Welcome to Our New Head Teacher Weekly Blog!
I do hope that you enjoy reading it and it provides you with the information you need to feel informed of all that is happening at Maxwellton. We work hard at Maxwellton to effectively communicate with our families about the busy life of our school. Our blog is designed as another way of helping us to do this. The blog will be updated on a weekly basis and is designed to give a quick update of the week and share information about the week ahead with our friends and families.
Diary Dates 
I hope you all received your dates for diary sheet for the final term ahead. This included all the school dates from April until June. We will send letters home also informing you of the details of these events as we get closer to them. Please note that already we have a change to our dates for the diary sheet. Please note that P4-P7 Sports Day will now take place on Monday 3rd June at 1.00pm. We apologise for having to change this date but this was due to the fact that our netball team has qualified for the netball finals in their championships and the netball final would have taken place on the same day as sports day. This would have meant the P6 & P7 children either having to miss the netball final or having to miss sports day. I hope you agree with our decision to change the date for this reason and look forward to our children being able to attend both events now. We do love our sports at Maxi!
School Uniform
At Maxwellton Primary we take great pride in our school uniform, not only for Health and Safety reasons, but also as it identifies our learners as Maxwellton pupils and makes a statement about who we are as a school!
Our school colours are a red jumper and white shirt. Over the years, a mixture of black and grey skirts, shorts and trousers have been used. Having two different colours can be confusing for new parents and provide a mismatched image.
In remedying this, we are inviting all stakeholders to vote on whether the skirts, shorts or trousers should be black or grey.
We will share the results of these findings once everyone has had an opportunity to vote. Voting will close on Friday 17th May.
We will then let everyone know what the final decision has been and this will come into effect from August 2020.
Please be aware that it will not start in August 2019 as we are aware some parents may have already started to buy their school uniform. Therefore once the decision is made it will commence from August 2020 giving everyone a full years notice of the colour that is decided.
Thank you for your support in this and for helping us maintain high standards at Maxwellton.
Please find a link to the survey to vote below!
https://forms.gle/MxGCYGGw6nGJ3rUt9
New P1 – Class of 2019/2020
I have had the delight this week of welcoming our new Primary 1 children to Maxwellton for their 2nd induction visit. During this visit they met with their buddy, played in our open play area, took part in a class activity and enjoyed a tour of our school with their buddy. Parents and carers had the opportunity to have a tea and a coffee together and to hear about some important information on daily routines and class life in Primary 1. Our new Primary 1’s were absolutely brilliant and Mrs McKenna was very impressed. It was wonderful to see our new P1’s bonding with their buddies straight away. A huge well done to P6 who rose to the challenge and displayed great leadership and super manners to our new parents.
We look forward to inviting our new P1’s back to Maxwellton next week on Thursday 16th May at 1.15pm for our Teddy Bears Picnic! Please remember to bring along your favourite teddy to our special picnic! Mrs Laing will be bringing hers and I know Mrs McKenna has someone very important to introduce you to from her P1 class. See you then!
School Improvement Planning
During our latest in-service day we met as a staff to consider all we had achieved this year and how we might continue to drive our school forward in continuous improvement. We considered as a staff our main priorities for the year ahead. We will also during this month be asking our children what they feel are our main priorities to take forward next year in learning and teaching.
I would like to invite my parents or grandparents to the next Head Teacher Coffee and Chat which is taking place on Friday 17th May at 9.15am. The focus of this chat will be around the improvement priorities for next year and the self evaluation exercise taken place by staff. I would love the opportunity to share and discuss these with my parents and to gather your input and views on this also. There is always a cup of tea and coffee and usually a cake to welcome you on arrival! I look forward to seeing you there if you are able to make it.
Class News
Our children are very busy making the most of the final term. We look forward to welcoming you into our school this term for many assemblies, showcases of learning and special events.
Primary 1 are busy learning all about their ‘Sense’ topic. They are learning all about money too so watch out Mums and Dads as they start asking you if they can pay for things in the shops.
Primary 2 are learning all about ‘The Farm’ and are looking forward to welcoming parents to see their assembly. They are learning all about food that the farm provides and the journey food goes on from farm to fork. We look forward to sharing our learning with you and our upcoming visit to the farm!
Primary 3 are busy learning all about ‘The Rainforest’ and are busy preparing for their rainforest showcase next week! Prepare yourself parents to hear all about lots of creepy crawlies and to see photographs of many of these from our recent trip to Amazonia!
Primary 4 are busy learning all about ‘The Vikings’ and preparing for their coming trip to Vikingar! As well as this P4 classroom is like a musical theatre as they prepare for their musical showcase for parents. All I can say is every time I walk past the door I can hear ‘Despacito’ being played! We are all looking forward to the musical showcase and seeing P4 perform. I wonder if Mr Angus will bring his drums in again!!
Primary 5 are learning all about angles and are definitely practising a growth mindset as they all get their heads around learning how to use a protractor. Their topic just now is ‘Scotland’ and learning about the landscape and geography of our nation and how the land is different in different areas and used for different purposes.
Primary 6 are busy learning all about ‘The Scottish Parliament’ and are looking forward to their visit to the capital in June to visit the parliament. With a European election taking place this month this is a great opportunity to learn about this topic. P6 are also holding their own elections, creating their own election parties and manifestos and there will be some voting of our own taking place in Maxi too!
Primary 7 are back from Robinwood and what a credit they were to us all too. Mrs Marno has comment on their super behaviour and attitude during this residential. We look forward to welcome parents to the school on Wednesday May 29th at 2pm for a small informal Robinwood celebration. the P7 children are also working hard on their transition materials for Calderglen and taking part in their many transition events as well as preparing for their end of year assembly. They also have a dance tutor in every Thursday teaching them Street Dancing. watch this space for a performance coming soon!
Playground Fun
We are working hard at Maxwellton to make sure our play times and lunch times are as much fun as possible for our children. The Support staff have very kindly organised structured activities every play time which the children are free to join in if they choose. This playground strategy ensures there is a structured activity on offer so there is always something for every child to join in with. It also helps promote purposeful play which in turns promotes better behaviour within our playground. I would like to thank my support staff for offering these experiences to our children every week and for the work they do in helping ensure our playground is a fun and happy place to be. Please see below a list of the activities that are on offer for our children throughout the week. As well as this we also have our buddy wall that our children can use if they ever need someone to play with.
Monday – Mrs Thomson leads parachute games every interval and lunchtime
Tuesday – Mrs Bridges leads playground games and songs every interval and lunchtime
Wednesday – Mrs Thomson leads ball games every interval and lunchtime
Thursday – Mrs Methven leads rope games and skipping every interval and lunchtime
Friday – Mrs Howie leads rope games and skipping every interval and lunchtime
SNSA’s and Summative Assessments
The month of May will see our pupils in P1, P4 and P7 take part in The Scottish National Standardised Assessments. A letter about this has gone out to parents. If you would like more information regarding this please contact the school or click on the following link for more information. https://standardisedassessment.gov.scot/parents-and-carers
All children within the school will also take part in GL Assessments and PT Maths assessments throughout the month of May also. Again this is fully explained in the letter issued to parents.
Achievements
At Maxwellton we love celebrating our pupils achievements within and out with school.
Please see some of our superstars below who have had celebrations this week.
If your child has an achievement please complete an achievement slip and send it in. Achievements slips can be obtained in each class and your child can bring one home or please see the link below to print one out.
Achievements this week….
P1 – Rhys did his first ukulele class and can already play his first note!
P1 – Cara can swim under water!
P1 – Thomas learned to ride his bike without stabilisers!
P1 – Ciara climbed Tinto Hill!
P1 – Isabella has started swimming lessons and can put her face under the water!
P1- Jack took part in the Strathaven rugby festival and his team won the P1-P2 event. he also won the top try scorer with 5 tries!
P2 – Belle was selected to represent East Kilbride Gymnastic Club and she came 4th!
P2 – Harris learned how to ride his bike with no stabilisers!
P2 – Adam walked 6 miles in the kilt walk to raise money for JDRF to help support his cousin!
P2 – Kaci has been tidying up the house and living room and being an amazing help!
P2 – Munro was selected to play for Rangers at Murray Park!
P3 – Jamie can swim confidently without armbands. He can also hold his breathe under water!
P3 – Isla climbed Tinto Hill!
P4 – Louise played in a rugby tournament and won a medal!
P4 – Liam passed his level 2 swimming assessment!
P6- Will took part in the Kiltwalk to raise money for Bloodwise!
Well done everybody! So proud of you all. Keep all of those achievements coming as we love celebrating at assemblies.
The Week Ahead At A Glance…
- SNSA assessments begin for P1,P4 & P7 pupils
- Monday 13th May – Fimo, Torchlight & Netball after school clubs
- Monday 13th May – Mr Harris Guitar Teacher in
- Tuesday 14th May – Art and Craft & Boards Games after school clubs
- Tuesday 14th May – Mr MacDonald Drum and Percussion Teacher in
- Wednesday 15th May – P5-P7 Girls Football & Multi Sports P1 after school clubs
- Wednesday 15th May – P5 Swimming Lessons 1pm
- Wednesday 15th May – Nursery Music session PM
- Wednesday 15th May – National Numeracy Day
- Thursday 16th May – P2 School Outing to Rural Life Museum
- Thursday 16th May – P1 Transition Day 3 – Teddy Bears Picnic 1.15pm
- Thursday 16th May – Primary Singing Event – 4 x P6 pupils attending
- Thursday 16th May – K’Nex & Coding P3-P7 after school club
- Friday 17th May – Head Teacher Coffee and Chat – 9.15am – Focus on School Improvement
- Friday 17th May – Handball Tournament 9.30am
- Friday 17th May – P3 Rainforest Showcase 2pm in Room 3
- Friday 17th May – Handball P5-P7 & Boys Football P5-P7 after school clubs
Lunch Menu
Next week’s lunch menu is Week One from our Summer menu.
Please see the menu below and link to the full menu flyer.
CEN_Go_Fresh_Primary_summer_2019_parent_flyer
Hope this updates everyone and that everyone has a very happy weekend.
Maybe the sun will shine for us all too!
See you Monday!
Mrs Laing
Maxwellton Head Teacher
