Newsletter

JANUARY 2015

Happy New Year to all!

GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK

Mrs McKenzie, Teacher in Skye Class has resigned from her post, we are sad to say Goodbye but wish her ‘Good Luck’. The post has been advertised and I will notify you in due course of the preferred candidate.

MINIBUS OUTINGS

Our outings started this week. Please send in outing money - either £1.50 per week or £15 for the term. Thank you.

‘SNACK HEALTHY’ PROGRAMME

If you have signed up to the ‘Snack Healthy’Programme please send in either £13 for the term or £1 each week. Remember you no longer need to send in snacks for your child.

A 2 week programme has been devised using Government advice on Healthy Eating for Schools. The programme runs Monday to Thursday and costs £1 per week (charge in mainstream schools is 40p per day). As well as children and young people receiving a healthy snack it aims to broaden the range of foods eaten by the pupils. The classes will also participate in a rota and take responsibility for:-

  • Collecting money
  • Setting out snacks
  • Preparing daily menus, etc.

This will contribute to the development of literacy, numeracy and life skills.

GOOD FOR YOU TUCKSHOP

Please please continue to support our healthy tuckshop. The young people in Arran S1-S3 class are enjoying running this enterprise venture. A snack and drink only costs 50p. Thank you!

PERSONAL CARE – SUPPLY OF PULL-UPS/WIPES

If you are sending pull-ups in for your child, could you please also send in 4 packs of wipes for the term. If possible either Johnson’s or Pampers, as these makes are stronger and better for using with our pupils. Thank you for your help with this.

VISION & VALUES

Thank you to all of our parents/carers who returned their questionnaires at the end of last term. The information has been collated alongside views from staff and partners to inform our new vision statement.

Our values remain the same (displayed at the bottom of the page).

Our vision (as created and agreed by staff, parents and our partners) is as follows:-

‘To Get it Right for Every Child’

We are committed to providing our learners with a happy and high-quality teaching and learning environment to develop their strengths, skills and talents to achieve the best that they can. We will work in partnership with parents and our partners to deliver a curriculum that enables our learners to reach their full potential and to be as functionally independent as possible. It is our aim to ensure that our pupils are fully included, accepted and where possible can contribute to the community in which they live and learn.

PARENT COUNCIL

The Parent Council were successful in securing a further grant of £873 for the school to purchase waterproof clothing for outdoor learning and equipment for our ‘Snack Healthy’ Programme.

The current total for the Snoezelen is approximately £8,800. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Parent Council and all of our parents/carers for contributing to this very worthwhile cause.

Parent Council Meeting

Our next Parent Council meeting will take place on Wednesday 21 January at 9.45 a.m. in school. All parents/carers are more than welcome to attend this meeting.

PARENT SUPPORT GROUP

The date of the next Parent Support Group has still to be decided. I will contact you as soon as I have this information.

ANNUAL BURNS SUPPER

Bute, Senior Phase Class, will take the lead role in organising our Burns Supper. The other classes will perform a short Scottish poem or song and have already started practicing their Scottish country dancing. Our event will culminate in the whole school enjoying an Address to the Haggis and the Selkirk Grace.

ATTENDANCE

Please remember to telephone the school to let us know if your child is unwell or is going to be absent for a few days. Similarly if your child has an appointment, let us know in advance. We can provide visual supports to help your child understand/cope with the change in routine for that morning or afternoon. Thank you!

INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING

We have recently reviewed and updated our framework for topic planning and this term our whole school topic is:-

“A Night at the Theatre”

All classes have planned lots of rich experiences covering Expressive Arts. At the end of term all classes will put on a short performance relating to the topic, e.g. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or a scene from ‘Shrek’. Your child’s termly report will contain a snapshot of the learning taking place and the progress that your child makes within interdisciplinary topic work.

During this term we will also welcome ‘Sparkle & Shine’ who will perform songs from Disney’s Frozen and an Art specialist to create artwork relating to the theatre performance selected by each class.

Yvonne Gribben

Head Teacher

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School Values