St Albert’s Primary School

Newsletter August 2015

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back to all of you following, what I hope was, a happy and relaxing summer. At Assembly this morning the children were telling us some of the fantastic experiences they have had; visiting family, going on holiday, trips to the zoo and of course playing as all children should.

All staff are looking forward to the coming year and in particular continuing to raise attainment and opportunities for achievement for our pupils.

Also a huge welcome to our new families and we are delighted to welcome you to St Albert’s Primary School Community. We pride ourselves on our happy, friendly, respectful, supportive and hardworking ethos and I look forward to working with you and your child over the coming years.

This morning all of the children have settled very well in their classes and they are enjoying showing us all the things they have learned from you and from nursery. The playground this morning was exciting. The P7 buddies looked after the P1s and your children are all making new friends.

Primary One will be at school from 9am – 12.15until the 7th of September and should be picked up from the playground at 12.15. From then they will be here from 9am till 3pm. Lunch will be from 12.15 – 1.00. The children can go home for lunch or are welcome to stay.As you know all children in P1, 2 and 3 are entitled to a free lunch. As part of our transition process we will organise an opportunity for you to come in and have a delicious lunch alongside your child.

All P1 parents are invited for an informal drop in session every Friday morning from 9 – 9.30 to give you an opportunity to ask any questions about our school. Miss O’Connor and I will be available to you then. The sessions are in Room 10.

P1 please make sure everything your child brings to school is labelled including; bags, lunch boxes, ties and so on. Also please make sure your child brings a healthy snack for playtime.

Please take some time to read the following important information:

New Staff

We have some staff changes. We are delighted to welcome Mrs Maria-Louisa Hunter- Andreuccetti as a permanent teacher, this year we will be in P3. We also welcome Miss Sarah O’Dohertyas a permanent teacher in P6,7. We welcome Miss Suzanne Burns for this session in P4.

We also have been allocated two teachers to support our many children who have English as an Additional Language. Mr Drew McCormack who is permanent to the school and Miss Jayne Coylewho will be here full time on a temporary basis

School Lunches

As you know all of our school lunches are £1.70. The food is halal and you have been issued with the menu to help your child choose their lunch. If your child is bringing a packed lunch please ensure their lunchbox is clearly labelled with their name and class.

Timekeeping and Attendance.

Our focus is raising attainment and engaging children with their learning. To do this all of our pupils need to be here on time and ready to learn. This year we are hoping to improve on both timekeeping and attendance at school. We are developing a structure that we hope will support this. If, for any reason, your child is absent from school please phone 0141 287 0038as soon as possible and let us know. All of the absence information is recorded and the management team monitor this information. As ever we will try and support you and your family with any problems.

Newsletters/Website

We will continue to issue school and class newsletters throughout the year this is one way that we can keep you informed. The newsletters will be translated into Urdu and Arabicthen embedded on the school website. You can listen to these online using any technology. We will link them to our twitter account which means you can listen on your phone.

We will also use regular texts so please make sure we have your mobile number.

You can find us on:

Follow us on twitter @StAlbertsG41

If you have any other ideas as to how we can communicate school information then please let us know.

Parental Involvement

There are many ways you can become involved in your child’s learning and in the life of the school. We hope you will attend our events, volunteer where possible, and work with your children at home.

Last year we had some very successful events and classes including:

  • English Classes
  • Learning Together Group (which has been published as an example of best practice)
  • Ladies Pamper Day
  • International Education Day

Some of these were organised by our fabulous and dedicated Parent Council. This year we hope to build on this and provide many more opportunities for you to become involved. Very soon you will all be invited to the Parent Council AGM where we will outline our successes last year and our hopes for this.

Home Learning

Your child will be given homework from this Monday. This year we hope to further improve our home learning programme to support your children to become successful learners. We strive to ensure homework is clear, focussed and challenging.

As you know my aim to support you and your child with their learning and as such I am always available to you should you wish to discuss any issues?

Thank you for your continued support and good luck in the coming year.

Clare Harker

Headteacher