All posts by Mrs Davie

Uniform

School Uniform

We have had a number of children losing various items of school uniform including jackets.  Please can you check your child has brought home the correct jacket, etc., and if possible can you write/label their names on their school uniform.

Thank You.

Information

Group Call and Parent Pay

Groupcall

You will have noticed recently some of the emails from the school look slightly different. This is because we are changing to a new system of contacting parents called Group Call.

This system will allow us to :

  • email and text as we do at the moment. At the moment we can only send to the main contact. This should change in January.  This makes it all the more important that you update us with any changes to your email address and mobile number.
  • inform parents by email much more easily about school closures etc in the case of bad weather.

In January there will also be:

  • an app called Xpressions allowing you to see updates and information from the school. We will send out more information nearer the time but you can look at the information on the Groupcall website. http://parents.groupcall.com/

Keep your eyes peeled for updates here.

ParentPay

Thursday 15th December is the date for the new Parent Pay system to be introduced to St Joseph’s.  You will be sent an activation letter nearer that time with a user name and password.  The work to introduce the system may last for up to a week. Initially you will only be able to pay for school meals but as this changes we will notify you about paying for Lockerbie Manor, school trips etc.

Please make sure your child’s lunch account has sufficient funds on the 15th to last them for a week.

All balances including outstanding money owed will be transferred to the new system.

We will notify you as soon as it is open to use by parents.

Both of these new systems use the email address and the mobile phone number you have supplied to the school therefore it is very important keep us updated with any changes to either of these.

Health

School Garden

As you are aware we are in the process of planning the school garden. The children told us they wanted to plant their own fruit and vegetables so we contacted Young Enterprise Scotland to ask them to give us a quote for raised beds. We shared the children’s vision for the garden and they gave us some great advice and an idea of what it might cost. Unfortunately as the children have big plans the cost was significantly more than the funding we received from the Food for Thought Project.

Young Enterprise Scotland has since contacted us with a fantastic opportunity which would be beneficial for both their Social Enterprise and St Joseph’s School.

They have applied for some money, from the Aviva Community Fund, to give young people on their Landscaping Pathway programmes the opportunity to gain valuable work experience by creating new community gardens across East Renfrewshire. This will give disengaged young people the opportunity to build their skills and confidence by making practical improvements to their local communities. They have offered to include the garden at St Joseph’s Primary School as one of these, meaning that they could use some of the funding received to develop an Eco garden area in our playground.

To maximise the chances of receiving the funding Young Enterprise Scotland must receive as many online votes as possible to become finalists.

Please see below the voting link for the project:

https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/16-2731

To vote you need to register for an account (only takes a couple of minutes) and then you can vote up to 10 times.

We urge you to take the time to vote for this project and persuade your family and friends to do likewise.

The deadline for voting is the 18th November.

Kind regards and fingers crossed!

Andrina Thomson

Parent Council

Changes to Admission Arrangements for St Ninian’s High School

St Joseph’s Primary Parent Council

Changes to Admission Arrangements for St Ninian’s High School

St Ninian’s High School is full to capacity and demand for places is beginning to exceed the number of places available for the resident population.

The neighbouring non-denominational secondary schools have adequate available space which the council is seeking to utilize in order to alleviate the over-crowding at St Ninian’s.

To alleviate these problems, the Council has proposed to amend the admission criteria to St Ninian’s.

Firstly, it is proposed that priority of admission to St Ninian’s will be given to children resident within the school catchment area.

Secondly, in cases where there is greater demand for places than those that are available for local residents, it is proposed that families who have a proven affiliation with the Catholic faith will be given priority of admission.

IMPORTANT – PLEASE HAVE YOUR SAY!

Please take a few minutes to visit the following webpage to support the proposed changes so that all Baptised catholic school children are able to attend their chosen secondary school.

https://getinvolved.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/education/proposed-changes-to-the-arrangements-for-admission/consultation/intro/view

Information

Admission Policy for Entry to Primary Schools

Dear Parent/Carer, 

Please take time to make your views known over ERC’s proposal to change the admission policy for entry to primary schools. Details can be found below or through the ERC website

Many thanks 

Miss Hill

Head Teacher

 How you can have your say

Hard copies of the full consultation document will be available at the schools affected, local libraries or at the Council’s Head Office, Eastwood Park, Rouken Glen Road, Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, G46 6UG and at the Council Offices, 211 Main Street, Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, G78 1SY.

 An electronic version can also be accessed on the East Renfrewshire Council website www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/schoolconsultation

 Feedback can be either made in writing or online.

As summary of the full consultation document can also be found at www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/schoolconsultation

and hard copies of this summary will be distributed to parents and carers direct via schools in the coming weeks.

We are holding two public meetings and all are welcome to attend.

 These will be held at:

Carlibar Primary School, Barrhead at 19:00 on 21 September 2016

Eastwood Park Theatre, Giffnock at 19:00 on 28 September 2016

 

Information

Mary’s Meals

One of the grandparents at school is collecting backpacks to fill with items to send to Mary’s Meals.  She needs more backpacks and asked if we could collect some for her.  If you have any used backpacks (for children) that you no longer require or you are getting a new one for your child for August can we have the old one.  She will clean them out and reuse them.

 If you do have any to hand in please just give them to your child to bring to school.  This is an on-going request so you can hand them in anytime, now, August or whenever.

 Thanks

 KathyBackpack