From Thursday 6 January 2022, all primary 5 pupils will be able to receive a universal school meal and it won’t cost parents a penny.

P5s will join P1, P2, P3 and P4 in receiving a universal school meal as part of the Scottish Government’s expansion of healthy meals to all primary pupils.

New school meal menus will also go live in January, providing children with some of the food they love while still keeping within the new food and drink in schools legislation.

Thanks to parents and pupil feedback, some favourites returning will be:

• Chicken poppers
• Sandwich options
• Hot dogs
• Vegetarian sausage rolls

Vegan and vegetarian options will be available, and we will continue to provide medical diets as required.

School meals still need to be balanced to ensure they meet the new food regulations, but children will get their favourites as part of the new menu, just not all the time.

The new school meal menus will go live on the council’s website by Thursday 23 December (once schools close). Check www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/schoolmeals for more details.

Message from Trinity HS

Dear Parent / Carer,

We delighted to be writing to you to launch our programme of transition events for this session. Of course, we would love for you to be able to visit the school in person, but unfortunately current Covid-19 Guidelines currently prevent this. As soon as it is safe to do so we will arrange for parents and carers to visit Trinity High School. In the meantime, I would like to invite you to attend a Virtual Information Evening on Wednesday 8^th December at 6pm. This event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams.

Information about the joining details can be found in the attached letter.

Primary 7 Transition Event 8th December 2021

Please come and join us on Monday 6th December to discuss Relationships and Behaviour on Social Media.

Brian Donnelly will be delivering an information session on Teams on developments in Social Media and how young people are using and experiencing various social media apps.

Brian will provide some feedback from pupils on this, and offer some advice and guidance to help you feel more confident to talk to your children about how they use this social space.

Please fill out the form by Friday 3rd December by 5pm below to receive an invite to the online information session.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKYrgMiipyg1OlOtzfe9zW9NURUtKMk1aNUMwODBDVFZQTDZXT0hLOUVDRi4u

Volunteer as a Parent Group Leader

Renfrewshire Council, Active Communities, Klas Care and The Tannahill Centre are now recruiting parents/carers from across
Renfrewshire who would like to deliver a new parenting programme to other parents in their communities.

Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities is an eight week long programme delivered by parents for parents. Parent Group Leaders will deliver training to small groups of parents of 2-11 years olds to help them become more confident parents.

Parent Group Leaders will receive comprehensive training and ongoing supervision and support. Training will be delivered one day a week for 10 weeks from the end of January 2022 until March 2022. The days will be agreed to suit parents who volunteer (training can also be provided in the evenings or at weekends for those who work during the week but would like to get involved). Childcare can be provided.

If you’d like a chance to make a difference for local children and families and to develop your own skills and experience, contact Nicola Davidson on 07483 955087 or email epec@renfrewshire.gov.uk

The Keep Safe Kids App was launched formally on Friday 19/11/21. It has been developed to enable children, young people and their families to report bullying to their school. The App has been designed by children and young people as a new, innovative and accessible way to report incidents to the school. The final version of the app has been uploaded to the App stores. The App is available from Apple and Google- Keep Safe Kids. Please find attached a user guide, leaflet and postcard containing more detailed information about features of the App. Here are two useful video links giving further information about the App.

Keep Safe Kids – Primary Schools – You tube –  https://youtu.be/NPyJ1M3g0dc

Keep Safe Kids – Our Lady of Peace – You tube – https://youtu.be/5QcfcwTgITo

KEEP SAFE KIDS User Guide

KEEP SAFE KIDS POSTCARD

Keep Safe Kids Leaflet

Catholic Education Week 2021 begins on 16^th November and ends on 30^th November. This year’s theme is “Celebrating and Worshipping”. During this time we will celebrate the God given talents and achievements of our pupils. We will acknowledge the hard work and faith witness of the staff in our school. We will mark the unique contribution that Catholic Education makes to our families, our parishes and to wider Scottish society and reflect on the mission of the Catholic school for the future. Our Education Sunday masses will take place on 28^th November at 9.45am in St Columba’s Parish church and 11am in St James’ Parish Church.

‘Shout’ is a 24/7 text based support service and anyone of any age, can text.

The texter will then receive an automated text asking them about the nature of their problem. This text will also let the individual know that they are being connected to a trained Shout Volunteer. The aim is to respond to all texters within five minutes. It supports people in immediate distress to take them to a calmer moment and empower them with support and techniques to take their next steps to feeling better and handle future issues, as well as possibly signposting someone to further support services or their GP so that they can get long-term support.  The service is clinically supervised and highly valued in other areas of the UK.

Book Week Scotland is an annual celebration of books and reading that takes place across the country. Book Week Scotland 2021 will take place 15–21 November 2021.

Here in St. James’ Primary, we are buzzing about reading for pleasure. Reading is a fantastic way in which you can develop your knowledge of the world and what happens around you, but also reading for pleasure is so important. It allows you to relax, to go to a different place in the world, meet different people or go on an adventure.

During Book Week Scotland, we will be appealing for donations for any unwanted books which your child may have grown out of and would like to see them go to a new home! Donations of both fiction and non-fiction books suitable for primary school-aged children would be most welcome.

Children should bring their unwanted books (but still in good condition) to class, where they will be uplifted and put in a quarantine box before being distributed to the various class libraries to ensure we are following appropriate Covid regulations.

Many thanks for your support in advance!

Calling all men of the Diocese: join with us from 7.30pm-9.30pm on Thursday 11th November in St. Mirin’s Cathedral hall for a time of reflection and prayer. In this year of St. Joseph, we will learn from the example of his life and be inspired to fulfil our mission as Catholic men, whether we are single or married, fathers, spiritual fathers, sons, brothers or husbands.