Hello everyone

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.

Pupil Work Home
Today your child will have brought home their maths jotter and also a piece of work chosen by them to share with you.  We home you enjoy looking at, and discussing, your child’s work together.  Please pop their work back in their school bag on Sunday evening so that they have it for class on Monday.

Request for Parent Helpers
We are delighted that school life has pretty much returned to normal and we are now organising lots of school events and trips.  We are therefore, once again, looking for parent volunteers and helpers.  If you are able to help at all at any point throughout the school week or in the evenings, we would appreciate it if you could complete the online form and also confirm whether you are currently PVG registered or not.  Many thanks.

Appointments
Could we please ask that wherever possible, if you have any change in pickup/collection arrangements for your child that you can let us know by 12noon or as early in the day as possible via email or by calling 0141 570 7260. This will help us to communicate with class teachers effectively.

Celebrating Wider Achievements at Netherlee
Recognising and celebrating children’s achievements is an integral part to the Curriculum for Excellence. We are always looking for new ways to recognise and celebrate our children’s wider achievements out with Netherlee. As detailed in our Promoting Positive Behaviour Policy, during Celebrating Success assemblies each month, certificates are awarded to pupils who have really tried to uphold the Netherlee Values, for Effort and Progress and for Achievements within and out with school. For example, many of our children take part in extracurricular clubs and competitions, charity work or simply have learnt a new life skill.  To help us celebrate as many children’s achievements as possible, we will share an Achievement Microsoft Form link in the Friday Bundle at the start of each month. We would encourage you to complete this if you wish to share information about a recent wider achievement that your child has done. We will also include a link to the form on our school website and school Twitter. We look forward to hearing about your child’s achievements and celebrating them at Netherlee.
School Achievement Form

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

Primary 1 and 2: Recycled Donations
As you know, children lead their own learning through play, particularly in P1 and P2. Children’s ideas and interests are a key consideration when planning for our classroom and Open Area. We are on the hunt for pre-loved items related to the children’s interests. These are items that you would otherwise be throwing away that we can use. If you have, and are finished with, any of these types of items, please place any donations into a bag and leave this in our Recycled Donations Box situated at the main school office entrance or in a carrier bag and given to the class teachers. Many, many thanks.

This week, we are looking for the following resources to support our Creativity area:

• Junk modelling items: e.g. Toilet roll/kitchen roll tubes, cardboard boxes (such as delivery boxes, cereal boxes or shoe boxes), plastic bottles
• Pieces of material (e.g. fabric or felt)
• Decorative items: e.g. buttons, gems

Primary 2: Trip
A letter was sent home to parents regarding an upcoming trip.

Primary 3 to Primary 6: Parent Workshop and Information Evening
Please keep the evening of Tuesday 25^th of April free for an opportunity to join staff in school for some fun and informative workshops. The evening will be from 6:30pm to 8pm and we will send further information nearer the time detailing what will be available. Looking forward to seeing lots of parents on the night.

Primary 4: World Book Day and Romans Topic
Primary 4 are going to celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 2 March by having a Cosy Read.  They will be given reduced sugar hot chocolate and will have the option to add reduced fat squirty cream.  Could the children please bring in their own mug (and spoon if they would like the cream).  To make the time even more cosy they can also bring in a small cushion if they wish.  All known allergies have been taken into account so please ensure that your child’s health details, held in the school office, are up to date.

Also, as part of our Romans topic the children will be making shields.  Could children please bring in a cardboard box, if one is available from home only, to help with this.  These can be brought in from Monday.

Primary 4: Showcase
Please see the invitation for our P4 Showcase on Thursday 16th March. We are looking forward to seeing you all. Please note that there is a maximum of 2 adults per child.

Primary 7: Tea Party Fundraiser
Please see the letter regarding the P7 Tea Party Show Fundraiser on Friday, 10^th March.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone

It has been lovely catching up with the children and staff this week after our February weekend. The children were very excited to share what they had been up to with the staff! We hope you had a brilliant and well rested weekend with friends and family.

The staff were very busy at our in-service day on Friday. The school and nursery staff had the opportunity to share all of the great practice with each other as part of our development work for our School and Nursery Improvement Plan. It’s really important to have opportunities such as In-Service Days where all staff can share expertise and ideas across the whole team. This also reminds us that, although we may have a school and two nursery buildings, we are very much one big Netherlee community!

World Thinking Day- Wednesday 22^nd February
Please click on this link regarding World Thinking Day on.

Diversity Month
Thank you so much to our parents and carers who have already completed the link below to offer their expertise during the month of March when we celebrate different cultures, religions, traditions and languages from around the world. We would love to hear from even more families during this month. If you think this is something you would be able to support us with, please complete the Google Form by clicking on the link below by Friday 24 February. Many thanks for your continued support and interest in being more involved in the life on Netherlee.
Diversity Month Volunteers

Lunch Menu Change- Friday 24^th February
Please see the planned menu change for next. 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 your catering team via the school office.

Upcoming Courses for Parents/Carers
Please see the flyer regarding free parenting courses available. Further information can also be seen in the Sway.

Please see below information regarding 2 courses run locally in Barrhead with West College Scotland, each programme will last approximately 12 weeks.  If you would like to register your interest in these courses or find out more info please email adult.learning@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk
Getting Started in IT: enrolment date 22^nd Feb 9.30am-12pm, starting 1^st March 9.30am-12pm
Exploring Wellbeing: enrolment date 28^th Feb 1.30pm-4.30pm, stating 7^th March 1.30-4.30pm

Primary 1: Trip
Please see email sent regarding an upcoming P1 trip.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone

90^th Birthday
This week we celebrated Netherlee’s 90^th birthday. We started off the week with a special assembly.  Myself and some of our pupils told stories all about what Netherlee Primary School and Nursery Class was like all those years ago! The children were fascinated to hear the stories from former pupils and members of the local community who had very kindly got in touch with us to share their memories.  We also made some fantastic party decorations, including bunting and party hats to prepare for the parties to celebrate the occasion. We had lots of fun playing party games and dancing to our favourite songs. Everyone at the school and nursery would like to say a huge thank you to everybody that has given up their time to make it such a special occasion. Please look at our school and nursery twitter feed @sand_c.to see all the fun we had, including our amazing whole school and nursery 90^th aerial photograph. Please remember to also listen to our Netherlee podcasts too. Here’s to another 90 years of Netherlee!

Parent Council Meeting:  7pm Wednesday 15th February in The Hub in School A quick reminder that our next parent council meeting is at the above time and we welcome all parents and carers from Nursery Class to p7, to have an open discussion on a range of topics concerning the children of Netherlee.  As always members of the School Senior Leadership team will also be there and we hope to hear from some p7 pupils about the work of the Pupil Parliament and how we as a group can help them fulfil their parliament priorities.

If you have any topics you would like us to discuss please email netherleeparentcouncil@gmail.com and we hope to see as many of you there as possible.

School and Nursery Photographs
As you will be aware, our school photographer will be in school and nursery from Wednesday 15^th February until Friday 3^rd March. As promised in last week’s Friday Bundle, the timetables for whole class, individual, sibling and nursery photographs are attached for your information. A reminder that school children should wear their shirt and tie uniform on the day/s their whole class and individual photos are due to be taken as we have timetabled these sessions to avoid PE and outdoor learning days. Siblings photographs will be taken during week commencing the 27^th February and, due to the logistics around timetabling, 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.

As always, we will do our very best to include all children in the photographs but this may not be possible if a pupil is absent during Jane’s time at school and nursery.
Photo Timetable

Diversity Month
Thank you so much to all our parents and carers who took time to come in during International Languages Week. The children really enjoyed having you in and the staff were so grateful for all your input.

During the month of March we are celebrating Diversity Month and we would love to welcome even more volunteers into the school 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! If you think this is something you could help with, please complete the attached link to the Google Form below by Friday 24 February 2023. This should take no longer than a few minutes of your time.

Diversity Month Volunteer

Thank you for your continued support. Please do get in touch if you have any further questions. I look forward to hearing from you.

Recycled Donations
Thank you so much to everyone who kindly donated recycled items last week. This week we would gratefully receive any items from our wish list below to support our Literacy and Numeracy rich environment. 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.

• Wooden dolly pegs
• Milk bottle lids
• Corks
• Measuring scales (e.g. kitchen scales)
• Old telephone (landline)
• Recipe books and magazines
• Shape puzzles

PTA Family Quiz Night 22nd February
Please come along to join in a friendly family quiz night at 6.30pm on the 22nd Feb. The excellent Gavin Pearson will be our quiz master and we will have fun prizes.
Book your quiz spot here! Netherlee PTA (pta-events.co.uk).

Primary 1 and 2 Recycled Donations
As you know, children lead their own learning through play in P1 and P2. Children’s ideas and interests are a key consideration when planning for our classroom and Open Area and resources. We are on the hunt for pre-loved items related to the children’s interests. These are items that you would otherwise be throwing away that we can use to refresh our resources in the Open Area.

This week, we are looking for storage items to support the organisation of our spaces and Home Corner resources:

• Wicker baskets
• Glass or plastic jars or canisters (e.g. mason jars, pasta or cereal jars)
• Kitchen utensils (e.g. spatulas, whisks, various sized spoons), kitchen scales, pots and pans
• Cook books and magazines
• Measuring scales (e.g. kitchen scales)

If you have, and are finished with, any of these types of items, please place any donations into a bag and leave this in our Recycled Donations Box situated at the main school office entrance next week. Many, many thanks.

We hope you have a wonderful and relaxing February weekend. School and nursery will reopen on Wednesday 15^th February.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class
East Renfrewshire

Hello everyone

Collectable Cards
The staff who support our children during intervals and lunchtime have communicated an increase in the number of incidents resulting from children trading collectable cards. Many of our children enjoy bringing in Pokémon cards and other collectable cards from home. If your child likes to bring these cards into school, we would request that you have a chat with them about the value (both monetary and personal) of their collectable cards and what it means if they trade a card with another child. Unfortunately, in recent weeks, the trading of these cards has resulted in a number of upsets and disagreements amongst some of our pupils which we very much want to avoid where possible.  If things continue like this, we may have no option but to stop the trading of cards in school or even have a ban on the cards coming into school altogether.  We are not yet at this point and we really don’t want to take this step as we know how much fun some children have with this activity however I hope you can understand if it does get to this point in the coming weeks.  Thank you for your continued support.

90^th Birthday – special lunch
Please note that on Monday 6^th February there will be a special lunch to mark the school’s birthday. The usual sandwich/baguette options will be available but the hot option will be mince and potatoes, vegetarian mince will  also be available. There will be cake and custard too. This can be ordered by the children as normal on Monday morning in school.

Thursday 9^th February
As another part of our Netherlee’s 90^th Birthday celebrations next week, all classes will have a fun ‘birthday party’ on Thursday 9^th February. To add to the special occasion and in keeping with the birthday theme, your child is very welcome, should they wish, to bring in a small birthday snack from home to enjoy at the party. Please remember we are a nut free school- thank you.

School & Nursery Photographs
Please click on this link regarding class, sibling and individual photographs of your children.

Bikeability Helpers Wanted
Would you like to be involved in helping us to deliver Bikeability training in school to our Primary 6 year group? You would need to be able to undertake a training course over two mornings in February (16^th &17^th). If this is something you would like to be involved in please email us in the usual way and Mr Bryce will get in touch.

Primary 1 Health Checks
Please check your child’s bag for a letter regarding your child’s P1 health check.

Primary 3b Update
It is with mixed emotions that we share with you that Miss Faulkner has secured a new teaching post and will be leaving Netherlee on Wednesday 8th February. We are all very excited for her new adventure but we will miss her very much!

Your child will continue to be taught by Miss McNamee on a Thursday and a Friday but will be working with Miss Julie McGahon on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Miss McGahon’s first day in class will be on Wednesday 15th February and she is really looking forward to meeting and working with P3b. She will be coming into school to meet the class on Monday 6th February and she will also have a detailed handover of pupil information with Miss Faulkner then too.

Miss McGahon is very much looking forward to joining us here at Netherlee and we are delighted to have her.

Primary 4 Trip Reminder
Just a kind reminder that consent forms for the upcoming Primary 4 trip are in ParentsPortal for completion. A payment of £3.30 is also due via ParentPay.  If you have still to complete the consent form or arrange payment, we would appreciate if you do so by Tuesday 7^th February.

Primary 5 Showcase
Please see the invitation for our P5 Egyptian Showcase. We are looking forward to seeing you all. Please note that there is a maximum of 2 adults per child.

Primary 7 Leavers’ Hoodies
Just a reminder that leaver’s hoodies are now available to order. Please have a read at the letter regarding how to order.

Primary 7 Tea Party – Be Our Guest
Primary 7 would love you to save the date, Friday 10^th March, 11am – 12noon, to come along to our tea party. Tickets will be £2.50 a head and all profits will be going towards the school show, Beauty and The Beast. More information will be coming soon.

Young Scot Cards
A representative from Customer First will be coming into school on Wednesday 8^th February to take photos for the P7s for their National Entitlement Card. As P7a and P7b are taking part in Bikeability that day it will just be the children in P7c and P7d who will be taken that day. The representative will organise another day to come in to complete the photographs for the other classes and also catch anyone who was absent on the 8^th.

February Weekend
A gentle reminder that the school and nursery is closed on Friday 10^th February (in-service day) and Monday 13^th and Tuesday 14^th February.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class

Hello everyone

Netherlee’s 90^th Birthday
We are all very excited to be celebrating the school’s 90^th Birthday on Mon 6^th February. The day will begin with a whole school assembly. After that, classes will be preparing for parties that will be held on Thurs 9^th Feb. The PTA has generously provided lovely arts and crafts resources to make party hats and bunting. Each class will hold a talent show to celebrate the wonderful talents that the school has nurtured over its’ lifetime. Classes will also find out about the changes to the school and local area over the last 90 years. Our wonderful catering team have arranged a special birthday lunch of mince and tatties (vegetarian mince will be available too) and cake and custard. In addition, Mark Gibson has very kindly offered to take a special commemorative photograph. Weather permitting, all staff and pupils will go out to the playground so we can take a special aerial photograph.

Don’t forget the podcast, 90 Years of Netherlee that our tech team are producing to mark the birthday. The latest episode is out now featuring an interview with Mrs French, our longest serving member of staff.  https://anchor.fm/netherlee-primary.  We would love to hear from former pupils or staff so if someone you know went to the school or worked here please get in touch and let us know.

Upcoming Parent Council Meeting
Please see message below from our Parent Council:
The next Parent Council meeting will take place in person in the school Hub at 7pm on Wednesday 15th February 7pm. All parents and carers from the nursery and school are welcome and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. As always there will be the opportunity to have open discussions on a range of topics with other parents and members of the school leadership team.  If you have any matters you would specifically like to be discussed please contact us at: netherleeparentcouncil@gmail.com.

PTA Badged Uniform Sale
The school has many pre-loved uniform items available, you can view the rail for P1-3 at 8.50am or our P4-P7 sizes from 3pm, both at the Clarkston Road entrance – and don’t forget you can buy school badges anytime from the office (£1) to add to your own burgundy items or navy polo shorts too.

If you do need new badged uniform items the PTA sale is open from Friday 27th Jan until Monday 6th Feb at the following link Netherlee PTA (pta-events.co.uk).  You will need to register with the site first before making a purchase. Any questions please let us know at netherleepta@gmail.com. Please see the flyer with more information.

Family Focused at Netherlee School and Nursery: Going for Gold
At Netherlee, we prioritise working effectively with our families to ensure high quality learning experiences for our children. We make sure that all families feel very welcome and are involved in the life of the school and nursery.

To support early year’s establishments, East Renfrewshire Council introduced a self-evaluation framework explaining suggestions of good practice, particularly with regards to working with parents.

We have previously gained our Bronze Family Friendly award and our Silver Family Centred Certificate, both of which are displayed in our Saplings building. Over the next few months, staff will be working very hard, alongside parents, to gain our Gold Family Focused Award.

If you would like to be part of helping us achieve this or would like some more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch schoolmail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk.

Keep an eye out in our Friday Bundle for more information and updates in the coming weeks!

Primary 1 and Primary 2: Pre-Loved Items
As you know, children lead their own learning through play in P1 and P2. Children’s ideas and interests are a key consideration when planning for our classroom and Open Area. We are once again, on the hunt for pre-loved items related to the children’s interests. These are items that you would otherwise be throwing away.

This week, we would very gratefully receive the following resources to support our home corner and creativity area:

• Kitchen utensils (e.g. spatulas, whisks, various sized spoons), kitchen scales, pots and pans
• Old (clean) socks
• Range of textile materials, fabric such as scarves, ribbons, laces, scrunchies

• Cotton reels, curtain rings, beads, buttons, tubes, tins, springs, marbles, bangles, pegs
• Natural resources such as stones, sea shells, feathers, pine cones, leaves, sticks, conkers, acorns…

If you have, and are finished with, any of these types of items, please place any donations into a bag and leave this in our Recycled Donations Box situated at the main school office entrance next week. Many, many thanks.

Primary 3a: PE Day Change
P3a will now have PE on a Thursday and Friday. Could the children please come wearing their full PE kit on these days instead.

Primary 7: Leavers Hoodies
We know how much our P7 pupils look forward to wearing their P7 Leavers Hoody.  We are pleased to let you know that the Leavers Hoodies are now available to order should you wish to do so. Please have a read at the letter regarding how to order.

Primary 7: Bikeability
If you have not yet completed the Bikeability short form to confirm that you are happy for your child to participate in the Bikeability training sessions, please do so here: https://forms.office.com/e/NEGXErNG54

As always, please do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions (no matter how big or small) or queries. We are always here to help in any way we can.

Have a peaceful and enjoyable weekend.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class