September 2014
Dear Parents and Children,
What a lovely start to Autumn we are having and the countryside is beginning to adorn itself with its spectacular colours which I always look forward to. The children are enjoying the mild days so they can get outside to play and have fun together.
Our little school community is settling in well and we have welcomed three new pupils to our midst. Jade, Flora and Iona have brought their own special talents and wonderful personalities to the class and we are enjoying having them all with us.
The other week our Parent Council held its annual AGM where Tim Rogers was re-elected as chairperson, Stuart Cockram bravely volunteered to become secretary and Chris Roberts courageously took over as treasurer. Many thanks to these gents for volunteering their time and effort. Thanks also to our outgoing office bearers Brian Robinson and Emma Maguire who served us well in previous years! It was good to see some new faces at the meeting and I can recommend the parent Council meetings to all of you. They are informal, friendly and informative. More importantly they work for the benefit of all the children in the school.
At the meeting it was agreed to purchase two i.pads for the children to use in school and I think this is already underway. Eventually these will be linked to the Moray Council Intranet but for the moment they will be used as standalone devices.
It was decided to hold a Beetle Drive as a fundraiser and also as a night where the school community can get together. The date was set for Friday October 3rd and it would be really great to see all the children there with their parents. Beetle drives are a laugh! Please come along as now more than ever we need to ensure we raise funds.
Next week Miss Smith and myself are going to the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow where we have been asked to represent the authority and present our approach to Interdisciplinary Learning. This has been a major focus for our curriculum development for the past two years and we are still working hard to develop it. We have created a display which maps out our approach using the Big Ideas (Creativity, Community, Communication etc) and will present this to colleagues from across Scotland. It’s good to know that Inveravon is still recognised as being a centre of very good practice in Moray and that they have confidence in what we do here in our wee school. Mrs Bremner will teach on Tuesday followed by Mr Watson on Wednesday and Thursday. Mrs McCann will finish off the week by covering the class on Friday.
I know the children will enjoy themselves and will have positive experiences from these different practitioners. Hopefully Miss Smith and myself will come back with good and invigorating ideas which we have heard about from other people too.
The school estate review is now drawing to a close and the proposals which have been drawn up will be announced next week.
School Fundraising Events
We have decided to hold another sponsored obstacle- athon on Wednesday November 5th from 1.15 -3pm.
This will ensure that we as a school have sufficient funds to enable us to cover expenses throughout the festive season. The children will be issued with sponsor forms next week giving them plenty of time to get them filled up over the next few weeks. PLEASE don’t just put in your own names and then forget about them. Spread the load and involve extended family, neighbours and people who work with you. The school fund balance is currently at zero!
We will have another Smartie Tube Challenge running over the next few months as well so check your change for 20p coins and pop them into the empty smartie box. When it’s full bring it to school. I thank you for your support in this matter, always remembering of course that it’s your children who benefit.
I have added a dates for the Diary Section at the end of this newsletter for your information.
I hope you are all well and I look forward to seeing you all soon
