Category Archives: Mrs. Stewart’s News

Mrs. Stewart's News

Snow Day 2

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Calling all Bankton snow learners

You will know by now that school will be closed 
today and tomorrow. The teachers have all worked 
really hard to provide exciting learning for you to access at home.
Today’s challenge from me is all about extreme 
weather for all the scientists out there!
Can you find out:
*Where does snow come from?
*How does it form?
*Why we are having so much snow?
*What makes this snow different?
*When was the last time schools closed in West 
Lothian?

Can you add photos / video from your garden and put your information into a SWAY or PowerPoint we can 
share at Assembly?

Remember today is one of the most special days all year - World Book Day. We will celebrate in school next Thursday - can’t wait to see you all. 
STAY SAFE

Mrs. Stewart
Mrs. Stewart's News

Calling all Bankton Snow Learners

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I hope you and your families stay safe in these difficult weather conditions! West Lothian Council have made this decision to keep all of us safe, particularly anyone having to travel on the roads.

Today is a day for fun learning – here are a few websites and activities for you to try out with your family:

NUMERACY FAMILY LEARNING SITES:

log in to SUMDOG

www.familylearning.org.uk>online_maths

www.familylearning.org.uk>numeracy

www.bbc.co.uk>skillswise>tutors

Why not APPLY your maths and numeracy skills by:

*Baking a cake

*Timing how long it takes to clear the path of snow

*Measuring how tall your snowman is in cms – can you also measure ROUND the head/waist/base

*Measure the depth of the snow around the house – on the doorstep/in the garden etc

TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS TO SHARE AT ASSEMBLY!

 

LITERACY FUN LEARNING:

*Read / read/ read!

*Find an unusual place to read – make a cosy den and take a torch – under a table/under the    bed/ in a cupboard – MAKE SURE IT’s SAFE!

*Draw / Paint / Create your favourite book character out of junk to bring in for World Book Week

*Find out how to say “It’s snowing” in our other special languages – French and German

*Write a letter to Badger  to put in our postbox telling him all about your snow day

Can’t wait to hear about your SNOW LEARNING! – Make sure you have photos to share!

Mrs. Stewart's News

Bankton Severe Weather Arrangements

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Bankton Primary School shares Janitorial Staff with Dedridge Primary and St. Ninian’s Primary throughout the day. This can put pressure on the early shift in severe weather where the Janitor has responsibility for opening three schools, clearing and gritting paths.

WLC require janitorial staff to clear ONE path designated a safe route into school. In Bankton we have designated TWO paths for this purpose.

The path from the Mowbray Rise gate to the Breakfast Club door and the Zig Zag path to the Infant door will always be gritted early in the morning. The steps at the front of the building will also be gritted to ensure safe access. When the children are inside the building they will be supervised by early arrival staff in the great hall until the start of the day. The playground will be assessed for risk at break and at lunchtime and pupils supervised indoors if there is still a risk from ice / snow.

Any parent or child with disability should always come to the school car park and park in the disabled space, entering the building via the steps.

We would ask you to be aware that in EXTREME conditions, grit scattered at 6am will have little effect, so please wear sensible footwear and stick to the cleared paths.

Thank you for your co-operation with health and safety in our learning community.

Mrs. Stewart, Headteacher

Mrs. Stewart's News

School Meals from August – For the attention of P.4 parents

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REMINDER that the government’s free school meals initiative for P.1 – P.3 pupils does not continue into P.4.This means that all parents who are not eligible for free school meals should order and pay through our iPay Impact system at a cost of £1.97 per day from August.


I would seriously urge any parent who thinks they may be eligible for free school meals to apply now for the new session.
The government calculates our Pupil Equity Funding based on the numbers of pupils registered for free meals – so please register if you think you are eligible as this will increase our funding.


Information about eligibility can be found on the West Lothian Council Website at the link below:

https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/3787/Free-School-Meals

 

If you have any further questions regarding this, please contact the school office.

 

 

Mrs. Stewart's News

Online Safety – Streaming Apps

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The following advice has been circulated to all West Lothian Schools by martin berginnis, our Child Protection officer.

Parents of children at all stages may find this useful.

Advice regarding use of Live.ly and Musical.ly streaming apps
 
Following on from a number of incidents involving children from across the UK, we would like to raise awareness of the above apps and share the following information with parents:
 
1.       The terms and conditions state all users must be at least 13 years of age.
2.       Users may be exposed to adult content such as swearing, graphic content and pornography.
3.       Live streaming is not fully private even when privacy settings are set to on.
4.       Users are able to search for other users close to their location.
 
For further information about potential risks to children please visit the following pages:
 
Mrs. Stewart's News

Financial education through our PATPAL Morning

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A quick reminder to all of our parents that tomorrow is the day of our PATPAL Morning (Pupils As teachers, Parents As Learners). All staff and children are looking forward to welcoming you into our classrooms to share our Numeracy learning around the theme, ‘I spend, I save’ from 9.15am – 10.15am.

This focus on money sense will help to prepare our children with skills for life and work. To help you to help develop these skills further at home I have uploaded a booklet called ‘I spend, I save’ to the Useful Documents page. This contains activities and useful web links to family learning games on money.

After the PATPAL morning we will have a coffee morning and recycled uniform shop in the small hall.

Please come and encourage your child in his / her learning!

piggy-bank

Mrs. Stewart's News

Home learning in Numeracy @ Bankton PS

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As discussed on our Parents as learning Partners event I have uploaded our new Parental Support Booklet to the Useful Documents Section of the Blog. This is the first of this year’s series of Parent Support Booklets. Look out over the course of the year for I spend, I save (Financial Education) I solve (Problem Solving Strategies) I count (Number talks) and I love Maths (Growth Mindset).

Working together in partnership we CAN make a difference to our children’s attainment in Numeracy.

Mrs. Stewart's News

Family Learning Event @ Bankton PS

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imageimageimageimageMrs Sinclair, Support for Learning Teacher, hosted another highly successful Support for Learning Showcase Event today in Bankton.

35 Parents and their children participated in a Family Learning Event to share strategies and resources and how these can be used at home.

Parents were very positive about our family learning programme saying that Mrs. Sinclair had made it easy for them to support their children at home.

A special ‘Well Done!’ to our pupils who acted as ‘expert learners’ explaining resources & strategies to their parents.

Invitations for 1-1 Tutorials will be sent out soon.