Hello again everyone,

What a wonderful Welly Week we’ve had! Please do have a look at our Twitter feed @sand_nc where we’ve shared photos of some of the fun that the children have had including learning how to care for and nurturing plants.

We would like to remind you that our photographer will be coming to nursery to take individual photographs of children during week commencing the 10th of May.  This year, all of the photographs will be taken outdoors in our beautiful gardens so we’re keeping everything crossed for dry weather! You will notice that our nursery time slots (attached) are in the morning, this is to keep the children as clean and tidy as possible for their photo shoot! J  If you would like your child to wear something special for their photo (please note photos will be taken from the knee up) and change after they’ve had their session, please just let us know. There are additional time slots available in case we have to cancel sessions due to windy or rainy weather.   These photographs will then be available for you to purchase however this is, of course, entirely optional.

We will be ordering Netherlee Nursery Class uniforms on Friday 18^th June. If you wish to place an order please complete the order form https://forms.office.com/r/6we3YM2zhj and then make payment in the usual way through ParentPay. We have lots of aged 3-4 ‘lightly used’ nursery uniforms and also a huge amount of unnamed lost property in nursery. During next week  we will be putting this on display in the hope that you recognise some of the odd shoes/gloves, hats, jackets etc. From Monday 10^th May we will have the remaining unclaimed clothing and ‘lightly used uniform’ available for you to take. We will leave a donation tin, should you wish to leave a small donation. Please be assured that donations are entirely voluntary, we would just like to know that recycled clothing is helping families, and the environment, by being re-used.

We would like to remind you that nursery is closed on Monday 3^rd May for the Bank Holiday and on Thursday 6^th May for the election and staff In-service day. During our In-service day we will be reviewing our planning and would really welcome your thoughts about recent changes we have made to ‘Learning Links’. Please send any comments that you may have via our usual email address.

We will be in contact next week regarding telephone appointments for all children returning to nursery in August 21. These appointments will take place during week beginning 17^th May between 3.30-6.00pm. For children going to school, we will be holding these appointments during week beginning 1^st June between 3.30-6.00pm.

Please get in touch using the Netherlee Nursery email address if you have any questions about any of these matters.  Have a lovely long weekend with your family.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Angela Kerr (PT)

Hello again everyone

As there are quite a few attachments and links this week, which contain important information from the Parent Council, PTA and the school, I am going to make my update a little more brief than usual.  

WELLY WEEK  However, I simply have to mention the fact that we have had a fantastic Outdoor Welly Week this week in Netherlee- if you haven’t had a chance to pop on to our Twitter Feed  yet, please take a few moments to do so.  This is a great way for you to find out about lots of the learning experiences that are happening in school and I hope will very much reassure you that the children are working really hard, whilst also having lots of fun, as they enjoy the fantastic experiences that have been planned for them by their teachers.  A huge thanks to my staff and everyone involved in making this week such a great experience for our children and a special thanks to my Principal Teacher, Jilly Bell and the wonderful PTA for all their hard work in the lead up to get everything ready.   One of the very first priorities that I had identified when I started as Head Teacher at Netherlee was the need to really make much better use of the school grounds and surrounding areas so that we could incorporate invaluable and meaningful outdoor learning as much as possible.  As such, I simply can’t say how appreciative I am of the PTA and volunteer parents for helping with this and also to my staff for embracing learning outdoors so readily, understanding the importance, relevance and benefits that this has for our children.  All I needed to do was simply give the “green light” to lots of wonderful suggestions that our enthusiastic pupils, parents, Jilly and the staff in school had, and the grounds have literally been transformed!   There is still more to do J but I know that you will be just as amazed and appreciative as I am when you click on the PTA “thank you” link.  https://sway.office.com/baxmBkBqI2mHbRWc?ref=Link

The PTA has some fun activities lined up as part of the Summer term. Please register for the events that interest you and an email with zoom details and any other necessary instructions will be sent before the event. All events are offered free although you will need to provide the ingredients for the baking sessions. Netherlee PTA (pta-events.co.uk)

PTA Summer Term Activities

PC HIGHLIGHTS  Please remember to visit our school website where you can find lots of interesting and useful information including agendas and minutes from the regular Parent Council Meetings.  In case you missed the last Parent Council minutes issued last week, please find attached the “PC Highlights”.  This is a newly introduced way for the PC to share the main points with you after each meeting.

P6 EURO QUIZ  I am delighted to let you know that, following a very tough and hard fought ERC Euro Quiz Competition this week, one of our outstanding P6 Teams came in at a superb 3^rd place.  This is a fantastic achievement as this annual event involves all primary schools across the authority and is always a very competitive and challenging competition.  A huge well done to all of the P6 pupils who were involved and a special well done to our 3^rd place team! 

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS  Please find attached further information relating to the upcoming school photographs.  We are so pleased that we are able to take these photographs this year as, at one point, we really didn’t think this would be possible.

Photograph Information
Photographs w/c 3rd May
Photographs w/c 10th May

NEW UNIFORM RECYCLING SYSTEM  Please also find attached further details about our uniform recycling initiative.  We really do hope that families will make use of this new system.  As always, please get in touch if you have suggestions of how we could tweak or develop this further in any way.  We would like to make this as useful as possible for all parents so please do let us know. 

(P3-6 ONLY) – INSTRUMENTAL TUITION  If your child would like to learn a musical instrument through the music service, is interested in any of the instruments available for their year group and would like to be considered for instrumental tuition starting in August of next session, please complete and return the form below no later than Friday 14th May 2021 https://tinyurl.com/6endmpn9

(P7 ONLY) – BIKEABILITY If you haven’t already, please complete the Microsoft Form so that your child can participate in the Bikeability in June. https://forms.office.com/r/d2HSVM9hhn

And finally, I hope you have a lovely weekend and holiday Monday.  We will look forward to seeing all children back, refreshed after the long weekend and ready for another busy week at school.

Mrs Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher

Hello everyone,

What a lovely first week back we’ve all had, the warm sunny weather has certainly taken us all a bit by surprise and we have loved being able to get outdoors a great deal throughout the week.   The children have once again settled very quickly after the holiday and all children and staff are working really hard on all aspects of learning whilst also, and of equal importance, having lots of fun being back together too.  It has been really interesting to hear lots of discussions amongst the teachers about their plans for our Outdoor Welly Week next week- let’s hope this beautiful weather continues, the forecast looks a little mixed at the moment however this won’t stop my hardy staff and pupils from learning outdoors! 🙂 Across the week, from Monday 26th April until Friday 30th April, children should wear a warm jacket and bring “wellies”, trainers or other outdoor shoes (in a bag) to wear during outdoor learning please. To conclude our ‘Welly Week’ on Friday 30th April, children are welcome to wear their own choice of outdoor clothing and each class will work as a team to plant seeds in a class welly.

This is such a lovely, fun term in school however it is also an extremely busy one too and all teachers are now using a range of information, including their initial and ongoing observations and assessments of their children’s learning and wellbeing, to include in their End of Session Pupil Reports that you will receive home towards the end of May.  I am also very pleased that, although we cannot conduct our Parent/ Teacher Meetings at the start of June face to face, we do plan on using video technology for these meetings this time around.  This will mean that you and your child’s teacher will at least be able to see each other’s face which, I am sure you will agree, does make conversations and discussions just a little more personal.  More information will come home about these meetings soon however I thought it would be useful to let you know the dates just now.  These video discussions will take place on Tuesday 8^th and Thursday 10^th June, between 4pm and 7pm, and you will be able to use the online booking system to book a suitable, convenient time slot over the course of these two days.

Next Friday, you will receive more information in relation to our new Uniform Recycling System, this will be an ongoing, relaxed and regular opportunity for you to simply pop up to the playground to have a look at the uniform recycling rails and for you to take away any items that are suitable for your child.  More information will be in next week’s update however, in the meantime, we would be very grateful if you could hold onto any uniform items that are in good condition but no longer fit your child as we will begin collecting these items for recycling soon. On the topic of uniform, and as we begin to think about the new session in August, please see the attached flyer from the PTA which includes information on how you can purchase new uniform items.  The PTA have asked me to stress that this will be the last opportunity to buy badged hoodies, gym bags or ties from them before August.

As we now reintroduce homework for your child, please do get in touch with us if your child requires any help accessing their homework via Google Classrooms.  Please be reassured that we all realise that we are still very much living in Covid times and as such, although school has more or less returned to normal, many of our lives at home are still busy and many people are still juggling working from home with all the other aspects of home and family life.  Therefore, please don’t let your child’s homework add any pressure to your family at this time.  Please encourage your child to simply do what they can each week.  It continues to be really important that we all continue to look after our own, and our children’s, mental health.  Having time to get outside to play or have a walk is always so very important and if, on some days, this is the right thing for your family to do and it means that your child hasn’t been able to complete all of their homework that week then that’s fine-  we will, of course understand. As always, if you have any questions about your child’s homework then please just get in touch using the usual schoolmail email address and we will be happy to help.

Please remember to get in touch if you would like me to include information about a particular subject, event or topic that you would like more information about- I would be happy to include these items in my weekly update to help support parents to feel as informed and knowledgeable about life in Netherlee as possible.

P2 parents, please see information relating to a P2 Football After School Club, 

P7 parents, please see information relating to our P7 Leavers events.

The next Netherlee Parent Council meeting will take place on Wednesday 12th May at 7pm.  Please read the latest meeting minutes, from the meeting on 24th February.

I hope you enjoy the sunshine (fingers crossed) over the weekend and please continue to stay safe and well.  

Mrs Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher

Hello everyone,

What a lovely first week back we’ve all had, the warm sunny weather has certainly taken us all a bit by surprise and we have loved being able to get outdoors.

We’re sure you will have noticed the beautiful spring bulbs in full bloom in, or near, both nursery buildings. These were planted in Autumn by members of the PTA and we are so grateful for the time parents commit to making our school and nursery environment more welcoming. Children in Acorns were also delighted with the playground painting which took place during the holidays- thanks PTA!  We have really benefited from having the cycle track repainted as children are learning to follow the arrow directions and hopefully this will help us avoid having any car, scooter or bike collisions!

We would like to remind you that, as the weather gets warmer and the sun becomes stronger, your child should be protected by wearing a hat and high factor sunscreen when they come to nursery.  If you haven’t done so already, please supply a bottle of high factor sunscreen, labelled with your child’s name and the cream will be re-applied after lunch or as and when required. Please hand sunscreen bottles in at drop off time, please don’t keep this in children’s bags, as we will store sunscreen in a safe place out of reach of our children.  Due to health and safety requirements, we are unable to keep any spare bottles of sun cream in nursery to apply to a child who hasn’t had any handed in from home- this is to avoid any allergies or reactions of any kind however, if you require any help or would like to discuss this with us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will be happy to help.

This is a really fun, but busy, term where staff are getting transition information ready for those leaving in June and collating photos and gathering comments and drawings to ensure that Special Books are ready for sharing during week beginning 17^th May. Children are so proud of their own Special Books which reflect snapshots of play experiences they have engaged in or moments they are especially proud of.  Staff are also constantly reflecting on children’s learning and will include these observation comments in the Summative Reports for all the children who are leaving to go to school in June.

The next Netherlee Parent Council meeting will take place on Wednesday 12th May at 7pm.  Please click here to access the Parent Council section of our website for more information.

Enjoy the sunshine over the weekend and please continue to get in touch with us at any time if you or your child needs anything or even if you would just like a quick chat or catch up.

Many thanks

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Angela Kerr (PT)

Hello everyone

As we head into the holiday period please remember,  if you have a spare hour or two, to get outdoors and join in with the House Captain’s Photography Challenge.  By the look of the weather forecast you may be able to take some interesting photographs of the snowy Netherlee landscapes and community!

Please click on the link to access the next edition of our Netherlee Showcase Newsletters- this time showcasing lots of the digital creativity and skills of our children and staff.  We hope you enjoy! 

Please find attached information about Welly Week.  As you know we have been working very hard, alongside our PTA, to improve our outdoor learning spaces and Welly Week will be another opportunity for us all to enjoy learning outdoors whilst also further improving these spaces.

Some good news…we are so pleased that we will be able to carry out our annual school and nursery photographs as we know how important these are to many of our families.   Please find attached information relating to this.

And finally, myself and all of the staff at Netherlee would like to wish our children and families a really lovely, well-earned holiday fortnight.    Please keep safe, enjoy some downtime and as much time as you can having fun outdoors.  We will all be here, looking forward to seeing all of our children back in school and nursery again, on Monday 19^th April.

Best wishes

Mrs Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher