As a school community we support many charities close to the hearts of our children and families.

Diabetes UK

The collection from our Christmas Service went to Diabetes UK. Mrs Kitson received the money at an assembly. Children from the school also took part in a sponsored swim for the Charity.

Pupils from Giffnock Primary appeared in a video showing how Type 1 diabetes will not prevent you taking part in sport!

https://youtu.be/7-J7YhCzE5c

They also appeared in the news on STV:

http://player.stv.tv/episode/3ap1/live-five/

Muscular Dystrophy UK

At the end of term service in June the charity collection will go towards Muscular Dystrophy UK.

However as there is a special personal story told by one of our families we encourage you to follow these links to find out more and how to support them further:-

http://www.musculardystrophyuk.org/get-involved/family-funds/funds/nicolas-ninjas/

https://www.facebook.com/nicolasninjas/timeline

Go Team Nicola!

Rocket Science update

We have now uploaded all the results of our experiment to the national database. Once all the results are in they will be analysed by experiments and reported in the new school session. However we won’t have that long to wait until we know which were the space seeds! Tim Peake is due back on Earth in 10 days and will tell us which were the space seeds in the last week of term. Here’s a link to a short film about his mission and time on the ISS:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36485185

Everyone enjoyed the P7 Leaving Ceilidh yesterday evening. There was lots of dancing and staff and children enjoyed some tasty refreshments half-way through, giving everyone enough energy to carry on!

Congratulations to Mrs Taylor and Primary 4 for their efforts in a  recent Sumdog competition.

The class came 8th out of all the East Renfrewshire Council schools taking part, which is a big achievement so well done.

A special congratulations to Mustafa in P4 for being placed in the top 50 children participating in the competition.

Another excellent achievement!

Giffnock Primary School had a great Sports Day on Friday. The weather was perfect and lots of people turned up to cheer on the competitors. Many thanks to everybody who helped – Sports Day wouldn’t work without all the volunteer judges, tape holders and sticker givers!

The winner of the Sports Day Cup was Mains-Macintosh. Well done!

Sports Day is set to go ahead as planned.

 

 

 

 

The weather looks perfect today – a little bit cooler and cloud cover. Children will leave school at 1.10pm to walk to Huntly Park.

Here are the latest events taking place in Rouken Glen Park.

Archaeology Scotland Geophysical Survey Saturday 11 June, 10 am – 4 pm

• Meet at the Pavilion Visitor Centre, Rouken Glen Park.
• The final archaeology survey in the park.
• Using geophysical surveying equipment to locate and delineate the former park mansion of Thornliebank House and the bandstands.
• The survey will be in conjunction with Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society.
• Booking preferred but you can turn up on the day.
• See attachment for further information.
• To book contact p.richardson@archaeologyscotland.org.uk

Big Fit Walk Saturday 11 June, 2 – 3 pm

• Meet at the Pavilion Visitor Centre, Rouken Glen Park.
• The 13th year of this health Walk to encourage all to enjoy fitness.
• A half hour walk in the Glen – open to young and old alike.
• Booking preferred but you can turn up on the day.
• Refreshments will be available to those who have pre-booked.
• See attachment for further information.
• To book contact the Activities Staff on 0141-638 4121 / 0141-577 3912 or email: roukenglenpark@eastrenfrewshire.gov.co.uk

I would also remind you that Armed Forces Day takes place in Rouken Glen Park on Saturday 18 June 2016, 12 noon to 5 pm.

Play on the Longest Day, Monday 20th June 2016

Play Scotland promotes the annual Playday celebration which traditionally takes place on the first Wednesday in August every year.   Playday is the annual celebration of children’s right to play – a national campaign where children and young people get out and play at locally organised events.

After discussions and requests from members in 2011, Play Scotland launched Play on the Longest Day.  This enables more schools, nurseries and childcare settings in Scotland to get involved in Playday activities as Scottish schools are on holiday in August. This year this will be held on Monday 20th June.

Play on the longest day

This years theme is Play Matters

The Playday Play Matters… campaign is calling on everyone to help make sure that children and young people across the UK have the time, freedom and space to play more. As well as promoting children’s right to play, the campaign is highlighting that Play matters for:

• children’s mental health and wellbeing
• creativity and learning
• all ages and abilities
• communities

You can find out more here:

http://www.playscotland.org/

This month’s newsletter from East Renfrewshire Council focuses entirely on the upcoming Euro 2016 tournament and has lots of great teaching resources to link football and languages.

Judith Boulton-Jones

Modern Languages Development Officer

Education Dept.

Modern Languages newsletter June 2016

Giffnock Primary has taken part in British astronaut Tim Peake’s rocket seed experiment and now children can hear Tim read a bedtime story from space!

He may currently be orbiting the Earth, but Tim has still found time to put the kids to bed.

On Monday 30th May he’ll be reading Goodnight Spaceman by Michelle Robinson all the way from the International Space Station.

The story was inspired by Tim and his two sons, and is about two space-mad boys getting ready for bed – the perfect story for all those little ones who’ve loved watching Tim’s out of this world mission.

Find out more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/bedtime-story-from-space

Rocket Science Project Day 35

Today was the last day of the Rocket Science project. All the team came to record the final measurements of the experiment: the percentage of seedlings still alive in each tray.

We are waiting for further information from the Royal Horticultural Society’s School Gardening team to tell us how to upload our data to their database and what we really want to know- which seeds were in space?! The children are definitely split between those who think our better growing seedlings from the red packet are the space seeds and those who think the seeds from the blue packet, which are not growing quite as well, are the ones which were on the International Space Station. We can’t wait to find out!

All in all this has been a fantastic opportunity for the children to take part in a real life science experiment and we hope we’ve managed to give the whole Giffnock Primary community a flavour of the project with our regular updates and pictures.

We’ll be sure to share with you when we know which seeds were in space!

 

Eager customers are queuing up to buy delicious fair trade Kilombero rice in school as part of the 90kg Rice Challenge. If the school sells 90kg of rice, we can raise enough money to cover the secondary education fees of one child in Malawi. Rice will be on sale until 4th June.

You can find out more about the challenge here:

http://jts.co.uk/90kg-rice-challenge

 

We have previously posted about the success of Lucy Eccles (P2) and Dougal Sutherland (P3), in this national competition. The story is now in the Extra and can be seen here:

http://www.glasgowsouthandeastwoodextra.co.uk/news/local-headlines/lucy-shows-racism-the-red-card-and-wins-national-competition-1-4131238