Mr Thomas' Blog

Our dance-a-thon was a massive success yesterday, with everyone having loads of fun raising money for our school funds. 💃🕺🏽 A big thanks to Mrs MacFadyen and her fabulous P7 helpers for organising the day and keeping it running smoothly!!

We raised an incredible £3259.20 – including a £500 anonymous donation from one family. Thank you so much! We are so very grateful for all your support!! If you’ve still to return your sponsor money, you can do so after the holidays!!

In our October Newsletter, we included some forms which we need people to complete.  We thought they may get lost in all of the other information within the Newsletter, so we have added them below for your convenience.  If you have any questions about this, please do get in touch!

First Confession (P3), First Communion (P4) and Confirmation (P7) Registration

We ask all Parents/Carers who are requesting any of the above sacraments to complete a form, even if you attended the meeting in one of the churches.  Please do so before 21st October 2024.

Click HERE for the form.

Literacy & Numeracy Support Volunteers

We are looking for people to offer some of their time to come into school and support small groups of children with Literacy and Numeracy.  All training would be provided and you would be supported by a Teacher too.

Click HERE for the form.

Parent Council Volunteers

The Parent Council need a band of helpers for meetings and events.  This can be for as little or as much as you can offer.

Click HERE to support our Parent Council.

We are please to send out our October Newsletter which you can now download.

The Newsletter is packed with information, dates, upcoming events and lots of interesting things!  It lets you see just how busy we are at St. John Paul II!  Since the beginning of the school year, we have been sending out various items of news on their own through our website and our text messaging system.

Please make sure that we have a valid email address for you as we will be starting to email things out, rather than text, where possible.  Emailing you doesn’t cost us a penny, but wee are spending hundreds of pounds a year on text messages to our Parents/Carers and we would like to reduce this.

What’s in this edition of the Newsletter?

• Last day of term – information about our Dance-a-thon and Non uniform day
• Some reminders to help the school run as smoothly as possible
• Attendance information
• Parent Council dates and events for the entire year
• Halloween Information
• Parents as Partners Dates – save the date and join us!
• P7 Outdoor Education Week
• Patronal Feast Day Celebrations
• Sacramental Preparation Information
• Calendar Dates and Holiday Dates

And lots more…! 

Some of these items have links for you to follow for more information or to complete a form.  Please look our for them!

Click on the link below for our Newsletter.

October 2024

Tickets will be on sale for the HALLOWEEN DISCOS from the school office from Tuesday 8th October

The Discos are on Thursday, October 24th 2024.

TICKET PRICE – £1.00

Primary 1-3 Disco: 6.00PM – 7.15PM

Primary 4-7 Disco: 7.30PM – 8.45PM

There will also be a Tuck Shop available on the night. If possible, please send the children with coins rather than notes.

Our photographer has all of the School & Nursery photos (Individual & Family) live online and ready to view/order.

The batch order deadline for free delivery to the school is Friday 11^th October.

After this date, orders can still be placed, however, these will be shipped directly to a chosen address for an additional charge.

Please follow the link below to order your photos:

HTTPS://ORDER.CHRISMCINTYREPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.UK

You will need your access code to enter the site, the children were given this on a card on the day of their photo. There is a separate code for sibling group photos.

If you need a replacement code, please contact the school office and they can give you it.

Congratulations to our Head Teacher’s Award Winners for September. 🌟

NON UNIFORM DAY Thursday 26th September 2024

We are planning a Non Uniform for Thursday 26th September!  We ask for a donation of £1 (or whatever you can afford) per child for this, however, there is no obligation to pay the £1.

Reminder:  No football strips/track suits, etc!

WHERE DOES THIS MONEY GO?  I just received a quote for the repair of the soft surface under our Playground Trim Trails which are beginning to come away due to wear and tear.  This is sitting at £1700… so every penny we can raise will be put to good use!  We cannot wait to get this fixed for safety reasons, so I will need to proceed.  If you would like to donate more than £1, we will put this towards the playground repair.  Thank you in advance for your support.

DYNAMIC DRINKS CHALLENGE

Our P1 – P7 children will all take in an exciting Enterprising Schools Challenge throughout the day tomorrow (Thursday 26th).  This is a great way to develop our skills across the curriculum!  Look out for some photos and samples coming your way.

HOLIDAY WEEKEND

Friday 27th and Monday 30th September are both holidays.  Children should return to school on Tuesday 1st October.

PARENTS’ NIGHT REMINDER

Parents’ Night takes place on Thursday 10th October 2024.  The booking system for this has been open for some time now.  Please make the effort to book an appointment and come along.

CYCLING/SCOOTING TO SCHOOL

Lots of our children cycle or scoot to school.  Almost none of them wear a helmet.  Please consider this and perhaps encourage the wearing of a helmet.  Also remind your child that:

• They are not permitted to cycle in the school grounds, particularly at busy times.  Children should dismount!
• Bikes and scooters should be placed in the Bike Shelter in our Infant Playground.  They should not be taking up spaces in the rack at Laburnum Family Learning Centre.  Those spaces are for the Nursery children.

NEWSLETTER

So far this term, we have been sending you information via the school texting system and website.  We hope that this has kept you up to date.  A newsletter will be issued next week with lots of information for the coming term.  This will include dates and times of events as well as other information which you should find helpful!

OCTOBER HOLIDAY

The October Holiday will be from Monday 14th October to Friday 18th October.  School will resume on Monday 21st October.

Well done to this week’s Stars of the Week! 🌟

It’s not too late to sign up for our Curriculum Showcase which takes place tonight (Thurs 19th Sept)! For more information and to sign up (the link to sign up is at the bottom of the flyer within the link below).

We are offering Parents/Carers the opportunity to come along and hear from our Teachers!  You can find out about our Literacy and Numeracy Programmes and resources plus some other fantastic initiatives in our school…

• Talk for Writing – learn about our Writing Curriculum.
• Reading Schools Award and our New School Library – hear about our work to support children to read for enjoyment and how the new school library is playing  a part in this.
• P2/3 Literacy & Numeracy
• P4/5 Literacy & Numeracy
• P6/7 Literacy & Numeracy   Choose up to 3 20 minute sessions.

Please come and support this event!

Workshop for P1 Parents/Carers ONLY:  6pm

Workshops for ALL Parents/Carers (including P1):  from 6:40pm

Click HERE for more information and to register for this event