January Newsletter

January 2017 Issue 4

School Badge

Happy New Year!

Well, we have come back to a very busy and exciting new year! 2017 looks like it will go at the usual fast pace, full of energy and enthusiasm from all! Please do read on to find out some details of plans so far…as well as some of the usual newsletter features. As always, I welcome your comments and thoughts on every aspect of school life and look forward to continuing our partnership working.

School Improvement Planning

I’m sure you will recall the information given in issue 1 with regard to our school priorities for this session. Staff have been working with these at our regular after school collegiate time and I give the following update.

  • Numeracy – Mrs Jamieson is our numeracy leader of learning and has received extensive training as part of Glasgow City Council’s ‘Glasgow Counts’ programme. Mrs Jamieson has worked individually with all pupils in P4-7 in order to conduct assessments which will guide our intervention model due to start this term. Mrs Jamieson will model lessons and team teach in most classes, allowing intensive support for pupils mainly in numeracy, but also across all aspects of mathematics.
  • Literacy – Our library is almost ready for regular use and we thank the parent council for the contribution to support purchasing new furniture and books. A big thanks also to those who have bought from the school book fairs provided by scholastic. We receive a generous percentage of sales and at present we have £276 to spend
  • Health and Well-Being – we have been focusing mainly on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. We are trying to encourage pupils to change unhealthy crisps and sweets snacks for more healthier ones, and we give awards to commend pupils for making these good choices. We are not demanding that pupils change their eating habits, but teaching them that healthier options are better for the body.
  • Sustainability – We await our Eco award. This process no longer offers a ‘green flag’ but we aim for ‘Global Goals’. Work has been completed throughout the school and application has been submitted for assessment. We hope to hear very soon.

I hope you find this brief summary useful, but please do get in touch if you would like more information on how we continue to try to improve the service.

Fruity Tuckshop

In order to support pupils in making healthy snack choices, we are starting a healthy tuckshop. To begin with, this will be offered on a Tuesday and Wednesday and we hope to identify most popular items to sell. We will have bananas, apples, tangerines and grapes to start us off, all with cost of between 20-30p. Pupils will get more information on exact prices in the next few days.

Transition

We have successfully begun a transition programme for nursery-primary. Children from St. Roch’s nursery, Sighthill Nursery, Royston Nursery and Rosemount nursery visit us once per fortnight to take part in some structured activities along with some of our primary 1 children. We hope to continue this for the foreseeable future.

SOS

Our primary 7 pupils are taking part in Glasgow’s Sense over Sectarianism programme along with pupils from St Stephen’s primary. This is based around the novel ‘Divided City’ and aims to encourage clear and simple anti-sectarianism messages. Pupils are enjoying the work so far and look forward to their next trip to St Stephen’s on Wednesday.

School Attendance

Please can I remind all parents and carers that attendance at school is compulsory. Attendance figures are not good at present and this is very disappointing. If pupils are off school their education will suffer. I understand there are times when absence is unavoidable but this should not lead to an attendance percentage lower than around 97%. Attendance is tracked every month and if your child’s attendance is lower than 90% I will require to meet with you to discuss.

Intergenerational Work

Linked with curriculum for excellence outcomes, our primary 5/4 pupils will engage in some work with the older members of the community. Pupils will visit the Rainbow Hall on a Thursday to share some experiences of playing ‘old fashioned’ games and singing old songs. This fits well with a number of aspects of the curriculum whilst at the same time, being an enjoyable experience for the pupils. Skills such as reading and understanding instructions, sharing resources, taking turns and the development of social skills has somehow been lost with the fast paced ever developing world of technology, and it is time we increased priority of these life skills.

Annual Royston Clean Up event

The clean up will take place for P4/3-7 pupils on the 1st 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

A regular feature in the newsletter now due to the importance of you knowing who is in school working with your children. Our staffing remains stable at present. In addition, we have a new volunteer Christina McDonald, working with P1 P3/2, P4/3 and P6/5. Christina is fully disclosed and works closely with the class teacher. Mickdona out regular volunteer will stop soon to have her baby! We thank her so much for all she has done for Royston pupils and wish her good luck in her up and coming life changing event!

We will soon be joined by 2 teaching students who will work in P6/5 and P7. This will be their final placement and they will be with us until May.

We 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.

Open Afternoon

Our next open afternoon is on the 7th February 2-3pm. Another opportunity for you to see your children ‘at work’. I do hope you can manage to come.

Formal Parent Appointments

Parent Appointments will be held on the 23rd February, from 3-7pm. You will be given your appointment time for this evening. As always however, we are available to discuss matters with you at any time throughout the year; just let us know.

Photographer

Tempest photographer will be in school on the 2nd March. More information about this to follow.

Holiday Dates

School will be closed for the mid-term break and in-service training from Friday 10th February and re-open on Thursday the 16th February. School will finish at 2.30pm on 31st March for the Spring Break and re-open on 18th April at 9am.

Car Park

Car park gate will be closed at 3pm every day as this has not to be used for parents and carers picking pupils up. This is becoming a real health and safety risk with pupils running across the car park and cars exiting the car park while pupils exit school from the gate directly beside the vehicle exit. I must ensure all possible measures are in place to ensure pupils are kept safe and this is necessary.

 

Jane McShane

Head Teacher

December Newsletter

There are a number of important outings and events happening over the coming weeks. I do hope you can join with us and support your children at as many as possible…

Christmas Choir

The choir have been practicing very hard with Mr Doherty during lunch times and now have a full set of Christmas carols and songs to perform. Dates for performances are:

·         6th December – Forge ASDA 1.30-2.30pm

·         13th December – Forge Shopping Centre (near Primark) 11.30-12.30 and 1-2pm

·         14th December – Glasgow Fort – 3-4.30pm (near to Next)

·         15th December – St Rollox Tesco 11-12pm

·         20th December – Buchanan Galleries (charitable event) 10.45-12noon

It would be great if you could come along and see the pupils sing for a short time in order to show your support.

Christmas Service

Christmas Service will be on 16th December at 9.45am. Pupils in Primary 2/1 and 7 will be performing the nativity play. All pupils are practicing very hard at the moment, and I hope you can come and support all their efforts. All families and friends welcome to attend. The service will be followed by tea and coffee with mince pies.

Christmas Jumper Day

On December 16th we will be having Christmas jumper day. If your child wishes to wear their Christmas jumper they pay £1 and this money will be donated to charity. We hope to support people at Christmas time who are not as fortunate as ourselves. I do hope you will support this by allowing your child to take part.

Christmas Market

Primary 7 pupils have been invited along to the Christmas Market Place at St Enoch. They will be attending on 12th December at 1.30pm. They will get the chance to taste different foods from around the world, and learn a little about how the food is produced.

 

School holidays

School will close at 2.30pm on the 21st December 2015

School will re-open at 9am on the 5th January 2016

 

 

August Newsletter

August 2016 Issue  1

Welcome Back!

A huge welcome back to everyone! I do hope you all had a great summer and enjoyed lots of family fun times…despite the weather! We are back with energy and enthusiasm to take on the new 2016-17 session. I am delighted to say that, at the moment, we are fully staffed with pupils and teachers transitioning smoothly into this new session. We welcome Mr Thomson in primary 4/3 who will teach 4 days with Miss White teaching class on a Wednesday. Aside from Mr Thomson all faces are familiar at present, with students planned to join us in November.

As always, I welcome parents and carers into the school to share views, questions or worries and I, along with the staff, will do everything possible to help with any situation. Continue reading “August Newsletter”

Consultation on Enrolment dates

Could parents/carers please take 2 minutes to complete the survey on enrolment dates for new P1’s across the city. Currently children can be enrolled in November or January, the consultation from Education Services is proposing changing this to having enrolment in November only and wish to seek the views of parents and other interested parties. The survey can be found here.

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