Dear Parents/ Carers,

It is great to see everyone returned safe and well after the festive break.

 ParentPay

Parent Pay is now up and running in the school with great success. The majority of families have now signed up for this. Any family still experiencing difficulty signing up should contact the school office staff for advice and support.

How does ParentPay help You?

• Provides the freedom to make payments to school whenever and wherever you like, enabling you to pay for school meals, school excursions and school items.
• No longer a need to write cheques or send cash to school, ParentPay is quick and easy to use.
• Helps with budgeting; payments are immediate; there is no waiting for cheques to clear.
• Payments for many of the larger excursions can be made by instalments up to the due date.
• With automated email alerts you will be notified when payments are due and when your child’s account has insufficient funds.

Pantomime
Robin Hood came to visit and the children had a brilliant time singing along to modern songs coupled with a classic tale.

Scots Fortnight
Our Scots Fortnight has been a great success with pupils enjoying the opportunity to experience a range of activities:

• All stages from P1-P7 have enjoyed a visit to Celtic Connections
• All pupils from P1-7 were entertained by Amy Lord, Scots Language/Song specialist
• P6 pupils planned, prepared and delivered Scottish assemblies for the whole school
• Pupils from P1- 6 participated enthusiastically in their stage Ceilidh organised by Miss McArdle
• P7 pupils organised and performed at their very own Burns Supper!
• Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Day

Primary 4 children took part in a ‘Go Orange for a Day’ to raise awareness of Muscular Dystrophy. Pupils wore something orange to school and brought in a small donation for Muscular Dystrophy UK. All classes participated in fun activities and raised £133.56 for this charity. Well done!!

Drop In Surgery
The ASN Drop In Surgery is proving very successful. Starting on 13th Jan, every two weeks, parents have the opportunity to pop in and have a chat with Mrs Cochrane, ASN Coordinator. The Drop In Session starts at 9.05 and finishes at 10.

Catholic Education Week
The Catholic Education Week theme this year is Developing as a Community of Faith and Learning. All stages will dedicate their learning to this during week commencing 12th-18th February. Pupils will be involved in the 10am Mass at St Joseph’s doing readings etc. on Sunday 19^th February.

Yours sincerely

Josephine McGrotty HT Acting

Dates for the Diary 2017

Nativities
There has been a wonderful atmosphere around the school as we have prepared for the Nativities. Thanks to all staff and pupils from P1-P5 for all their hard work and dedication– their performances were fantastic and certainly helped prepare the school community to celebrate Christmas.

P7 Enterprise Day
Thanks also the P7 staff and pupils for organising a whole day of activities, competitions and events for all pupils. A staggering £5, 270 was raised on the day which will be donated to various local and national charities including Syrian Refugees (via SCIAF), Nil By Mouth, Mary’s Meals, Age Scotland, SupERkids and Cosgrove Care. Well done!

PSA
The PSA have worked hard this term in organising Reindeer Day, PSA Fayre and selling tea towels at P1 and P7.

An overwhelming £7,000 was raised for school funds and will go towards Science workshops, subsiding school trips and buying playground games. A huge thank you to the PSA for all their hard work and to the school community for supporting these ventures!

Congratulations to:

• Orlaith O’Donnell came 3rd in the road safety competition. Her brilliant drawing is included in the annual East Renfrewshire calendar. It can be found within the month of November.
• Marwa Sattar received a highly commended certificate in the road safety competition.
• Holly Cochrane was a runner up in Jackson Carlaw’s Christmas Card Competition.
• Lily Cook won the Ashleigh Building Company Competition to design her dream house.
• Badminton team is through to the Renfrewshire finals.

Registration
The Education Committee yesterday approved the recent consultation on proposed new arrangements to school admissions, the transfer of pupils from primary to secondary school and placing requests.

School admissions, pupil transfers from primary to secondary and placing requests will be administered in line with the new arrangements from January 2017 and beyond.  Any placing request applications for school places in academic session 2017-18 submitted before January 2017 will be processed in line with the new policy; there will be no need for parents/carers to submit another application.

As part of the changes to our arrangements, an online facility is now available for the submission of placing requests; please find the link below:

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

ParentPay
All parents/carers have now received their Activation Letter. All parents are requested to use our e-payment method to pay for dinner money, trips etc. This can be done online using a very secure website called ParentPay or in cash at local stores where you see the PayPoint Logo. This system is now live. The current cash machine will still be available to use for the moment for the children to top up lunch money.

Dates for Your Dairy