JRSOs at the Town Hall

Our JRSOs have been very busy over this year, helping the school community to learn about road safety. They have planned competitions and events for everyone to join in and last Thursday they shared all they had done with JRSOs from other school. They presented their PowerPoint very clearly and with a lot of confidence. We are all very proud of them.  Well done JRSOs.

 

 

Newsletter 20.6.22

Dear Parents and Carers,

Apologies for the late arrival of this newsletter but managing staff absence has been a challenge this week as there seem to be so few supply teachers available – and then they fall ill as well. So Mrs Leslie and myself have been doing a lot of fill in this week, but it is always a joy to work with the children- after all that is why we came into teaching. However at the end of the school day there are lot of jobs to catch up on and the newsletter is one of them!

Sports Day: So sorry we had to postpone this event and disappoint both children and parents.  We have everything crossed that we can do this event next Tuesday 28th June in the morning at 9.30am.  We really do hope we can do it then as we have no other days available to move it to.  I also hope that the parents who volunteered to help are still able to do so.

P6/7 Enterprise afternoon: This was certainly a lot of fun.  The inflatable obstacle course filled the hall and the inflatable lazer quest filled the pool room.  So Ms Scalan’s class had a busy and exhaustingly great afternoon with hot dogs. We are very grateful to John for organising the hire and setting up of the inflatables and Vicky and Michelle who answered the call for additional support as Ms. Scalan was away at the last minute.

JRSOs presentation in the Town Hall. The five JRSOs have worked hard over the year to raise awareness in road safety and general health and wellbeing, and they got to share their work and impact at a presentation event at the Town Hall in Lerwick today, along with JRSOs from other schools.  We are very proud of the work they have done and the impact they have had.  They presented very well, with a lot of confidence, managing their nervousness really well.  Well done JRSOS!

Antepreschooler open mornings:  It was so wonderful to welcome parents into the setting again and to see the children’s excitement when showing Mummies and Daddies their learning space. Thank you to all who came and for all your support.

P7 Leavers assembly:  This will take place on Thursday 30th June at 1.30pm.  I hope P7 have invited family to come to celebrate their final days at primary school and their transition to secondary.  I have felt privileged to get to know this great group of young people in their final term of primary school and to see how they prepare for moving on.  They have prepared various presentations to share with the school and their families- all in their unique style and I think there may be some surprises in store!   I am very pleased too that Andrea Henderson can also attend as she has seen this group right through school. We do ask all visitors to wear a mask to this event as we are all keen not to pass on any infection let alone Covid just before the Summer holidays!

Parent/Carer Survey: thanks to all who have taken a moment to share their views via this survey.  If you have not had a chance yet, then here is the link which will be open until Friday:

https://forms.office.com/r/6XbY8c87hi

I hope to share the results with you next week.

Toys in school:  A gentle reminder that children should not be bringing in toys from home – unless specifically for comfort or a specific class project, in which case please talk to your class teacher or Mrs Leslie about this.  We are concerned about aspects of hygiene when children play with and share these toys with their playmates when throwing around the playground. The school is well equipped with many resources for children to use throughout the day so there is no need for further items to be brought in from home.  Thank you for your support with this.

NOOSC: We are just updating the forms and information about this service and hope to get that out to you by the end of the week, for parents to book children in for sessions from 17th Aug.  Ms Molly Farmer is our new play practitioner and she is really looking forward to running the provision.

Upcoming dates:

24th June Nursery Sports morning

28th June    Sports Morning 9.30 -11.30  P1-P7

28th June    Nursery Graduation open afternoon  2.15 to 3.45 for those moving up to P1

30th June:  Leavers Assembly – P7 parents/carers only, 1.30pm

30th June   Last stay and play sessions for new starters in Nursery

1st July       Last day of term- School closes at 3pm, Happy Holidays!

17th Aug     First day of Term 1

As other dates are confirmed I will update you here.

Best wishes,

Gina Finch

 

poster for scyc

Sports morning posponed to Tuesday 28th June

We had really hoped to be able to  do sports morning this morning and although it looks like it might not rain, the field is just too wet  and would not be safe for children to run around  or sit down on.  So sorry for any convenience-  let’s  hope it dries out a bit for next week and that you can all join us then.  Thank you for your support.

Newsletter 13.6.22

Dear Parents and Carers,

It is hard to believe that there are only 3 more weeks of term left- time is whizzing by and there is so much to fit in.  Children  ( are staff) are getting tired and as a consequence getting tetchy with each other and less able to concentrate.  Please do all you can at home to enable children to get enough rest and sleep ( must be tricky with the Simmer Dim) to be able to enjoy these last few weeks.

Sports Day: We plan to do this on the morning of 21st June 9.30-11.30- weather permitting. We do have a back up date of morning of 28th June just in case.  We will try to make any decision to cancel the night before and let you know- but I am learning that the weather on Shetland is hard to predict!   I hope you might be able to join the children on the Boddam Playing Field field as they participate in a variety of  active sport team games and competitive races.  Thanks to the parents/ carers who have  volunteered to keep score and support children as they move from one activity to the next.

Health and Wellbeing: We continue to use    the resource, Jigsaw, in all classes to teach aspects of health and wellbeing.  This term we will be working pieces 5 and 6, Relationships and Changing Me.  I have attached the course descriptors for you.  If you would like to discuss this or come in and look at the resources used, please contact me at school.  The lessons on Changing Me will be starting  on Friday for all the P5, P6 and P7 who will be taught in their year groups.

It is important that children receive consistent and accurate messages regarding relationships, sexual health and parenthood education.  Effective education can empower children that their bodies are their own and how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

To find out more please click the link below.

Sex Education in Scottish Schools. A Guide for Parents and Carers.

Paper copies can be requested from the school office.

Illness:  We have continued to experience illness in both children and staff, some linked to Covid and some to other throat/ chest infections.  Maintaining staffing levels has been a bit of a challenge but thanks to an amazing team including some regular supply teachers we have managed to maintain a safe and nurturing environment for our children.  Mrs Inkster remains unwell, so our thoughts and best wishes  go  out to her for a speedy recovery.  Mrs Wells and Mrs Wishart have been doing a great job of looking after her class along with myself and Mrs Leslie.

P6/7 Enterprise afternoon.  The young entrepreneurs were very successful with their enterprise project, raising a whooping amount.  £216  will go to charities of their choice and the rest to be spent on a fun afternoon to send off the P7s in style.  This fun afternoon will take place on  Monday 20th June .  An inflatable obstacle course and lazer quest game along with hot dogs and refreshments have been organised for them. What a great way to end the term and to say good bye to our P7s.

This year, as we have not been able to organise residential trips away due to the late lifting of all restrictions and staff absence, the P7 were given each a hoodie  and  3 John Muir days were organised for them over the year.  Although not the same as an away trip, which we hope to be able to do again next year, we have worked hard to make sure that the P7s have had some memorable experiences.

P1 New Entrants parents meeting    This meeting has now been schedule for Wed 22nd June at 6pm.

Toys in school:  A gentle reminder that children should not be bringing in toys from home- unless specifically for comfort or a specific class project, in which case please talk to your class teacher or Mrs Leslie about this.  We are concerned about aspects of hygiene when children play with and share these toys with their playmates and also throwing around the playground. The school is well equipped with many resources for children to use throughout the day so there is no need for further items to be brought in from home.  Thank you for your support with this.

NOOSC:  We will send out further details about after school club as soon as we can before the end of term to enable parents to book regular session.  Parents will still be able to book ad hoc sessions if there are spaces left which I expect there to be, but for this service to be sustainable  its needs regular bookings to cover the cost of staffing it.  Central services will be monitoring how the service is used to ensure that it is cost effective so please support it.

Stay and play sessions for new starters in Nursery:  Parents and children due to start in Nursery in the new session are invited to visit the nursery between 2.30 and 3.30pm on Wed 15th June, Mon 20th June,  Thurs 30th June.

Upcoming dates:

14th June Ante-preschoolers open morning in nursery

21st June: Sports Afternoon

21st June   Nursery Preschool trip on the bus-  9.15 to 10.15

23rd June: JRSO presentation in the Town Hall

23rd and 24th June P7 transition days to Anderson high School

24th June Nursery Sports morning

28th June Nursery Graduation open morning  for those moving up to P1

30th June:  2pm:   Leavers Assembly – P7  parents/carers only

As other dates are confirmed I will update you here.

Best wishes,

Gina Finch

Newsletter 6.6.22

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back after another long weekend for which the weather stayed perfect.  I hope you all could make the most of the sunshine and the many Jubilee and other social events going on.   Children from P6/7 class went along to the Bigton afternoon teas to sell more of their enterprise products and did very well- not only with interacting  politely with the community but also  raising over £100. Well done to our young entrepreneurs.

Cinderella: Thank you for your support in reviving the costumes for this production so we could film the effort children have made to learn all the songs and lines for what was to be a live production at Christmas but was one of the casualties of Covid.  We hope to share copies of the production by the end of term.

Sports Day: We plan to do this on the morning of 21st June 9.30-11.30 .  I hope you might be able to join the children on the Boddam Football field as they participate in a variety of  active sport team games and competitive races. We could really do with some parent volunteers to keep score and support children as they move from one activity to the next. Please email the school if you can help.

Health and Wellbeing: We continue to use    the resource, Jigsaw, in all classes to teach aspects of health and wellbeing.  This term we will be working pieces 5 and 6, Relationships and Changing Me.  I have attached( sent out via email)18.4.19 Jigsaw attachment the course descriptors for you.  If you would like to discuss this or come in and look at the resources used, please contact me at school.  The lessons on Changing Me will be starting  on Friday for all the P5, P6 and P7 who will be taught in their year groups.

It is important that children receive consistent and accurate messages regarding relationships, sexual health and parenthood education.  Effective education can empower children that their bodies are their own and how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

To find out more please click the link below.

Sex Education in Scottish Schools. A Guide for Parents and Carers.

Paper copies can be requested from the school office.

P1 New Entrants parents meeting   has to be postponed again as Ms Inkster is not well enough to return to school this week.  The  meeting has now been schedule for Wed 22nd June at 6pm.  I do apologies for the constant change to this and hope you will be able to attend this new date.

Enterprise Afternoon.  What a very successful afternoon was organised by our P6/7 with just a little help from Ms Scalan.  The variety  and quality of items on sale was astonishing.  I think the class have developed useful team working, collaborative and negotiating skills as well as an  understanding of profit and loss.

NOOSC:  WE are pleased to report that the process for recruiting a play practitioner to run the after school club is almost complete, and we now have a  start date for the beginning of the August term.  This means that the after school club will  be open to all school age children from 3pm to 5.30pm Monday to Friday starting on 16th Aug.  We plan to offer come inset days clubs and holiday clubs once the practitioner is in post.  We are still looking at how we can offer before school provision as we do still need a SSSC registered practitioner to run this and at the moment the contract advertised for NOOSC only covers after school club. However we hope that we might be able to offer some kind of before school provision in the future.  We will send out further details about after school club as soon as we can.

Little Librarians:  We now have a very enthusiastic group of 15 children who want to look after and develop the school library as well as promote the joy of reading throughout the school.  This group met with Zuzanna O’ Rouke who is the librarian from Sandwick School, last week, and she will be supporting the group as their develop their ideas to make the library a must visit space.

Transition afternoon for all children moving classes will be this Wednesday 8th June.

Parent council have been working with the children in school to look at the uniform that they might like to wear.  They have been involved in choosing a new logo for the badge  which turned out to be a puffin and then designing a new badge with the puffin.  Although school uniform is not compulsory, wearing  it does give a sense of belonging and saves a lot of effort deciding what to wear each day. Parent council will let you know when the new designs are available.

Sun cream:  Just a reminder that although it often does not  feel very warm there is a lot of strength in the sun so please do apply sun cream to your child’s exposed skin before coming to school.  Also remind them to bring their water bottle which they can access though out the day.

Upcoming dates:

8th 9th June  P7 Transition days to Sandwick

8th June Second transition afternoon for all classes in school

14th June Ante-preschoolers open morning in nursery

21st June: Sports Afternoon

23rd June: JRSO presentation in the Town Hall

23rd and 24th June P7 transition days to Anderson high School

24th June Nursery Sports morning

28th June Nursery Graduation open morning  for those moving up to P1

30th June:  2pm:   Leavers Assembly – P7  parents/carers only

 

As other dates are confirmed I will update you here.

 

Best wishes,

Gina Finch

OPEN DOOR DRAMA SUMMER SCHOOL 2022

Gulberwick Hall

P4—P7

Monday 25th –Saturday 30th July

Mon—Friday 10am till 4pm

Performances Saturday at 2pm and 7pm

Please bring packed lunches, tuck shop available.

£55 for the week (sibling discount available at £30)

 

Please book via email  opendoordrama33@gmail.com