It’s hard to believe we are at the September weekend holiday already and we’ve already packed so much in at school! Firstly I would like to mention our new House and Vice Captains who have taken on their roles very conscientiously and have shown great responsibility. I look forward to working with them throughout the year.

Our daily mile continues and the children and staff are clocking up the miles! Teachers have reported that they have noticed a difference in the focus and concentration of pupils and the children themselves have told me that they feel ‘alert’, ‘refreshed‘, ‘energised‘ and ‘awake‘,  which shows the positive impact of this initiative.

On Wednesday of this week we had a visit from our new Quality Improvement Officer, Mrs Anne Jessimer. She spoke to me about our Standards and Quality report and we discussed the school’s plans for further improvement. She then had a tour of the school and was very impressed with our polite, well-mannered pupils and commented on the high standard of uniform throughout the school.

On Thursday we welcomed parents and carers to the our Meet the Teacher morning. Everyone had the opportunity to chat to the class teachers about the curriculum and look at the resources used to support and enhance the learning and teaching in the school. Leaflets explaining the new approaches to the teaching of spelling were also available to take home. If you were unable to attend the morning or haven’t received a copy of the leaflet please contact the school.

We also had a celebration of learning for Maths Week. Throughout that week, children had the opportunity to take part in the Sumdog interschool Maths challenge and explored how we use Maths in various areas of the curriculum including Art & Design, Food Technologies, Physical Education and Technologies. Children were able to explain how Maths is used in our everyday lives and why it is such an important part of learning. I was also delighted with the response to our Maths week competition, the standard of entry was very good and it was an extremely difficult job to choose a winner from each class. Our winners were Valentina Carbray from P1/2, Gracie McCall from P3/4 and Noah McLean from P5/6/7. A huge congratulations to them!

In the classes:

P1/2

In Numeracy & Mathematics the P1 pupils have been learning to write and count in numbers to 5, while P2 have been working with numbers to 100.. The children have been learning about a variety of woodland animals and their habitats as part of their Parks and Woodlands topic.

P3/4

In Numeracy & Mathematics P3 have been counting, ordering numbers to 100, with P4 working with numbers to 1000. The boys and girls have also been looking at the properties of 2D shapes and which ones are able to tile. The y have been looking at regular and irregular pentagons, hexagons and octagons. In Literacy the P3 children have been using the spelling strategies from our Active Literacy programme to learn their common words with P3 developing their spelling skills using their magnetic boards.

P5/6/7

In Numeracy & Mathematics, P5 have been learning about decimals to tenths with P6/7 working on rounding and estimating , including decimals up to 3 decimal places. In their Interdisciplinary topic, the class have been looking at the structure of the Scottish and UK Parliaments as well as some high profile political figures including the First Minister and the Prime Minister.

Finally we also welcomed a new member to our school support staff, Ms Heather Brown. We look forward to working with her and hope she enjoys working in our school.

Also, please look out for a letter in your child’s bag next week about our forthcoming Parents’ Evening on the 12th of October.

Thank you for reading my Blog.

 

Yvonne McCart

Head Teacher

 

It has been a very busy week with everyone well and truly settled back into the school routine. Over the past two weeks the children have been doing revision work such as their multiplication tables, spelling patterns etc.  and Primary 1 are well in to their Phonics and Numeracy programme. We are implementing a new approach to the teaching of spelling this year as part of our school improvement plan. You may hear your child speak about Elkonin boxes and diacritical marking but don’t panic, an information leaflet will be issued very soon and you will have the opportunity to see resources and chat to the class teachers at our Meet the Teacher coffee morning on the 21st of September.

Our Primary 6 and 7 pupils have been very busy preparing their materials for the forthcoming election of our  House and Vice Captains. This is practical way of developing our young people’s understanding of living in a democracy and the role of government, as well as enhancing their communication and team working skills. Hustings and voting will take place this week and we wish the candidates the very best of luck!

Primary 7 transition to secondary school has already begun as the pupils had a visit from Mrs Watters from Holy Cross High School on Friday to introduce herself and have a chat to them. The next part of transition will take place on Monday the 11th of September as the children and their families are invited to attend the P7 Welcome Mass at 6.30 pm in Holy Cross.

Awareness of road safety is a crucial life skill and this is promoted in the school by our Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSO). The boys and girls in P5/6/7 submitted application forms for the role of JRSO officers and I’m delighted to congratulate Tiva Chakona (P5) and Erin Guthrie (P6) who have been selected to take up this important role by Mrs Carty.

On Thursday the children also went along to the official opening of Blackwood Park on the day and had a fantastic time at what is a fabulous resource for the local community. Caitlyn Tops in P7 was a runner up in the design competition for a new logo for the park. Well done Caitlyn!

Our afterschool clubs will begin over the next two weeks and letters have been issued for these. I am delighted with the response from the staff in providing these extra-curricular opportunities for the children. It means that there is an afterschool club on every day of the week. We are also looking at opportunities for P1-P3 and more information on this and the Friday afterschool club will follow in due course.

Mrs Birtles has organised a Garden Tidy day this Tuesday before the Gardening Club begins. Thank you to all of our volunteers who are coming along on to help; hopefully we get a nice sunny day!

Homework will be issued this week and as previously, this will be given out on a Monday and handed back in on a Friday. I will also be issuing a special homework task to pupils this week inviting them to take part in a competition to celebrate Maths Week. Maths Week is an initiative which aims to encourage greater enthusiasm for and increase participation in maths. A poster will be uploaded on the school website with more information.

Finally we held our first Partnership Group meeting of the new school session on Wednesday 30th of August. We just managed a quorum of 4 parents which allowed the meeting to go ahead. I would urge all parents and carers to become involved with the Partnership Group as parental engagement and involvement in their child’s education has a positive impact on attainment and achievement. I also greatly value the support received from the Partnership Group and the contribution they make to St. John’s. Our next meeting is on Wednesday the 4th of October at 6.30 pm and I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Many thanks for reading my blog.

 

Mrs Yvonne McCart