18.12.14

Dear Parent/Carer

Here is a bit of an end of year round – up which will keep you up to date about our school.

FAMILY CEILIDH

We had the most fantastic time at our Ceilidh on the 27th of November. Everyone who came joined in with the Scottish dances which were taught to the dancers by the magnificent Ceilidh Band. It was a real joy to see parents and children laughing and dancing together as a family with staff equally keen to join in with the fun. Parents/Carers who came along felt that this should be an annual event. We think if we do it again it would be next January (2016) for Burns day. Thanks to Barrs Drinks for donating Irn Bru. Thanks to James McGee’s Dad for donating Shortbread for us. We had to pay for the hire of the school hall from our school fund which costs over £100.00 The band cost £240.00. Luckily Karen Donnelly’s friend donated designer sunglasses for our raffle, Leeanne McGhee donated vouchers for nails and Kirstin Wilson donated a bottle of wine. We had other prizes including two lovely teddies which we bought from the school fund as well as other donations.

CHRISTMAS FAYRE

Thanks to all teachers, children, parents, carers and friends who came and supported our efforts at the Christmas Fayre. Particular thanks to the Parent Council, PTA, Mrs MacDonald and Miss McIntyre for coordinating the stalls etc. Also to Mrs Kiddie and Mrs Whiteside who stayed on to provide the lovely hot dogs, tea, coffee and juice.

P3 were selling soap which they had made after we provided a workshop from Anna Malone who is a soap maker. The children presented their business model to me in a very well organised manner where they talked about their market research, product development research and a proposed costing. The school fund paid for the materials the children used and Anna’s time. The soap and bath balls were beautifully packaged for sale and only the best ingredients were used including pure essential oil. If you bought soap at the Fayre you will have had a truly luxury product for a very reasonable price.

DRESS LIKE CHRISTMAS

We will be giving With Kids a fantastic total of £200.00 raised on our Dress Like Christmas Day on the 12th of December. The money is composed of £143.00 from the non-uniform and £57.00 from Room 12’s fantastic enterprise stalls – tattoos, nail bar and biscuits. Thanks to everyone who donated toys for With Kids. They will make children who have no present to look forward to very happy. This year the children at lunch could choose from traditional Turkey or Steak Pie, a sandwich then ice – cream. A cracker was provided for every child from our school fund.

SCHOOL SHOW

What a spectacular school show this year! The new Nativity – “Children Around the World” was excellent. The P1s did a fabulous job singing and speaking their words. The P6 Angels were fantastic and P7 as usual entertained everyone with lots of oomph! Each class put a great deal of effort into learning their songs and the whole show was good enough to be on in the Pavilion or Kings Theatre. Thanks to all parents/carers who helped with learning words and providing costumes. Thanks to staff for their support.

We were using our new lights which took a bit of getting used to but on Wednesday were superb in lighting the children on the stage. We paid for these from our school fund.

Mr Fraser has to be commended for the work and effort he puts in to every performance – he uses lots of his own time to rehearse with the children. Who else has a ukulele band in their school?! Thanks too should go to Miss McQuaker and Miss Halley who taught all the dances which the children executed perfectly.

Thanks to Rev. Craig and Kathleen Miller for attending and to Kathleen for giving her talk.

We sold £481.00 worth of tickets. This will go towards the cost of the pantomime.

YOUTH WORK.

Susan Miller was also there at our show. She is a Youth Worker with Shettleston New Church. She has supported our school by running football skills coaching at lunchtime and our Scripture Union club at lunchtime. We will be putting a bit of a biography on our web-site with a picture. We are very lucky to have Susan as she is fantastic with the children and is totally committed to Thorntree.

CLASS PARTIES

Everyone had a fantastic time at their class party. Thanks to parents/carers who donated lots of goodies to help out with making the parties special.

Thanks also to Santa for coming to the P1/2 party and giving each boy and girl a present which the school fund paid for and the surprise visit of Elsa who enchanted the children with her presence and singing. We were “Frozen” with amazement!!

THORNTREE OUT AND ABOUT - CHOIR

Our choir have been singing their hearts out all over the place this year. They have been to a variety of Old People’s Homes, Shettleston Library, Tesco, Shettleston Methodist Church and as usual The Bridgeton Burns Competition. The choir came third this year and Daniel Brown came 3rd in the boys solo voice. Well done to them! We will be invited to the winner’s concert in February to perform to the Glasgow Burns Society. This is a real honour and demonstrates how well our children sing.

WATCH FOR US ON STV ON CHRISTMAS DAY or GLASGOW TV or GENERAL PROGRAMMING, I THINK THE PROGRAMME IS CALLED “THE GLASGOW CHRISTMAS SONG BOOK.”

SCIENCE CENTRE

Lots of children have been to the Science Centre for various workshops. These trips have been a great success and the children have really enjoyed going. P2 will be visiting in the New Year.

SPORT

The children have participated in a range of sports in school this term including Contact Rugby (very muddy!) which we have not played before and took place outside every Monday. This outdoor PE will be a good starter for the children going to High School where they are out hail, rain or shine!

We also had a taster of table tennis. We are going to buy tables from our school fund so that we can keep this going.

We recently held trials for the school football team and a lucky, talented 12 boys were chosen. The training will start in January and competitive games in February.

Hockey continues to be a top sport for our school. We were awarded £2000 from the Big Lottery which Uddingston Hockey Club helped us to get. They helped us choose a fantastic range of hockey equipment and have been providing free coaching all year and an after school club all year. This augments the programme we already run thanks to Mrs Johnston.

DANCING SCHOOL

What a night we had at St Mungo’s Academy for the local heats of the UDO World Dance Championship. Thorntree’s TTC Crew were superb. Their dance coach Stephanie Hawthorn taught a winning routine. The other schools who competed were very good and when we didn’t hear our name for a certificate we were all on the edge of our seats! However, both Thorntree and Sacred Heart are through to the finals at the Emirates Arena in June. We need to come up with another winning routine and have a big think about our costumes – the hats and t-shirts were fab, but I think we could do better. Watch this space…..

TRANSITION

Our P7s have participated in an excellent project on the Antarctic at Eastbank Academy. The children went for four weeks and enjoyed geography, PE and science classes. Parents were invited to a showcase of the work which was really successful. A real Arctic Explorer talked to the children and they have been invited to Snow-scape in January.

BBC TV

Our Showmen’s Families were featured in a recent BBC documentary to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Showman’s Guild. The school looked great and our children were fantastic ambassadors both for their community and our school. Mrs Horn and I were reluctant performers but we were not as horrified by our bit as we thought we were going to be!

LIFELONG LEARNING

  • Mrs Monteith and Mrs Horn have been trained to deliver Triple P as part of their on-going Nurture work.
  • Miss McDonald is participating in a professional development course in January with colleagues from the Learning Community.
  • I have been involved in a working group looking at Presumption of Mainstream.
  • Mrs Wills and I have been to an Erasmus workshop which helps schools develop their international education programmes. We are looking at e-twinning.
  • Mrs Nelson and Miss Beattie have been training in gymnastics.
  • Mrs MacDonald has been asked to be part of the ICT development group for the Council.
  • Mr Fraser has been exploring new techniques for teaching music.
  • I have been doing football training.
  • Mrs Colquhoun has been learning about teaching children who have dyslexia.
  • Our SfLWs have trained in Developmental PE and had input on dyslexia. (Support for Learning Workers)
  • We are working with our Learning Community colleagues on moderating science.
  • All SfLW’s (PSAs before the new name) have been on awareness training from Glasgow City Council.
  • Miss Halley and Mrs McIntyre have trained in the Theory and Principles of Nurture Groups.
  • Mrs Whiteside has been on GLOW training.
  • Mrs Johnston in the office has trained on our Staff systems including budget and staffing.
  • Mrs Le Drew is going on an autism course in January 2015
  • Everyone has been working on Open Number Lines to improve the children’s understanding of number and how it works. Mrs Wills has been filmed because of her excellent practice and the film is being used for training in Glasgow.

NEW STUFF

  • We are buying 3 new bins which will be wall mounted to help with our litter campaign. The litter monitors for this term have been fantastic and have been the most reliable to date. Thanks Keira and Holly.
  • Some P7 children will be carrying out a research task with P1 and P2 children to decide which toys they want for the P1/2 playground. We will be buying these from school fund.
  • After the success of our wristbands for attendance we have gone mad and bought different coloured bands for the whole year. So, each time your child has achieved 100% in a term they will be rewarded with a coloured wrist band.

WHAT’S IN THE DIARY FOR 2015?

  • School back on the 5th of January.
  • Pantomime – Peter Pan 7th January.
  • Registration of new P1 children 12-16 January 1.45 – 2.45 every day.
  • Scottish Step Dance Workshop P6
  • FUSE PROJECT P7 22 January
  • 26th January Paul Martin MSP visiting assembly
  • 30th Scots Poetry assembly and class visit.
  • February 2nd – 6th Lockerbie Manor P7
  • 4th February GEAP P6 (Greater Easterhouse Alcohol Project)
  • February 9th and 10th school closed
  • February 11th school closed in –service day
  • February 13th T-Factor starts
  • February 16th – 27th Assessment fortnight
  • February 18th GEAP P6 and P7
  • February 20th Science Centre P2
  • February 25th GEAP P6&7
  • February 26th Celtic Football Club Move to Learn 6 WEEKS
  • March 4th GEAP P6&7
  • March 11th P1 & P7 dental check
  • March 12th P1&P7 dental check.
  • March 12th PARENT/CARER’S NIGHT 5.30-8.00
  • March 17th PARENT/CARERS NIGHT 3.30-6.00
  • March 30th T-FACTOR FINAL
  • April 1st Easter Disco
  • April 2nd Easter Service 9.30
  • APRIL 2ND SCHOOL CLOSES AT 2.30 FOR EASTER HOLIDAYS
  • APRIL 20TH BACK TO SCHOOL FOR SUMMER TERM.