I hope that everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. Staff and pupils are now settled back into the daily routine of school. I hope the following information will be of some use to you.
Staffing
As you are no doubt aware Mrs Chapman retired in December. I am pleased to welcome Miss Reid as temporary teacher to P3/2. Mrs Britton, P2/1 teacher, and Mrs Barnes, Pupil Support Assistant, have now returned to Cross Arthurlie after being on maternity leave.
February Weekend Holiday
Please remember the dates for the upcoming February holiday. There is to be an Inset Day for school staff on Friday 10th February and school will be closed on Monday 13th, Tuesday 14th February and Wednesday 15th February. We will reopen after this short break at 9am on Thursday 16th February.
If you use Twitter please follow us @crossarthurlie.
Lost Property
We have an ever increasing number of items of lost property here in school. Please pop in and have a look if you believe your child to have lost anything. The lost property is by the school office.
Pupil Absences
Please ensure that you phone the school office before 9.30am if your child is going to be absent from school.
Standardised Testing
During the month of February the annual testing of P3, P5 and P7 children will take place here in Cross Arthurlie and across all East Renfrewshire schools. These tests, along with a range of other assessment approaches, are designed to give us a fuller picture of the attainment of our pupils in the areas of maths and language. The tests will go out of school for marking and the results will be returned to us later in the session. We give a test result based on how the pupil does against an East Renfrewshire standardised score of 100. The results give us a closer insight into the patterns of attainment across the school and this helps us to plan for improvement in a more focussed way.
The results of these tests will not be fully available to us until later this session and we’ll ensure that we include them in the annual report for each P3, P5 and P7 child. Should you wish to discuss this further please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Parent Council News
We would like to thank everyone who supported the Parent Council events during the run up to the Christmas break. The Movie Night was very well attended as was the Christmas Fayre. The next meeting of the Parent Council is on Tuesday 7th February at 7pm in Barrhead High School. Any new members would be made most welcome.
Weather
I hope that you find the following advice useful:
– Please make sure that your child is always appropriately dressed to cope with winter weather. Warm coats, sturdy shoes, hats, scarves and gloves will be the order of the day! Unless conditions are particularly difficult, we will be trying to allow pupils access to the playground as frequently as possible – even in the snow!
– A pair of dry socks in the children’s schoolbags would be helpful.
– Gym shoes or indoor shoes would be useful to wear in classrooms.
– In the event of snow it would be useful if the children walked to school whenever possible. Driving conditions are very tricky around the school during inclement weather and anyone getting stuck in snow will cause major disruption in the area.
– In the event that we need to send children home early, you will receive a text message first, followed by a telephone call. It would be helpful if parents/carers were able to get to the school as soon as possible should the need arise. However, please be reassured that no child will be left unattended should you be delayed.
– Should you require any information about school closures please refer to the school website, East Renfrewshire’s website or East Renfrewshire’s Twitter feed. The school’s Twitter feed may also have information.
