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Happy New Year to all of our pupils and families and we wish everyone a successful, happy, enjoyable and productive year!
I visited our school janitor, Mrs Keenan in hospital at Christmas and have passed on the many good wishes, thoughts and prayers of all of our families. Mrs Keenan continues to make some progress in her recovery, having recently moved from the intensive care unit. Mrs Keenan’s new room will be adorned with many cards from the children and staff. I shall remain in constant communication with her family and I know that many of you are anxious to receive news of her progress, which I will share with you when I can. Thank you again for the many enquiries and good wishes.
The month of December in school culminated once again in a most enjoyable and successful Christmas concert and I would like to thank all staff involved for the tremendous hard work and commitment shown to enable us to host such a wonderful afternoon. My thanks once again to the many parents who have voiced their appreciation by either e-mail, card or letter or by simply talking to staff. It was most appreciated.
Our term concluded with a beautiful Mass at St Gabriel’s, led by the pupils of Primary 7 who organised our tableau depicting the nativity scene. My thanks
to Mrs Carrigan and to Mrs Gibbon for preparing the children so well and can
I also express our gratitude to Mrs Semple for enhancing our liturgy with a beautiful rendition of “O Holy Night”.
VALUES MERITS FOR DECEMBER
You may have noticed our new values tree in the school foyer, designed by the school Liturgy group with advice from Father Michael and completed by the children under the artistic guidance of
Mrs Carnochan and our new assistant Miss Grier. As you know, each class is charged with presenting an assembly on one of our school values and in order to encourage the children to utilise these values in their daily lives, the staff have suggested that we acknowledge children who demonstrate small acts of kindness etc. by issuing monthly values merits. This is a lovely way of keeping the school values at the heart of all our discussions with children and allowing our own children to be role models for each other.
Congratulations to our first award winners, who were as follows:-
CLASS / PUPIL NAME / MERIT ACHIEVED FOR COMPASSION/GENTLENESSP1 / Mark MacKinnon / Helping our new pupil Ibraheem
P2 / Ibrahim Aslam / Helping when others are upset
P3a / Hadi Arslan / Helping anyone who is left out
P3b / Lauren Nixon / For being kind during break and lunch
P4 / Eassa Azam / For always showing gentleness to others
P5 / Nina Mackie / Helping to solve differences in the playground
P6 / Nessie Ntamashimikiro / Helping others when they feel sad
P7 / Aliyah Moti / Good example in the playground as Sports Captain
DINING ROOM REFRESH - HEALTH GROUP
The school health group will be working to review the lunchtime experience in the dining hall for all pupils this session. Again, look out for our new posters promoting excellent dining room etiquette and protocols which I have shared with all children at assemblies recently. The catering staff have remarked over the last few months of the huge improvement to school manners with the phrases “please“ and “Thank you” becoming much a more regular feature of childrens’ vocabulary. Thank youfor supporting the school with this and for contributing to teaching your children the importance of treating all adults in the school with respect and lovely manners.
We have been working really hard to support children with dining room etiquette and many of our children throughout the infant department (Primary1-3) and sometimes beyond continue to display real difficulties in using cutlery appropriately or often at all. You will appreciate as there are few adults in the dining room, it is a real task to help support children with this skill. Could I please request that all parents/guardians take some time to focus on this essential skill with our younger pupils within the home environment as I am sure that this would very quickly pay dividends here in school. In this very changing social world where fast food and finger food is much more common, it is easy to lose awareness of where children need some assistance.
Over the next few weeks, we are planning some more lengthy dining room sessions for Primary 1 and Primary 2 alongside their teachers and assistants for a short block of time to put some focus in this area and we would be grateful for any extra helping hands on those days from parents and guardians who have time to spare.
As we don’t want to lose valuable teaching time, this will be a short intervention so please keep promoting these skills at home.Thank you!
Further news next week re dates and times but in the meantime please let Mrs Duffy know if you can help us.
SCHOOL WEBSITE UPDATE
Thank you to all parents/guardians for bearing with us over the last few months whilst
Mrs Carrigan and Mrs Gibbon have been transferring all of our data to a new website. The staff will engage in a training session this Wednesday 17th January to look at uploading photographs and information about children to the new site. You should look forward then at the end of January/February holiday weekend to seeing lots of new information about your child’s class, weekly news and school events. All of our Pupil Voice Groups will be meeting this term and updating the website with their news. Finally our class bloggers will have the opportunity to post news about class events as we move through this term.
To access website click on:
JOTTER VIEWING OPEN EVENT - THURSDAY 8TH FEBRUARY
Parents will have an opportunity this tern to view progress in children’s core class work. There will therefore be an “open hour” on Thursday 8th February from 3.15- 4.15pm
During this time jotters will be placed in the usual folders, organised by class and marked with your child’s name. These trays will be set out in the ICT area with chairs available at the two tables outside the P5/P6 area and the P3/P4 area for your comfort. Please come along and view your child’s progress this term. A feedback slip will be provided for you to communicate with your child’s teacher.
All members of the senior management team will facilitate this event but there will be no opportunity at this time to meet with any class teachers.
We hope this gives you the chance to enjoy seeing the on-going work of the class and to provide our very hard-working teachers with some nice reflections!
IN SCHOOL CURRICULAR EVENTS FOR SPORT DURING JANUARY
Mondays / Langside Students are working with P1 & P2 pupils for the next six weeks in multi-sports/ Thursdays 12.30 -1 pm / P3 & P4 pupils will be participating in a lunchtime sports club 12.30 – 1 pm
AFTER SCHOOL EVENTS IN JANUARY
/ Wednesdays 3 - 4.30pm / After school gymnastics will commence on Wednesday 10th January from3.00 – 4.30 pm. This will run for the next four weeks and the pupils will thereafter have the opportunity to participate in a gymnastics competition.
Afer School Fitness Club
P1, P2 & P3 / Mondays 3 - 4 pm / After School Fitness Club for P1, P2 & P3 will commence on Monday 22nd January from 3.00 – 4.00 pm. There are limited spaces available, therefore names will have to be balloted. Parent/Carers will hear mid week if their child has been successful in gaining a place.
After School Recorder
/ Wednesdays 3 - 4 pm / Mrs McKirdy reports that the recorder group are progressing. If any P4 – P7 pupils are interested in joining the recorder group please contact the school office.
FORTHCOMING TRIPS THIS TERM
/ 22.02.2018 / P4 - Visit to Science Centre(Electric Detective)
/ 22.03.2018 / P7 - Visit to Science Centre
(Hands on DNA)
/ 27.03.2018 / P1 - Visit to Science Centre
(Destination Space)
P.E. TIMETABLE
P1P2
P3a
P3b
P4
P5
P6
P7 / Monday & Wednesday
Monday & Wednesday
WednesdayThursday
Wednesday & Thursday
Tuesday & Thursday
Tuesday & Friday
Tuesday & Thursday
Tuesday & Thursday
LOAVES AND FISHES APPEAL
Thank you to all the families who once again contributed to our Advent Appeal for the Loaves and Fishes charity.
Representatives from the charity visited the school on the final week of term and were delighted to uplift a most generous collection of food and clothing to support the homeless in our city.
VALUE ASSEMBLIES THIS TERM
Primary 2 / 25th January 2018 - KIndnessPrimary 6 / 22nd February 2018 - Justice
Parents of pupils in the above classes are welcome to join us at our assembly on that day at 9.15am. / Tea and coffee will be available in the meeting room after our assembly.
FAITH NEWS AND EVENTS /
The pupils of Primary 6 will celebrate mass led by Father Michael
on Tuesday 16th January at 2.00 pm.
This will serve as an enrolment mass where the children will embark on
a programme leading to the achievement of the pope Francis Faith Award
in Primary 7. I would encourage parents to join us if possible in marking
this special programme. /
Catholic Education Week will take place from 29th January –
Friday 2nd February 2018 with the theme “ Serving the Common Good”
Education Sunday - 4th February 2018
(pupils from P6 & P7 will attend as readers)
Ash Wednesday - 14th February 2018
P3 First Confession Parents Meeting - Tuesday 27th February
Then “We are the Greatest”– Time to be confirmed.
A reminder that during Lent all pupils in P4 – P7 will have the opportunity
for Reconciliation following class masses on the following dates:-
Tuesday 20th February (1.15 pm) P6
Tuesday 6thMarch (1.15 pm)P7
Thursday 13th March(1.15 pm)P5
Tuesday 27th March(1.15 pm)P4
All parents/carers are warmly invited to join us for mass at 1.15 pm on
the dates outlined above
OLA Feast Day - Friday 23rd March 2018 (10.00 am)
WIDER ACHIEVEMENTS- PROUD AS PUNCH!
Thank you to all parents/guardians who took the time at our November Parents’ evening to complete our “Proud as Punch” display. Staff and children enjoyed reading of our childrens’ many notable achievements outside school via the world of music, sport, art etc.We read of some fantastic awards as well as the achievement of some personal challenges and we have added this information to our achievement folders.
GOING FORWARD WITH WIDER ACHIEVEMENTS VIA MONTHLY ASSEMBLIES
To capitalise on this rich information which we often don’t get the chance to hear about ,Mrs Carrigan will populate the new website with a form for Parents to complete and send to the school at the end of March.
ATTENDANCE AND LATECOMING
We have a duty of care to monitor the regular attendance of all children and to strive to support families where necessary to maintain and improve attendance and timekeeping as this often has a big impact on childrens’ progress. The school clerical staff maintains robust records which are reviewed monthly.
At the end of January, further contact will be made with families whose children are displaying patterns of absence or late-coming and the school will liaise with the attendance officer for the learning community who may link in to support families.
SCIENCE CURRICULUM
As you know, Science remains on our School Improvement Plan and we are continuing to celebrate Science and encourage a motivating Science curriculum to develop pupils’ skills and enthusiasm for this subject. We will again be having our Science exhibition at OLA, as well as this, all classes will attend workshops/events at the Science centre relating to their class curriculum. We are also seeking support from those who are working in the fields of Science & Engineering to come and support our children and bring their learning to life. Therefore, we would be grateful if any of our parents or grandparents who work in a Science/Engineering related field could visit some of our classes to talk about their experiences or share their knowledge. If you are able to help please contact Ms Murphy.
A list of this term’s Science topics are below.
P1 / Under the SeaP2 / Toys and Friction
P3a/b / The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch (Forces and Friction)
P4 / Electricity
P5 / Plant Growth
P6 / Sound and Light
P7 / The Human Body
PAIRED READING
Thank you again to all our paired reading volunteers. Our paired reading sessions will begin again on Monday 15 January.
PARENT COUNCIL
The next meeting for the Parent Council is on Tuesday 23rd January at 7.10pm at the school and it would be great to see some new faces. The Christmas Cards raised £180 for the school which is fantastic so thank you all for your efforts in raising this money. We are hoping to use some of the money to purchase a digital camera in the next week or so for the digital group.
It was a busy end to the year for the school and, with the money that you raised, we paid for a juice and crisps for each child at the Christmas party and each P1 to P3 child received a goodie bag with the upper school children receiving a chocolate Santa. We would welcome feedback from the P1 to P3 parents as to how the goodie bag was received as that was a change from previous years.
We are also looking to re-furbish the notice board outside the school and if anyone is able to assist in this can you please either let the school or the PC know so that we try and have this done as soon as possible.
If you have anything that you wish raised at the meeting then please come along and you will be made most welcome or if you are unable to attend then please e-mail s or send a message via facebook and we can discuss it at the meeting.
Our Lady of the Annunciation Primary
ANNUAL CALENDAR
2017-2018
Tuesday 16th January @ 2pm / P6 enrolment mass re Pope Francis Faith AwardThursday 25th January / P2 Merit Assembly (Kindness) – Parents/Carers welcome 9.15 am
Monday 29hJanuary –
Saturday 3rd February / Catholic Education Week
Sunday 4th February / Education Sunday – St Gabriel’s Parish
Wednesday 14th Feburary / Ash Wednesday (In-Service Day)
Tuesday 20th February / Mass and Reconciliation P6 @ 1.15 pm
Thursday 22nd February / P4 Science Centre (9.10 am – 12.00)
Thursday 22nd February / P6 Merit Assembly (Justice) – P6 Parents/Carers welcome 9.15 am
Tuesday 27th February / Parents Meeting First Confession (time tbc)
We are the Greatest Service P3 (time tbc)
Tuesday 6th March / Mass and Reconciliation P7 @ 1.15 pm
Friday 9th March / Daffodil Tea @ 11.00 am
Tuesday 13th March / Mass and Reconciliation P5 @ 1.15 pm
Thursday 22nd March / P7 Science Centre (9.10 – 12.00)
Friday 23rd March / OLA Feast Day @ 10.00 am St Gabriel’s Church
Tuesday 27th March / P1 Science Centre (9.10 am – 12.00)
Tuesday 27th March / Mass and Reconciliation P4 @ 1.15pm
Thursday 26th April / P3A & P3B Merit Assembly (Forgiveness) – P3 parents/Carers welcome 9.15 am
Saturday 12th May / First Communion @ 11.00 am
Tuesday 15th May / New Entrant Session 1
Thursday 17th May / Parents Evening
Saturday 19th May / First Communion @ 11.00 am
Monday 21st May / New Entrant Session 2
Thursday 22nd May / Thanksgiving Mass P4 & whole school @ 9.15 am
Thursday 31st May / P1 Merit Assembly (Love) – P1 parents/carers welcome – 9.15 am
Monday 4 –Friday 8th June / Health Week
Wednesday 6th June / Sport’s Day
Thursday 7th June / P7 confirmation – St Mary’s Pollokshields time TBC
Thursday 14th June / Head Teacher’s Cream Tea
TBC / Leavers’ Mass @ 10am in St Gabriel’s Church
TBC Tuesday 20th June / Leaver’s Celebration
Our Lady of the Annunciation Primary School
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS / IN-SERVICE DAYS
2017/2018
20182018 Return to School / Thursday 4th January 2018
Second Mid-Term / Monday 12th February, Tuesday 13th February &
Wednesday 14th February 2018 (In-service day)
Good Friday
Spring Holiday (Easter) / Good Friday 30th March 2018
Easter Monday 2nd to Friday 13th April 2018 (inclusive)
*Please note that schools will close at 2.30 pm on the last school day before the holiday
May Day / Monday 7th May 2018
Tuesday 8th May 2018 (In-service day)
May Weekend / Friday 25thand Monday 28th May 2018
School Close / Tuesday 26th June 2018
*Please note that school will close at 1.00 pm on the last school day before the holiday
In-Service Days
Day 1 / Friday 11th August 2017 / All SchoolsDay 2 / Monday 14th August 2017 / All Schools
Day 3 / Friday 13th October 2017 / All Schools
Day 4 / Wednesday 14th February 2018 / All Schools
Day 5 / Tuesday 8th May 2018 / All Schools
Ann Watson
Head Teacher
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