November 2013

Dear Parent and Children

What an awesome autumn we are having and although cold, these last few days have been really crisp and bright. My daily drive up Speyside has been breathtakingly beautiful, especially when “The Ben” has been white in the background. Yet another reason for me to feel so privileged to be working at Inveravon and I feel truly blessed.

The life and work of the school is as busy as ever and the “sleepover” seems so long ago. So far approx £270 has come in so if you have any sponsor money still to collect then please make sure it gets in to school as soon as you can. We had a grand night together and have such happy memories. As we expected the children were an absolute delight (even the few who were still awake at 2am) and were a real credit to themselves and to you. Well done everybody.

Our midnight walk was exciting and the sky put on a marvellous display of stars and light for us……we did indeed gaze up at it in awe and wonder. The midnight feast was well received and once again I was impressed by the ability that children have to chomp their way through mini sausages, crisps, pizza, juice, biscuits and sweets at a time when they would normally be asleep. However I expect that their digestive systems got a bit of a shock. We rounded off our evening with hot chocolate and a digestive as they snuggled into their sleeping bags. It wasn’t too long before we heard some sleepy noises zzzzzzzzzzzzz but my lips are sealed on that topic!

Last term the children visited  Glenrinnes Estate to see the work of a farming / estate community and to compare and contrast the values and needs of a community which is very similar to our own. The visit was something of a highlight of the term and the children were particularly interested in and delighted by their conversations with the game keeper who explained what his job entailed. They also got hands on experience of how to handle ferrets which was really exciting for them.

The Rugby and Orienteering taster session at Mortlach Primary at the beginning of October was a huge success and the children felt a real sense of achievement by undertaking some activities which they may not have been too sure about. It is always such a pleasure to see them having a go and then to see the look of satisfaction that spreads over their faces as they succeed. Such a commendable attitude!

Since we have come back to school Miss Smith and the class have launched right into their new topic which is exploring the concept of “Creativity.”  I know that some exciting work will come as a result of this and that stereotype thinking about what being creative means will be blown away. I can’t wait to see and hear what the children will come up with.

I have also got stuck into the Eco Group work and we are busy re-designing our Notice board to make it more user friendly for the children. We use part of our Tuesday afternoon to undertake some tasks to move our Eco agenda forward as we hope to apply for our third green flag before the end of December. The rest of the afternoon is used to carry out a “John Muir Mission.” At the moment this involves observing and recording what they see, hear, smell from their “own spot” in the school grounds. This gets the children observing and talking about the nature which is around them in much more detail.

Our green Ambassadors have been working with Mrs Lawson to plant bulbs and sweep up leaves from the playground to extend our leaf wall.

Parent Evening  Thursday November 14^th 6-7pm 

Once again the children are inviting you in to school to share their learning with you. They are planning activities and quizzes which will help you to experience some of what they do on a daily basis. We are all very excited about this and are really looking forward to seeing you. However if you can’t make it then we will try to fit in a time when it is convenient for you to come in.

Inservice

Monday 18^th and Tuesday 19^th the school will be closed to pupils. On the 18^th Miss Smith and myself are going to be attending a Moray conference on assessment while Mrs Reid and Mrs Duncan are going to take the opportunity to sort and organise resources.

On the 19^th we are having a joint learning day with the staff from Knockando and will be hearing from an Education Psychologist about  “growth mindsets and the use of praise.” 

Bags2School

There will be a collection for this on Wednesday the 20^th so feel free to bring the bags to school on Monday 18^th or on the morning of the 20^th.  With the season of giving and receiving about to descend upon us I am sure we all need to clear some space and get rid of all those clothes which have shrunk in the wardrobe!

Weather etc

Unfortunately forecasts for November are a bit gloomy and snow is predicted. I hope they are wrong but in the event of bad weather Mrs Bassett issued information earlier this week about the phoneline and the Moray Council website for you to keep in a safe and obvious place for the next few months. I always aim to update these by 7.15am although occasionally this is not possible for a variety of reasons (none of which involve me still being asleep in my bed!) so I ask you to bear with me.

Now that the weather is getting colder please make sure the children come to school with warm jackets, hats, gloves etc (all named of course) as we like to get them outside in all but extreme weathers. It is just so good for them to be outdoors.

I will close by saying that Inveravon is a buzzing and happy school where children are learning and progressing well. Along with the rest of the staff I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the rest of the school community for allowing us to share your children’s learning journey.

I look forward to seeing you all next week and hope you are well and happy.

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