Hello everyone
We’ve had another busy week in Netherlee Nursery! The children have really enjoyed undertaking different learning experiences for British Science Week. They have been involved in lots of exciting experiments such as: listening to sound vibrations using spoons and string, making rainbow coloured unicorn noodles using cabbage, some lemons and bicarbonate of soda and creating mini volcanoes using play dough! Some children also made sweetcorn soup, which was “yummy” and some experimented with cous cous, making it “mushy” by adding water and watching it grow in size! Lots of engaging learning taking place! Please check out our school and nursery Twitter feed at @sand_nc to see some of this learning in action! It’s also been really lovely to welcome the lighter evenings and see some of our children, who are in nursery after 3pm, continuing to enjoy playing outdoors.
Lost Property
If your child is in the Acorns building you will see that we have some lost property on display outside the entrance. Please have a look to see if anything belongs to your child. We will donate all uncollected items to charity at the end of next week. We also have some preloved nursery polo shirts and sweatshirts in our Saplings building which are looking for a new home! We will put these outside the Saplings building every morning next week, so please feel free to take anything that would be suitable for your child. There will be a tub available should you be happy to make a very small donation amount of your choice- thank you.
Help Please
A gentle reminder to please collect your child on time at the end of their nursery session at 3pm or 6pm. Thank you, as always for your support with this.
School Uniform (only for parents who will have a P1 child starting Netherlee Primary in August)
East Renfrewshire Council’s (ERC) Dressing for Excellence Guidance: School Uniform
Schools across ERC follow the Education Department’s guidance on school uniform. As it has been a number of years since the guidance was introduced, it has now been updated. The timing of this is helpful as we continue to move on from Covid restrictions and look ahead to next session.
Below are a couple of extracts from the guidance given to Head Teachers:
School dress codes can play an important role in promoting equality, creating a positive ethos and nurturing a sense of belonging. In this respect uniform is another way in which East Renfrewshire establishments work to achieve excellence and equity for all learners. Uniform is a valuable tool in creating a school climate which advances our vision of Everyone Attaining, Everyone Achieving, through Excellent Experiences.
Research undertaken by the Cost of the School Day Project, as well as consultation with children, young people and parents in East Renfrewshire, has found that families value school uniform as the most affordable option for school clothing, and that uniform is recognised by children, young people and parents as an effective way of minimising visible differences in pupils’ financial circumstances. Where uniform policies are planned and implemented carefully and sensitively, such policies can reduce the risk of stigma arising from clothing and help create an environment which promotes equality.
In Netherlee, almost all of our pupils wear the school uniform items already, with an understanding that over the last couple of years there has been, quite rightly, a need to relax this somewhat due to Covid mitigations eg increased ventilation in classrooms. However, I feel it is the right approach to still consider and revisit our uniform at this time in light of the new guidance given to head teachers. I feel it is important to stress at this point, that I personally don’t feel that we need many, if any, changes to the existing Netherlee uniform, including the wearing of our lovely Netherlee hoody which, due to Covid ventilation measures, has become a popular indoor uniform item, very much loved by us all. However, I am still very keen to reach out to parents and want to hear from, and involve, you in this. As a start, I would be very grateful if anyone had an hour to spare next Friday (25th March) at 9.15am to come into school to have an informal chat with me about the latest ERC Guidance. This would be a very informal discussion with the sole purpose and intention being for me to be able to talk to some parents and to hear your thoughts. (As an aside I am so pleased we can now even think about having a small, in person, meeting again.)
In order to allow for social distancing, I am ideally looking for about 20 parents (max) if possible, roughly 2 from each stage (P1-6) of the school as well as 2 nursery parents. I have also asked the Parent Council for a couple of members too. Once the office staff have received sufficient responses (20) that represent each stage of the school, the form will then close so please do click on the link below as soon as possible if you are keen and able to come along at this time. The office staff will be in touch thereafter to confirm details with those who should attend. Please complete the form here: https://forms.office.com/r/0q5Cf1cmYX i
Following this informal group discussion, I will of course share key points from this with all parents and will invite any suggestions or feedback from everyone at that time.
I am very keen to move forward with this just now so that the PTA can go ahead with the usual uniform sale next term and in plenty time for the new session in August.
Wishing you all a really lovely (and hopefully sunny!) weekend when it comes.
Netherlee Primary School
