Category: Parents information

February 2017 Issue 5

 

Parent Council

I want to say a huge thanks to parent council members for their continued hard work in supporting school life. Most recently, members have upcycled filing cabinets and planted them beautifully! We are now looking at the back playground for improvement and will continue to add to this as we can.

If you are interested in being a member of the parent council, please speak with me and I can link you with current members.

Fruit and Veg Barra

Just a wee reminder for everyone that our fruit and veg barra runs every week. Fruit and veg on sale at significantly reduced price. Our primary 7 pupils run this and would love to see more people visit. It will either be in the front playground or just inside the main door.

Fruity Tuckshop

Our fruity tuck shop has now been running for almost a month. Fruit is well priced at 20-30p. This is not intended to give us a profit as our key aim is to provide healthy options for all pupils. We have been a little disappointed in uptake, with a minority of pupils using the tuck shop. We would really like this to increase. Please do consider giving your child some change to buy a healthy snack Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday…we do not want this venture to stop!

School Refurbishment

I am delighted (and a little anxious!) to tell you that I have had confirmation that Royston Primary will be receiving a full refurbishment, starting in the coming months. This will give our pupils freshly decorated classrooms with new carpets, complete overhaul of all toilet facilities, newly plastered corridor walls and possibly a totally new roof to the building. I have no further details on when this is due to begin or how long this is expected to take. Having had some previous experience of this, I feel this will take quite some time, and will involve various alterations to entry/exit, playground space etc and I ask for your patience during this time. The ‘goal’ I hope, will be well worth it!

World Book Day

World Book Day is on the 2^nd March and we will be having our Big Book Event on Friday the 3^rd March. Pupils can dress up as a book character and we will have a costume parade in the dining hall in the morning. Pupils will ‘opt in’ to various book related groups during the day. The aim of this day is to widen pupils interest in reading by exploring different genres of text. I’m sure this will be a very positive day for all. Our travelling book fayre will come again towards the end of March…we will continue to update you on specific dates for this.

Pupil Equity Fund

As I’m sure many of you will know from the media, Royston Primary will be receiving £85,200 as part of the governments equity initiative. The government states education as the top priority for them, and as such have invested greatly in schools. The amount of money each school has received is dependent on free school meal entitlement. Plans for this money are by no means finalised and Glasgow City Council are issuing us with strict guidance on use of the money. I will continue to update you on developments as they occur.

Summer Trip

We are beginning to explore options for our annual summer trip for all pupils. We are looking to book this quite soon as buses tend to book up very quickly. I will shortly put out a very brief questionnaire regarding cost and location. Please do give me all ideas you have.

Dress Down Day

As you will know, we have a dress down day on the last Friday of each month at the cost of 50p. This money goes DIRECTLY to our pupils. We use this money to support visiting experts, trips and experiences out of school, gifts and celebrations throughout the year and additional resources not covered by our basic school budget. Recently many pupils have been ‘dressing down’, but have not been bringing in 50p. This is very disappointing. We will continue to monitor this through our cash books as we need to ensure pupils are equally contributing in order to gain from this.

London

If your child is in primary 7 you may have heard that they are going to London! This is not strictly true at the present time. Having spoken to pupils in P7, it was clear that they were keen to go to London for their ‘end of primary school’ experience. I have spent time exploring whether this may be a viable and sensible option, with pupil safety and security as the top priority. Progress to date gives me a sensible quote from a company called Curriculum Travels. They offer a 3 night/4 day experience with a jam packed itinerary. The cost is quite substantial and so I am looking at funding options in order to reduce cost for parents and carers as much as I possibly can. I’m expecting to have an update on this early in March and I will keep relevant parents/carers posted as I learn more about whether this could become a reality.

Annual Royston Clean Up event

The clean up will take place for P4/3-7 pupils on the 1^st March. This year, our youth forum members are planning the event, which involves booking the venue, ordering and requesting resources and support from the council and making purchases for the ‘goodie bags’. This has been a real learning experience for pupils supported by Spireview Housing Association. All pupils will be closely monitored in small groups by adults and we will be preparing them for this by engaging in conversation about why this is important. The main aim is to ensure our pupils understand the value of their community and grow to respect and look after it.

Staffing

Staffing is a regular feature of our school newsletter as I believe it is crucial for you to know and understand who is working with your children. Staffing remains reasonably stable at present. Mrs Jamieson is not in school at present, but Mr Steer has taken on full commitment for P7 in order to maintain consistency in this important year in primary school. Our teaching students are in place with P6/5 and P7 and we continue to work with United Sports to provide coaches for after school activities.

We also continue to have our reading partners from Clydesdale Bank who come on a Wednesday and Thursday. They enjoy coming and our pupils benefit from some one to one support.

School Photographer

The photographer will be in school on Thursday 2^nd March. He will be taking individual and class photographs. If you would like a family photograph taken please inform the office staff.

Celebrating Success

Primary 3/2 and street dance after school club pupils will be invited to perform at Smithycroft celebrating success community event to be held on 16^th March from 6-7pm. These particular pupils will receive a more detailed letter about this in the next week or two.

Red Nose Day

We try to limit the number of fundraisers we embark on as there are so many that come up over a calendar year. As we have not raised funds for charity very recently, we will be having a pyjama day on Friday the 24^th March. Pupils can come to school wearing their pyjamas and bring a teddy or a cushion. All pyjama children must pay a pound for this privilege! All pounds collected will go straight to the Red Nose Day collection fund.

Holiday Dates

School will close for the holidays on the 31^st March at 2.30pm. This is spring break. Pupils will return to school on Tuesday the 18^th April, with Easter Monday being Monday the 17^th April.

Spring Service

Spring Service will be held on Thursday the 30^th March and will be hosted by primary 2/3 and 5/6 pupils. More information on times to follow.

 

 

 

 

Jane McShane

Head Teacher