We welcomed back all learners after the mid-term break. It was lovely to hear about the children’s adventures during their week away from school. The second half of this term is always very busy as we continue with learning in class and start to prepare for Christmas.
Halloween
The annual PTC Halloween disco takes place on Wednesday evening. Tickets are available to purchase in school at a cost of £2.50. Pupils are welcome to wear fancy dress costumes. We look forward to seeing pupils for this social event.
Within school, any Halloween activities will have a literacy theme. For example, Primary 3 learners carved orange peppers as part of an instructional writing task. On Thursday, Primary One and Two are visiting the library to hear Rhona Young (Children’s Librarian) read some spooky stories. There are no activities within school time that require fancy dress. Please keep all costumes for the disco and any out of school celebrations.
Please remember we are a nut free school. We have pupils and staff affected by nut allergies. Please do not allow pupils to bring in peanuts for snacks after Halloween.
Collecting Opinions to Grow our School (COGS)
The Pupil Leadership Team led the first COGS group of the session this week. Each pupil in Primary 4-7 is part of a COGS group. Each group has a mix of Primary 4, 5, 6 and 7 learners led by the pupil leaders and supervised by staff.
This week, the discussion focused on the playground and lunch hall. Pupils evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of each area and made suggestions for ways to improve the school.
We use the Scottish Government publication, “How Good is OUR School: Part 2” to structure pupil led school improvement. This document can be accessed at:
https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/HGIOURS-Part2.pdf
Achievement and Attendance Booklets
All pupils have been issued with an attendance and achievement booklet. This booklet came home separately this term but will normally be in a pocket inside the Snapshot Journal.
It provides a record of each pupil’s achievement in and out of school along with any awards / recognition moments within school. Pupils will take responsibility for updating this and can add achievements (for example, swimming awards, Guide badges, football awards). The table on the right hand side of the booklet is a space to record school recognition (for example, HK Cup, Golden Tokens, Certificates, HK Hugo class achievements).
Pupils will be supported to complete these for the December journal.
Ipads
We recently purchased a set of 12 ipads and they were delivered this week. They will be used for learning and teaching activities across the school. The ipads will be set up as part of a managed service with RM. This means apps can be installed onto all ipads at the same time and we have support to use them as educational tools.
Increasingly, evidence of learning is not recorded in jotters. Children learn collaboratively, actively and through play and the record of learning is best captured with a photograph or short video clip. The new ipad resource will enable each class to record learning easily in this way.
Homework
Teachers are continuing to work together to review the homework policy at Heathery Knowe Primary School. Part of this review is to ensure consistency of approach across stages and to ensure the workload is always appropriate to the stage of the child.
We would like to gather parent views on homework using the following link:
https://forms.gle/stbk51iTAhQVJKVb8
Please complete this survey for each child rather than one per family so that we can gather information at each stage of school.
Photographs
Class photographs will be taken on 6th November. A letter will be issued to provide further information and an opportunity to opt out. A whole school and nursery photograph will also be taken. To reduce costs, these photographs will be taken by students at South Lanarkshire College. Thank you to Mrs French for developing this partnership.
Date for your diary
Please remember there are two inservice days this November. School and Nursery will be closed to pupils on 18th and 19th November.
What’s on next week?
Mon-Wed – Christmas Card craft sessions from 3.05-4.00pm
Tuesday – 9.15am and 5pm – School Big Blether
Wednesday – Head Teacher attending Moderation event
Wednesday – Halloween Disco
Thank you for your continued support.
Kind regards
Kirsty Duff
