Primary 5/6 – Page 4 – Stane Primary School and Nursery Class

Mr. Clark’s Blog – Monday 19th October 2015

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had the chance to blog about what is happening in our wonderful school. It was lovely to see everyone back today after the October holiday and to find out what all of the children have been doing during the break. It was great to have such lovely weather and I hope everyone had the chance to spend some time outdoors.

Miss Tiffney is still unwell and won’t be back at work this week. The children in P4/5 are really missing her and send her get well wishes. Mrs. Glen and Mrs. Scott will teach the class this week.

I visited the nursery class this morning and as soon I walked into the playroom, one of the children invited me to share an ‘under the sea’ counting book with her. It was great to take 10 minutes out of my day to sit in the library corner with her and share the story together. It was very kind of her to ask me to join in.

Primary 3 and 4/5 have been very busy practising for their upcoming ‘Egyptian’ assembly which takes place a week on Friday at 9.30am. I have had a wee sneak preview of some of the singing and dancing – I am sure all of the parents and guests will really enjoy it. The children will be writing invitations in their taught writing lesson this week which will be sent home this week.

After lunchtime, I worked with P1/2 and P2 as they took their learning outdoors. They were using playground chalk to draw pictures on the ground of everything they know about ‘autumn’ ahead of their new block of interdisciplinary learning. There was lots of pictures of trees losing their leaves and of Hallowe’en costumes. Mr. O’Donnell was busy writing down lots of comments the children were making onto paper leaves. I wonder if these will be part of the children’s learning journey display?

Today was the start of the new colour band system for school dinners, and I am delighted that it went so smoothly. All of the children having a school dinner chose their meal in the morning and then came to the dinner hall wearing the correct colour band. I was very pleased that the amount of leftover food was reduced and that the very last person to come to the counter still got exactly what he ordered.

Please help continue to make this go smoothly by talking to your child about what they will choose each day. You can see the menu here or sign up for email alerts to have it sent directly to you every week.

Two important letters were sent home with the children today. Pupils in P1-7 have received a letter about this term’s after-school clubs. I am delighted to be able to offer P1-3 Fun Fitness, P1-3 Art and Crafts, P4-7 Football and P4-7 Cross Country. Later on in the month, I hope to be able to offer a P2-4 dance club too.

The second letter was about the Nursery to P7 pantomime. This year, the children will visit Hamilton Town House to see ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Our wonderful Parent Council have contributed £500 towards the cost, which is simply amazing! The school will provide a snack and a drink for the outing. Please return the tear off slips and money for the pantomime as soon as possible to ensure your child’s place is secured.

I will be teaching Primary 5/6 all day tomorrow and am looking forward to teaching them about information report writing, budgeting money in maths and some french revision too.

Remember that you can find out more about the life of the school on our Twitter page too. Why not follow us with a Twitter account of your own?

Outdoor building!

Yesterday primary 6/7 and primary 5/6 went outdoors… thankfully it wasn’t raining. The challenge for the classes was to build a tent/shelter.

As part of the Scotland topic, someone coming to visit on a tour had lost their tent. In small collaborative groups the children had to come up with a shelter that would provide them all with cover and stand up to the weather.

At the end we had group and peer assessments, where all the children got the opportunity to view others work as well as provide feedback to what went well or what could be improved.

What a great afternoon.

PE Timetable from August 2015

Pupils in Primary 1-7 are entitled to two hours of quality PE lessons per week. At Stane Primary School, this is split into two blocks across the week. This session, the class teacher will deliver one PE lesson per week. Pupils in P1-5 will have one lesson per week with Mrs. McLean and P6/7 will have one lesson with Mrs. Scott. The table below shows which day and time each class will have their PE lessons.

Pupils are required to change into suitable PE clothing e.g. shorts, t-shirt and indoor shoes. In line with NLC Policy, children should remove jewellery before participating in PE lessons.

The children in the nursery will have one session in the Gym Hall per week (but are not required to change into PE Kit).

Welcome to the new term!

School re-opens to all pupils on Tuesday 18th August 2015. We are looking forward to welcome back all staff and pupils and meeting the newest additions to our school too.

First day arrangements:

On Tuesday 18th, Breakfast Club will be available to any pupils in Primary 2 to Primary 7 from 8.30am-8.45am. Children should arrive at breakfast club via the P3-7 pupil entrance.

When the school bell rings at 9am, Mr. Clark and Mrs. Scott will collect the children from the playground and escort them to the hall for a short assembly to meet their new teacher and then go to class.

New Primary 1 pupils should arrive via the Main Entrance for 9.45am. A maximum of two Parents/Carers or relatives per child will be permitted to see them into class but we ask you to only stay for a few minutes. Parents of P1 children should return to the hall via the Main Entrance for 2.45pm collection.

All Primary 2s will be dismissed from the infant doors at 3pm. Primary 3-7 will exit via the doors nearest the picnic tables at the red-ash area.

Arrangements from the second day of school:

All children from P1-7 may come to breakfast club from Wednesday 19th August 2015, entering via the pupils doors for P3-7 pupils. Please note that adults are unable to escort the children into the breakfast club, but don’t worry, there are lots of members of staff on hand to assist the children.

P1/2 and P2 will be dismissed from the infant doors at 3pm and P3-7 will exit via the doors nearest the picnic tables at the red-ash area.

Nursery

The nursery session remains unchanged. 8.45am-11.55am for the morning session and 12.45pm-3.55pm for the afternoon session. Returning children should be brought to nursery as normal via the Nursery Door.

The date for new nursery pupils was issued on the offer of place letter (new nursery children start days are staggered to allow individual time with the staff).

On the first day, children should be brought to nursery thirty minutes into the session (9.15am for morning pupils and 1.15pm for afternoon pupils.) For the first day at nursery, pupils will stay for around thirty minutes.

Times for the child’s second day will be arranged between the key-worker and the parent/carer.

Inservice Days

The staff will be working on Friday 14th and Monday 17th August 2015. If you need any information or have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch with us during these two days.

If you are new to the area, or know anyone with school age children who have moved to our catchment area over the holidays, please get in touch during the inset days and we will be happy to help.

If any of your contact details have changed over the holidays, please let us know.