Category: School Blog

Two special visitors, Richard and Anne from NSPCC, visited the school today. They worked with Primary 1-3 and then P6-7 pupils talking about Children’s Rights and Responsibilities.  The visitors commented on how well our pupils engaged in the discussions and activities.  Well done boys and girls.

Pupils from P5-7 have been taking part in a Health and Wellbeing Questionnaire this week.  This is part of a project North Lanarkshire Council are involved in to help determine the best way to support communities and plan for future multi-agency work across the whole authority.  The children who were taking part answered some questions online and were provided with a pair of headphones to use.  The children were really pleased when they found out they could take the headphones home to keep!

In the afternoon, the children who had achieved Silver and Gold had their extra playtime.  There was lots of children who achieved this and we had great fun playing with the new outdoor toys.

Next week is our Health Week.  We hope as many parents/carers as possible can come along to our Family Fitness Fun sessions on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st February at 3pm.  We’d love to see you there with your child/ren.

Have a lovely weekend everyone – remember children can wear sports clothes all week as we engage in lots of fun activities to promote Healthly lifestyles.

I hope everyone enjoyed their time off this week for the mid-term break.  It was lovely to have all of the boys and girls back in school today and it was lovely to hear their stories about the holiday.  Some children had been lucky enough to go away for a short holiday while others just enjoyed relaxing at home or spending time with their families.

Over the holiday, the workmen have been very busy in our school and the children returned to find a lovely new carpet fitted in our main entrance and foyer.  It looks lovey and fresh – some of the children seemed to be under the impression that I had fitted it!

I enjoyed visiting two classes this morning – I was with P6/7 in the morning to join in with a literacy lesson and I was in P1/2 to share in their Taught Writing lesson after interval.  I was impressed with the hard work and focus of both classes.  In P1/2, I was pleased to see that all children are writing independently and had been using their learning from IDL topic ‘Lost and Found’ to influence their writing.

We had an early lunch break today as M&M Productions were coming to perform ‘Treasure Island’ for all of the boys and girls in P1-7.  It was a wonderful afternoon and the cast entertained us with songs, action, amazing sets and costumes and a very exciting story.  P6/7 got a ‘backstage’ workshop afterwards – the teachers even had to do a bit of acting!

After school, I was leading the P5-7 Cross Country Club.  We did lots of different warm ups, timed trials, relay and interval training exercised to build up stamin and endurance.  I was impressed with the effort of all – don’t forget your kit next week everyone.

Tomorrow, P1-3 and P6-7 will take part in workshops delivered by NSPCC all about Child Safety.  Don’t forget our Health Week starts on Monday and pupils may wear casual clothes for the whole week.

Today was an amazing day at Stane Primary School and one I will remember for a long time.

After weeks of preparation, the children’s art work was finally ready to be showcased at our first ever ‘Art Exhibition’.

The children had worked so hard during #staneartfortnight to create canvases, framed work, pieces of writing, artist fact-files and even a trailer for a video.  Many members of staff worked late on Thursday to make sure the hall looked amazing – I was very grateful for everyone who pitched in.  The hall looked amazing – full of colour, pattern and design!

The atmosphere during the event was wonderful – thank you to all of our parents, families and visitors who came along and took the time to look closely at the pieces and read the information.

All of the classes got the chance to visit the gallery during the day too – they were so excited to spot a little sticker on their art work which let them know it had been sold.  If you didn’t get a chance to purchase your child’s work, don’t worry – you can send the money in next week!

The P6/7 guides did a great job of showing guests around and helping with the sales of the art work – many of our guests commented on their maturity, excellent behaviour and positive attitude.  I was very proud of them.

I was delighted that Ms. Cameron, Continuous Improvement Officer from NLC, was able to attend in the afternoon.  She commented on the impact of the exhibits as well as the creativity and hard work of the pupils.

I would like to say thank everyone who visited and to those who purchased some art work.  I’d also like to thank the parents and grandparents who donated home-baking or treats for the refreshment table. From the feedback we received, it’s safe to say the event was a huge success:

We had two events running today to involve parents/carers in the life of our school.  All of the schools and nurseries in Shotts and Allanton had worked together to host a ‘Transition to Primary 1’ workshop for parents/carers whose children will start school in August 2017.

Over the past months, Mrs. Linfoot has been liaising with staff from Dykehead, Allanton, St. Patrick’s and Shotts Family Learning Centre to plan and develop the workshop which took place at Calderhead High School.

Therese Henery, CIO for Early Learning and Childcare opened the event with some excellent remarks about the importance of getting transition right for our young people.  She also commented on the fact that our event was ‘Sector Leading’ and was a model that could be rolled out to other localities – praise indeed.

It was a wonderful event and a lovely opportunity for parents/carer across the community to come together to learn about Primary 1 in North Lanarkshire schools and hear from some of our partner agencies too.

Thank you to the staff and colleagued involved in the success of the day and also to the parents/carers and families who were able to attend.  The feedback for this event also showed how well it was received by the participants:

As I said, today has really been one to remember – two excellent examples of our community working together in partnership for the benefit of our children!

Don’t forget that Stane Primary and Nursery Class is closed to pupils on Monday 13th, Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th February 2017.  Enjoy the long weekend.

I was in and out of school all day today as I had to attend various meetings.

I was working with Mr. Robertson, Head Teacher at Calderhead High School, and some of the other Head Teachers from the cluster to look at the assessment data for maths from P7 to S6.  We discussed our ideas to strengthen the links between primary and secondary in terms of maths assessment to ensure the best transition for our pupils.  I will keep you informed of our progress in coming weeks.

Since I took up post at Stane Primary, I have been liaising with the local authority to try to improve the safety in and around our car park and nursery entrance.  I am pleased to inform you that I have finally had confirmation that a pedestrian walkway will be created in front of the school and a new pedestrian gate with zebra crossing to allow safe passageway to the Main Entrance and Nursery will be built. This work should begin in the next couple of weeks. Thank you to our Parent Council who have assisted in getting this work approved.

After school today, lots of the staff stayed a little later than normal to help set up our Art Exhibition for tomorrow.  It looks AMAZING – we hope you can join us to see the work and hopefully purchase your child’s art.

Also, for August P1 parents, don’t forget that we are taking part in the Shotts Transition workshop at Calderhead High School between 10am and 11.30am.  We hope all of our parents for August 2017 can attend.

A quick reminder:  school and nursery are closed on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th February to all and Wednesday 15th February for pupils.

Wednesday is one of my favourite days in school as we have our ‘Celebrating Success’ assembly in the morning.  The children enjoyed singing ‘Happy and You Know It’ and ‘Build Up’ and the JRSOs delivered an excellent presentation about Zebra Crossings and how to use them safely.

We also celebrated with all of the children who have remained on Green so far this week or have even been moved up to Silver or Gold!  Two girls showed off their Dance Exam trophies and certificates and we celebrated four birthdays as well.  We sang the weekly ‘Well Done’ song to all of our achievers and ended the assembly with our school song, ‘As We Go Now’.  This is such an important song to us as it reminds us that we must ‘treasure one another’ and realise ‘how important we all are’.

The teachers were very proud to present two pupils from their class with the ‘Stane Superstar’ trophies for excellent behaviour or excellent classwork.  Have a look at who earned it this week:

Jonathan, our school chaplain, visited the children during assembly today and joined the staff for a ‘cuppa’ at interval.  It is lovely to have him join us regularly and the children enjoy his company too.  In the afternoon, he visited P5/6 and P6/7 and was teaching them about forgiveness through the parable of ‘The Lost Son’.

I was able to join P2/3 for their Taught Writing lesson after interval as they worked on their preparation and planning for a persuasive piece of writing.  Based on their story of ‘Lost and Found’, they will be writing a persuasive letter to earn place on a trip to ‘The South Pole’.  They were considering what would be the best items to pack in their case.  Many of the children were coming up with some great ideas such as waterproof trousers, boots, hats and gloves.  Some even thought about packing a flask and sandwiches – after all, it will be a long journey!   I was very impressed with how well P2/3 concentrated and worked co-operativley together to come up with idea.  I can’t wait to read their stories tomorrow.

In this week’s Wishaw Press, our P6 Enterprise Group are featured as they pitched to the Parent Council last week for a donation toward their Edinburgh excursion.  Check out the coverage we got:

In the afternoon I had the pleasure of escorting some of the P6 Enterprise children to a local Cash and Carry to buy sweeties!  They have decided to host a ‘Pick and Mix’ sale in school over the next few days.  The children thought carefully about the best sweeties to buy that will be popular with the other pupils.   Mix-ups will go on sale from tomorrow.

There has been a huge interest in our new after-school clubs and letters have started to be issued to children who have successfully been allocated a place.  Clubs start next week!

Our nursery children have loved looking after the chicks for the past two weeks but sadly they are now too big to stay!  Tomorrow will be their last day with us before they go to live on a lovely, free-range farm!  Well done to all of the children for looking after the chicks so well.

Don’t forget that our Art Exhibition takes place on Friday and this means a few changes to the daily routines.  Tuck shop will be open at 8.45am and not at 10.30am.  Lunch will only be Snack2Go option available from the canteen and children are asked to order that with their lunch option on Thursday.  The children will eat their lunches in class that day too.

We hope that as many parents/carers can pop in to our art exhibition, even for just 5 minutes to see the wonderful work and purchase their child’s art work!

And finally, if you are concerned about your child’s speech/language there are drop-in sessions available in the local area.  Here are the details of the next one:

Our wonderful parents continue to support our school in many ways and today was no exception.  One kind parent has donated a wonderful bespoke hut that we will use to store our Loose Parts Play materials in.  Today, it was fitted into our playground and it looks wonderful!  I am so grateful for this act of generosity and kindness – it will make a huge difference to our playground.

A small but hard working team of volunteers have also been in the school today to help improve and tidy up some of the office spaces.  Thanks to the grandparents and parents who gave of their time this week – we are blessed to have such a supportive community.

This community spirit extended into the evening when the Parent Council held their annual Valentine’s Disco. The children had a great time partying with ‘Looney Tunes’ disco and loved the prizes and certificates too.  The children looked wonderful in their disco outfits – it was a lovely night.  It was also great to have our school chaplain, Jonathan, join us for the discos too!  Thank you to the Parent Council for their ongoing commitment and support.

Today, I was able to visit P5/6 and P4/5 to join in with their Taught Writing lessons.  Both classes were working on persuasive writing techniques and were thinking about how to convince their audience with emotive language and succinct key facts.  P5/6 were trying to convince their reader to purchase specific types of technology while P4/5 were writing letters to convince their parents to attend the Art Exhibition on Friday.  There were lots of Star Writers in the classes – a fabulous achievement.

As P4/5 outlined in their writing, our Art Exhibition takes place on Friday this week and the children are looking forward to their parents coming along to see the work and hopefully to buy some too!  You can pop in between 9.30am and 10.30am or 1.45pm and 2.45pm.

 
Friday will be a very busy day as it is also the first day of our P1 Transition programme.  Staff from Allanton, Shotts Family Learning Centre, Dykehead, St. Patrick’s and Stane will be sharing information about moving on to P1.  We hope to see as many of our parents there.

Unfortunately, the planned Warburtons Healthy Eating workshop had to be cancelled at the last minute this morning due to an unforeseen problem with the people delivering the session.  I hope the children weren’t too disappointed.  I’m pleased to say that they have been able to offer an alternate date of 28th February.  I’m sure it will be worth the wait.

Tomorrow is my favourite day of the week as it is Celebrating Success Assembly.  We will announce the week’s Stane Superstars, count another week on the Good to Be Green Pathway and share any achievements outwith school.

The Junior Road Safety Officers will also share the first in a series of three presentations about crossing safely – this week will focus on Zebra Crossings.

The latest edition of the Stane Primary Newsletter is out now and will be sent home with pupils on Wednesday 8th February.  You can download a copy here.

Don’t forget that school is closed to pupils on Monday 13th to Wednesday 15th February 2017.