Healthier Minds Parental Events

Supporting Children in Challenging Times

The Educational Psychology Service is delivering three online one-hour parents’ sessions in March (see attachment for details). The aim of these will be to explore how Covid has affected how children and young people think, feel and behave, and to discuss ways in which parents can support their child through the current challenges.

The sessions will refer to our Healthier minds website and resources (https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/healthierminds) and will involve input from partners across East Renfrewshire who support children and young people’s mental wellbeing.  You can access information about joining these events through the link below:

The impact of coronavirus parental events

School tuck

There have been a few changes to options of food served at Tuck and I felt it would be a good opportunity to update you with what is on offer for our pupils throughout the week.

  • Water
  • Milk (semi skimmed)
  • Fresh sliced melon
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Tangerines
  • Tinned mandarins in natural juice
  • Tinned Pineapple in natural juice
  • Kellogg’s Coco Pop Cereal & Milk Bar
  • Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Cereal & Milk Bar
  • Popcorn

In addition to the above, home-made cookies are available for our Primary 1-3 pupils on a Wednesday and for our Primary 4-7 pupils on a Friday. All of the food served at Tuck is compliant with the Scottish Government Health, Promotion and Nutrition Act and is checked by the authority’s Food and Nutrition Co-ordinator.

Kind regards,
Natalie Stead
Acting Principal Teacher

Family Maths Week Activities

This week we are celebrating Maths Week Scotland. Within school your child will be focusing on developing mental agility, core number processes and exploring inspirational mathematicians. Attached you will find a selection of activities to try at home with your child to help foster and promote a love of maths while developing their skills. It would be great if you could share some of the activities with us via Twitter  @giffnockprimary or on the Google Classroom. Throughout the week you will be able to find out more about what is going on in school through our Twitter.

Giffnock Family Maths Week Activities

Enjoy,

Natalie Stead

Acting Principal Teacher

Parent Council Meetings

Dear Parents and Carers,
The Parent Council would like to share the schedule of meetings for the current school year. Days and times are varied to allow as much participation as possible.
Thursday 1st October, 19:00
Monday 26th October, 19:00 – AGM
Thursday 26th November, 09:00
Tuesday 19th January, 13:30
Monday 22nd March, 19:00
Friday 7th May 13:30
Thursday 10th June, 09:00.
For the foreseeable future meetings will take place virtually using Microsoft Teams. If you would like to attend please email giffnockpc@hotmail.co.uk to receive the meeting link and joining instructions. Microsoft Teams is free to use/download and a member of the PC will be online 10 minutes prior the meeting for those wishing to check connection and audio.
Please find attached the draft agenda for the first meeting (Thursday 1st October). If you have any issues you would like to raise – please email giffnockpc@hotmail.co.uk prior to the meeting.
More information about the work of the parent council can be found on the school website. We would love to see as many parents and carers attending as possible, there is never any pressure to participate and meetings are an excellent way to find out what is happening in the school.

Beat the streets

Dear parent/carer,
After the great success and enjoyment of last year, Beat the Street is back! Today your child will receive a fob, card, map and additional information all about Beat the Street which turns Giffnock into a giant outdoor game. Using the map children and families will be able to locate ‘beatboxes’ across the local area which they can then walk, run, cycle or scoot to in order to score points. Register your card online before beginning the game.

The game provides an opportunity to have fun and get active outdoors however it is vital that we keep each other safe by adhering to social distancing measures. If you played along last year you will notice that changes have been made to the game such as you no longer have to tap the fob or card against the ‘beatbox’.

Please remember:

  • If there is already a family at the ‘beatbox’, stand well back to give them space until they are done
  • Hover your card or fob at the ‘beatbox’, do not tap it
  • There is no need to touch the ‘beatbox’
  • Road safety
  • Wash your hands after the game
  • Do not share your card

Beat the Street have created a short video which you can access by following the link below. It contains information about the game as well as tips on how to stay safe.

https://vimeo.com/455599506/ecd003ffd3

The game begins on the 30th of September.

Stay safe and have fun,
Miss Stead
Acting Principal Teacher

GPS Parent Equalities Forum – Wednesday 30th September 2020

As part of our ongoing work on raising awareness of diversity and inclusion, we are looking to further involve our parents and carers.  East Renfrewshire Council has developed an Equalities Forum for Parents & Carers, with a forthcoming remote information session being shared via google Teams at 7pm on Wednesday 30th September.

At the online meeting, Carol Young from CRER, Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights will speak about diversity and representation in the curriculum. The meeting will also provide an opportunity to learn about the approaches being taken by the Education Department and schools in responding to the Black Lives Matter movement.

If you would like to become part of this exciting new group and the role of diversity champions please let us know, we would be delighted to have you on board.

Giffnock Primary School

schoolmail@giffnock.e-renfrew.sch.uk

Google classrooms for Nursery

At Giffnock Nursery we have developed an additional platform from which to share your child’s learning journey.  As for all our classes, we have created a new Google Classroom for all our nursery children.

This will be a shared space which only those with a login will be able to access, meaning there is an increased level of privacy for photos and information about learning activities to be shared. The Google Classroom will be useful for sharing certain activities during nursery based times.

Should the need arise it will also be used to support other home learning situations.We will continue to use Twitter on a daily basis to keep you up to date on what is happening at Giffnock Nursery.

Please see the attached “How To” guide to support you.

How to access Glow resources from home (Aug 2020)

crazy hair day

Could we please remind you that tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd September) the Parent Council have organised their annual “Crazy Hair Day” as a fundraiser for the school – please see attached poster for further details.

Children are invited to come to school with crazy hair or hats and bring £1 for a donation which should be handed in to their class teacher.  School uniform is to be worn that day as usual.

Parent Council Events

Dear Parents & Carers

We hope you and your families are all keeping well and everyone has settled back into school.

As you might expect, our fundraising calendar will look slightly different this year, however there are still activities the school are able to do with the children that we’d like to do our best to support.

A few things to look forward to are –

Our yearly “Crazy Hair Day” which will take place on Wed 23rd September (poster attached!).  Children are invited to come to school with crazy hair or hats and bring £1 for the bucket, with school uniform as usual. We look forward to seeing all your crazy creations!

Over the October break we will have “Holiday Helping Hands” where children can be sponsored for helping out with jobs around the house or garden.

Nearer Christmas we’ll have the hugely popular Hamper Raffle!

We hope it’s not too long before we can resume our usual fun events, especially to welcome our new families & get to know each other.

As always, the Parent Council is open to all to help out or to put in concerns or ideas. Please contact us!  giffnockpc@hotmail.co.uk

Kindest regards

The Parent Council

Meet the teacher 2020

This year Meet the Teacher will be taking a slightly different format and we are delighted to share that these will become available to you throughout this week. The teachers have created an iMovie to introduce themselves and to share important information about the class and the year ahead with you. You will be able to view the iMovie via the Google Classroom. All of our children have access to their Google Classroom and an information sheet has been attached to this email to support this.

How to access Glow resources from home (Aug 2020)

We hope that you enjoy this year’s Meet the Teacher and find it informative.