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3 May, 2019

May Newsletter

May 2019 Issue 5

As we step into yet another busy and energetic term I would urge you to read this newsletter. There is always lots of information and key dates given – always useful!

SNSA

Scottish National Standardised Assessments will be carried out with pupils in primary 1, 4 and 7 this term. Pupils sit individual papers online in reading, writing and numeracy and the results of these feed into government statistics on achieving levels. You may have read or heard about these on the news with people having mixed feelings about these. We do not put pressure on our pupils during these assessments and treat them as a class task as opposed to a ‘test’ – especially for our youngest pupils. Please do get in touch if you have concerns and I can offer some reassurance.

Pupil Equity Funding

For the third year we will receive additional funding for pupils. This is a government initiative to ensure equity in opportunity and support for all pupils. Our amount for the coming session 19-20 has significantly reduced. The government use free school meal entitlement to measure school amounts and our numbers for entitlement have reduced. I cannot stress enough the importance of making your application even if your child already receives free meals. For each child with an entitlement we receive £1200 and our total for August is £68,400. With this additional funding we always place a teacher – this helps us reduce class sizes and gives us more potential to meet all pupil needs. There is little left over after the cost of a teacher, but we are looking at ways of using the left over money to support pupil mental health and well-being. You will shortly receive a survey seeking out our parental views on PEF spending and I do hope you will respond. School and staff are here as a service to you and your children and you have the right to be involved in such decisions. Please do take this opportunity.

Pupil reports

Teachers are at work just now planning and writing reports. We are trialling a new format this session and are keen to hear your views on this. Reports are due out to parents/carers at the end of May. Along with this will be an evaluation and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new format.

Snap Shot

Last term we trialled a new process in order to share your child’s learning and progress with you. This was by way of a ‘Snapshot’ jotter. It appeared to be fairly successful with the majority of parents/carers taking the opportunity to reflect on their child’s learning. Some parents/carers did not comment and this always surprises me. Our next snapshot week for most classes will be 13^th May. Pupils will complete all work tasks at school in this jotter and at the end of the week they will bring it home for you to see and comment on the parent page. This is an opportunity for you to discuss school and learning with your child and look at setting targets together. Please do look out for the jotter coming home and make sure it comes back to school the following week.

Transitions

It is that time of year again! We have plans in place for primary 1 transition with sport events, teddy bear picnics and play days – bringing our current P1 and new entrants together on various occasions. All dates and times have been sent out to all new starts. Our formal induction events are on 9^th and 20^th May when children will visit and parents will participate in workshops.

The majority of P7-S1 transition plans are made and secondary visits have been arranged – primarily for St Roch’s – 29^th and 31^st May, 12^th and 13^th June for Springburn and 21^st and 22^nd May for Smithycroft.

European Parliamentary Elections

As you may know, the elections will be held on 23^rd May. As usual, Royston Primary will be used as a polling station. As such there will now be an additional in service day for pupils due to security issues for pupils whilst the elections are taking place.

We’re having a baby!

I am delighted to inform you that Mrs Mair is expecting! She is keeping well, but some pupils have had suspicions! Mrs Mair will work on until summer holidays and is unlikely to return in August 2019. We offer our congratulations and best wishes at this happy and slightly overwhelming time!

Benji Bus

We are looking forward to housing Benji Bus May 13^th-15^th. Benji is a double decker bus full of interesting and exciting activities for young children. I am keen for all our P1/2 pupils and parents to experience time on the bus and will be organising a timetable to allow everyone equal opportunity. I am aware we have many families with children younger than school age and I will timetable you some time on board also. Please look out for information about this in school and on twitter.

London 3^rd-6^th June

Our primary 7 pupils will soon be venturing off to London for a jam packed itinerary full of exciting experiences. I must urge parents who haven’t paid £100 to try to pay this asap. I will host an information session for parents on the 15^th May at 2pm for parents and pupils attending to find out more details on the trip and ask questions. There will be another information session nearer the time.

Library visits

As you will be aware, all pupils have fortnightly visits to the library and we have managed to get almost all pupils signed up as members. I would urge you to allow your child to visit and utilise the great library resource outwith school also. Pupils can visit the library any time they wish. Please do encourage your child to take an interest in the library as this is an excellent facility to have on your door step.

Annual Litter Pick 17^th May

Our P4-7 pupils will soon engage with Spireview Housing Association in the annual litter pick. In some ways it is disappointing that we need to do this as no one should drop litter. However the reality is that people do and we hope that by encouraging our pupils to support a clean up, they will take a pride in their environment and not be the next generation of litter droppers.

Sports Day

Our annual sports day will be on the 28^th May. Pupils will take part in the usual type of activities and play in their house groups. It would be great if your child could wear an item of clothing in their house colour – yellow, red, blue or green. It could be a t shirt or a pair of socks…even a head band! P1-3 pupils will participate 9.30-12 and P4-7 will participate 1-2.50pm.

Diary dates

School will be closed to pupils on:

6^th May – holiday

7^th May – In service

23^rd May – Elections/In service

24^th and 27^th May Holiday

School will close at 1pm on the 28^th June for the summer holidays.

Summer trips have yet to be organised – please do let us know if you have ideas on this. We are looking at different locations for this at present.

Some usual items…

ALL pupils require to have the correct gym kit on the correct days. ALL pupils know when their gym days are and letters have also been sent out. Gym kit is shorts/leggings, T-shirt and indoor shoes. I am surprised we still have pupils regularly coming to school with no kit.
Pupils should only be bringing water to school. This can be flavoured but preferably plain. There should be no colouring in it.

Jane McShane

Head Teacher

Headteacher@royston-pri.glasgow.sch.uk

21 February, 2019

Careers Day

On Wednesday 20th February, there was a special Careers Day at our school. For our P7/6 and P6/5 classes this meant the majority of the day was spent learning about a range of different careers from special guest visitors.

From 10-12 there was a Career ‘Speed Meet’ where small groups of children went around tables for 5 minutes speaking to a number of different guests from a range of careers. Our incredible special guests were:

Erin Thomson (Clydesdale Bank – Human Resources)
Rachel Kangley (Clydesdale Bank – Complaints Handler)
Paul McGinley (Clydesdale Bank – Business Systems Analyst)
Kaye McFall (Blochairn Housing Services Assistant)
Danielle Murphy (Blochairn Housing Services Assistant)
Bronwyn Tibbs (Rehabilitation Support Coordinator)
Kerry Graham (Greggs – Customer Assistant)
Brian Tibbs (Talbot Association)
Richard Sherlock (Royston Youth Action – Senior Youth Worker)
Connor McKee (Royston Youth Action – Outdoor Youth Worker)
Karen Scott (PhD Student at University of Strathclyde)
John Burns (Fleming Buildings Limited – Assistant Site Manager)
David Young (Fleming Buildings Limited – Joiner)
Willie Steer (Thales Optronics – Mechanical Design Engineer)
Michael Tuohy (North Kelvin Sports –
Ross Steer (Punch Consulting – Civil Engineer)

We were delighted with all of the volunteers who gave up their own time to speak to our children. The children were exceptionally engaged throughout the time and gained a lot of information about some jobs they didn’t know existed but also, a deeper insight into jobs they did know about. Once they finished, children filled out comment cards about their experience during the ‘Speed Meet’. Here are some of the comments from the children:

“Hearing about how things work in Greggs was fascinating”
I enjoyed Ross because his job is amazing. His job is basically making blueprints and builds like bridges.”
“It was really fun because I got to learn about different jobs and experiences. Also it was great asking questions.”
“We loved hearing about other peoples jobs. My favourite person was Rachel. It was so much fun.”
“My favourite part was listening to other people’s jobs and getting inspired.”
“I liked Brian because he told me some fascinating things about different homes for different causes.”
“Today I learned about lots of different jobs I was so interested and I loved it. I hope we do it again.”
“I liked how Michael has a job with sports as that’s what I like doing.”
“I enjoyed the experience because it gives multiple choices for the close future.”
“Willie showed us lenses that he had designed and how they worked. It was really cool.”

In the afternoon, the two classes were treated to inspirational talks from Karen Scott and Craig MacDonald. Karen is well known to the children as she previously worked in the Royston Food Hub for North Glasgow Community Food Initiative. She gave an inspirational message about how hard you need to work to achieve what you want in life. She gave good details about her journey into her current role as a PhD student at the University of Strathclyde where she has some responsibility teaching students. She discussed all of the different jobs she has worked, places she had lived and different qualifications she has achieved.

Craig MacDonald is a pilot who works for Norwegian Airlines. He described how he left school earlier than he should have and how he wished he had stayed on. His dream was to be a pilot so he worked hard to earn enough money to pay for flying lessons. After learning to fly planes he has managed to work his way up so that he is now a Senior First Officer with Norwegian Airlines. He had loads of interesting stories about plane journeys he has been on and places around the world that he has flown to. He described how he flew for 16 hours from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles which meant he flew over the North Pole! When doing this journey he achieved his dream of flying the Boeing 777 and his next target is to become a Captain.

P1 and P2 were also treated to a talk from one of our P1 dad’s. He works as a manager at a recycling plant and he was able to share all about his job to the youngest children in our school. As a school we are delighted with the range of adults who came to our school, including several parents and relations. Without their support of our careers day the day couldn’t happen so we cannot thank all of the adults who came enough!

15 February, 2019

Spire View Housing Association Committee Vacancy

Voluntary Board Members – Spire View Housing Association.

Would you like to make a difference to people and communities?

Would you like to use your skill set and experience as a voluntary Committee Member?

Do you have a couple of hours each month to help shape the future of Spire View Housing Association?

Spire View Housing Association is a leading provider of high quality housing. We are a Registered Charity and a Registered Social Landlord with the Scottish Housing Regulator. We own and manage 556 homes in Royston, Glasgow. Our mission is to provide locally based high quality, affordable housing and services which will contribute to the well-being of the community we serve. We take great pride in the standard of service we deliver.

This is an exciting time to be part of the Spire View team as in the next few months, we will be opening our brand new state of the art Community Hub. We are also about to go on site with our new build housing development – our first development in 14 years!

Spire View is led by an experienced Management Committee that has overall responsibility for the governance and strategic direction of the Association. As a Committee member you will be involved with the planning, monitoring and control of high quality, efficient services to our tenants and service users.

The Management Committee works closely with our senior management team to achieve these aims.

As part of our succession planning, we are recruiting new members who have an interest, skills and commitment to help the Association achieve its aims and objectives.

Above all, we need people with the passion and commitment to make a real difference to those in housing need.

We are committed to equality and diversity and welcome people from all sections of the community.

What can we offer?

This is a voluntary position however we can offer Committee members full training and Management Committee experience. You will be encouraged to undertake training sessions and attend seminars and conferences on behalf of the Association.

Your Commitment

You would be expected to attend at least 10 Management Committee meetings each year.

How to apply

If you would like to find out more about our Association or would like an informal chat about becoming a Committee member please contact Gillian Spence, Corporate Governance Assistant on 0141 559 5644 or alternatively email GillianSpence@spireview.org.uk