will meet with the interested children for a short assessment.

The number of children being offered lessons in school is determined by the music service and not the school.

Priority is given to the above classes, however if the uptake is low there may be an opportunity to open it up to other classes. Again, this is at the discretion of the music service.

An alternative to lessons in school is the wonderful Saturday music school held at Williamwood Secondary School. They are currently advertising the Come and Try sessions in April for Primary 4 and Primary 6 pupils.

All details of application forms, Come and Try dates and the Parental Information Leaflet, detailing cost can be found on our school website through the following link:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Giffnock/curriculum/expresive-arts/

We hope this information is helpful for those interested in learning a musical instrument.

Yours sincerely,

Judy Brown

Principal Teacher

 

Parent Curriculum Workshops – Save the Date: Wed 2nd May

As has been mentioned in our last Newsletter, on Wednesday 2nd May from 5.30- 6.30pm we will be holding our Parent Curriculum Workshops in school. These workshops will link to some of the key priorities in our improvement planning this year and will also include inputs on topics you asked for in the parental survey conducted in November 2017.

The workshops will be in seven areas:

Reading

Growth Mindset

Homework – Maths

Technologies and Digital Learning

Curriculum and Learning Pathways

Health & Wellbeing: Sleep

Talking & Listening

The workshops will each run for about 15 minutes and parents/ carers will be able to sign up for three different workshops. Information and documenation will then be shared through our website after the event.

We very much hope that you will be able to attend and that the information during the evening will support and enhance successful engagement with your child’s learning. More information will follow during the week we return after the Spring Break.

Bob A Job Fundraiser

As you know, the Parent Council Fundraising Committee are holding separate events to raise money for playground repairs. For this event, we thought you might like a little help around the house/garden and your child/children are invited to take part in our bob-a-job event. Examples of ways they can help are by washing dishes, making the beds, washing your car, tidying their room, setting the table, helping in the garden, hoovering or anything else you think they could do. So, sit back, relax and please pay generously!

For further information and a pre-printed form, please this attached letter:

Bob A Job Parent Council Fundraiser March 18

Giffnock Primary Parent Council.

Bikeability

We are looking for volunteers to participate in Bikeability training with Cycle Scotland.

Bikeability is a programme that prepares pupils for cycling safely both on and off the road. Bikeability has been successfully implemented in Giffnock Primary school for a number of years now and this is all thanks to the support that we have received from our fantastic parent volunteers. Unfortunately, without that support we would not be able to continue implementing Bikeability in our upper school classes.

We would be incredibly grateful for any volunteers and if you would be interested in participating in Bikeability Training please contact the school to find out about dates and times.

online appointments for parents evening

Thank you to those of you who have already booked a parent appointment via the online Parents Evening Booking System – https://giffnock.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

For those of you who have not yet booked an appointment can we please remind you that the booking system will close at midnight on Sunday 11th March and appointment times are filling up quickly.

Instructions on using the system have already been issued to you but if you are experiencing any difficulty with making your appointment could you please contact the school office for assistance.