Royston Primary School

Dear Parent/carer,

Every year I make a wish for a calm and smooth June…I’ve not succeeded yet! This year as usual, we have things going on that you will want to know about!

Leavers Event – Our P7 leavers event is finalised for 12^th June 3.45-5.30pm in the Royston Hub. Each P7 pupil is able to bring 2 guests to help them celebrate the end of their primary career! This is such a fun (and emotional) event, and I look forward to it every year!

Primary 7 out again! – We will be taking all our P7 pupils for a special leavers lunch at Cosmos Buffet in St Enoch Centre, stopping off for a wee park visit on the way back! This will be on the 13^th June.

Inclusive Education Day – our equalities committee, along with Miss Armstrong and Mr Thomson, are organising an Inclusive Education day on 14^th June. We pride ourselves on being very inclusive and diverse in our school, and will be celebrating this with some special activities that day. Pupils can come to school wearing any bright colours they wish.

Rights Respecting Schools Award – we will be engaging in an assessment day for our work on Children’s Rights on 18^th June. Pupils work consistently hard in learning, understanding and respecting pupil rights, and we want them to be recognised for their great work with the Silver Award. Keep your fingers crossed we are able to prove to the assessors that we are worthy of the award!

End of Term Prize Giving – our finalised date for this is 20^th June 10am. All parents, carers, family and friends welcome to come along!

Pupil and Parent Council Fun Day – pupils will be having a fun day on 21^st June – all day!! Lots of fun and games to be had!

I will soon be sending out a parent/carer end of session survey – we would be most appreciative if you could take the time to complete.

Remember to complete your pupil report survey if you haven’t already. This helps us to understand and support your child most effectively.

Kind Regards,

Jane McShane

3 May, 2024

May Newsletter

May 2024

Summer term is in full swing! Read on to find out what we have planned…in addition to some of the usual information we like to share!

Staffing

Staffing at this present time seems fairly settled as we progress towards the summer break.

Mrs Steer has gone on maternity leave and we have now have Miss Jenner join us for this term. Miss Jenner is working across 3 different classes and has made a great start to her time in Royston. I’m sure you will join me in welcoming Miss Jenner to the Royston team! Miss Jenner is working with P7/6, P6/5 and P4/3 and is a popular teacher already!

I’m sure you will all be sad to hear that Mrs Young is retiring at the end of this term. Mrs Young has been in Royston Primary for 9 years and has worked hard for our children and families. We will miss Mrs Young, but wish her well in the next chapter of her life!

I am delighted to share the news that, in Mrs Steers maternity absence, Mr Thomson will take on the acting principal teacher role. Mr Thomson is a valued and excellent member of our staff team, and I’m sure you will join me in congratulating him in his new role!

As always in June, I will make every effort to tell you and your child who their next teacher for August will be. This helps to ease any anxiety and stress for pupils, so that they can enjoy their summer holidays without ‘fear of the unknown’. This session it might be a little difficult. Due to budget cuts and significant staffing changes within Glasgow City Council, I may not know the teachers I will have before August. Budget cuts across the council estate mean that our staffing quota is reduced, which will impact on the supports we are able to offer pupils. We will however continue to do the very best that we can for our pupils and families.

RSHP

All pupils P1-7 will be engaging in learning on RSHP (relationships, sexual health and parenthood). All lessons are in line with our Scottish curriculum expectation – Curriculum for Excellence – Health and wellbeing benchmarks. Lessons are age and stage appropriate and are delivered in class by the teacher. ALL resources we use can be viewed online RSPH.Scot, where you can see each lesson content and learn a little more about why these are important. There is useful information for parents/carers in order to promote some of the learning at home too. Primary 1 lessons are at early level, primary 2-4 lessons are at first level and P5-7 lessons are at second level. Please do have a browse on the website yourself and get in touch if you have any questions or concerns.

Antibullying development work this session

We have concluded the work on our policy statement on antibullying; having taken all views into consideration. This will be emailed out to you soon. We continue to share the key crucial messages with children in school, and aim to manage incidents as consistently as possible. All incidents are recorded on our central recording system, records of which are passed to secondary school at time of transition.

Thank you to all parents/carers who took the time to feedback on our initial draft policy statement version. We appreciate your voice and value all comments made.

I will also be emailing out parent antibullying information which has been created by Glasgow’s Parent Forum. It is an excellent one page information guide which, as a parent, I would find extremely useful. This information, along with the final policy statement will be emailed out soon.

As a celebration of our pupils hard work in learning and understanding this theme, we have a special treat! Rookie Rockstars will be delivering sessions for all pupils in school week beginning 20^th May. Pupils will be learning fantastic rock songs based around the themes of bullying, kindness and respect. The whole week will be filled with loud guitars and drums…and I expect our pupils will love it!

To conclude, Rookie Rockstars and all pupils will be presenting a special rock concert in school on 29^th May 6.30pm. Tickets priced at £3 each will go on sale the week before. Due to space limitations, there will be an allocation of 2 tickets per child…if we have any left over after initial sales, we will offer them out to families. Look out for information on this nearer the time!

Transition

‘Tis the season of transition, falalalala lalalala!!! This is a super busy term for transition work, especially for our P7’s and new entrants!

Most of our primary 7 pupils now know which secondary school they will be attending. If you do not know, or your placement request has been refused, please do let us know and we will guide you on your next steps.

St Roch’s secondary school P7 visits are on 4^th and 5^th June.

Springburn Academy P7 visits are on 18^th and 19^th June.

Staff from Springburn and St Roch’s are planning to visit our pupils soon to share information and answer any questions/discuss any concerns, they may have.

We are very grateful to Royston Youth Action who are in the midst of delivering a comprehensive transition programme for our pupils. These sessions are enjoyable, informative and respectful. Pupils seem to be enjoying sessions and finding them useful.

We have a very good number of pupils planning on attending Royston Primary Primary 1 for August; around 23 at present. We have a number of events planned for our wee ones!

All new entrants and parents are invited in 16^th May 1.30-2.30pm for their induction event.

Week beginning 20^th May, we will meet all our new pupils and their parents individually, so that we pay special attention to each family joining us.

All new entrants are invited to join in with school sports day on the 28^th May at 10am.

New entrants invited to the Teddy Bears Picnic on 4^th June!

Letters to new entrant parents have been posted out with this information.

Sports Day

School sports day will be on 28^th May at St Roch’s Secondary playing fields. All parents, family and friends welcome to spectate…and get involved!! Fingers crossed for a sunny (but not too hot!!) day!

Fun Fit Bike

We will be visited by the fun fit bike on the 10^th May! The fun fit bike is a bicycle that makes smoothies! Pupils will cycle the bike to make themselves a drink…and there will be good learning about healthy eating too!

Pupils reports

Teachers are currently in the process of preparing your child’s final school report for this session. We plan to issue reports to parents on the 27^th May. As we have no further parent appointments planned for this session, please do get in touch if you would like to discuss anything of concern in the report. There should be nothing surprising in a pupil report, ever! If we are doing our job in keeping you informed and working in partnership, you will know and understand everything written.

End of session summer trips

Firstly can I just say that many schools in Glasgow do not ‘do’ summer trips! Every year it becomes more and more difficult to plan and fund school trips, but we are proud to say (apart from COVID years), we have always had summer trips! This is thanks to funding and donations from various places…too many to mention! We do always ask for a small contribution from parents which helps ‘make ends meet’ with increased ticket prices and transport.

P1-2 will be going to Clyde Valley Farm Park on the 11^th June.

P3-6 will be going to Five Sisters Zoo on the 5^th June.

P7 will have a surprise outing in June! I’m saying no more than that for now!!

P7 Leavers Event

We have a PROVISIONAL date for our leavers event of 5^th June. This is an after-school event and pupils can invite 2 guests along. We plan to have this in the Community Hub, but just need to finalise catering before confirming the date. More information nearer the time!

Breakfast club

Just a wee reminder for parents. Breakfast club is open from 8am every morning in the dining hall. We have very small numbers just now and I wonder whether parents/carers know this service is available. Pupils who are in receipt of free meals are entitled to a free breakfast. Otherwise the standard cost is £2.

School Uniform

This section was in the last newsletter – but I’ve not seen a huge improvement.

I have been noticing recently that our standards in uniform have slipped a little. I’m keen to get this back on track and ask for your support in doing so.

We want pupils to be comfortable and ready to learn and so we do not insist on shirt and tie, as some schools do. Pupils can wear shirt and tie or school polo shirt, along with school jumper or cardigan. If you do not have uniform items, please do let us know and we can help.

Pupils wear uniform to represent their school. They wear it to demonstrate their sense of belonging, in addition to safety and security reasons. We want our pupils to be proud of Royston Primary and what it stands for. We want them to wear their uniform to show this. Please support us with this.

We ask that pupils do not wear branded clothing. Eg Nike, Hugo Boss etc. This clothing is very expensive and could get easily damaged during school activities. It also creates a divide between children who have branded clothing, and those who do not. We simply ask that all pupils wear our school uniform as it creates an ethos of equality for all pupils. Thank you for your support with this.

School Holiday dates

School will be closed to pupils on 24^th and 27^th May for May bank holiday.

School will close for the summer break on 26^th June at 1pm.

School will re-open to pupils on 14^th August.

Jane McShane

headteacher@royston-pri.glasgow.sch.uk

0141 552 2872

28 February, 2024

February Newsletter

January/February 2024

This session is flying past and Term 3 is no exception…Christmas seems like such a long time ago! Please read on to find out what is going on in Royston Primary.

Staffing

Our staffing situation has been quite fluid this session and continues to be moving forward. Miss Kelly and Miss Johnstone have both had beautiful baby girls! We wish them lots of love and laughter with their little ones! (We don’t tell them about the sleepless nights!!)

Mr Darren has now started in post as support for learning worker. Mr Darren is very familiar with the school and the pupils. He has been a great addition to our staffing and pupils relate very well to him.

Miss Armstrong is now the teacher in P6/5 whilst Miss Johnstone is on maternity leave. She has settled well and is working extremely hard with the pupils in her class.

In addition, both P7/6 and P6/5 have teaching students on their final placements. Miss Slaven and Miss Barton are working hard to bring the pupils exciting and engaging lessons.

We continue to work in partnership with Re:Hope Royston, who provide volunteer reading partners on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Some pupils have been selected to have their own volunteer who will read with them and support their understanding.

Library Visits

All pupils in school are taken to the library once per fortnight. Almost all pupils have library membership now and can chose books to take home to read. Pupils can use the library ANYTIME. When the pupils go with school, the library staff work with our pupils to ensure they are familiar with the library set up. They support them with themes and do activities with them. However, pupils can go change their books at any time – maybe at the weekend! The purpose of this is to encourage pupils to utilise this fantastic resource frequently so please do encourage your child to go to the library sometimes.

After School and Lunch Clubs

At present we have a number of after school and lunch activities running, or about to begin. These are:

P6 EuroQuiz training – Monday lunchtime

P3-5 Art Club – Monday after school

P5-7 Football – Monday lunchtime

P5-7 Basketball – Tuesday lunchtime

P5-7 and P2-4 Dance – Tuesday after school

P2-4 and P5-7 Coding – Tuesday after school

P1-3 Mindfulness – Tuesday after school

Makaton – Wednesday lunchtime

P5-7 Football – Wednesday lunchtime

P5-7 Football – Wednesday after school

P3-5 Board Games – Wednesday after school

P2-4 Fun Sports Club – Thursday lunchtime

P2-4 Multi Sports – Thursday after school

P5-7 Athletics – Friday lunchtime

The majority of our activities are run by school staff and we are extremely grateful to them for doing this out with their contracted working time! Staff undertake activities they think pupils will enjoy and do so in their own time; this is not a requirement for any member of staff. We are so lucky to have the most amazing staff team who care deeply about the pupils and the opportunities they have in school!

If your child wants to join an activity and they haven’t already, please tell them to ask Mr Steer or me about it. There are still spaces in some of the clubs.

School Website

We have been spending some time updating our school website. Please go on and have a peek – there is information for most classes!

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/gc/roystonprimary

Anti- Bullying Development work

Following on from last term activities, we have created an action plan to keep us moving forward on the right track. This month we will be launching a first draft of our anti-bullying policy. We will be seeking the views of parents/carers, pupils and staff. We will be looking for a small focus group of parents/carers willing to come and talk to us about it…what they like and what could be better! Please look out for further information on this – coming soon!

Parent Appointments

Parent appointments will be on Thursday 7^th March. This is an opportunity for you to speak with your class teacher and hear about your child’s progress in school. It is crucial for your child that you make every effort to attend – the most successful learners are those who’s parents engage in their learning. If you are unable to attend the scheduled day/time, please contact us; we will be happy to arrange an alternative for you, given the importance.

Primary 7 Residential Trip

Primary 7 pupils will soon be venturing off to Perthshire Dalguise Outdoor Education Centre for their residential experience! This experience will be from 15^th-18^th March. Mr Thomson and Mrs Atala will be the adults attending, and we are extremely grateful to them for giving up their own weekend to accompany our pupils! Pupils will be getting some further information and kit list very soon. There is a small contribution for each pupil to pay of £20; this can be paid any time. (A little heads up, each child needs to take a sleeping bag and pillow this year! If you are struggling with this, tell us and we can help!)

Accreditations!

We have great news to share! As you will know, Royston Primary were working towards gaining accreditation for being a language and communication friendly establishment; and we got it! Pupils and staff have worked tremendously hard on this development and should extremely proud of their efforts. We thank Mrs Steer for leading us successfully through this process. We will continue to sustain the work undertaken as it has made a real difference to consistency across the school.

More great news! Last week we had Glasgow City Council Nurture quality assurance team visit to assess our nurture practice; both in the Orchard and across the school as a whole. This was extremely successful and the team visiting were very impressed with all that they saw. Excellent work staff and pupils; and especially Mr Thomson for leading the way in Royston Primary in Nurture!

Parental Engagement

We have some parental engagement sessions approaching that I would like to share with you:

P3/2 parents are invited into school on 20^th February at 2.30pm. Miss Gilyeat and Mrs Steer have some resources to share with you and are keen to support parents helping their child at home with literacy.

P2/1 parents’ are invited into school on 26^th February at 2.45pm. Mrs Steer has resources and strategies to share with you for literacy.

Mr Thomson is planning for STEM parent and child workshops for Term 4 April-May time. Please look out for further details.

We will soon share with you further details (involving all classes) on parental engagement for week beginning 11^th March – please look out for more information!

Congratulations to those P1-3 parents who completed the Families connect programme over the last few months. They completed a range of activities around maths, languages and well-being that will help them support their child well at home. This programme will run again next year so speak to Mr Thomson if you would be interested.

Breakfast club

LGBT Inclusive Education

Primary 7 pupils will be attending a half day workshop at City Chambers on 22^nd February about LGBT Inclusive Education. This is an ALLIES (Action and Learning for LGBT Inclusive Education in Schools) workshop delivered in partnership with TIE – Time for Inclusive Education.

Inclusion, in its widest sense, it a thread that runs through all aspects of school learning; it does not stand alone. It is important that when we use the term LGBT Inclusive education, that we remember this is about educating our children to be INCLUSIVE. It is NOT about encouraging children to make choices about their sexuality, it is simply teaching children that we do not exclude others based on aspects of their personality or who they are, e.g. gender, age, colour, ethnicity etc.

I’m sure you will agree that teaching about equality is important in our world today, and for the future.

Mother Tongue Groups

We have started a new initiative in school to encourage children to speak their home/family language, and celebrate that they can do this confidently! We have approx. 18 languages spoken amongst our pupils and families and this is something we should all be really proud of. What an excellent learning environment where pupils are surrounded by such diversity and culture.

Every second Thursday we invite pupils who speak a different language to English to join with others and engage in activities whilst speaking their family language. The pupils seem to be enjoying these sessions, as are the adults who are in awe of our pupils’ language skills!

We will soon open this out for some parents to get involved. If you speak a different language to English and you would like to get involved, please do let me know!

School Uniform

I have been noticing recently that our standards in uniform have slipped a little. I’m keen to get this back on track and ask for your support in doing so.

We ask that pupils do not wear branded clothing, e.g. Nike, Hugo Boss etc. This clothing is very expensive and could get easily damaged during school activities. It also creates a divide between children who have branded clothing, and those who do not. We simply ask that all pupils wear our school uniform as it creates an ethos of equality for all pupils. Thank you for your support with this.

Jane McShane

headteacher@royston-pri.glasgow.sch.uk

0141 552 2872

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Newsletter Jan 2025