Cashless Cafeteria – Stane Primary School and Nursery Class

Tuesday 15th March 2016

Two children from Primary 5 took part in the North Lanarkshire Cross Country Finals today. I was very proud of their effort and stamina – they did the school and themselves proud!

I enjoyed teaching P5/ 6 this morning – the children were learning to get meaning from poetry. The poem was about Jack Frost and the ‘game’ he plays during the winter time coming to an end as Spring approaches. The children made some thoughtful contributions to the discussion – especially when we discussed personification. They could give lots of examples of times when the weather is personified! Well done P5/6.

The cashless system is working very well in our school cafeteria. The children are all remembering to top-up their cards during Breakfast Club time or interval and (more importantly) remembering to put their cards back in the boxes after they have bought their lunch.

At the moment, we have not introduced the online payment system but we hope to soon.

Letters were issued today about two exciting excursions. Primary 1/2 and 2 are going to visit Deep Sea World in Edinburgh next Thursday and P3 and 4/5 are going to Kripsy Kreme doughnuts in Edinburgh as part of their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory learning. Please return permission slips and payment as soon as possible.

Tomorrow Mrs. Scott will welcome invited parents to the school to take part in a Paired Reading programme and Miss Thomson’s class will be going out of school to release the fish eggs they have been looking after into the local river. In the afternoon, P1/2 will be visited by the local Co-op to judge their Easter colouring competition. There will be prized for 1st-3rd place plus a Creme Egg for every pupil in the class.

Thursday 10th March 2016

I had a lovely day working with P6/7. They were practising their badminton techniques by working cooperatively with partners to serve, return and smash the shuttle. Afterwards, they played a whole class game of non-stop Badminton. After interval, the class focussed on Narrative writing in the weekly Taught Writing lesson. The theme of this was ‘Adverse Weather’ and the children were learning to focus on characters feelings and reaction written in more expressive ways. They also worked hard to create interesting, expressive introductions to each paragraph to hold the reader’s interest. I was very impressed with how hard each pupil worked on this. I am looking forward to working with them again tomorrow and accompanying the class to the Shotts Rotary Club Quiz at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall.

Primary 1/2 and 2 had a brilliant visit from two Paramedics this afternoon – you can read all about this here.

Our new cashless system is still working very well – but there was a big queue to top-up cards at interval today. It’s a much better idea to provide children with enough money to last a week to reduce the amount of time they need to spend at the machine.

Tickets for the fabulous hamper donated by the Parent Council went on sale today at 50p a strip. The school captains and vice-captains were selling the tickets round the classes and will continue to sell them tomorrow and next week too.

Our transition to nursery programme continues every week with children in the nursery taking part in Soft Start or Golden Time on a Friday. Tomorrow we will also have our monthly Transition Play Session, with children from the am nursery session visiting the open area to take part in lots of ‘People who Help us’ structured play activities.

Primary 4/5 will also be out of school for a time tomorrow as they visit Wishaw Sports Centre to take part in a Tennis Tournament. I am sure they will have a lovely day.

And finally, our busy week will end on a real high note tomorrow with the annual Parent Council Bingo night taking place at 7.30pm in the Marble Club. I am looking forward to it and hope to see you there!

Wednesday 9th March 2016

Our new cashless cafeteria system is up and running and the pupils have been great at using it this week. They have been able to use ‘Ronnie’ the Reval Cash Machine to top up their cards and I was pleased with how quickly the children have got used to the new system. The children can top-up their card between 8.15am and 9am every morning and also during interval. Next week, I will send home details about the Online payment system, which parents will be able to use to check the card balance, see what their child has bought and also add funds from a Credit/Debit card.

All of our after-school clubs have finished for the term, apart from P4-7 Football, which will run until the summer holidays. New clubs for April to June will be announced soon.

Work has started on the conversion of the old Noisy/Quiet room into a central resource cupboard. Last weekend, the old staging was removed. The new rolling storage units are ordered and should be fitted soon.

Raffle tickets for the fabulous Easter Hamper donated by the Parent Council will go on sale tomorrow – children can purchase a strip of tickets for 50p. These will be on sale unti Monday 21st March 2016, with the winner announced at the Spring Service on 22nd March. Children must not put the money for tickets onto their dinner card as this can only be used for the canteen.

And finally – a huge thanks to the Grandad who has very kindly come into the school over the past few days to weed and tidy up around the playground! This is very much appreciated!