Important forms and letters were given out to all pupils today, You will find them in a white envelope with your child’s name. Please complete and return these by Tuesday 28th August in the same envelope. Thank you in advance.

The lunch options for tomorrow, Wednesday 15th August are:

1. Chicken curry with brown rice
2. Sandwich selection
3. Baked potato with a choice of fillings

As we welcome pupils back to school, a reminder that the cost of meals in all Renfrewshire Council schools have changed from the start of the new school term. Grab and Go Days are £2.05, while Dine in Days are now £2.25.

The price of a paid nursery meal will also be £2.25.  Children entitled to free school meals will still receive them as usual. Parents or guardians who receive certain benefits are eligible to apply for a free school meal for their child.  All children in P1 to P3 are eligible for a free school meal.

Our school code for Sumdog has changed from bishopton-primary-school to bishps. This might affect your bookmark if you have saved it on your internet favourites. Please change your Sumdog bookmark to:

https://www.sumdog.com/sch/bishps

This will prefill the school code to bishps and save your child retyping it.

Help us beat the Summer Slide with Sumdog! Research shows that over the summer break, children can lose over two months’ mathematical proficiency. P2-7 pupils have been using Sumdog in class and as homework and should have their username and password. It uses engaging games to encourage pupils, and automatically adapts to your child’s needs. To help beat this Summer Slide, we’d like you to encourage your child to play a little Sumdog each week. Sumdog will give on-screen rewards (100 coins) in each week your child does 30 minutes of practice.

Please click the link below to find out other ways to beat the Summer Slide:

https://blog.sumdog.com/2018/05/15/6-ways-to-beat-the-summer-slide/

Welcome to Beanotown! Meet the team on the hunt for hidden treasure.  Say hello to Pieface, JJ, Rubi, Gnasher, and the ultimate mischief maker, Dennis! They’ve heard that somewhere in Beanotown lies a treasure chest full of epic pranks – and they need your help to find it!

Team up with the Mischief Makers for this year’s Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland and see if you can find out where the goodies are stashed.  When you join the Challenge at the library, you’ll receive your very own map of Beanotown.  The Challenge will take you all over town collecting clues. Dennis and his mates will be there every step of the way to provide plenty of fun and games! Each time you read a library book for the Challenge, you’ll collect another helpful hint from your new friends and some handy tools that will help you find the box of tricks. Visit https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ for more information.

Head to your library this summer to join the Challenge – IT’S FREE!

• Read 2 books – get a SWIM PASS
• Read 4 Books – get a wristband
• Complete the challenge by reading 6 books – BADMINTON PASS
• One lucky winner from every Renfrewshire Library will receive a CINEMA PASS (courtesy of Consilium)

In light of the changes to legislation following GDPR, please click the link below to read Renfrewshire Council’s Privacy policy:

http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/article/2201/Privacy-policy

Come along to the BPPC Summer Beach party Disco on Wednesday 6th June.

Cost: £2.00 plus a donation to the foodbank

Pre-schoolers, P1 & P2 – 6pm to 7pm                              

P3 to P7 – 7.30pm to 8.30pm

 JUICE AND SNACKS WILL BE PROVIDED

One parent/guardian must stay with pre-schoolers.

All other parents/guardians are required to leave for the duration of the disco unless they are helping.

Children can only leave the premises accompanied by the guardian named above. 

Please click the link below to see the new lunch menu which starts on Monday 4th June. This will also be in the Helpful Resources section.

Primary School Menu (May 2018)

One of our P1 pupils is on holiday but was so inspired by National Numeracy Day that she has been playing Big Maths Beat That by the pool! Well done – we love her enthusiasm and effort!

#numberspeople @Nat_Numeracy @BigMaths @sumdog @GetKahoot

Please click the link below to see more information on this exciting event held at the Universeity of West Scotland on Thursday 7th June, 4-7pm. @UniWestScotland

GSF 2018 web flyer

It’s time for our talented pupils to show off what makes them special in our annual Talent Show. The show will take place on Friday 15th June.

The auditions will take place from Tuesday 29th May at lunchtimes. Please collect an audition application from Mrs McNaught or Miss McDowall. You must complete it and hand it to Miss McDowall no later than Thursday 24th May. Please bring any music (clean versions) to the audition.

Once the auditions are finished you will receive a note to let you know if you have been successful. We are looking forward to seeing our pupils shine like the stars they are!

Mr Collins will be opening a weekly Primary 1 Literacy/Reading Cafe for parents, grandparents, carers and children next Monday, 14th May from 5.15-6.30 pm. At the café children and their adult will learn how to read together, share a snack and learn new skills in reading.

If you would like to attend, please could you phone the school office for your name to be added to the attendance list.

Hope to see you there.

Mr Collins

All P6 pupils have been issued with a hard copy of the Deputy First Minister’s Easter Maths Challenge or you can access it here to print at home: Easter-Maths-Challenge.  This is a fun way to spend time with the family while developing your maths skills! Although it is aimed at 2nd Level pupils, I am sure everyone could give it a go with a little support!

Have a go and let us know how you got on. The solutions and working will be published at https://blogs.gov.scot/making-maths-count/  on Wednesday 4 April 2018.

All activities are free. All children under 8 years must be accompanied by an adult. See below for the timetable or click   Skoobmobile Easter Timetable 2018 A4 for the pdf.

A reminder for all classes (except P3H who will have their own day on Thursday) should wear their own clothes on Wednesday 28th March and bring a donation for Uganda. A letter was issued last week explaining that Miss Cauley will be working in Uganda this summer on a teacher training project in the Masindi region. Any support would be much appreciated. Thank you  in advance.

Thank you again for coming to our Numeracy Information Evening and thank you if you have completed the feedback form.

I thought I would put out one last request for any other feedback for the session.  If you have any questions, I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey:

BPS Parent Feedback – Numeracy Information Evening

We will finally have our World Book Day on Monday 12th March. Please dress as a book character or wear your pyjamas to enjoy a fun-filled day to celebrate books and literacy. If you don’t want to dress up or wear pyjamas, please wear your school uniform.

We are looking forward to hearing about all of the books you have read for your sponsored read. Please bring any money you have raised on Monday.

Thank you for your patience and we look forward to an exciting day on Monday!

We are sorry to change the date again but we are going to have to postpone World Book Day until Monday 12th March.

We have a busy week next week with all of the Health Week activities and a few of the Micro-Tyco events will take place then too. We want to give every event it’s own value so will celebrate World Book Day the following week.

Thank you for your understanding and we hope you are staying safe and enjoying the snow!

Due to the school closure tomorrow, we will hold World Book Day on Friday 2nd March instead. We know lots of you will have made amazing costumes for your favourite book characters or are looking forward to wearing your pyjamas while celebrating your love of reading!

Why don’t you read some snowy day books today and tomorrow to get you in the mood?

Due to the school closure tomorrow, we will hold World Book Day on Friday 2nd March instead. We know lots of you will have made amazing costumes for your favourite book characters or are looking forward to wearing your pyjamas while celebrating your love of reading!

Why don’t you read some snowy day books today and tomorrow to get you in the mood?

Thanks again for attending the Numeracy Information Evening last night. If you have not already done so, please complete the feedback form by visiting: BPS Numeracy Information Evening – Parent Feedback. Thank you if you for taking the time to leave your thoughts and comments. I will get back to you as soon as possible to respond to any questions.

Here are some responses to a few questions and comments so far:

1. Can I have notes from the evening?

Please feel free to download the presentation below:

BPS Numeracy Information Evening Presentation

2. Can I play Kahoot at home?

Yes! I have added instructions on how to play the games I have created at home to all class Blogs:

How to play Kahoot at home

3. Can I have the other Parent Prompt booklets?

Yes. I will add all three booklets (Early, First and Second level) to the ‘Helpful Resources’ section on the school website.

Early Level Parent Prompts

First Level Parent Prompts

Second Level Parent Prompts

I will also add the other resource I mentioned, called ‘Every day is a learning day’. This is aimed at parents/carers of 3-6 years but it gives simple ideas on how to support Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing at home.

Every Days a Learning Day 3to6 Ed Scot

4. How do we monitor the individual levels when using iPads/ICT?

A great question! Depending on the game/app it might give you access to individual pupil results. The Kahoot app and Sumdog both allow the teacher to check on what questions the individuals struggle with so we can provide support or if they are too easy, we can give them more challenging questions. Some other games/apps do not allow the teacher to monitor the results. However, as mentioned these activities are only one way we teach and practise maths concepts.

One of the ways we make learning fun is to play an interactive quiz called Kahoot! This game can test pupils’ knowledge of any subject the teacher creates a quiz about. Pupils enjoy playing competitively against their peers to climb the leader board.  The teacher can download the results at the end to show them how the pupils managed with each question. Are a lot of pupils struggling with their 7 times table? Or 3D shapes? This information can be used to plan future lessons or individual’s next steps.

If you attended the Numeracy Information evening on Tuesday, you would have had a chance to play along with the other parents and carers to test your knowledge of the 72 Learn Its. Although some of you were a little apprehensive at first, it sounded like you were enjoying yourself whilst playing along!

Some parents asked if these quizzes could be shared, so I have listed the current maths quizzes I have created. Please search for my username: karenmmcdowall to find these Kahoots! Read the instructions below to find out how play the games.

• Learn Its – BMBT 1
• Learn Its – BMBT 2
• Learn Its – BMBT 3 
• Learn Its – BMBT 4 
• Learn Its – BMBT 5
• 72 Learn Its – BMBT 6
• Maths Vocabulary – Word Problems (this tests the pupils’ knowledge of what a maths word means .e.g. ‘difference between’ means subtract)
• P5 – Mental Maths 1
• P5 – Mental Maths 2
• P5 – Mental Maths 3
• P5 – Mental Maths 4
• P5 – Mental Maths 5

How to play my Kahoots!

*You will need to log in on one tablet/laptop etc and have another device (for your child) in order to play the game.

1. You will need to create an account in order to login to start the quiz.  https://create.kahoot.it/login
2. Once you have logged in, search for my username: karenmmcdowall to find all of my maths quizzes.
3. Select the quiz you want to play .e.g. Learn Its – BMBT 3 and click ‘Play’ on the left-hand side.
4. Click ‘Classic’ to allow your child or children to play the quiz.
5. The pin will appear on the next screen. This should be entered on the other device (which needs the Kahoot! app).
6. Your child can now answer the questions. If you want the questions to automatically move on without you or your child selecting ‘next’, then you need to select this on the screen where you select ‘Classic’.

Good luck and I hope you have fun!

Thank you for coming to our Numeracy Information Evening. We hope you found it useful. We would appreciate any feedback about the session. If you have any questions, I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey:

BPS Parent Feedback – Numeracy Information Evening

 Please come along to our Maths and Numeracy Information Evening on Tuesday 27th February from 7-8pm. You will learn how we teach maths and numeracy, be given ideas how to support your child and hopefully leave with a more positive attitude towards maths!

If you could download the Kahoot! app to your phone before you come that would be great. Otherwise, you may borrow a school iPad.

I look forward to seeing you.

Kind regards,

Miss McDowall