Welcome back to everyone and I hope all families had a good Christmas and an enjoyable holiday. Another busy term in school starts and hopefully the weather will remain mild. The refurbishment of Millbank continues and hopefully the children in P1 and P2 will move back after the Easter holidays.

If your child is going on the Primary 7 residential trip in May please remember that the next payment of £60 is due by the end of January 2016. The final balance is due by the end of March 2016

There will be an information meeting for parents of children going on  the residential trip on Wednesday 27th January at 3.15pm at Millbank.

The Millbank Parent Council meet regularly and are open to new ideas and new members. The next meeting is on the 12th January at 3.15pm.

The children are in the middle of their Christmas parties and enjoying the festivities. They all look very smart in their party clothes and are participating in games and dancing.

It is a custom at Millbank  Primary to have parents taking party photos of their children. Please be aware that if you are sharing these photographs on social media they should only be of your own children.

Friday 18th December 2015 is  Christmas Jumper Day. if you would like your child to wear a Christmas jumper to school on Friday that is great.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a peaceful and Happy Christmas and I look forward to working with you in 2016.

Refurbishment

We would like to re-iterate our sincere apologies for the inconvenience of the building not being handed over on the 30 November. I am sure you all appreciate that it is outwith our control and the safety of the pupils is paramount.

The new handover date is Monday 7th December and we have been reassured that all is going well for this timescale. The new accommodation – both the modular classrooms and The Bothy are looking great and are super spaces to provide educational experiences for the pupils.

Welcome back to school after the October holidays. The refurbishment of Millbank continues. You will have noticed that the Bothy is now clad and the external wall clad  matches our school colours. The modular classrooms are still being worked on and hopefully will be operational later this term. Phase 2 of the building work will commence once we have moved into the bothy and 4 classes have moved into the modular classrooms. I will update about this once we have moving dates.

At a recent parent council meeting there was a discussion around school trips for children. I thought that you would welcome some clarity around this . Our aim as a school would be if appropriate to facilitate 1 external learning experience each year for each pupil. to enable this to happen we ask for a contribution from parents and additional funding from the parent council. we don’t have money in the school budget to hire buses etc. Because of this your support for fundraising is vitally important. We are also continually evaluating the impact on these excursions on children’s learning  as I am sure it is great to go out of school but at the end of the day is the cost justified.

If parents or carers have suggestions or ideas for fundraising or improvements to our school please make them through the parent council.

Below is the leadership and management consultation document which details the proposed pairings of schools and the proposed leadership and management arrangements to take effect from August 2016.

Consultation Document

Any views or suggestions can be submitted to primarylmconsult@moray.gov.uk by Friday 7 October 2015.

The  Refurbishment

We are currently still on schedule. We received the new modular unit at the weekend where we plan to house the P1, P1/2 and P2 classes in this area after the October break. So we are busy packing equipment ready for our move. The Bothy will also be moving into their new facilities after the holidays as well.

SPORTS SECTION

Touch Rugby

P6 and P7 Pupils will be taking part in Touch Rugby sessions during class this month in preparation for the Touch Rugby Festival at Buckie High School on Thursday 17 September. A team of 7/8 players will be selected

to represent the school.

Orienteering – 23 September

P7 pupils will take part in an Orienteering Festival at Milnes’ High School from 9.30-12pm. Packed Lunches will be required. Please inform school office if you require a packed lunch from canteen.

Athletics After School-Buckie High School

An after schools athletics club is underway from 4-5pm on Thursdays for P5,P6 and P7 pupils. This is run and organised by Active Schools. Each session costs £2.Please contact the school if you require more details

E WEATHER 

If severe weather is expected and there is a chance that the school will close, please endeavour to undertake one of these three options:

1. Listen to Moray Firth Radio, which has regularly updated information – 97.4FM.

2.Use the Schools Information    Telephone Line:

• Dial 0870 054 9999. Then dial in the school’s PIN ~ 031340
• This will take you to the Millbank mailbox where you will enter a menu system.
• Dial 1 – to hear information about severe weather affecting the school day.
• “Calls to this number will be charged a 2p per minute service charge plus your call providers access charge”

3. 3. Use the Schools Closure

Information Portal:

http://schoolclosures.moray.gov.uk/

www.themoraycouncil.gov.uk

• Under the heading

Ready for Winter click on

View School Closures

BBC Radio Scotland will pick up the closure notice. A post will also be made on Twitter @the MorayCouncil.

PARENT COUNCIL NEWS

There will be a Parent Council Meeting on Wednesday 7th October. Old and new members will be welcomed. We appreciate the good work and support carried out by the Parent Council. We will issue Parent Council meeting dates in due course.

Millbank Partnership with Parents (MPP)

We are working on improving and developing curricular areas within our school and are keen to involve parents/carers/community in this task. The first area we are looking at on our School Improvement Plan is Health and Wellbeing. We would welcome anyone willing to meet with us to help us develop this area. Please either contact the school office or email Angela Stuart, Acting DHT directly at

angela.stuart13@moray-edunet.gov.uk

We look forward to working with you.

Millbank Matters

Please remember that ”Millbank Matters”  the Facebook page run by our active parent council is also available for information.

Welcome back to the new school session and a particular warm welcome to our new pupils, their families and to our new members of staff. We trust you had a good break.

Work has continued on the refurbishment over the summer and we hope to receive the modular units in the near future. We will keep you updated on the progress.

Lines have been painted in the playground so pupils know where to line up for class and pupils have been informed of access doors to the school.

The refurbishment has meant we had to introduce changes to our routine for the safety of pupils and adults, therefore Dinner Ticket sales will now take place at the door at the back of the kitchen from 8.40am.

The main entrance to the school is still operational.

Dates for your diary:

20 Aug – P1 Class Photo- Northern Scot

24 Aug – School Photos – Individual and Family

25 Aug – Nursery & School photos

7 Oct – Parent Council Meeting

9 Oct – Harvest Festival Assembly

9 Oct –End of Term

26 Oct – Term 2 Starts

Friday 26^th June

• 1.45 P7s Leavers’ Assembly. Parents / Carers welcome.

Monday 29^th June

• P7 Trip to Moray Leisure Centre and Pinz Bowling. Pupils should wear school uniform on the top but may wear casual trousers. Pupils need to bring a snack, drink and a packed lunch. Please see letter for more information.
• a.m. M&M Theatrical Productions present “Charlotte’s Web” to all P1-6 pupils.

Tuesday 30^th June

• P1 trip to Tons of Fun, Turriff. Pupils should wear school uniform on the top but may wear casual trousers. Pupils will need a snack, drink and packed lunch. Please see letter for more information.

Thursday 2^nd July

• School closes for all pupils at 2.30p.m.

As we approach the end of term in school there are often staffing changes in school and Millbank is no exception. At the end of term we will be saying goodbye to Miss Mowat and Miss Wojcik. They applied for jobs and have been successful. Miss Mowat has been appointment as PT at Portknockie Primary and Mrs Wojcikis leaving to teach at Portessie. I am sure like me you will wish them well in their new jobs. Adverts have been placed for a full time teacher and a part time teacher. Hopefully appointments will be made before the end of term.

Our janitor Mr Wood retired at the end of May and our new janitor Mr Clutterbuck started at the beginning of June.

Over the past year there have been significant staff changes at Millbank and I think this has meant that things are done differently and led to communication not being as robust as it should be. I started this blog to help with communication and also Millbank Matters was started by the Parent Council to assist parents . Please understand that we are endeavouring to keep everyone as informed as possible.

We also have an online survey at the moment; so far only 68  people have responded we would really like some more people to complete the survey please it can be found at https://surveyplanet.com/5553489252d3f8c97b1668a0

We welcome your feedback and suggestions we also accept thank you if you think that what we are doing is going well.

Dear Parent/Carer

Following the refurbishment meetings yesterday led by G Jarvis, N Goodchild and F Grant, I thought it would be useful to clarify a few points.

• The refurbishment of Millbank Primary is an exciting opportunity for our school. The money for the project is linked to the condition of the school, for example, the roof, heating, etc. The money cannot be used to replace our existing whiteboards.
• The Nursery will be decanted to Lady Cathcart on 26 May 2015 for the duration of the project. The security of the building has been assessed and essential works will be completed before Nursery classes commence there.
• Contact with the Nursery will still be through the school telephone number – 01542 831113.
• Parking at Lady Cathcart is very limited so please be aware of this at drop off and pick up times. Nursery can be flexible and drop off can be between 0850 and 0910h.
• The hall and main reception areas including my office will be out of use from August 2015 – November 2015.
• Hot meals will continue to be served in another location of the school.
• Because of the hall being out of use we will have to look at ideas for the successful delivery of PE. If you have any ideas please let us know.

The time ahead is an exciting and no doubt challenging one for the community of Millbank Primary School.  We need your help, understanding and ideas so please support us through the Parent Council.