Category: Newsletter

October 2021

Term 2 has started at great speed! We are delighted to welcome our pupils and their families back to school after the October break and look forward to working with you.

Staffing

Staffing in the main is fairly settled at the moment. Sadly we had to say good bye to Ms Jee who was working with both P5/4 and P3/2. Ms Jee was here as an additional member of staff, over and above our allocation from Glasgow City Council. Other schools within the council are having enormous challenges with staff absence and every available teacher has been allocated to cover these absences. We will miss Ms Jee…maybe she will come back one day!

We are also waiting on two new support staff being authorised to start work with us. Recruitment checks are being carried out to ensure safe practice and as soon as these are complete, our 2 new support staff will begin working in school…hopefully you’ll see some new faces soon!

COVID-19

We continue to work within the challenge of COVID-19. We had hoped that this term, restrictions placed upon us would be eased somewhat, however this is not to be the case. Safe Opening of Schools Guidance has not been changed since August 9^th and so we continue to work within its confines.

In short, if your child has Covid 19 symptoms, please continue as before by keeping them off school and booking a PCR test. If the test is negative, they can return immediately. If the test is positive they must isolate for 10 days.

If a household member tests positive please self-isolate and book tests for others in the household. If your child’s test is negative they can return immediately to school, even although they may be living with a person testing positive.

If a child in your child’s class tests positive, there will now be no requirement to isolate a whole class or groups of class. Track and trace will coordinate who would require to isolate with any positive case based on very close contact.

If you are in any doubt about the regulations please do get in touch.

Parental Views Term 1

I would like to thank all 43 parents who responded to the most recent survey. 43 parental responses is approx..50% of parents which is excellent.

Our general theme for the survey was around inclusion, respect and attainment. These will be general themes throughout all parental surveys. We, as a whole staff, were delighted with the responses. Almost all parents who responded feel their child is happy in school most of the time. Almost all parents are satisfied with the service we provide and feel their child’s needs are met well in school. Almost all parents feel that staff are approachable and helpful and think their child is working to their potential. In addition, there were some very positive comments made about the questions asked. It is very reassuring to hear from you whether it be positive or something we need to improve upon. As a bunch of teachers we are always looking for improvements to make!! It’s just in our nature!!

Parental engagement

I am disappointed to say that we will not be allowed to have parental appointments face to face as we normally have in November. The opportunity to discuss your child’s learning with you is invaluable and we don’t like being restricted in the face to face contact we are allowed to have. During week beginning 15^th November we will engage in telephone appointments with you to discuss your child’s progress. Prior to this you will have received your child’s interim report card. Your telephone appointment time will give you the opportunity to ask any questions or raise any concerns with the class teachers. There may be occasional unique situations where we must meet in person and we will arrange this as necessary. Unfortunately, we are working within government and council restrictions and must follow the rules as set out by them.

Halloween

This year we will be having a ‘dress up/dress down’ day on Friday 29^th October! There will be no charge for this event. Pupils can dress up in Halloween costumes or dress down clothes if they wish. Each class will have a wee party in the afternoon – playing some party games, winning prizes and having a small unhealthy snack as a treat! We are not calling it a ‘halloween party’ as some pupils may not wish to dress up in costumes. No matter what they wear I’m sure it’ll be a fun afternoon with games, music and dancing!

The Smarty Challenge!

Each child will come home on Monday 25^th October with a tube of smarties! They (or you!) can eat the smarties! Once the tube is empty, each pupil has a challenge…to see how many coins they can squeeze in! It might be pennies, 20p, 5p’s…whichever coin you wish! Once the tube is full, they can bring it back to school and their name will be entered into a prize draw to win a fun kids hamper! Closing date for returning tubes will be Wednesday 17^th November and prize draw will be on Friday 19^th.

Obviously this is a school fund raising exercise and you do not need to take part if you would prefer not to. Or you might wish to simply put a £5 in the tube as a contribution instead of finding all the coins! Anything is acceptable!

Toy Fayre

We will be having a toy sale on 12^th November! Pupils can bring some money to spend buying pre-loved toys…and we might even manage a wee tuck shop! We are now collecting donations for the fayre…please hand any toys, books, puzzles, activities…etc into the school between now and the 9^th November – this will ensure everything sits in quarantine before being placed out for sale! It might be an opportunity for you to have a pre-Christmas clear out!! Pupils seem to love wee figures, action heroes and dolls…maybe a helpful hint!!

Transition

Pupils in primary 7 are now beginning to think about their transition to secondary school…with a bit of excitement and trepidation! This is perfectly normal and every primary 7 pupil feels this way at this point! We will be engaging in some useful transition work with Springburn secondary staff, in addition to working with RYA and SAMh (mental health) on preparation activities. This will help settle their mind a little and continue to focus on the task of completing primary 7!

I have spoken to several parents this week regarding placement requests. I have also spoken to all P7 pupils about this. Your child’s catchment secondary is dependent solely on your post code. I have no control over what your secondary catchment school is. If you don’t know where it should be then I can let you know. If you do not want your child to attend the catchment school for your address, you must complete a placement request prior to Christmas. Your child has the link to this on the ipad under the homework tab – please ask them for it.

Your placement request will go the GCC Hub who will look at numbers, staffing and accommodation for your request – it may be accepted or refused, but you will not know until end of April 2022.

I am happy to assist anyone with forms or understanding the process but I have no control over decisions and outcomes…I wish I did!

Nursery enrolment for primary in August 2022 will take place during week beginning 8^th November. We will be giving some enrolment information to our local nurseries and we can support people in completing paperwork if necessary. If you have a child due to come to us in August 2022, we look forward to welcoming them into school and will do what we can to make transition from nursery smooth! Talk to us if there is anything we can assist with.

Entry Doors

Starting on Monday 25^th October only one door will be for entry in the morning. The entry door will be the side door on Gadshill Street and will open at the usual time 8.45-9.15am. The janitor front entrance will not be open. This is simply due to staff availability to open the door and welcome the pupils in…we always like to have more than one member of staff to do this.

STEM P3/2 and P1 challenge!

Mr Thomson and Miss Johnstone want to work with parents and pupils together! Given the current situation, this is challenging…but we will try to think creatively on how to do this. Mr Thomson and Miss Johnstone are in the process of planning out a few sessions OUTSIDE…working on STEM challenges. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. It sounds like the challenges might be hard…but I promise, they are not too hard and lots of fun! We are hoping to do these parent and child sessions before Christmas so look out for more detailed information.

ParentPay

You may or may not know that GCC have engaged with a long term payment method, making schools effectively ‘cashless’. I’m not sure we will be entirely cashless but the system will be set up initially for school meals – for those pupils who pay for meals. You will shortly receive an activation code to set yourself up on ParentPay App. You should set up asap and let us know if you have any difficulties…we may or may not be able to help! We are trying to learn the system as fast as we can!

It is important to note that even if your child is in receipt of free meals, you should still set up the app as this will be used to collect any trip money etc in the future.

Our ‘Go Live’ date is November 1^st and everyone should be set up by then. Activation letters will come out early next week.

School House System

I just wanted to offer a wee refresher for our usual parents…and some new information for our new parents! We have a school house system…the houses are Ruby (red), Sapphire (blue) Emerald (green) and Diamond (yellow). Each child belongs to a house group. Pupils can be given house tokens for all sorts of great reasons…good work, lots of effort, good manners, being helpful, sharing, respect etc etc. Each house tries to get the most tokens each term to win the house treat at the end of every term. We usually try to take the winning house on an outing…or do something fun in school. Your child should have a house colour badge – this will tell you what house they are in. The pupils enjoy collecting tokens for their house – they have a great sense of belonging to a different group to their class and they get excited about winning the treat at the end of term!

Phew…another overload of information! I hope you find this useful to you but please do not hesitate to contact us for any reason – we are here to help!

Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss anything or ask any questions.

Jane McShane

headteacher@royston-pri.glasgow.sch.uk

0141 552 2872

September 2020 Issue 1

Welcome back everyone! What a bizarre few months this has been! Such a devastating turn of events in March – I doubt anyone could have predicted that it would ever have happened. I honestly believe that, although lockdown was not pleasant for most, it has made us stronger and more appreciative of what we have in life – and this includes education. Our pupils have come back to school with energy, enthusiasm, good manners and a great focus on learning. What more could any of us ask! It has been an absolute joy to have the pupils back in school every day and to see our parent group around and about. Everyone seems happy but if you have worries, concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Primary 1!

We have got a super bunch of primary 1 pupils this session! They have come into school, in slightly unusual circumstances, and settled beautifully! We are enjoying watching them learn and grow and look forward to their development as time goes on.

Well done children and well done parents – you did each other proud!!

School Recovery

Glasgow City Council is very focused on ‘Resilience, Recovery and Reconnection’. We strive to settle our pupils back into school and gather momentum in learning again. We have made some small but significant changes in school to help us recovery quickly and ensure no more time is wasted. We are focusing heavily on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing just now with gradual addition of topical work and expressive arts. We are encouraging a major focus on pupils working together collaboratively in order for them to practice the social skills they have missed during lockdown in addition to ensuring very active ‘hands on’ classrooms.

In a more practical sense there have been some slight changes to how we work, for example staggered entry in the morning, staggered and shortened lunch and limitations on shared resources. We have only introduced changes that are necessary during the present time. I think if you asked the pupils about changes, they possibly have not noticed! This is our aim as we wish to keep school as normal and predictable for pupils as we can just now.

Parental Engagement

Normally at this time in term 1, we would have had a parental engagement session. Last year we had a Parent Pizza Party! This was a nice opportunity for you to meet your child’s class teacher and chat with them informally about things. Unfortunately government restrictions mean that we cannot do this. Therefore every class teacher will be phoning each parent to say hello and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

check in. This is not an ideal situation but sadly it is the best we can offer at the present time. Phone calls will commence this week – please answer if you can!

After school clubs

Clubs are on hold for term 1 – but we are getting set to start up as soon as we are allowed! Parent and child cookery is back in October along with some of our usual clubs. As soon as we can find coaches willing to come in we will let you and pupils know.

School Sponsor

Our school fund is very low! I am ever hopeful that we will be able to organise and attend a Christmas event with all pupils but we need to raise a bit of money to make this possible! To that end we have organised a sponsored walk/run. Classes will walk/run the distance of the West Highland Way (96 miles) over a 2 week period 21^st Sept – 2^nd Oct. This will be quite a challenge but I know we can do it! Mr Steer will be tracking class progress and pupils will be able to see their progress virtually on a map! Very exciting! All pupils will soon be given a donation sheet and we would be delighted if every pupil could raise a few pounds – and if pantomimes do go ahead, we will be there!!

Public Health

You will have received a letter from Public Health – both in paper form and by e-mail, if you have supplied us with your e-mail address. It is important to read and understand the letter as it is specifically regarding symptoms and testing for COVID-19. It is perfectly understandable that we are all nervous about this issue but we must continue to think rationally about it. If your child has one of the key symptoms – persistent cough, high temperature or loss of taste or smell, they should be absent from school and you should organise a coronavirus test for them – contact www.nhsinform.scot. If you are looking for more information please visit www.nhsggc.org.uk/covid/schools to learn more.

Outdoor Learning/PE

As I’m sure you are aware, all PE has to happen outside for the time being. Although class teachers have an inclination as to when this will happen, it is always weather permitting. We will not take our pupils outside if there is a health and safety risk with weather conditions. This does not mean they will not go outside in the rain. Rain is fairly common in Scotland and pupils should try to dress as well as they can for wet weather. If pupils want to bring in some spare clothing, along with their waterproof jacket, sensible shoes etc then this will be fine. I would always advise spare socks in everyone’s school bag as standard!

Snapshot week

Once each term we have snapshot week. During the assigned week, all pupils will record their learning experiences in a special jotter. At the end of snapshot week pupils will bring the jotter home to let you see what they have been learning about. Over the weekend please have a conversation with your child about what they have in the jotter. Ask them what they have been learning to see if they can give you an explanation. Ask them what they enjoyed most in their learning. Ask them if they feel they have been successful in their learning. Ask them if they felt challenged in the learning or if it was easy! Please then complete the ‘parental comment’ sheet in the jotter – we always need your thoughts and comments in order to ensure continuous improvement in teaching and learning.

Cooking Packs

During lockdown we successfully secured some funding to support our pupils and their families. We have created cooking packages (similar to the creative packages given out during the school closure period.) There is one package per family and pupils will bring this home over the next few days. This is a gift to each of our families and I hope the items will be useful. Happy cooking!

Helmets

We are been saddened to hear that some of our pupils are not demonstrating good cycle safety habits whilst out cycling their bikes in the community. I have contacted community police about this and they will increase their presence in the Royston area in order to observe and support. Pupils appear NOT to be wearing helmets. It is a parental responsibility to ensure a child wears a helmet when cycling in the community – please ensure your child does not go cycling without one. Some pupils have said they don’t even have one. To this end I have bought two helmets to show pupils and allow them to try on. If you would like to buy one I can order more. Please do get in touch.

Staffing

Staffing this session is looking excellent. We welcome our new staff – Mr Gillen and Miss Sutton and a warm welcome back to Mrs Mair. All classes have 2 teachers assigned in order to support intensive teaching after such a lengthy period of time away from formal education. This is working well at present and we will soon commence our usual suite of assessment – this will help us specify, on an individual basis, what type of teaching support is needed for each pupil.

Attainment

Attainment in core areas of reading, writing, listening/talking and numeracy are on the increase. Our attainment statistics present a very positive picture. From 2015 until now, our general increase has been around 10-20% approx. in almost all aspects, apart from listening and talking where our attainment has been fairly ‘jumpy’. We are trying to analyse why this is the case and are doing some training and research on how we can get better at this. In addition many of our homework tasks are designed with a focus on talking and listening – it would be very useful if you could make these tasks a priority. I would also suggest you engage in as much conversation as you can with your child in order to give them practice at these social skills.

Homework

Some pupils may have had their new homework grid sent out, others will get it this week. Please see the accompanying parent information on homework which will help support homework for pupils.

Ipads

Pupils in P7 will soon get a personal school iPad to use for learning. They will be able to use this in class and at home. This is part of the council digital roll out. The iPad will always belong to Glasgow City Council but pupils will have these individually to support their learning. The date for this is 27^th October and we will be looking for parental support in this project. There will be agreements on safe use to be signed and pupils will be taught how to use the learning tools on the iPad.

Healthy drinks and snacks

We continually try to pass messages of healthy eating and drinking onto pupils. Pupils can drink water at school. During class time pupils can drink plain water. Research proves that this actually enhances performance in the classroom – class teachers will encourage this. Pupils can bring flavoured water (eg lemon lime, strawberry) for break times although we do try to dissuade them from this as there is some sugar contained. We also try to encourage pupils to bring healthy snacks to school. A piece of fruit or chopped vegetables are excellent choices. Pupils are rewarded for making healthy choices in eating and drinking and can win a special active treat if their good choices become consistent.

I am always disappointed when I see pupils coming to school eating sweets and drinking fizzy drinks. I’m not sure if parents and carers know pupils are doing this but I would encourage you to speak with your child about this. It does not make for a great start to the day!

Awards

Just a little update on assemblies and awards for you. Unfortunately I am unable to lead the school in our usual weekly celebration assembly. Sadly we are unable to do any singing at present and gatherings of more than 50 people in fairly close contact are not allowed.

However, we do not let this get in the way! We have continued to give out our special weekly awards and Birthday certificates by going round classrooms on a Friday. We award one pupil in each class a Star of the Week and one pupil a Worker of the week. I’m sure you will be very proud of your child when they come home to show off their award! We also give out Healthy Choice Awards for those pupils demonstrating healthy habits during the week – either in eating or in exercise.

Although not quite the same as our special Friday assemblies, pupils are pleased to still be involved in celebrating the successes over the past week. Hopefully assemblies will return soon!

Jane McShane

Head Teacher