I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. It’s great to see the children back and hear all their Christmas stories. P7 Christmas raps at the end of term service were very entertaining. They all enjoyed the school panto and their Christmas party. Well done to the pupils who had a Christmas disco for their house reward.
We were extremely proud and moved by P7 when they led the Remembrance Day assembly in November.
This term we will be teaching skills and knowledge and understanding through the theme of Robert Burns. This topic covers many curricular areas and children will perform for parents at the annual Burns Supper in January.
The children continue to have regular reading, spelling and maths homework and your support in this is vital to your child’s success.
Throughout this term P7 children will work in their own register classes for language but maths team teaching will continue. Teachers and pupils will engage in a variety of Scottish literature and pupils with different abilities will work together to share skills, knowledge and strengths. Appropriate tasks will be provided to continue to support and challenge for all pupils.
We will also have World of Work Week where children will turn their classroom into a little enterprising business for a week. We will also hear from a variety of people about a variety of jobs. I would encourage you to inform Mrs.Wiszniewski or your child’s class teacher if you would be willing to speak to children about your job. We are very grateful when parents come forward to offer their services. P7 pupils also have the opportunity to participate in a ‘go to work day’ with their parents on Monday 20th February. We understand that this might not be possible for some pupils and parents so pupils can visit other work environments with other family members if this suits better.
Teachers are keen to work in partnership with parents and strive to keep you informed. There will be a parents evening in March however please do not hesitate to contact us with any concerns before that. We would like to see parents in and around the school during World of Work Week and World Book Day.
Parental Questionnaire
The results of the parent questionnaire are available on the school website. I met with a small group of parents to discuss the results and find solutions to the things that parents were most concerned about. This information is also on the website. Please ask the school office if you would like a paper copy of this. The main causes for concern were the condition of the school building, communication between home and school and the way that the school deals with poor behaviour. We discussed ways to improve our service regarding these issues. Thank you to those parents who gave up their time to support the school on its way forward.
Can I encourage you to apply for free meal entitlement if you are due this.
Sponsored Zumba
The sponsored Zumba was a huge success and we raised over £4,000. A huge thank you to those of you who supported us and to Mr.Johnston for leading the activity… he certainly showed us a few moves that day! I have consulted with the pupils through the Pupil Council and they identified how they would like to spend the money.
The Christmas Fayre was also very successful in raising around £1,500. Thank you to the members of the Friends of the West and staff and other parents who came to help on the day.
Our school aims are now on display in the school entrance. They are for West Primary to be Educational, Inclusive, Supportive, Friendly and Caring. We hope the school encompasses these aims.
Playtime
Sometimes parents and carers worry about their child during playtime and lunchtime. At West we have tried to provide the children with opportunities for safe play. There is a playground rota which indicates which year groups can play ball games on certain days. There are also P6 play leaders who do a fantastic job of encouraging children to play together and teach them new playground games. We also have our trim trails, climbing wall and the gazebo. P7 children are also fortunate to go to the MUGA across the road, giving them their own space and facilities.
The classroom assistants and janitor are present throughout playtime and lunchtime for children to voice concerns to and to intervene when they see inappropriate play.
As you can appreciate the classroom assistants can deal with many issues throughout this time. If you feel that your child is having an ongoing problem in the playground please do not hesitate to contact myself or the class teacher and we can highlight your child to the assistants, who will keep a special eye on them until the problem is resolved.
A word from the Pupil Council
We have been asking our class mates what they would like to spend the Zumba sponsor money on. We made a list of suggestions and discussed these with Mrs. Ormond. She advised us that many of the suggestions would be paid for through school budget and that she wanted us to purchase the things that children would enjoy most.
We decided that each class would be given a budget to upgrade their library with new books and soft accessories which would make the class library more inviting. We also wanted to improve our musical instrument resources and purchase play equipment for the playground.
We will meet again in January with Mrs. Ormond to feedback on the things that we like about our school and areas that need improved. We looked at the pupil questionnaire which is on the website. We returned to class to share this information with everyone.
A plea from HT
Remember no dogs are allowed in the playground.
Smoking is not permitted within the playground or around the school gates.
Put your name on EVERYTHING….lost property is taking over the school!
Please park safely. Double parking is not permitted.
Join the Friends of the West Facebook page or look at our website for information.
www.west.renfrewshire.sch.uk
Make sure we have your current phone number.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Mrs.Ormond and P7 staff
Dates for your diary
11th January 12-3 pm Infant registration
12th January 12-3 pm Infant registration
16th January 6.30 pm Friends of the West Meeting
25th January 7.00-8.00pm P2/3 Reading Information Evening
27th January 12.45 pm P7 Burns Supper
1st February 7.00pm Meeting for P7 Lockerbie parents
10th February School Holiday ( In-Service for teachers)
13th and 14th February School Holiday
20th -24th February World of Work Week
1st March Rag Bag Day
6th March 6.30 pm Friends of the West Meeting
7th March Photographer for P7 Yearbook
13th-17th March P7 trip to Lockerbie
20th March Book of Success home to parents
23rd and 24th March Tempest Photography P1-7
24th March Comic Relief Talent Show
29th March Termly House Reward
29th March 6.30-8.30 Parent’s Evening
30th March 3.30-5.30 Parent’s Evening
Friday 31st March school closes at 2.30pm
3rd April-17th April Easter Holiday
Tuesday 18th April School reopens
