THORNTREE NEWS TERM 4 APRIL 2017
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter holiday and are looking forward to your children taking part in the many interesting and exciting learning opportunities in our final term this session.
RUN A MILE WITH CRAZY HAIR FOR RED NOSE DAY
This was a great fun day which was suggested by Brandon. He and some other P7’s organised this event. The money raised will be sent to Red Nose Day.
T-FACTOR
Well done to Rachel who was our T-Factor Champion this year. She demonstrated her versatility by singing a range of songs both pop and country. Well done to everyone who took part, particularly the children who were voted through to the final.
A big thank you also to the T-Factor Organisers. The P7 organisers all worked hard to ensure the competition was fair and of a high standard. We wouldn’t have a T-Factor if the P7 children didn’t volunteer to run it.
The P7 children started their swimming programme on the first day back and almost everyone had costumes, hats, towels and money for the locker. Thanks parents and carers, this makes our job a lot easier! All of the swimmers reported that they had enjoyed their first lesson in the water.
Thanks to all of the parents and carers who attended our parent/carer nights before the holidays. We hope you found the experience to be of value. Thank you also to those of you who completed our questionnaire.
The results were as follows;-137 people completed the forms
Question 1 – Tell us one thing we do well, responses varied from being well organised, keeping children safe at school, high standard of teaching, communication, helpful staff, great breakfast club etc.
Question 2 – Tell us one thing we could do better – more organised outdoor play activities, more parent information, more evening meetings for working parents, more advance notice of events, more information about class projects, improve school meals.
Question 3 – if we had lots of money what could we buy –
IT equipment, musical instruments, summer trips, parent/child trips, playground equipment, after school activities, cooking clubs, refurbish the sheds, school mini bus, outdoor all weather pitch, better toys and equipment for gym.
As you may be aware we have been awarded money to raise attainment and close the poverty gap. Taking your suggestions into account, we would hope to employ more coaches, go on more outings, organise after school parent and child events, improve the play equipment for children, offer more evening opportunities for parents/carers and their children to interact, buy a share of a speech and language therapist, employ more support for learning workers, a child development officer, a part time teacher, engage with Strathclyde University for both the Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths subjects including 3D printing and join the Children’s University. We would buy the services of Story-tellers, an artist, work with Glasgow City CREATE team to bring musical instrument tuition to more children and develop further our partnership with With Kids, PEAK and Glasgow Life.
Our aim for our project is ASPIRE! We want our children to be offered a range of experiences both in and around the local area and around Scotland.
We would also buy 2 playground containers for new playground toys for playtimes – this would come from our school fund, as the money from the Equity Fund cannot buy learning spaces.
This is an interesting and exciting time in education and our Parent Council and PTA are working with us to ensure your voice is heard. As a team, we can do more, so if you are interested in getting involved, please give your name to one of the parent council, PTA members or Kath MacDonald or myself and come along to our meetings.
We also consulted our children about what they would like us to do better for them and the overwhelming response was more playground toys and games and seats for assembly.
Almost all of the children felt that Thorntree was a good school and they enjoyed coming to play with their friends. They were able to give examples of when they had been Effective Contributors, Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens and Confident Individuals.
GOOGLE EXPEDITION
What a great day some of our children had with the virtual expeditions courtesy of GOOGLE. Thanks to Miss Beattie and Miss McFarlane for organising!
EASTBANK TRANSITION DATES
Tuesday 13th , Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th June. P7 pupils will be at the Academy all day on these dates and should be collected from there at 3pm. If you have made a placing request for your child to attend a different school they will not attend the Eastbank days. When your request has been granted your child will attend the transition days for that school.
PRE-ENTRANT PROGRAMME
Our new Primary One pupils will come to Thorntree on the 10th, 17th and 24th of May at 1.30pm with their parents.
P5/P6/7 SHOW “ROMEO & JULIET”
Tuesday 30th of May(evening) and Wednesday 31st of May (afternoon)
P1-5 SHOW
Tuesday 13th of June(evening) and Wednesday 14th of June (afternoon)
DETERMINED TO DANCE FINAL
Our school is closed for the General Election on the 8th of June the day of the final, however, I am sure the final will go ahead and I will send you our separate arrangement for this important event.
FUN DAY
This is an opportunity for our children to enjoy a whole day of fun and enterprise. Room 9 will organise the stalls etc. with help from all of the other classes. We have bouncy castles and rides for the younger children. We like help from home with this day by parents/carers donating toys and games in good condition, books, DVDs (age appropriate) etc. for us to sell. The money we raise from our Fun Day is partly put into school fund, and partly used to support Vision Africa.
SPORTS DAY
This year, to try to give our children more opportunities to run in a variety of races, we decided to split the day into a morning session for P1-3 and an afternoon session for P4-7. Sports Day is on the 1st of June.
BIG BREAKFAST
All of the children who have been in our Nurture class are invited to a Big Breakfast celebration on the morning of the 23rd of June.
CHURCH
We will have our annual prize giving ceremony on the 26th of June at 9.30.
The Ribbon of Honour Party will be on the 26th of June too, this is for all children who have stayed on the Roll of Honour for the whole year.
The P7 Leavers Disco will also be on the 26th of June. We hope to book Shettleston Juniors and have DJ Darryl on the decks. To be invited to the disco, we need all children to demonstrate that they understand what appropriate behaviour is. Children must attend school on the day of the disco. They will not be allowed to have time off for any “cosmetic procedures!”. A buffet will be provided by the school for the children. Any Boogie Buses, Limos etc. are arranged by parents themselves. The disco will start at 7p.m. and finish at 9p.m. The children should bring some money if they want to buy drinks or sweets.
BELFAST
Our P5 children will be going on an adventure to see the Titanic Exhibition in Belfast on the 5th of May. They will travel by bus and ferry and be shown around the museum, visit the pump room and lots of other interesting and exciting activities. Everyone involved is really looking forward to this trip – the first time Thorntree has ever done this. We hope they take lots of pictures so we can tweet their experiences.
HOOTS OWLS
We will be visited by real live owls in May as part of P3’s topic. The children will be given a great deal of information about owls and will be able to get up close with them. I’m sure they will all love the opportunity – keep an eye on twitter and our website for photos.
ELECTIONS
The school is a polling station and will therefore be closed to children on the 4th of May and the 8th of June.
HOLIDAYS
We will be closed for the May holiday on Monday the 1st of May and again at the end of the month on Friday the 26th and Monday the 29th.
Miss McIntyre has begun her maternity leave. We hope she has time for a rest before the new baby arrives. We all wish her well. Mrs Weston will continue to work in room 12.
Miss Beattie is back in room 4. The children were pleased to see her and she has re-arranged her parents evenings. Make sure you arrange your appointment.
FOOTBALL
There is training on Thursday the 27th of May from 3-4 and a game at Glasgow Green on the 8th of May.
Mr Kelly of Shettleston Juniors has donated a new strip for our team and we are keen to see if it brings us good luck when we play the next games. We are very grateful for his support.
Thanks also to all the parents who come to Glasgow Green to support us. The boys have been great this year and have played through some shocking weather! They have had a great team attitude and showed maturity, cooperation and skill. I have enjoyed working with them. We have been lucky to have William Grey – a former pupil who is a Sports Leader from Eastbank Academy with us on a Monday. It has meant being able to take two teams every week. William has been 100% committed and reliable and he has been an excellent ambassador for Eastbank Academy (once a Thorntree pupil, always a Thorntree pupil !!). We will hopefully play and train a couple of times with Quarry Brae to finish the season.
Parking Pledge
Our Junior Road Safety Officers, with help from the Police and our Road Safety Assistant, will be hosting morning and afternoon events on Thursday 27th April to highlight the importance of not parking on the Zig Zags. Please park further away from the school gate and then walk the rest of the way. Help us keep our roads safe for all of our pupils.
BIKEABILITY
Mr Fraser, Mrs Griffiths and John Mackenzie have once again started their Bikeability training with the P6 children. They are teaching road-craft, safety and control. When the programme is complete the children will be given the opportunity to go to Millport, hire bikes and cycle around the Isle of Cumbrae
If you are a parent of a P6 child and fancy doing a bit of cycling, phone and let us know. We are thinking about having a parent’s group who would do a cycle of the Island in the opposite direction from the children with Aiden Byrne the Active School Coordinator. We would arrange for you to come to school to have a go at cycling in case you are rusty before the trip in June. We’ve also been talking to Aiden about bike mechanics – learning how to maintain and repair bikes. We would hope to maybe offer some training for this with our PEF money. (Pupil Equity Fund).
SCHOOL FUND
One of the items we spend our school fund on is hiring our school. This is called a “let”. For example Family Film Night, parent’s nights, disco’s show etc. all cost an average of £90.00 per event. This cost is to cover the security of the school by ensuring a janitor is on the premises. Another expenditure this year has been to buy 15 Kindles for class use. These cost us £600.00 and will be an excellent addition to the learning resources in our school. Playground toys have cost around £350.00. School trips are subsidised from school fund. We try very hard to keep the cost of the school day down. For example the cost of attending a disco has been the same for 13 years!
Dates for your Diary
Monday 1st May / May HolidayThursday 4th May / In Service – pupils do not attend
Friday 26th May / May Holiday
Monday 29th May / May Holiday
Thursday 1st June / SPORTS DAY
Monday 5th June / Report Cards given out during this week.
Thursday 8th June / In Service – pupils do not attend.
Friday 16th June / FUN DAY
Monday 26th June / Prize Giving Church Service
Monday 26th June / Primary 7 Leavers’ Party
Tuesday 27th June / Finish for Holiday at 1pm