October/November 2022
Here we go with term 2! All sorts of things have been happening and more planned for the upcoming few weeks! Read on to find out more…
Sponsored Skip
I just want to say a huge THANK YOU for all efforts in this sponsor. A massive £1025 was raised in sponsorship…this is the largest total we have ever raised! As I continually say, every penny put into the school fund goes back to the children in some way or other. This money will be used to support all of our December activities for the children…we have big plans this term!
Staff and Staffing
I would like to congratulate almost all of our teachers who have recently completed level 2 accredited Makaton training! They are an amazing bunch who have worked very hard for this accreditation! All classes are learning Makaton now as an inclusive approach to communicating with all learners. Pupils are learning that we are all different and we ALL have our own needs, but just because we may be ‘different’, we shouldn’t be excluded.
I have happy/sad new also! I am absolutely delighted to say that Mrs Mair is expecting a baby! Baby is due in a few weeks and Mrs Mair will finish for maternity leave on 21st November. We can’t wait to see Mrs Mair come back for a visit to have some baby cuddles! Primary 1 will get a new teacher – the new teacher will be confirmed as soon as I know.
We will be having a new administration person joining Mrs Spence in the school office. Her name is Ms Morrison and she will be with us every Tuesday and Wednesday. We look forward to her starting with us next week.
Halloween
Pupils had a fantastic afternoon at their Halloween party! It was great to have everyone back together dress up and ready to party again! Thanks to the parent council for their amazing tuck shop efforts!
Billy Jean King Tournament
All primary 6 and 7 pupils will be attending the tournament at the Emirates Arena next Wednesday. I think they will really enjoy the experience. Pupils will be transported there and back by bus and will need to take a packed lunch. We are hoping a couple of parents will be able to come along and help to supervise in this busy venue – please get in touch with Mr Steer if you would be willing to help.
New P1 enrolment
Next week is enrolment week for new entrants for August 2023. Enrolments forms should be completed online. If you have any issue with this, please let us know and we will try to help. I can’t believe we are talking about the new session already!!
P7 Transition
I have been talking to many of our primary 7 parents about transition to secondary school. It cannot be assumed that our P7 pupils will automatically transfer to St Roch’s Secondary, although this is the popular choice amongst parents. Our catchment secondary school is Springburn Academy. If you do not wish your child to transfer to Springburn, you must complete an online placement request form. The link to the form has been sent to P7 parents already. You should complete this asap to give your child the best chance of success. St Roch’s will only be able to accept placement requests if they have the space and teachers to accommodate them. If you do decide to put in a placement request form for an alternative to Springburn, you will not hear a decision until April/May time. This means that in order to give our pupils some kind of transition experience, we will do some activities with Springburn Academy. This makes no difference to which secondary school your child will eventually attend.
Homework
New homework grids are ready to come to you and your child on Monday 7th November – first Monday of the month. These will be given to pupils and emailed to you, thus meaning that everyone has a copy of the tasks to be undertaken.
Attendance
I’m becoming a little concerned by our number of absences across the school. I totally appreciate there are times when pupils are not well enough to come to school and need to be at home being looked after. However, we have lots of absence for minor colds, coughs, aches and pains, and we have a number of absences that are not explained at all. It is in your child’s best interests to be in school every day. It is much harder for pupils to settle to a routine when it is continually broken by the odd day absence here and there. When we look at each individual pupil’s progress tracker in literacy and numeracy, it is very clear to see how progress and learning is negatively impacted for pupils who’s attendance is under 90%. Please do send your child to school every day possible. If they are unwell in school be assured, we will call you.
Pupil Interim Report
Interim Report cards will come out to you next week. These are fairly short and will give you an idea of how pupils have settled into the new school year.
Parent Appointments
We are literally over the moon to be able to welcome all parents back into school for formal parent appointments! For 2 and a half years we have spent a lot of time talking to parents on the phone due to virus restrictions…and this isn’t great for you or us!! We look forward to welcoming parents to appointments on Thursday 17th November. Appointments will run from 3.30pm-7.30pm. All parents will be allocated an appointment time. If you are unable to make it to your time, please contact the office and we will make an alternative arrangement. Our appointments for parents requiring an interpreter will be on Wednesday 23rd November. I look forward to seeing you very soon.
Toy Sale
We will be holding our annual Toy Sale on the 25th November. We hope this might give you the opportunity to have a clear our prior to Christmas! Please bring any unwanted toys to the school – any time between now and 25th November!
Winter jackets and shoes
Just a little reminder to ensure your child has appropriate footwear and jacket for wet weather. We don’t stay inside when it rains! Apparently there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing!! As I say to pupils, we live in Scotland – it rains A LOT! If pupils are well dressed, there is no reason for them not to go outside for exercise and fresh air when the weather is rainy! We will only keep pupils inside during breaktimes if there is a weather risk…eg high winds, weather warnings etc.
Photographer
School photographs will be taken on 18th November. We will be taking individuals, family groups and class groups. I encourage you to dress your child smartly in shirt and tie if you have that.
City wise
CityWise mentors will be re-commencing with us again on Monday 7th November for P7 pupils. CityWise mentors support our pupils to explore themselves – their strengths, what makes them unique, friendships etc. and will also have conversations about future plans. Our mentors are from Glasgow University and come to Glasgow to study from all over the world. It is such a great opportunity for pupils to learn and have time to self-reflect.
Committees and Houses
We are soon to re-commence our committees in school…these have been refreshed to increase pupil interest and motivation. We have the following committees…
Pupil Council
Sport Captains
Eco
Equalities
Health and wellbeing
SNAG – School Nutrition Action Group
RRS – Rights Respecting Schools
Digital Leaders
We have decided to change things a little by involving ALL pupils in a committee. Previously it has been a small group per committee but this session we want to involve all our pupils in one committee each. Our first meeting is 11th November – ask your child about it after school that day!
All pupils are also in a House group – Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire or Diamond. Our house groups P1-7 meet on the last Friday of every month and take part in collaborative activities to give them a sense of House belonging!
Parental Engagement Sessions
Week beginning 21st November all classes will be welcoming parents into class! I don’t know exact days and times for this but these will come out very soon. Classes will decide whether they want their parents to come see some work they have been doing or whether they would simply like you to come and work alongside them! Pupils and teachers are thinking about this just now. Look out for more details soon.
Christmas Fayre
Parent council have their thinking caps on just now – hoping to make this Christmas Fayre bigger and better than ever! It is great to be in a position where we can plan our events again – we have been so restricted for so long. Watch out for more details coming soon.
Christmas
Eek – Christmas is fast approaching and we have lots of exciting things lined up! Many of our activities are things we have done before but not been able to do for a while now…it’s nice to get back to the fun stuff again!!
Mr Doherty will soon be looking for choir members. We have a number of gigs lined up for the group to sing their heart out and shake their bucket! Rehearsals will be starting soon! As soon as we have a finalised list of dates we will share this with you.
P4/3-P7/6 will be attending the King’s Theatre Pantomime on 13th December in the afternoon, to see Beauty and the Beast. Pupils will return to school approximately 4pm.
P3/2 and P1 will be attending Platform Theatre on 14th December to see Sleeping Beauty. This is an afternoon performance but pupils will arrive back to school for 3pm school finish.
The cost for all pupils is £3. This is a heavily subsidised cost for the outing and can be paid any time between now and the panto date as above.
We will be having a refreshed version of our Christmas Grotto this year! Pupils will embark on the journey through Christmas with lots of exciting and interesting activities to take part in! I don’t want to spoil any surprises so I can’t share any more information with you! Grotto dates are 8th and 9th December and are in school.
P1 and P3/2 will be performing in the Christmas Nativity this year! This will be in the morning of the 16th December. More details to follow. 16th December will also be Christmas jumper day!
All Christmas parties will be during week beginning 19th December – more details to follow when we have them!
Jane McShane
headteacher@royston-pri.glasgow.sch.uk
