September 2013

Dear Parents and Children,

We are all really into the swing of things now and everybody is settled and feeling happy. Miss Smith feels like she has always been here and is really delighted with her class of children who she thinks are just fantastic. She is enjoying the different way of doing things here at Inveravon and is excited about the wide range of learning opportunities that can be provided in a school such as ours.

The children have been working really hard and there has been a lot of thinking going on. Developing the children’s thinking skills is an integral part of our school culture and is a major focus of the school improvement plan. To this end we have introduced a toolkit of “Thinking Routines” to help the children unlock their thinking and the one currently being used is called the 3-2-1 Bridge. Hopefully they may have mentioned it to you but then again………… 

Now you know though and maybe you can ask them to explain it to you.

Open Afternoon

Many thanks to everyone who managed to come along  to meet Miss Smith. It was great to see you all again and have a catch up about what you have all been up to since we last met. If you couldn’t make it then feel free to pop in at any time…..as you know our door is always open and you are always very welcome.

In the last newsletter I mentioned that the after school clubs were on hold for a wee while. Mrs Lawson’s arm is mending slowly and hopefully she will get back to the badminton after the October break.

Stuart Cockram is keen to see the Lego Club continuing but for the next few months can not commit the time required. He fully intends to resume as soon as possible and wondered in the meantime if some other parents could take it on in a rota.

I saw this as a perfect opportunity for the children to continue practising their persuasive letter writing skills so you will be receiving one shortly. I urge you to volunteer to supervise a session every now and then as it is really important to the children.

Visits

Next Thursday Sept 26^th the children will be going on a visit to Glenrinnes Estate to see the work of a farming / estate community to compare and contrast the values and needs of a community similar to our own one. The children can take a very small and quickly eaten snack (no apples please) with them to have on the bus and thereafter they will not be allowed to eat or drink anything until they are back in school in time for their lunch. This will ensure we minimise any risk associated with farm visits. Antibacterial wipes will also be provided for the children.

Please make sure they are wearing sturdy footwear (wellies if possible) and warm jackets.

On Monday October 7^th the children in P 4-7 will be going to Mortlach Primary in Dufftown to take part in a taster session for Rugby and Orienteering. They will require a snack but will be back in time for lunch.

Fundraising

These children of yours are very persuasive indeed when they want to be and wrote me some excellent letters to try to persuade me to agree to having a sleepover in school as a fundraiser. They used flattery very efficiently and I fell for it and found myself agreeing to a sleepover which we decided to have on the first night of the holidays. (I will certainly need the two weeks to recover as I remember the last one!)

Thanks to everyone who spotted the deliberate mistake on the sponsor form…….as you could tell we just revamped the walk form and even after several people proof read  it we still missed that  Hopefully it’s all sorted now.  I really am looking forward to the 11^th!  Due to the huge investment in time I feel it is not unreasonable to ask that everyone makes a really huge effort to get sponsors as it may not go ahead unless at least £300 is pledged.

One Planet Picnic

I hope you all enjoyed the apple crumbles the children made today in school. We picked Bramley apples from the tree up in the orchard behind the school and processed them into crumbles in the kitchen. Thankfully everyone still has all their fingers and they all seemed to enjoy chopping the apples and assembling the crumbles. By taking them home we felt that they could share their picnic even wider than it just being in school.

I really can’t believe we only have a few weeks of this term left and the October holidays are within sight. You will know from the local press that another review of the School Estate in Moray is currently underway so I anticipate some interesting times ahead.

In the meantime though we will carry on doing what we are here to do and that is to care for and provide great learning experiences to the children of Inveravon.

I look forward to seeing you all soon

Kind Regards

Mrs Mary Smith

Head Teacher

Inveravon Primary