World Book Day arrived in Holytown Primary School and Nursery Class with a bang last week. We had a range of characters from The Gruffalo to one of Seven Dwarfs and some Minecraft characters. We had a Character Parade in the hall, where everyone had a chance to show off their costumes.
Each class organised different ways to celebrate this special day. We had paired reading with older children sharing books with our younger pupils and each class changed their door into a book cover. To celebrate World Book Day, each pupil was given their £1 book token, which can either be swapped, for one of the special World Book Day books or can be used as payment towards a book costing £2.99 or more. We look forward to hearing about all the books, which have been purchased.
What a busy week we have had at Holytown Primary School and Nursery Class.
Police Scotland Visit
On Monday our Nursery pupils were visited by two officers from Police Scotland. They were in the Nursery as part of their ongoing learning. The officers were playing with the pupils in the House Corner, reading stories as well as talking about their jobs and ways they can help the children, their families and the local community.
Winter Weather
I am sure you are all aware but the children have not been able to go out to play all week due to the conditions in the playground, which have been really icy as well. Fingers crossed we will have a thaw over the weekend. Please ensure your child comes to school with appropriate clothing, it would also be useful if pupils could have extra socks/tights in their bags incase their feet get wet. We have distributed our Winter Weather booklet, this can be used in the event of a school closure and activities can either be completed in homework jotters or on blank paper. This work will only be marked if the school is closed. A copy can be downloaded by clicking here.
Hall Equipment
This week we have been able to use our new Hall equipment, the new screen received a round of applause at Assembly on Monday when it descended from the ceiling!! The music from our new sound system is great and due to the four speakers it is almost like having surround sound. Some of the pupils have been watching DVD’s during wet play and I was told on Wednesday it was like being at the Cinema! Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas events, which have helped pay for it.
Divided City
Our Primary 7 pupils have been working hard with Primary 7 pupils from Christ The King Primary School on their Divided City. I had a quick peek on Wednesday and I am delighted with the sensible and mature manner in which all the pupils from the two schools have been conducting themselves – Well done!
Kilbowie
Primary 7 are off to Kilbowie on Monday, separate information regarding the final arrangements will be sent out to parents on Friday afternoon. Whilst pupils are away, we will post photographs and information here as well as on our twitter account @holytownps. Please follow us and retweet our postings.
Kitchen Refit
We have just received information that our Dining Area will be refitted over the weekend. This work is due to start on Friday afternoon therefore we have had to change our menu for tomorrow. A hot meal will still be available and the choices will be fish & chips, quorn burgers & chips, fish fingers on a bun. There will still be sandwiches and baked potatoes and a selection of home baking. There will not be any soup.
GLOW
Information on GLOW has been sent out to all pupils today along with their login and passwords.
Hapy New Year and welcome back to school. It was lovely on Monday to see all the children and staff back to school. From all the chatter, I think everyone had a great break.
New Lunchtime Arrangements
As I am sure you know all Primary 1-3 pupils are eligible for Free School Meals from Monday. This is going really well within the school, with the numbers of children taking a school lunch increasing day on day. We have slightly altered our lunch arrangements to accommodate the increased numbers. We were given additional seating which has meant we can now seat 170 children in the Junior Open Area. Therefore we are having 2 sittings from lunch. Children in Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are coming to the dining area at 12.30pm, with pupils in rooms 8, 9, 11 & 12 going out to play until approximately 12.50. When the second bell rings these pupils come into school and eat with their packed lunch or school dinner in the dining area. This is working really well so far.
Wet Mornings/Playtimes & Lunchtimes
Can I remind all parents that unless pupils are coming to school to the breakfast club they should not be in the school or the playground until 8.45am. This is due to Health & Safely arrangements. Even on wet morning, pupils will not be allowed into school until 8.45am as we do not have appropriate supervision. Whe the wet bell rings, pupils should enter the school via the front door, with puils in rooms 1, 2, 3 and 4 going to the Infant Open Area and the rest of the pupils waiting in the Junior Open/Dining Area. If it is a wet playtime or lunchtime the same arrangements will apply, rooms 1, 2, 3 & 4 will be supervised in the Infant Area where a choice of activities including DVD, colouring and reading will be on offer. Pupils in other classes will be supervised in the Junior Open/Dining Area and again a choice of activities is on offer. All activities are table based due to Health & Safety and space requirements.
Infant Enrolment
We will be enrolling our new Primary 1 pupils next Monday & Tuesday from 11am – 12 noon and 3pm – 4pm on each day. Any pupil who will be 5 years old between 1st March 2015 and 29th February 2016, should enrol at their catchment school. Please ensure you bring your child’s Birth Certificate as well as Council Tax bill/statement to allow us to complete the enrolment process.
Handbook
A new copy of our handbook is available on our website or by clicking here
We Won!! Thank you to everyone who voted for us in The People’s Millions. We were winners on Tuesday 25th November and will receive our full total in January. This money will be used to improve the playground. Our plans were made in consultation with our pupils. Click here to see what our plans look like – Site Drawings.
Newsletter
A newsletter was sent out to all families today. This contains all the important dates between now and the end of term. Please have a wee read of it. A copy can be downloaded from the News Section of the website.
Christmas Post
Christmas Post has come to Holytown. If you would like to take advantage of our postal service, please make sure the envelopes are addressed with pupils full name and class, as we have lots of children with the same name.
Wicked
Could all P6 & P7 pupils who are going to Wicked, please ensure that have paid their £20 as soon as possible.
What a great day. Today is our big day, our final big push to get as many votes as possible. All the children went out again, dropping off leaflets. Staff and pupils alike were sharing the excitement and the telephone numbers. Parents, friends and members of the local community came into the school for some coffee and cake. Even the Provost, Jim Robertson paid us a visit to show his support.
Motherwell Football Club ran some football taster sessions for all the pupils and Amey brought a massive snow plough for the children to see and honk the horn (apologies to our neighbours).
Our video was shown on STV during the 6 o’clock news and incase you missed it you can click here.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us. Fingers crossed, it might be us.
The school and nursery were a buzz today as the STV film crew came to visit us to film our People’s Millions video. Everyone was outside showing off our outdoor learning skills. We had children in the Garden Area, some pupils were playing playground games, Primary 7 pupils were orienteering and Room 7 were capturing signs of Autumn using the iPads to name but a few.
All the children had a great day and throughly enjoyed this experience.
We also have posters available for any parents who are able to display these in their house windows or at work, please contact the school.
A photographer from North Lanarkshire Council will be in school this morning to take some publicity photographs for the North Lanarkshire Website as well as the local press.
The STV journalist and media crew will be visiting the school on Wednesday 5th November to film our video for The People’s Millions. Permission slips have been sent out to all pupils in the school and nursery and we would ask that these are completed and returned in order for your child to participate in this activity.
We are also hoping parents and carers will help us with the distribution of our posters, these will be available on parents night.
Kilbowie Information Evening
Our Kilbowie Information evening will take place tonight at 6pm. Parents of pupils in primary 7 are invited to attend this meeting with their child to get some information on our visit to Kilbowie and to complete the necessary paperwork. If you are unable to attend, please contact the school as all parents must have attended a meeting before their child is allowed to participate in the visit.
Parental Consultations
Our Parental Consultations take place on Tuesday 4th November from 5.30pm until 9pm and on Wednesday 5th November from 3.10pm until 5pm. Appointment times have been distributed and we would ask parents keep to their allocated time to ensure the smooth running of this event for both parents and staff. Pupils are encouraged to attend this meeting. These meetings will take place in the school hall this year. There will be chairs in the centre of the hall and in the junior open area for parents and pupils to wait for their appointment.
The Parents & Friends Association have organised their annual Hallowe’en Discos for tomorrow night. This year pupils within the nursery are invited to come along with their parents. The Nursery to P2 disco is from 5.45 pm until 6.30pm and P3 to P7 disco is from 6.45pm until 8.00pm. Tickets cost £1 and are available from Senior pupils at playtime and lunchtime. Pupils may like to bring some money with them.
Please remember all pupils must be collected by an adult at the end of the disco, no pupil will be allowed to walk home on their own.
Holytown Primary School and Nursery Class are hoping “It might be us!” after our playground project has been chosen for this year’s People’s Millions competition. Our Active Playground application has secured a place on the final list of projects going forward to the public vote.
If successful, the school will receive almost £30,000 towards a new play and outdoor learning area on the school grounds.
We’re all really thrilled and excited that we’ve made the finals, but now we’re asking the community for their support by voting for us on Tuesday 25th November.
STV are planning on coming to the school on Tuesday 4th or Wednesday 5th November to film us for screening on Tuesday 25th November during the 6 o’clock news. We would like as many of our pupils, parents and friends to be involved.
We need help with banners, contacting local businesses as well as leafleting members of the local community.
The school’s project will feature on the STV West programme on 25 November 2014, along with one other project from the area. The public will be asked to choose their favourite and the project that receives the most votes will be offered a grant.
Even if the school doesn’t win on the night, we can still win the STV regional news area’s bonus award. This will be the project that gets the most votes but doesn’t win a head-to-head vote. The telephone number will be made public on day of the vote with lines open from 9am until midnight
If any parents or friends are either interested in either appearing in our video or helping with the campaign in general I am having 3 open meetings tomorrow at 9.30am, 5.45pm and 6.45pm (the final 2 taking place during the disco.) We need all the help and support we can.
follow this link to show your support for our project http://www.peoplesmillions.org.uk/2014-finalists/stv-west/active-playgrounds
We apologise for the short notice but the media embargo was only released yesterday.