Hello everyone,

Miss McCann was very busy at Lochgoilhead with the Primary 7s this week. She has been taking part in lots of activities, including abseiling, kayaking and night-walking! Well done, Miss McCann. Check out our school and nursery twitter  to see how everyone got on!

Thank you to those who were able to attend our Stay and Play sessions this week. The children and staff just love welcoming our parents and carers into our nursery and they are a fantastic way to experience a day in the life of your child here at Netherlee!

We hope that you enjoy reading your child’s nursery reports which have been sent home today. The children have made such wonderful progress during their time with us. Time just flies!

A big congratulations to one of our nursery parents, Mrs Cross, who recently published her own book ‘Grow, Cook, Inspire’. Well done- this is a fantastic achievement.

Parents’ Appointments
Please be reminded that our parent appointments begin next week. These appointments will take place over two weeks (Monday 15^th May- Thursday 25^th May) with your child’s key worker in the nursery buildings. Sign-up sheets are now available at the nursery doors. If you haven’t managed to secure a suitable day or time, please let a member of staff know on pick up or drop off.

Your child’s artwork, inspired by King Charles III Coronation, will also be available in the nursery buildings for you to collect on your appointment. To raise money for the nursery fund, in return for the artwork, we would invite you to make a donation of at least £3. Unfortunately, we will only be able to accept cash. All money raised will go towards the nursery fund, this is used to pay for items to support children’s play and learning experiences, such as ingredients for cooking and other perishable items (e.g. flour, shaving foam).

PTA Uniform Sale
The uniform samples are now available to view and try on at our Saplings building. They will remain there from 9am until 6pm, every week day, until Thursday 25^th May and orders may be placed online until Monday 29^th May. As the hoodie styles and colours can vary from different suppliers, we would kindly encourage you to purchase any hoodies from the PTA, for consistency purposes.

Learning Links
Please click here to view the Acorns and Saplings learning links. This week’s song of the week is ‘Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle‘ which can be listened to and enjoyed on your child’s google classroom by clicking this link: https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow
Acorns
Saplings

Nursery Sports Day
As part of sports week, the children in our nursery will be taking part in a sports day on Tuesday 30 May, from 1.45pm on the pitch. I hope you can join us! We are also looking for any parents or carers who have experience of participating in sport who may be interested in coming to speak to the children or lead an active session. If you think this is something you would be interested in, please contact Mrs Kelly Linn at SchoolMail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk

Living Streets Walk to School Week
As you know, on Monday 15^th till Friday 19^th May, we are taking part in the Walk to School Week led by Living Streets. The aim of this week is to help encourage as many children as possible to experience the benefits of walking to school and in day-to-day life. We had a special assembly this week to learn more about how to take part and each class has received a Living Streets challenge pack which includes an activity diary if children wish to record if they travel actively (walk/wheel, cycle, scoot or Park and Stride) to school during the week. Park and Stride involves parking or hopping off public transport at least ten minutes away from the school and walking the rest of the way. Our P4 Wellbeing Committee will be leading an active warm up on Monday morning to launch the start of the week alongside Strider the Living Streets mascot. Our nursery children will have a special visit from Strider too! We hope by taking part in this week we can raise awareness of the health benefits of walking and that it is fun! We would also like to say thank you for completing our Living Streets Active Travel parent survey earlier this year and for your continued support.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

Well done to Mrs Beattie, who took part in the Mighty Kilt Walk at the weekend to fundraise for the SSAFA Armed Forces charity. Super job Mrs Beattie!

This achievement features on our Nursery WOW Wall, alongside our children’s achievements.  Details of how to share wider achievements, including those of your child, are detailed below.

Family Focused: Questionnaire
Only if you haven’t filled in the form already for the school or nursery, please could you do so by clicking on the links below.

nursery parent and carer questionnaire
school parent and carer questionnaire.

If you have a child in both school and nursery, we kindly ask that you complete the nursery questionnaire only, if at all possible.

Access to the questionnaires will close on Friday 12^th May at 3pm.

Celebrating Wider Achievements at Netherlee
Recognising and celebrating children’s achievements is an integral part to Curriculum for Excellence and what we do in Netherlee. We also understand that recognising the achievements of the special adults in our children’s lives help to inspire our children to reach their goals and model the importance of resilience.

As you will already be aware, we currently share and celebrate our children’s achievements through our Nursery WOW Wall. We would now love to showcase the achievements of parents, carers and our very own staff and include these with our children’s achievements on our WOW Wall for all to see! For example, this may include charity work, running a marathon or simply have learnt a new life skill.

If you wish to share information about a recent wider achievement that your child has done, we would encourage you to complete the form below.  Pictures of children and parents and carer’s achievements should continue to be submitted via email to be included on our WOW Wall (nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk).
Wider Achievements Form

Stay and Play
Please be reminded of our stay and play sessions next week (Tue 9^th May- Friday 12^th May).These sessions are a fantastic opportunity to play with your child in nursery. Our children’s special books are available to look at any time on the playroom floor. Please feel free to read through these with your child during your visit and have a chat with them about their learning journey. If you still require a slot, please let a staff member know on pick up or drop off to book a suitable date/time.

Pre-school Gaelic fun day Sat 13 May
East Renfrewshire is opening its first Gaelic medium primary provision at Thornliebank Primary School in August 2023. Please see the flyer for a Gaelic family information and fun day on Saturday 13 May at Thornliebank Primary School.

Nursery Reports and Transition to Primary One
This is a very exciting time for pre-school children as we will soon be beginning our Nursery to Primary One transition process. All nursery reports for those starting school will be sent home via email on Friday 12^th May. These detail your child’s progress and how you can help at home. We hope you thoroughly enjoy reading them!

Also, a letter containing key dates and information about our upcoming Nursery to Primary One transition events was sent home yesterday. We cannot wait to welcome your children in August!

Parents Appointments
Our Nursery parent and carer’s appointments will take place on the week beginning Monday 15^th May.  These appointments will take place over two weeks (Monday 15^th May- Thursday 25^th May) with your child’s key worker in the nursery buildings. We hope that many of you enjoy the opportunity to talk with staff about your child’s learning. Signup sheets will be made available at the nursery doors from Tuesday 9^th May.

King Charles Coronation: Artwork
To mark the King’s Coronation, all children have created a piece of artwork with a nature/conservation theme, two areas that are very important to King Charles. Each child’s artwork will be on white canvas and available in the nursery buildings for you to collect on your parents appointment. To raise money for the nursery fund, in return for the artwork, we would be delighted and very appreciative if you could make a donation of £3 in cash if possible. All money raised will go towards the nursery fund, this is used to pay for items to support children’s play and learning experiences, such as ingredients for cooking and other perishable items (e.g. flour, shaving foam)

Bookbug Week
Bookbug Week takes place across Scotland from 15–21 May 2023. There will be special events both online and in your local area to celebrate the week. Full details can be found on our Bookbug Week webpage.

Parent Council Meeting Highlights
Thank you to the Parent Council for producing the latest Meeting Highlights Newsletter. We had a very productive meeting and the highlights can be found here.

Bank Holiday
Please be reminded that the school and nursery will be closed on Monday 8^th May and will re-open on Tuesday 9^th May- thank you.

Have a lovely long weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

A big thank-you to Mrs Mitchell for coming to the Acorns and Saplings to show us Makaton signs last week. The children and staff loved having a go at making their names and learned some songs too!

It has been wonderful to start our visits to Linn Park again for our woodland adventures. The children have such fun engaging in lots of risky play in the outdoors. Risky play is an exciting and exhilarating experience, which allows children to explore boundaries and challenge themselves whilst learning about managing risks. Have a look at our photos on our school and nursery twitter for some action shots!

Family Focused Gold Award: Update
We have been working hard to prepare for our Family Focused Gold Award accreditation date on Friday 19^th May. Our nursery, please click here Acorns and Saplings and school Family Focused Charters are finalised and are visible at the entrances to our buildings. Thank-you again to Freya in Primary 6 who came up with the winning design! Please see again our charter statements included within the charter which were created with our Everyone Matters parent group. These statements uphold our school and nursery values and underpin the principles of family centred approaches.

Only if you haven’t filled in the form already for the school or nursery, please could you do so by clicking on the links below.

nursery parent and carer questionnaire
school parent and carer questionnaire.

If you have a child in both school and nursery, we kindly ask that you complete the nursery questionnaire only, if at all possible.

Access to the questionnaires will close on Friday 12^th May at 3pm.

Stay and Play
Our final stay and play sessions for this session will take place from Tuesday 9^th May-Friday 12^th May. These sessions are a brilliant way to play with your child in our nursery. Sign-up sheets will be made available from next week at our nursery buildings (Wednesday 3^rd May).

King Charles III Coronation
As you know, the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort will take place on Saturday 6th May, 2023. At Netherlee, on Friday 5^th May, we would like to celebrate by creating a piece of artwork inspired by nature or conservation. Every child will take part and then sell their artwork to parents and carers at our parents appointments to fundraise money for cooking ingredients and perishable items, such as flour, shaving foam, food colouring. These resources help to support children’s play and learning experiences in nursery. Thank you for your support.

Cosy Corner
As you will be aware, our nursery buildings have a Cosy Corner to allow children to relax in a safe and secure environment. These are safe and nurturing spaces for our children, two of the wellbeing indicators from Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). We have tried to ensure that our Cosy Corner replicates the home environment as much as possible with soft furnishings and pictures from home. If you have a family photo you would like to include in the Cosy Corner, please email this to nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk.

We are looking to develop our Cosy Corner space in the Saplings building further and are on the hunt for some pre-loved items to support us with this. We would gratefully receive any items to enhance this space, such as pillows, blankets, rugs and fairy lights. If you have, and are finished with, any of these types of items, please hand in to the Saplings building. Many, many thanks.

Parent and Carer Volunteers
Do you have a particular skill or interest? The children and staff would really love to learn from you!

We are welcoming parent and carers who would be willing to volunteer to come to the nursery to carry out an activity with our children based on particular skills or interests you might have, such as sewing, playing a musical instrument, dancing, gardening or woodwork.

Also, it is always interesting for the children to find out about various jobs such as any emergency or health care services so if you have a job you think you could share with the children please do let us know. For example, this may include a visit from a dentist to talk to children about looking after their teeth.

It would also be lovely to hear from parents and carers who would be willing to come in and share cultural or religious festivals or experiences with us too – for example, showing photos of celebrating the Hindu festival of Holi, teaching children how to use chopsticks or write numbers in Chinese, sharing stories in different languages or helping to teach the children Irish dancing.

If you are interested, please complete this form, which is also available on our nursery website.  Thank you!

Recycled Donations
Thank you so much to everyone who has kindly donated recycled items so far. This week we would gratefully receive any large loose parts from our wish list below. Loose parts are any materials which can be combined, redesigned, lined up, taken apart, and put back together in different ways. If you have, and are finished with, any of these large items, please contact the school office beforehand to discuss a suitable drop-off time. If you have any of the smaller items then please place these in our Recycled Donations Box situated at the main school office entrance from Tuesday 2^nd May. Many, many thanks.

Hardwood plywood sheets
Wood / timber planks
Crates
Pipes
Gutters
Small Tree stumps
Ropes

Learning Links
Please click to view the Acorns and the Saplings Learning links this week. These are a fantastic way to provide opportunities to support and develop your child’s learning at home should you wish. This week’s song of the week is ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I caught a fish alive’ which can be listened to and enjoyed on your child’s google classroom:  https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow

Bank Holiday and In-Service Day
Please be reminded that the school and nursery will be closed on Monday 1^st May (Bank Holiday) and Tuesday 2^nd May (in-service) and will re-open on Wednesday 3^rd May- thank you.

Have a wonderful long weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone

It has been lovely welcoming back our children and staff after the holiday break. We have loved spending lots of time outdoors in the beautiful weather.

On behalf of the school, nursery and Netherlee community, we would like to wish all families who celebrate Eid a very happy Eid Mubarak. We hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family.

Family Focused Gold Award Questionnaires (School and Nursery) – now live!
We are hoping to achieve our Family Focused Gold Award on Friday 19^th May. Questionnaires for both nursery and the school are now live. As part of the Gold Award Accreditation, parents and carers are required to complete a questionnaire containing a series of reflective statements about our school and nursery. We need at least an 80% return rate, so we would be very grateful for your responses- thank you.

Please click here to complete the nursery parent questionnaire

The questionnaires will close on Friday 12^th May 3pm. Thank-you for your continued support.

Foodbank Donation Drive
We are joining other establishments in East Renfrewshire to support the East Renfrewshire Foodbank, The Trussell Trust. More information can be found in this letter.

Self-Evaluation Forms: Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC)
You will also have received a Gathering Parent views paper form, which asks you to give your views of the nursery in relation to GIRFEC. Your views will help us to create our School and Nursery Improvement Priorities for next session. We kindly ask that you return these paper copies to our main school office or to either of our nursery buildings by Friday 28^th April. If you did not receive this, please ask a member of staff at the nursery.

Care Plans and Special Books
Each child has a ‘Personal Care Plan’ which focuses on the wellbeing indicators (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included) from Getting it Right for Every Child. Our Personal Care Plans allow parents to share information to identify next steps to support children’s learning and wellbeing within nursery or at home. These are sent home every six months. If you have recently received your child’s personal care plan to complete, please ensure these are returned to nursery as soon as possible- thank you.

Also, we kindly ask that children’s special books are also returned as soon as possible. We hope you enjoyed reading through them and discussing your child’s progress.

Sun Safety
As we approach the summer months, we ask that you provide your child with sun cream (in-date) and a sun hat (e.g. cap or similar) in bags please. These items should be labelled with your child’s name please. On particularly hot days, it would be helpful if you could apply sun cream to children before entering the nursery if possible. We will keep your child’s sun cream in nursery for re-application and safekeeping.

Learning Links
Please click here to view the Acorns and Saplings Learning Links. The song of the week this week is ‘5 Little Ducks’ which can be listened to and enjoyed by logging on to your child’s google classroom https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

Wow- what a busy and exciting term we have had! Diversity month was a great success. A very special thanks to those who visited our Nursery to talk to our children and staff about different countries, including Sweden, Spain, Italy and Africa. It was so interesting! The children also learned all about Sikhism from the Gurdwara and danced along to the beat of a Dhol drum played by Mrs Kaur’s son. Check out our pictures on our nursery and school twitter @sand_nc

Family Focused Gold Award: Update (School and Nursery)
As stated in last week’s Friday Bundle, we are hoping to achieve our Gold Award Accreditation on Friday 19^th May.  As part of the Gold Award accreditation, parents and carers are required to complete a questionnaire containing a series of reflective statements about our school and nursery. We need at least an 80% return rate, so we would be very grateful for your responses. Please click the links to access nursery parent and carer questionnaire and school parent and carer questionnaire. If you have a child in both school and nursery, we kindly ask that you complete the nursery questionnaire only if at all possible. The questionnaires will go live from Monday 17^th April and will close on Friday 12^th May 3pm. Thank-you for your continued support.

Breastfeeding Policy
We provide a warm and welcoming environment for breastfeeding families in our school and nursery. Our Family Room, situated near the front door of the school, provides a comfortable and quiet space where breastfeeding can take place without interruption or intrusion. Our staff are trained to offer support to breastfeeding parents and are aware of the aims and principles of our School and Nursery Breastfeeding Policy. Please note that this policy is available to view on our website too. You can access this policy, and others, through clicking on this link.

If you require to use our Family Room to enable you to breastfeed, please don’t hesitate to ask, our office staff will be able to help by showing you where the Family Room is.

Next Parent Council Meeting – Wednesday 19th April at 7pm in the school Hub
The next meeting of the school and nursery parent council will be at 7pm on Wednesday 19th April.  This will be in the hub in the school.  We hope to see as many parents and carers as possible and as ever will hear from the school leadership team on a number of issues, with the opportunity for free and open discussion.  If there is anything you would particularly like us to raise at the meeting then please email netherleeparentcouncil@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you after the holidays.

Have a brilliant and well-rested Spring Holiday with friends and family.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone

Today we said goodbye to the wonderful Miss Jade Toner, who worked alongside Mrs Fiona Daley as a keyworker of the Green group in the Saplings. Jade has secured a post a Maidenhill Nursery Class and we wish her all the very best. We will all miss you so much- good luck Jade!

We are very excited to welcome back Mrs Amanda Hicks on Monday following her maternity leave. Amanda will take over from Jade and work with Mrs Daley and the Green Group. We are delighted to have her back!

Family Focused Gold Accreditation: Update
As you will already know, we are hoping to achieve our Family Focused Gold Award on Friday 19^th May.   A key focus of the Family Focused Gold Award is the creation of a Charter. The school took part in a challenge to come up with a design for our School and Nursery Charter. Well done to Freya in Primary 6 who came up with this fantastic design, which will also feature our nursery teddy bear.

We worked alongside our parent group to create the charter statements.  These statements underpin the award itself and reflect the values and ethos of Netherlee. Our Family Focused Charter’s will now be created and situated within the school and nursery entrances, so keep your eyes peeled next time you are in for a visit!

As part of the Gold Award accreditation, parents and carers are required to complete a questionnaire containing a series of reflective statements about our school and nursery. We would be very grateful for your responses as having a high response rate is part of the accreditation. The link to complete the questionnaire will be sent in next week’s Friday Bundle and will go live from Monday 17^th April. Thank you for your continued support.

Nursery: What to Bring
At Netherlee, we understand the benefits of allowing children to engage in risky play outdoors. This includes building resilience, managing risks and knowing their limits. Our children play outdoors in all weathers, so they can get a little wet or muddy sometimes! In order to support this, we kindly ask that children bring wellies and a change of clothes with them to nursery each day.

Infectious Diseases
If your child has an infectious disease e.g. chickenpox, scarlet fever etc, please contact our school office 0141 570 7260 or email SchoolMail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk to inform us of this. Thank you.

Learning Links
Please click here to view the Acorns and the Saplings Learning Links. This enables you to have fun doing some similar experiences at home if you would like to. This week’s song of the week is ‘Sleeping Bunnies’ which can be listened to and enjoyed by accessing your child’s Google Classroom: https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow

Comic Relief
A huge thank you for your generous donations, the school and nursery raised a total of £850.30 for Comic Relief.

Bookbug Sessions
A new fortnightly Bookbug session will be starting this week in Netherlee Pavilion library. Details are in the poster attached.
Bookbug poster

Easter Break
The Nursery will remain open until 6pm on Friday 31^st March, and reopen on Monday 17^th April.

Diversity Event
We are looking forward to a lovely event sharing the culture of our Netherlee community. We still need volunteers to help make it all happen. Please click on the following link to sign up to help us with setting up, tidying up, or to help in the refreshment area.  Thank you.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

Our Book Bug sessions were a great success this week! The children just loved listening to the rhymes and stories and joining in with the actions. Thank-you so much to our fantastic Book Bug leaders in the nursery, Joanne Greig and Lynne Morton. They did a wonderful job leading the sessions and making them fun and engaging for all the family. You can also check out local Book Bug sessions in East Renfrewshire libraries.

Working in Partnership with Families at Netherlee
At Netherlee, we value working in partnership with our parents and carers and welcome your feedback. Our recently updated Nursery Parental Involvement Policy, along with some others, can now be viewed on our nursery website. We would love to hear your feedback with regards to this policy in order to evaluate our practice. Please click here to submit your views. We kindly ask that responses are submitted by Friday 24^th March 3pm.

Stay and Play

Please be reminded of our Stay and Play sessions next week. Sign-up sheets are still available so if you still require a slot, please let a member of staff know at the door when dropping off or collecting.

Parent and Carer Volunteers
Do you have a particular skill or interest? The children and staff would really love to learn from you!

We are welcoming parent and carers who would be willing to volunteer to come to the nursery to carry out an activity with our children based on particular skills or interests you might have, such as sewing, playing a musical instrument, dancing, gardening or woodwork.

Also, it is always interesting for the children to find out about professions such as any emergency or health care services so if you have a profession you think you could share with the children please do let us know. For example, this may include a visit from a dentist to talk to children about looking after their teeth.

If you are interested, please complete this form. In future, we will include this form on the last Friday of every month and add to our nursery website. Thank you!

Also, we are still looking for volunteers to enhance the children’s learning in traditional cultures, languages, traditions and religions from all over the world as part of Diversity Month. We would love to welcome volunteers into the nursery If you were born in another country, have lived, worked, volunteered or have family members who live in another country, we would love to hear from you! If you think this is something you could help with, please drop us an email on nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk or give Jennifer McCann (Principal Teacher) a call on 0141 570 7260 to discuss in more detail.

Special Books
We’re really looking forward to sending home your child’s Special Book next week, week beginning Monday 20^th March.  Our Special Books are a fantastic way of sharing your child’s learning journey during their time at nursery. We hope you thoroughly enjoy looking at the book together.

Personal Care Plans
Each child has a ‘Personal Care Plan’ which focuses on the wellbeing indicators (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included) from Getting it Right for Every Child. Our Personal Care Plans allow parents to share information to identify next steps to support children’s learning and wellbeing within nursery or at home. These are sent home every six months. If you have recently received your child’s personal care plan to complete, please ensure these are returned to nursery as soon as possible- thank you.

Learning Links
Please click here to view this week’s learning links for Acorns and Saplings. This week’s song of the week is ‘Rain, Rain, Go Away’ which can be listened to and enjoyed by logging into your child’s Google Classroom: https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow

Recycled Donations
Thank you so much to everyone who has kindly donated items to our nursery so far. This week we would gratefully receive any items to support both our Cosy Corner areas and Literacy experiences from our wish list below. If you have, and are finished with, any of these types of items below, please hand in to either of the nursery buildings. Many, many thanks.

• Empty cereal boxes
• Children’s non-fiction, fact books
• Cosy cushions
• Rugs

Living Streets Active Travel Parent survey
On Monday 15^th – Friday 19^th May, we will be taking part in the ‘Walk to School Week’ led by Living Streets. We will share more information about planned activities nearer to the time. In the meantime, we would like to gather more information about how our children travel to and from school and nursery to support us with compiling our School and Nursery Travel Plan. We would greatly appreciate it if you could complete the parent survey below. This information will help us to encourage more of our children and families to walk to school and nursery and support our families to be active each day.  Thank you for your support.  https://forms.office.com/e/buxVJWa1H7

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

We are celebrating Diversity during the month of March and learning about different countries from around the world. Each stage in the school and nursery is focusing on a different continent. Following on from our focus on France during Languages week in February, the Nursery will continue to learn about other countries in Europe.

As well as this, we would love to welcome volunteers into the nursery to enhance the children’s learning in traditional cultures, languages, traditions and religions from all over the world. If you were born in another country, have lived, worked, volunteered or have family members who live in another country, we would love to hear from you!

This might include teaching the children a traditional dance, or some simple greetings in another language.  If you think this is something you could help with, please drop us an email on netherleemail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk or give Jennifer McCann (Principal Teacher) a call on 0141 570 7260 to discuss in more detail.

Also, we want to say thank-you to those who have provided family photographs for our Cosy Corners in our nursery buildings. The children just love to see some familiar faces to make this space really feel like home! Should you wish to add a family photograph to our cosy corner, please do not hesitate to email us a photograph nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk.

Comic Relief
Please see letter regarding our Crazy Hair Do fundraising event on Friday, 17^th March.

Family Focused Gold Award: Update
As you know, our school and nursery is hoping to achieve our Family Focused Gold Award on Friday 19^th May.  This award shows that we include and support all of our families in the life of the school and nursery. The award also shows that we uphold the principles of Getting It Right for Every Child, otherwise known as GIRFEC.
The accreditation process involves working together with staff, pupils and parents to create a Charter for the school and nursery. We met with our ‘Everyone Matters’ parent group this week to discuss and create our 10 charter statements and evaluate our school and nursery practice. We will share the final version of both our School and Nursery charters once complete! Keep an eye out on our upcoming Friday Bundles for more updates.

Family First
At Netherlee, we are always here to support our families in need of some help, whether that be a chat at the door, through telephone call or email (see above). Should you need further guidance, please click here to view a useful information resource from Family First, which offers support and advice on a wide range of family matters.

Stay and Play
Our next stay and play sessions will take place on the week beginning 20^th March. These sessions are a fantastic opportunity to play together with your child and see our wonderful spaces and experiences. Sign-up sheets will be made available next week (week beginning the 13^th March) for you to choose a suitable date/time. We kindly ask that a maximum of two adults accompany each child. If at all possible, younger siblings should not attend the sessions.

Eye Tests
Please be reminded of eye screening tests which are taking place on Thursday 23^rd March 2023 for pre-school children. These will take place in the Saplings building. If you do not attend nursery on this day, you will receive a separate hospital letter. We kindly ask that eye screening questionnaires are returned to nursery as soon as possible.

Playground Crossing: Reminder
In order to minimise footfall, we kindly ask that you use the gate nearest the Acorns and Saplings when dropping off our collecting your child and refrain from crossing the school playgrounds. Thank-you.

Diversity Evening- A date for your Diary
On Wednesday 29 March 2023, a culture evening will be held in our school atrium to celebrate and share all the different cultures within Netherlee Primary School and Nursery Class.

The PTA and school are inviting all families to share their cultural heritage through a range of ways such as:

• Having a small display / exhibition on your country and culture (can include food tasting and demonstrations);
• Showcasing traditional music;
• Recital in other languages; or
• Dancing

You may even have other creative ways to share your heritage with the Netherlee community, which you are welcome to do.

Of course, you can simply come along to enjoy the evening. There will be refreshments, entertainment, free workshops and activities to enjoy on the evening too!

If you or your family would like to host a display or showcase something, please contact Mrs Kelly Linn at nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk or contact the PTA at netherleepta@gmail.com.

I hope you agree this will be a wonderful evening of culture. We look forward to seeing you there.

Learning Links
Please click here to view the Acorns and Saplings learning links. This song of the week this week is ‘The Days of the Week Song’ which can be listened to and enjoyed by clicking on your child’s Google classroom: https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow.

East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Holiday Camps
We’re running All Star Sports Camp, All Star Activity Camp, Play In A Week, World of Art Camp & intensive swimming lessons during the spring holidays.

Our All Star Sports Camp & All Star Activity Camp are led by our Active Schools & Sports Development Team and delivered by our fantastic team of coaches and tutors! Our Play In A Week & World of Art Camps are delivered by our expert arts and drama tutors! Finally, our intensive swimming lessons are ran by our highly skilled swimming instructors!

Our Spring, Summer & October Holiday Camps are on sale now, for more information and ways to book, please visit: https://www.ercultureandleisure.org/sports-arts/holidaycamps/

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

It has been a sunny and bright week this week. The children have had lots of fun playing outdoors with their friends. Spring is really in the air!

This week we enjoyed a lovely visitor from Linn Park Court Sheltered Housing. Olive, who is 93 years young, came to our nursery to read with our children as part of World Book Day. She also enjoyed a tour of our nursery buildings and having some cake, a cuppa and a chat with our staff. We look forward to future visits with the residents later in the year. Please have a look on our school and nursery twitter @sand_c to see how they got on.

School and Nursery Photographs
As you are aware the school photographer has been in school and nursery and we would like you to note that due to the Industrial Action this week she will be in school on Tuesday and Wednesday next week to capture photographs, for any individual and siblings not yet taken. Due to the logistics, we cannot guarantee that the children will not be in their PE uniform for these pictures. Therefore, one sibling may be in their shirt and tie and another sibling in their navy polo shirt and PE uniform. As always, purchasing these photographs is entirely optional.

Please could we ask that the PE uniform policy is fully adhered to at all times and also for these photographs eg navy branded polo shirt, plain navy bottom items and that these items do not have visible branded logos, stripes, ticks or naming (eg Nike). Thank you for your continued support with this.

Nursery children can wear their normal nursery clothes.

Learning Links
Please click here to view the Acorns and Saplings learning links. The learning links give an insight of children’s interests, learning focus and any seasonal or cultural events being celebrated.  This week’s song of the week is The ‘Alphabet Song’ which can be listened to and enjoyed by logging in to your child’s google classroom: https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow.

Menu Change: 9^th March
Please find attached our planned menu change for next Thursday 9^th March. The allergy information is included to enable your child to select a suitable option.  However, if you require further allergy or dietary information, please contact our catering team via the school office.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone,

We have had a very busy and exciting week at nursery. The children very much enjoyed making and tasting homemade pancakes on Shrove Tuesday this week. We hope those that celebrated this enjoyed some yummy pancakes at home too!

Proposed Industrial Strike Action
We are confirming that Netherlee Nursery class will be open from 9am – 3pm to all children on Tuesday 28^th February and Wednesday 1^st March. This means children who normally attend on a Tuesday extended pattern (8am – 6pm), offered an alternative limited service of core hours (9am – 3pm) for this day only.  Normal communication channels via phone call or email will remain unaffected on these days, should you need to contact the nursery during 9am – 3pm.

Diversity Month
As part of Diversity Month, the children in the school are researching a famous person from somewhere around the world. We would love the nursery to be involved too! We are very lucky in Netherlee Primary and Nursery that we have lots of different families with lots of different cultural experiences. To share this, we are inviting the children in our nursery to choose a family member that they love and bring a photograph of this person into nursery. The children can also tell us something about them e.g. their name, who they are or reasons why they love them. Our photographs will be displayed for our whole school and nursery to enjoy!

World Book Day – Thursday 2nd March
We are looking forward to marking World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March at Netherlee. Please see the letter with more information about our planned activities.

GIRFEC
Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) and young person is a national policy to help all children and young people flourish, progress and achieve their full potential.   At Netherlee, we are committed to promoting and supporting our children’s wellbeing. Wellbeing is considered and assessed across eight wellbeing indicators: Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included (SHANARRI).  More information can be found by clicking here.

Cosy Corner
As explained last week, we have created Cosy Corners within both of our nursery buildings. These are safe and nurturing spaces for our children, two of the wellbeing indicators from Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). We have tried to ensure that our Cosy Corner replicates the home environment as much as possible and provides our children with a calm and cosy space to relax on their own or with their friends.

We would like to thank those who have donated pre-loved items to our nursery to support the creation of these spaces, including old lamps, cushions and throws. As stated last week, our children suggested adding some family photographs to the Cosy Corner to make it feel more ‘cosy’. We would gratefully receive some photographs to add to our space. Should you wish to include a family photograph in our Cosy Corner, please send these in to nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk

Parent Council Meeting Highlights
Thank you to the Parent Council for producing the latest Meeting Highlights Newsletter.  We had a very productive meeting and the highlights can be found here: February Meeting

Book Bug
Sharing stories, rhymes and songs from an early age helps to promote early language and Literacy skills which allows children to achieve their full potential in later life. Bookbug encourages parents and carers to share books with their children inspires a love of reading in young children.

We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting termly Bookbug sessions at Netherlee Nursery. Each session will take place over two dates, with one morning and one afternoon session. For this term, please see dates and times for each colour group below:

Wednesday 15^th March in the Saplings:
9.15: Blue and Purple
2.15: Pink and Yellow
Friday 17^th March in the Acorns:
9.15: Red and Orange
2.15: White and Green group (Saplings staff will take Green group children to and from the Acorns).

We politely ask that a maximum of two adults attend the sessions. Younger siblings are also more than welcome to attend. Should the above days/times be unsuitable for this term, please be assured that alternative days and times will be provided for the sessions to follow. Book bug sessions also run in East Renfrewshire libraries. Please click here to view days and times.

Celebrating Wider Achievements at Netherlee
Recognising and celebrating children’s achievements is an integral part to Curriculum for Excellence and what we do in Netherlee. We also understand that recognising the achievements of the special adults in our children’s lives help to inspire our children to reach their goals and model the importance of resilience.

As you will already be aware, we currently share and celebrate our children’s achievements through our Nursery WOW Wall. We would now love to showcase the achievements of parents, carers and our very own staff and include these with our children’s achievements on our WOW Wall for all to see! For example, this may include charity work, running a marathon or simply have learnt a new life skill.

In order to gather as many achievements as possible, we will now include an Achievement Microsoft Form Link in the Nursery Friday Bundle on the first Friday of each month. We would encourage you, along with your child, to complete this simple form if there is information about a recent wider achievement that you or your child have done and would like to share. Pictures of children and parents and carer’s achievements should continue to be submitted via email to be included on our WOW Wall (nurserymail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk).

We will also include a link to the form on our school and nursery website too. We look forward to hearing about you and your child’s achievements and celebrating them at Netherlee.

Wider Achievements Form

Learning Links
Please click to view the Saplings and Acorns Learning links. The song of the week is ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ which can be listened to and enjoyed by clicking on your child’s Google classroom: https://sts.platform.rmunify.com/Account/SignIn/glow.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson (HT) and Jennifer McCann (PT)
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class