With reference to our email last week, we have now received further important information from East Renfrewshire Council.

Although the school will be closed to primary pupils on Thursday 23rd May 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.

The dates for nursery graduations have been set as follows;

11.00am Wednesday 26th June 2019 – Nursery Graduation for AM pupils

2.15pm Wednesday 26th June 2019 – Nursery Graduation for PM pupils

We would like to advise you that the online booking system for parent appointments will open on Monday 25th February at 22:00hrs and will close at midnight on Sunday 10th March 2019.

A letter giving further information is attached together with a “parent guide” for the booking system.

If you have any queries or require assistance with the booking system please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

NURSERY – Parents’ Meetings – Online Appointment Booking
Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th March 2019

I would like to invite you to attend our Parents’ Meetings on the above dates. The meeting is designed to give you an opportunity to meet your child’s key-worker, review and discuss their progress this term and look over some of their work. Each meeting will last approximately ten minutes. It is not a requirement for your child to attend the meeting although we understand that you may wish to bring children with you; as a courtesy we request that they please remain with you at all times. As usual appointments take place in the nursery classroom and 10 minute warning bells will sound to indicate the start and end of each individual appointment.
Some of you will already be familiar with the easy to use online booking system which is used for both nursery and primary appointments. This system allows you to choose your own appointment times with nursery staff and you will receive an email confirming your appointments. Appointments can be made on Wednesday or Thursday with Mrs Bradley (Yellow Group), Mrs Bell (Red Group) and Mrs McWilliam (Blue Group). The nursery staff can give you further guidance regarding this if required.

Appointments can be made from Monday 25th February (22:00) and the booking system will close on Sunday 10th March at midnight. The booking system will only accept bookings from one “main carer” which for the majority of families has been set as the mother. However, this is not always the case and if you experience problems in logging in then please try to log in using the father’s details. We expect that appointments will fill up quickly and advise you to access the system as early as possible, particularly if you have more than one child. Where possible, please avoid “consecutive” time slots for siblings so that time is allowed for getting to your next appointment.
Please visit http://giffnock.parentseveningsystem.co.uk to book your appointments. (A short guide on how to add appointments is attached for easy reference).

Parent Guide Primary – Parent Appointments March 2019

Please login with the following information:
Student’s First Name
Student’s Surname
Date of Birth

If you do not have access to the internet, please contact the school office. We look forward to welcoming you into school.

Yours sincerely
Rob Lawson Head Teacher

Following the last few whole school church gatherings, it has become clear that the extended time periods of these services have been challenging for some of our youngest children. As a learning experience, a range of our nursery boys and girls have found understanding and engaging with some of the content in these services difficult too, with their play-based learning having to be interrupted for such services. Furthermore, given that only one service can ever be held on the day, some of our children (morning or afternoon) would always be unable to attend.

With these factors in mind, we have decided that our nursery class children will not attend either the Easter or Summer Services this school session. We are however aware that, especially when older siblings in the school are attending the services, some families may wish to take their own child with them to the church when they themselves intend to go. In such a case, we are very happy for you to do so and would simply request that you notify the nursery class staff of this intention prior to that day.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact either myself or Mrs. Judy Brown (Principal Teacher) through the school office.

Gilmour Sports have asked us to send an apology on their behalf to any parents/carers who have experienced delays with the delivery of nursery uniform items.  They have had problems with suppliers but have assured us that they have now taken steps to ensure that sufficient stock should be available in future.

Giffnock Nursery and Primary Support Team

At Giffnock we are fortunate to work with a variety of staff to support our children and families. We would like to offer the following opportunities for you to come along and find out more. The attached letter has more information:

GiffnockNurseryandPrimarySupportTeamParentalEventsAug18

Nursery & P1 Only

Please come along to our Drop-in next Wednesday (14th February) where you will have the opportunity to meet Sam Cunningham our Family First support worker. She can offer advice and help on a wide variety of matters (eg  Parenting, Health, Money, School/Nursery, Additional Support Needs, Home, Confidence)

You can come along at 11.15am or 1pm to the Family Room. Please enter by the nursery entrance.

There are leaflets available in the nursery cloakroom area or ask a member of staff for details.

You can also follow this link to East Renfrewshire’s own website which has lots of information

http://www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/familyfirst

We look forward to welcoming you there.

Calling all nursery and P1 parents and carers!

Our Wednesday drop-ins are restarting on the 17th of January in the Family Room.

Please feel free to come along. You will have the opportunity to chat to other parents over a coffee and staff will be there to provide home-link resources like Story Sacks, rhyme bags and maths bags.

They will run from 11.15-11.45am and 1.00-1.30pm.

We look forward to welcoming you there!

Dear parent/carer ,

The Scottish Government is currently running a survey on early learning and childcare and you are invited to take part by using an on-line form – see the link below.

What is the survey about?

The survey asks about people’s use of and views on early learning and childcare including nurseries, childminders, playgroups, or family centres.

The Scottish Government plans to increase the hours of free early learning and childcare available to 3 and 4 year olds, and some 2 year olds (further details can be found at www.earlylearningandchildcare.scot). This will be a really significant change for children (and their parents and carers), and to help plan for this the Scottish Government is interested in hearing the views of households with children aged 0-5. This includes parents or carers who do not currently use early learning and childcare.

Giving your views

You can complete the survey online at www.bit.ly/elc-survey.

Everyone taking part has the option to be entered into a draw to win one of 10 x £100 cash prizes.

The survey is voluntary, but your responses will help the Scottish Government plan for the increase in free early learning and childcare. If you feel that you are not the right person in your household to take part, you can pass this letter on to someone else. If you know of anyone else who might be interested in the survey, or if for example you are a member of a relevant Facebook group, please also feel free to pass on the link to the survey.

The survey is strictly confidential. The Scottish Government have asked Craigforth (independent researchers) to run the survey, and no-one outside Craigforth will know who has taken part or have access to individual responses.  Reporting of survey results will also make sure that no-one taking part can be identified.

Questions?

If you would like to talk to someone about the survey, or if you would prefer to complete the survey by phone, you can contact Chris Thornton or Louise Blair at Craigforth on Freephone 0800 027 2245 or email survey@craigforth.co.uk.

As part of the consultation on the expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland the Scottish Government wants to hear the views of parents and carers and is running a series of Ministerial engagement events with parents in December. This includes an event in Glasgow at 6pm on Wednesday 7th December. Places for the event can be booked at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/expansion-of-early-learning-and-childcare-in-scotland-consultation-event-tickets-29847825650.

The Scottish Government is also working with stakeholders to organise a series of smaller targeted engagement events across the country in December and January.

The consultation A Blueprint for 2020: The Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland was launched on 15th October and runs until 9th January 2017.

More information on the consultation is available at: https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/creating-positive-futures/expansion-of-early-learning-and-childcare.