Hello everyone

We have some information to share about events happening next week. We’re sure the children will come back after the holiday weekend full of chat about what they have done while off nursery on Friday and Monday.

Coffee & Chat
We are really looking forward to hosting Coffee and Chat sessions next week. To ensure that you don’t miss any information shared at the start, we would appreciate it if you could make sure that you join the meeting promptly at 6.30pm please.  We would like to remind you that to use Google Meet you just need to have a Google gmail account. If you already have a gmail account you can access the meeting by simply clicking on the link that we will email to you on the day of the ‘Coffee and Chat’ or, by copying and pasting the link into your internet browser (this usually works best through Chrome). If you don’t have a gmail address already, you can easily create a free Google account by clicking on the link below and then following the same instructions.

https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=SignUp.

Mrs Kerr will attend all of the sessions alongside some of our nursery staff on the following dates:
Acorn Building parents on Tuesday 28th Sept 6.30 pm-6.45pm
Sapling Building White, Green & Orange parents Wednesday 29th Sept 6.30pm-6.45pm
Sapling Building Pink & Yellow Thursday 30th Sept 6.30pm-6.45pm

Please don’t worry if you can’t make the session this time, we’ll be holding regular ‘Coffee and Chat’ sessions throughout the year.

Maths Week 28^th Sept-1^st Oct
We have lots of engaging and motivating activities planned for our nursery children, with a real focus on problem solving. We will encourage children to explore different options while asking ‘what would happen if …?’ as this is the fundamental question to ask as mathematical thinking develops.

We will be going on QR code hunts with our iPads, problem solving while using our real tools and wood, measuring and planning while junk modelling, coding with Bebot (a battery operated directional toy) and lots of Maths Challenges throughout the week.   We’ll be using some of the activities in this Activity Pack and you may want to try some at home too.

Our wonderful school community will be sharing their experiences of using maths every day in their jobs. Children will be able to watch films made by our catering, janitorial, office, head teacher and pupil support assistants about the role of maths in their jobs.  We’re sure you’ll agree that we have a jam packed week planned and one we’re sure the children will find inspiring, fun and relevant!

Bookbug Session
Mrs Greig and Mrs Flower will post a very special Maths Week Bookbug session on your child’s Google Classroom on Tuesday at 3.30pm.

Letter_to_Parents_and_Carers_from_Jason_Leitch_National_Clinical_Director

Have a lovely long weekend and we look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 28^th September.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Angela Kerr (PT)

Hello everyone

Our nursery children have settled so well into their new routines and are thriving while making friends, embracing new opportunities and learning new skills. All children have started the year learning to build independence and to be responsible for their own possessions. This has been shown on arrival at nursery when children have responded to the routine of carrying their own backpack, taking off their jacket and hanging it on their peg, changing into their indoor shoes and washing their hands ready for play. We ask that you encourage your child to carry their own bags and jackets in to nursery to help reduce staff handling lots of items.

Google Classroom

Have you been on Google Classroom yet? If you’ve not had the chance please make some time to log on as we have our latest ‘Learning Links’ for next week to share.

It’s lovely to be able to share a snapshot of some of the activities children may engage in while at nursery through ‘Learning Links’. We always plan around the interests of children and sometimes the resources we provide may spark another interest or take the learning in a whole new direction! We could write a book on the amount of times staff have provided a really stimulating provocation and children have used the resources in a completely different context. These are the joys of working with young children and having staff responsive to children’s developmental stage. 

Voluntary Nursery Fund Contributions

To help provide craft materials, baking or cooking ingredients, plants, bulbs and daily play-dough ingredients we would like to resume our previous practice of asking for your help by contributing to our voluntary Nursery Fund. All children benefit from your contribution and it is genuinely appreciated as these funds extend the opportunities available to children. There are different ways to contribute a suggested contribution of £5 per month or £50 per year or of course whatever you can contribute.  Contributions to the Nursery Fund can be made through ParentPay. If you have not yet activated your ParentPay account, please just contact the school office either by phone or by using the nursery email address NurseryMail@Netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk and we will be happy to help you as you will need login details  Thank you very much for this.  

Absence

If your child is absent from nursery please let the school office/nursery know the reason for absence by emailing NurseryMail@Netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk or calling 0141 570 7260.

Communicating with Nursery

We respectfully ask that you use the nursery email address when corresponding about your nursery child and not the school email address.

National Fitness Day

On Wednesday 22nd September it is National Fitness Day.  To celebrate there will be a virtual clubbercise class on twitter – @activeschoolser.  The details are as follows:

4.15 – 5.00  CLUBBERCISE (Clubbercise® is a fun full body workout with a banging soundtrack that gets great results. One session burns around 600 calories. The routines combine dance, toning and combat moves with options to suit all fitness levels.) Anyone – pupils/staff/parents/grandparents/friends –  can join by following @activeschoolser and clicking on the live stream.  All participants will need is a water bottle and a towel. Our staff will be joining in with children who stay at nursery in the evening.

Attached Information

Please find attached information from PTA and Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP). Have you been on to Netherlee Budding Minds yet? Click on the link to find out more:  https://www.instagram.com/netherlees_budding_minds/

PTA Scarecrow Trail
PTA Host a Scarecrow
PTA Save the Date
PTA Gardening Poster
Your Voice Bulletin September 2021

Holiday Weekend

We would like to remind you that school and nursery are closed on Friday 24th and Monday 27th September for the holiday weekend.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Angela Kerr (PT)

Good afternoon everyone

Please find attachments for this week:

• PTA Christmas Card Project
• PTA Gardening Poster
• PTA Save the Date
• PTA Scarecrow Trail
• PTA Host a Scarecrow

It has been another busy, but very productive, week in Netherlee.  Our children and staff are working hard and we are all thoroughly enjoying being able to continue to move forwards with a now full primary curriculum, whilst also continuing to benefit from learning outdoors too.  The first half of our Meet the Teacher Sessions have been very well attended by parents with most parents being able to join their child’s teacher and stage leader on the night.  We have more sessions next week, for the remaining stages, and I hope you have, and will, find these reassuring and helpful.  Thank you to my teachers for providing these in “live” format.

THANK YOU PTA and PARENT VOLUNTEERS

I would firstly like to, once again, take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our PTA Parent Volunteer, Garden Group who have, and continue to, play a very important role in improving our outdoor spaces. Our group of volunteers have supported and guided us throughout our outdoors journey with regards to enhancing our gardens and outdoors. Most recently, our raised beds in the internal garden have been filled with a mix of compost and soil ready for a variety of vegetables and bulbs to be planted. Some of our fruit trees and bushes have been given a much needed prune and we look forward to harvesting them in the new year.   Please look at our Twitter Feed to see just some of the fantastic work of this group- on behalf of all of our pupils and staff- thank you very much, Team Netherlee- Volunteering Parents J.

As well as supporting our outdoor endeavours, the PTA have also been working hard to organise several events for our children and families and you will find information about all of these events in this week’s attachments.

PARENT COUNCIL (PC) CONSTITUTION AND MEETING HIGHLIGHTS FLYER

Please click on the following links which will take you to the Meeting Highlights Flyer and also Netherlee’s PC updated constitution.  Thank you to the PC, Communications Group for producing the Meeting Highlight Flyers after each PC Meeting which gives parents and cares a quick, east read update from each PC Meeting.  The PC have requested that, if you have any feedback comments in relation to the Constitution, that you get in touch with them via the PC Email address Netherleeparentcouncil@gmail.com by 8^th October, following which it will be finalised.

ERC ACTIVE SCHOOLS FAMILY CLUBERCISE

Please see a message below from Netherlee’s Active Schools contact Chris Cox.

On Wednesday 22^nd September it is National Fitness Day.  To celebrate there will be a virtual clubbercise class on twitter (4.15pm – 5.00pm)- @activeschoolser.  The details are as follows:

CLUBBERCISE (Clubbercise^® is a fun full body workout with a banging soundtrack that gets great results. One session burns around 600 calories. The routines combine dance, toning and combat moves with options to suit all fitness levels.) 

Anyone – pupils/staff/parents/grandparents/friends – can join by following @activeschoolser and clicking on the live stream.  All participants will need is a water bottle and a towel.  See you there, Chris.

HOUSE COUNCILLORS and HOUSE SYSTEM

Myself and Mrs Sweeney had a thoroughly fantastic first meeting with our newly Elected P7 House Councillors- I am always impressed by our Netherlee pupils and this group of P7 pupils truly excelled themselves with their team work, creativity and enthusiastic and polite attitude.  I am absolutely certain that Mrs Sweeney and myself can rely on them to rise to the responsibility of being a positive role model to all other children within the school as well as organising lots of exciting House Events for us all to enjoy.  Please read the attached letter which will explain a little more about our House Councillors and also our refreshed House System.

PARENTS PORTAL – CONSENTS AND DOCTOR SURGERIES (message from the school office team)

As you will be aware schools in ERC are now using the ParentsPortal system so can we please ask if you haven’t already signed up, please use the following LINK to register as soon as possible. To those parents/carers who have attempted to sign up please be aware we are working through your queries and will be in touch shortly. We are also aware that there are currently discrepancies with doctor’s surgeries within the system, which is centrally managed. We have been alerted that there is an issue with some of the surgeries so please bear with us as we try and rectify these.

HOLIDAY WEEKEND

And finally, a little reminder that school is closed on Friday 24th and Monday 27th September for the holiday weekend.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Mrs Yvonne Donaldson

Head Teacher

Good afternoon everyone

We’ve had a very warm and then very wet week at nursery. Our children have gone from requiring sun cream to needing waterproofs and clothes changed-but they have enjoyed every minute and who knows what next week will bring?

We would like to thank you for following the guidance we issued regarding Covid-19.  We respectfully remind you, and any of your child’s carers, to continue to follow the most up to date advice on wearing face coverings, unless exempt, using the gate closest to your own child’s nursery building and adhering to 1m social distancing when dropping off and picking up from nursery.  Thank you once again.

Learning Links
We hope you enjoy reading the attached ‘Learning Links’ for next week and have fun at home, or in the local area, enjoying some activities to enhance your child’s learning and play at nursery.

Our ‘Learning Links’ come from sparks of interest that our staff have noticed during observations of the children, watching how they engage, explore and play. Your child may choose to engage in some of the playful learning experiences featured in ‘Learning Links’ or they may be supported by staff responding to their own interests while playing and learn with paints, water, playdough, outdoors, creating artwork, building, drawing, through role-play and many more exciting opportunities.

Acorns Learning Links 13.9.21
Saplings Learning Links 13.9.21

Google Classroom
Next week we’ll be sharing ‘Learning Links’ via Google Classroom instead of as attachments to this email. This means you can access the suggestions at any time of your choosing.  If you haven’t had a chance to go onto Google Classroom yet or you require login details or any other help with access, please let us know and we will be happy to help.

Staff News
We are delighted to share that Mrs Joanne Greig has completed ‘Froebel in Childhood Practice Certificate’. This is a fantastic achievement as Joanne studied in the evenings, holidays and weekends in addition to working full time. We are very proud of all of our staff and the thirst for learning amongst the team. The children benefit greatly from the experiences and changes to the learning environment inspired by all of our professional learning.

Consent Forms
We ask that you return the envelope with completed Consent Forms and your child’s Personal Care Plan as soon as possible.

‘Coffee and Chat’ Sessions
Although we can’t yet meet you in person, we are going to hold our ‘Coffee and Chat’ sessions virtually and as ‘face to face’ as we can. These sessions will last for 15 minutes and will be an informal opportunity for you to meet some of the staff and also one of the nursery leadership team. We are really looking forward to sharing some general information about what our nursery day looks like and there will also be an opportunity for you to ask general questions as well. To ensure that you don’t miss any information shared at the start, we would appreciate it if you could make sure that you join the meeting promptly at the start time please.

To use Google Meet you just need to have a Google gmail account. If you already have a gmail account you can access the meeting by simply clicking on the link that we will email to you on the day of the ‘Coffee and Chat’ or, by copying and pasting the link into your internet browser (this usually works best through Chrome). If you don’t have a gmail address already, you can easily create a free Google account by clicking on the link below and then following the same instructions.

https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=SignUp

We really look forward to meeting you on the following dates:

Acorn Building parents on Tuesday 28^thSept 6.30 pm-6.45pm

Sapling Building White Green Orange parents Wednesday 29^th Sept 6.30pm-6.45pm

Sapling Building Pink & Yellow Thursday 30^th Sept 6.30pm-6.45pm

Please don’t worry if you can’t make the session this time, we’ll be holding regular ‘Coffee and Chat’ sessions throughout the year.

We hope you have a really lovely weekend with your family.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Angela Kerr (PT)

Good afternoon

I would firstly like to thank our whole Netherlee school community for everyone’s efforts and partnership working, over the last couple of weeks, as we have continued to work together to follow Scottish Government’s guidance, through what has been quite a tricky, demanding and ever changing period in school.  Once again, my staff have risen to this challenging period with teachers, PSAs and all staff having to deal with Covid in their own personal lives, whilst also being determined to be able to provide work for their isolating pupils via both the school website and the children’s usual Google Classroom (GC) as well as of course also having children in front of them in class.  It is to their credit that staff are also managing to continue to have “live check ins” with our children too as we all understand the importance of this ongoing contact for our children at home.  What a staff team we have in Netherlee!

Their efforts, coupled with your own vigilance in carrying out regular twice weekly lateral flow tests at home has, quite rightly, picked up both positive (and negative) cases in your household which is in line with the high prevalence of Covid in society.  Therefore, if your child has to isolate for any reason, please remember that your child’s teacher will have placed the current class homework on GC for them to complete and they have also placed work suggestions on the school website for them, if they are well and able to work at home. Once your child’s teacher knows how long a child is going to be off for and their expected return date, they will then be able to plan and prepare the specific work for the isolation period which your child can access via their usual class Google Classroom (they don’t need a different GC code). Again, if they are well, this will enable them to continue to learn at home, in line with their class.   Office staff will of course continue to explain all of this in more detail in their emails which they send out to you when/ if you indicate to us that your child is having to isolate. However, on a very “positive” note, throughout the course of this week, we have seen a steady increase in the incidence of negative test results and I am therefore hopeful, and keeping everything crossed, that this trend will continue and things will steadily settle down.

Meet the Teacher
I hope you enjoy seeing your child’s teacher at your Meet the Teacher session.  If you are able to join the session, a wee reminder to please try to join for the prompt start time so that you don’t miss anything.  Teachers, and the appropriate stage leader from the Leadership Team, are very much looking forward to seeing you then.

Parent Council (PC)
On Wednesday evening, myself, Mrs Sweeney and Mrs Kerr joined the PC for a very productive first meeting, for this session.  Minutes of all PC meetings are available on the school website for your interest.  At the meeting, I requested some input from the PC members on 4 aspects of our School and Nursery Improvement Plan (SNIP- available on the school website) priorities.  These areas are:

• Formation of a Welcome Booklet for new families and children to Netherlee
• Conversion of our SNIP and Standards and Quality Report into child/ parent friendly formats
• Homework Review
• P7 Residential Trip

Members from the PC are very interested in helping and working with myself and the school on these 4 areas and I am sure they will be in touch soon with the wider parent forum to seek your involvement too.

That’s all from me this week, stay well, please keep safe and have a good weekend everyone.

Mrs Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher