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Date: 6th February 2018

Anita Baskerville
Head Teacher
Learning & Leisure Services
Netherton Primary School
Netherton Road
Wishaw
ML2 0DD

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please enjoy reading our February update on all of our news about initiatives and achievements so far this year.

School Travel Plan

Supported by staff and parents, our Junior Road Safety Officers recently engaged in a meeting with representatives from North Lanarkshire’s Roads Department, to try to find solutions to ongoing issues around the school environment. The children impressed representatives and conducted themselves with just the right balance of passion and respect. We are delighted with the outcome of this meeting, with children managing to secure plans for the following:

  • Installation of guardrail along the school side of Netherton Road from the school access to the bus stop.
  • Installation of bollards at the bend on St Catherines Drive
  • Marking 20mph roundals on Grange Avenue and St Catherines Drive
  • Provision of marking on Netherton Road at School Crossing Patrol to indicate ‘keep clear’

Well done to our pupils and parents who took part on the day.

Gardening Club

Calling all gardeners! Mrs Bauer and Mrs Nicole Dick (PTA) are keen to start a gardening club, commencing on Tuesday 20th February (when the frost is gone!) from 3.10pm – 4pm each week. We are looking to involve parents and other members of our school community to share ideas and skills to develop our playground further. Ultimately, we hope to develop areas for our learners to have responsibility for throughout the school year, facilitating learning around crop rotation as well as developing life skills in planting, weeding and general garden maintenance. Look out for separate information coming home soon in a school bag near you!

Euro Quiz

Well done to P6 pupils Carlo, Orlagh, Lia and Jay who recently participated in this year’s Euro Quiz. The children competed against 20 other teams from P6 classes around the authority, enduring gruelling rounds on European Geography, History, Sport and Languages. The children prepared for the event taking part in special study quiz rounds in school, helping all children to brush up on their general knowledge. We were especially proud to hear how well our school stood out on the languages round which focused on 4 different languages, and depended upon our children being able to select and interpret French from within the group. The children were able to answer 8 out of 10 correctly which was remarked upon by quiz officials as being very impressive. It is really encouraging to see how effective our 1+2 language strategy is within the school and this is indicative of the children’s enthusiasm for modern languages. Well done to all who participated and to Mrs McCallum who supported the children both beforehand and on the day. We are really proud!

Homework

Huge thanks to all who took part in our online Homework Survey last term. We have convened a short-life working party to respond to the needs of our pupils and parents as indicated in responses. It was very clear that there is still a place for homework at Netherton Primary School but there was a clear indication that tasks should be short, clear and concise. At certain times of the year, some different assignments may be facilitated, however, the normal structure of weekly homework should be as follows:

P1-3

  • Spelling / Phonics Task
  • Numeracy Task
  • Reading book every evening

P4-7

  • Spelling Task
  • Grammar Task
  • Numeracy Task
  • Library book borrowed from class libraries to read at own pace for enjoyment

Dress Down Day

Please note, we are holding a dress down day this Friday 9th February for school funds (£1 donation).

Open Afternoon

Plans are underway for our scheduled open afternoon which will take place on Friday 16th February between 1.45pm and 2.45pm. Parents are invited to come along to see/join in with activities during this open hour, with opportunities for pupils to share their learning and show off some of their best work. And as if that isn’t incentive enough, tea, coffee and goodies will be served, too! We look forward to welcoming everyone on the day. Please note, this event will allow children to take parents into different areas of the school and for this reason, a bell will sound at 2.45pm where children should return to class. Parents can then return to the playground to collect children in the normal way at 3pm.

Cross Country

Good luck to all of our children competing in the annual North Lanarkshire Cross Country qualifiers on Friday 9th February! We look forward to hearing all about it!

PTA Update

Our PTA intend to hold a Prize Bingo Event in the Beltane Bowling Club on the evening of March 16th. There will also be an Easter Disco for pupils on the 28th March. Save the dates and look out for more details to follow. Thank you for supporting these events. This session, we have used school funds raised by our PTA in the following ways:

  • Subsidising individual class and whole school outings / transport
  • The purchase of new laptops for development of digital literacy experiences
  • School Flag
  • Gardening equipment and other miscellaneous resources

Headlice

At the beginning of the new year, it is often helpful to remind parents to be on the lookout for headlice. This is a busy time for treating the problem across all schools - you may have noticed an increase in the number of TV commercials advertising treatment products at the moment! The NHS advise weekly detection combing as a key practice which can keep the impact down. Headlice are nothing to worry about and can be easily treated, but we do like to remind parents to be on the lookout.

Please remember to share any thoughts with us using the school blog or by returning the attached comments slip which can be found on all newsletters.

Don’t forget you can access information daily on our school which you will find at: by Googling Netherton Primary School.

Anita Baskerville

Head Teacher

Comments

Dates for your Diary

6th February – Health Champions will visit Civic Centre for Safer Internet Day Event

8th February – Safer Internet Assembly

9th February – Participants from P5-7 will attend cross country event in Shotts (9.15 – 12.30)

9th February – Dress Down Day - £1 for school funds

12th February – Holiday

13th February – Holiday

14th February – Inset Day – no school for pupils today

16th February – 1.45pm – 2.45pm – Open Afternoon

20th February – Eco Champions will visit Firpark Secondary school to see their Poly Tunnel in action!

20th February – School Community Gardening Club commences – all welcome

21st February – Visitors from the Ebeneezer Church will share an assembly with us today

8th March – Dental Inspections for P1 & P7

14th March – Visitors from Overtown Gospel Hall will share an assembly with us today

16th March – PTA Prize Bingo Evening

23rd March – Football Festival – team to be confirmed

28th March – PTA Easter Disco for pupils

30th March – Holiday

16th April – School reopens for Term 4