Hello everyone,

Upcoming Events
Please have a look at the parent calendar, available on our Netherlee Website, to see all the dates and times of the various events coming up.  This link will take you straight there https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/sandnc/calendar.

Children in Need
We all had a fantastic time last Friday for Children in Need. All of the children looked amazing in their spotty uniforms and had great fun creating spotty artwork, completing the Bearpees challenge and learning about Children in Need. Check out all the posts on X to see examples of the amazing activities that took place in the school and nursery. Thanks to the hard work of the House Captains and your amazing generosity we raised £1,011.45 for Children in Need. Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

Children in Need
A huge thank you for all your generous donations for Children in Need.  So far the school and nursery have raised £669.76 for Children in Need. If you would still like to make a donation, Parent Pay will be available over the weekend until Monday morning and we will confirm the total amount raised in next Friday’s newsletter.

We also took part in lots of fun experiences for Children in Need, organised by our Primary 7 House Captains. This included decorating our doors, wearing something spotty and doing some spotty artwork! We are very grateful for all of the donations we receive for this great cause.

St Andrew’s Day – Thurs 30^th November
To mark St Andrew’s Day the children will be participating in a variety of activities. On Thurs 30^th November children should come to school in their uniform as normal, if they would like to, they can add something tartan to it – scarf, tie, skirt, kilt etc.

Chatter Cafe
Due to unavoidable circumstances the Chatter Café on 22^nd Nov has had to be cancelled but we will look forward to the next one on 31^st January.

Equality & Diversity Parent/ Carer’s Group
Just a reminder to all our parents and carers that out first meeting will be on Wednesday 29 November, from 2.30pm until 3pm. We are looking for people who have ideas on how we can further enhance our school through a number of lenses: gender, race, culture, ethnicity or neurodiversity so please feel free to come along!

School Menu Change
Please find attached an altered temporary school catering menu which will come into effect from Monday 20th.  The temporary menu for Netherlee will be in place on a Wednesday only with the previously published menu being in effect on all other days.  This adapted menu will be in place until further notice.

Party Dates
To celebrate the end of Term 2, all our classes will have a little party during the school day. On your child’s party day, your child can ‘dress as they please’ (no football colours please) and also bring a small snack with them if they would like to- entirely optional. Please see all of the party dates below.

Primary 1 – Thursday 21^st December
Primary 2 – Tuesday 19^th December
Primary 3 – Wednesday 20^th December
Primary 4 – Wednesday 20^th December
Primary 5 – Thursday 21^st December
Primary 6 – Friday 22^nd December
Primary 7 – Friday 22^nd December

Early Finish on Friday 22^nd December
School will close slightly earlier than usual on this day. P1 and P2 will finish at 2.25pm and P3-7 will finish at 2.30pm.

Parent Teacher Association (PTA) – Coming Together for Our School
We are getting ready for our Winter Fayre that will take place on Thursday, 7 December 2023. Please note the Change of Date for the Tombola collection and ‘Dress As You Like Day’. It is now on Monday, 4 December. Donations can be handed to volunteers in the morning at drop off. We would also appreciate non-alcoholic donations. We appreciate your support in making our Winter Fayre a fantastic event.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Hello everyone,

Winter Fayre Survey
The P6/7 Creative Group are hosting a stall at the Winter Fayre and would like to carry out some market research before starting to make our products. We are planning to make three items: slime, tree decorations and home baking.  We would like to find out if you would be willing to purchase these items and if so, how much you would be willing to spend on these. All responses are anonymous and we would ask that your response is posted by Friday 17^th November using the link following link: https://forms.gle/3AHx9WB44WUEJrG16.  If you have any further questions, please email Mrs Linn at school mail SchoolMail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk. Thank you for your time.  P6/7 Creative Group

Please also see attached flyer from the PTA regarding the upcoming Fayre [removed as event has happened].

Celebrating Diwali
We hope all our families who celebrate Diwali have a lovely time celebrating this weekend. As you know, we are always looking for our Netherlee Community to share their beliefs, traditions and expertise with our children and we are very lucky that Mrs Kaur, one of our nursery Child Development Officers, is going to speak to everyone in the school and nursery about this important religious festival. Mrs Kaur has also very kindly said she will bring in a selection of delicious treats called Gulabjaman, Jalabi and Barfi to share with the children as part of the traditions if they wish to try these in school and nursery. The ingredients of these are:

• Semolina
• Butter
• Plain flour
• Sugar syrup
• Milk powder
• Food colouring

We have a note of your child’s dietary requirements however, if these have changed, please email SchoolMail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk or NurseryMail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk and we can update our records. Similarly, if you would prefer your child did not try the traditional treats or if you have any further questions, please contact Mrs Linn.

Celebrating Wider Achievements at Netherlee
We would like to continue to invite you to share information about a recent wider achievement that your child has done by completing the Wider Achievements form below. We are always looking for ways to recognise and celebrate our children’s wider achievements out with Netherlee. As detailed in our Promoting Positive Behaviour Policy, during stage 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. We will check this form regularly so that we can celebrate as many children’s achievements as possible.
Wider Achievement Form

Parent Council Meeting
We are really looking forward to our next Parent Council Meeting which will take place on Wednesday, 22^nd November at 7pm in our school Hub. This is a great opportunity to meet other parents and carers and to also hear about and be involved in the life and work of our Netherlee school and nursery community. The agenda for the meeting is below:

• Minutes of previous meeting and taking of next meeting
• Head Teacher and Staff Team Update
• Communication – Consultation
• PTA update – Christmas Fayre
• SNIP Priority – Nurture and the Lighthouse
• Membership update
• School Report update
• AOB: RSHP & periods, ERC Citizen Panel, Connect update, Comms Newsletter support, parking details reminder.

We look forward to welcoming new and familiar faces along to the meeting at 7-8.30pm for a cuppa, biccy and chat!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Hello everyone

We hope that children who celebrated Halloween this week had a spooktacular time! It was lovely to hear about what or who they were dressing up as, the jokes they told and all the yummy sweets they ate.

It is almost time for another exciting event this weekend- Bonfire Night! For those of you planning to attend a display, we hope you have a brilliant time. Remember to wrap up, stay safe and enjoy the show!

Thank you again to our parents and carers who attended parent’s appointments this week. We look forward to welcoming those with appointments next week to discuss your child’s progress.

Book Week Scotland
Please see the information letter about Book Week Scotland.

Book Sale
Our Book Sale will be available to visit on Wednesday 8th November 3.10-7pm in the Hub. This will be the final opportunity to visit. Please remember it is cash only. Thank you so much to all our families who have visited so far. We really appreciate it!

Children In Need
Please see attached a letter from our House Captains regarding our Children in Need Charity Event on Friday, 17^th November.

School Flu Immunisation
The School Nurses team will be in school on Monday 6^th November to immunise the children.

Mother Tongue Other Tongue Competition
Our wonderful P7 Equality and Diversity Councillors have visited all classes over the past week to tell them all about the 10^th anniversary of the multi-lingual poetry competition, Mother Tongue Other Tongue.

This year there are two categories: one for children who have English as an additional language, and speak another language at home (Mother Tongue) e.g. Mandarin, Urdu or Polish and another for children who have English as a first language and are learning an additional language (Other Tongue) e.g. Spanish, Italian or Arabic. There is also a special prize for Spanish entries being presented by the Instituto Cervantes!

Entries can be written or spoken and should be submitted by Friday 1 December to Mother Tongue Other Tongue. For more information, you can visit the website https://scilt.org.uk/MTOT/tabid/5841/Default.aspx or contact Mrs. Linn at school mail SchoolMail@netherlee.e-renfrew.sch.uk.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday 21 February 2024 (International Mother Language Day). Good luck!

Parent Teacher Association (PTA) – Coming Together For Our School and Nursery
Pumpkin Trail Roundup (Autumn Event)
Thank you to everyone who came along to support the school at our autumn event on Friday, 27 October. What a wonderful turn out and the sense of community was heart-warming. We did learn that at our next event we will have more drinks and food! Do come again! With your generous support, including the Localgiving donations, a total of £900 was raised. Thank you very much! On that basis there are now funds available for the immediate expenses we need:

• £500 for the shed. We hope to supplement this amount with monies raised through the uniform sales.
• £210 to book a silent disco for the house awards, and
• £300 for a curriculum based trip to the Science Centre.

To everyone that took part in the pumpkin trail, we were spectacularly spooked by all the amazing creations. A loud three cheers to the indispensable volunteers who have made things happen: our P6 and P7 volunteers who stepped in and helped us on our merchandise stand and a special thanks to our team of judges who helped with organising our pumpkins and our team who helped with tidying up; Mrs Donaldson, Mrs Edgar, Mrs Andrew, Mrs Linn, Miss Centola, Miss Qasim, Miss Maclean and Mrs Ford who helped at the bar, witches hat, face paints and pumpkins; Mr Martinez and the cleaning staff for their support; Andy and Mick Jaffrey for running front of house at the food stand; Linda and Collette McLean for being there from the beginning to the end; Iain MacDonald, Mick Jaffrey, Julie Bell for keeping us hydrated in a suitably spectacular fashion; Danny McKay for looking after the doughnut gam; Marie Macintyre for keeping us right at the witches hats and Dave McCulloch for negotiating our soccer skills; Jo Atkinson for once again making sure there was a fun craft table and to Paul for bringing order to the messy tombola pumpkins.

Winter Fayre
Save the date! The Winter Fayre is taking place on Thursday, 7 December 2023. (See the attached leaflet.) The choir will start the festivities at 6:20pm, and will lead us through the door when it opens at 6:30pm. The tombola collection and “dress as you like” is due on Friday, 1 December. More details to follow. If you are able to help on 1 December with the collection and the sorting of the tombola, and / or you are able to assist at the Winter Fayre, then please email netherleepta@gmail.com.

Uniform sales:
You should have received your September / October orders that were distributed in school, last week. Again, thank you for your support. “Many hands  make light work” very much applies to the packing of these uniforms.

• Thank you to Suman, Gaby and Fiona who very kindly helped us to sort and pack the orders.
• To Alyson and her team in the office, who delivered the parcels to the classes, thank you.

Our next sale is scheduled to start on Friday, 12 January 2024.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (X) for more updates.

Primary 7 Remembrance Assembly
We refer to last week’s bundle where the incorrect date was detailed.  We would like to invite you along to our short (approx. 30minutes) Remembrance Assembly on Friday the 10^th of November to pay respect to the Armed Forces through art, poetry and music. If you are able to join us, doors will open at 9:15am for a 9:30am start. If you are able to join us, we look forward to welcoming you to Netherlee then.

Bikeabiltity – We Need Your Help
At Netherlee we deliver cycling proficiency, Bikeability, training to all of our pupils, normally during P6, as part of the PE curriculum. To do this we require between 3 & 4 adults per class and over the years we have been very fortunate to have had a group of parents that were able to give up some time and come along and help. Unfortunately, most of these families have now moved on from Netherlee and their children are at high school. We are planning to deliver Bikeability for P6 in Term 4, April/May, however, if we do not manage to get more adults to come and help this may not prove possible.  If you would be able to spare some time in April and May to help deliver Bikeability please get in touch. As well as coming to the school to deliver Bikeability in April and May, you would need to attend two training days on Thursday 1^st February and Friday 2^nd February 9am-12.30pm at Carolside Primary School. If you think that you would be able to help, or would like more information, please get in touch via Email- thank you.

A leaflet can be found here with more information.

Hello everyone

We want to say a huge congratulations to two of our Netherlee staff team, who are graduating from the University of Strathclyde next week. Well done to Miss Dorran for earning her BA in Childhood Practice and Mr Strang-Roy for achieving his Master’s in Education. Your dedication and hard work has certainly paid off- we are very proud of you both!

Volunteers – We Need You
We are always looking for new ways to involve our parents, carers and families in our school and nursery events. To support us with gathering a list of regular volunteers we would like to share this new volunteers Microsoft Form with you. Some of our regular opportunities involve local walks, serving teas and coffees, parental speakers to visit classes, helping to keep our outdoor spaces and gardens tidy and helping in our new school library. If you would be happy to volunteer at one of our upcoming or regular events then please complete the form below and we will be in touch with you. There will always be a member of staff present with you and the children. There will also be QR codes located at the school office and near to our school gates where you can access the form too. Alternatively, our volunteers form can be found on our school and nursery website. Thank you so much for your continued support. We really appreciate it! Continue reading →

Hello everyone

Book Fair
Please see the attached letter regarding our upcoming book fair, and a poster too.
Book Sale Letter

Water bottles
Please could we remind all parents and carers that children should be bringing a clear, named water bottle to school every day. We have noticed recently that many children are bringing juice into school in their water bottles. Please could we ask that water bottles are filled with water only and a reminder that these can be refilled at any of our water stations throughout the school day. Thank you for your support with this.

Dyslexia Awareness Week Scotland 1^st – 7^th November
The week beginning 30^th October we will be celebrating Dyslexia Awareness Week Scotland at Netherlee. Our main aim of the week is to raise awareness of dyslexia within our school and nursery community. Our Primary 7 Diversity Councillors will be speaking to each class about what dyslexia is and some learning strategies which can support people who have a dyslexic profile. Across the week, the children will be taking part in some activities around what makes them unique and discussing their strengths and differences. At both of our Parents Evenings we will have a Dyslexia Awareness table situated in the Atrium for families to pop by to look at some of our dyslexia resources or just to have a conversation with Mrs Ford, our Dyslexia Advisor. We will also have ‘Ellie’s Blue Dyslexia Ribbons’ available across this week for children and staff to wear if they wish. More information about the Ellie’s Blue Ribbons campaign and how to support people with dyslexia can be found here on the Dyslexia Scotland website. https://dyslexiascotland.org.uk/dyslexia-awareness-week/

P6 Art Club
An after school P6 Art Club will be starting on a Monday 13/11 from 3.15-4.15pm. The club will run for 4 weeks. Full details are as follows:
Activity: P6 Art Club
Day and Time: Monday 3.15 – 4.15pm
Dates:  13/11, 20/11, 27/11, 04/12
Venue: Netherlee Primary
Delivered by:  S MacLean & Marion Gardyne  (Grandparent)
No. of pupils: 12
Cost: Free

If you think your child would be interested in attending, please complete the form here: https://forms.office.com/e/AEVEDNvG3j  no later than Thursday 26^th October. In the event of oversubscription names will be balloted. All successful applicants will be notified and asked to complete a consent form via ParentsPortal.

Primary 7: Change to PE Days
Please note that when we return from the October holiday there will be some changes to the PE days for P7 classes. The new days are detailed below.
P7a – Monday & Friday
P7b – Tuesday & Wednesday
P7c – Tuesday & Wednesday
P7d – Monday & Friday

October Break
The school and nursery will close this Friday for the October holiday and Monday 23^rd October is an In-service/ Training Day for staff only. We look forward to welcoming all of our Netherlee children back again on Tuesday 24^th October.

Have a lovely week.

Yvonne Donaldson
Head Teacher
Netherlee Primary School & Nursery Class