Neilston Primary School

Newsletter – August 2016

Welcome Back!

A very warm welcome to session 2016-17 to all our parents and carers whether your child has just joined us at Neilston Primary for the first time or has returned for another year.Thank you for all your kind words of support to myself and Miss Cumming as we take up our new posts this term.I am delighted to say that pupils and staff have settled quickly into school life and are already working very hard!

Refurbishment

I am very pleased to inform you that all pupil toilets were upgraded during the summer holidays. This work was very welcome and something the pupil council have been asking for over the last few sessions. The janitorial and cleaning staff worked extremely hard to clean up afterwards to make sure everything was ready for our return to school.

School Uniform—Dressing for Excellence

Thank you to all parents for supporting the school’s promotion of wearing school uniform. Our children have always been very smartly dressed and this continues to be the case.

Many, many thanks for this. Please remember that uniform also includes shoes and these should be black in colour. Some parents requested that their child wear black trainers instead of shoes and that is perfectly acceptable. No colourful trainers should be worn except for PE.

Through our questionnaires we are confident that the pupils and parents of Neilston Primary support the wearing of school uniform. It is both practical and economical and brings a sense of common identity and pride. Items of clothing can be purchased from the school office. If you require any help with any items of our school uniform please contact Geraldine Clarke, our Office Manager.

There are certain items of clothing that pupils should not wear. These includeshort skirts, jogging trousers, leggings, hooded tops, colourful trainers, heeled shoes, make-up. Pupils wearing make-up to school will be asked to remove it so it would be better if they refrained from wearing it and keep this for outside of school. We also ask that pupils do not display accessories such as fashion belts, scarves, necklaces etc. No items of clothing should promote any football colours nor sporting brand; this also includes PE kits.

Please ensure your child’s clothing is clearly labelled with their name, including PE kit.

PE Kit

PE kit consists of shorts, polo-shirt or t-shirt and gym shoes. It would be advisable to bring PE kit to school in a bag and leave it in school especially gym shoes and shorts. In the interest of health and safety no child is allowed to wear jewellery at PE or games. It is therefore advisable that your child does not wear any form of jewellery on their PE days.

The days for indoor and outdoor PE are shown below. To enable us to give our pupils the statutory 3 periods of PE a week classes will be doing one period of PE outside. We would ask that PE kit is brought to school and stored in a sandshoe bag or similar and kept on your child’s coat peg. This will help to prevent children forgetting their kit. Children may bring along tracksuits or similar items of clothing for outdoor PE only. Even if it is slightly raining the children will be going outside so a light jacket may be required in the event of rain.

As in previous years the children will be receiving one period of PE from a PE specialist from Eastwood High School. This will be from Mr Williamson a Monday, Mr Gibson on a Tuesday and Mrs Govanon a Wednesday.

PE Days are as follows:

Class / Indoor / Outdoor / Class / Indoor / Outdoor
P1a / Tues/Frid / Wed / P4a / Tues/Frid / Monday
P1b / Tues/Frid / Wed / P4b / Tues/Thurs / Friday
P2a / Mon/Thurs / Tues / P5a / Mon/Wed / Tues
P2b / Mon/Wed / Thurs / P5b / Mon/Wed / Tues
P3a / Mon/Wed / Fri / P6a / Tues/Thurs / Friday
P3b / Wed/Fri / Tues / P6b / Tues/Thurs / Wed
P7 / Mon/Thurs / DailyMile

Health and Safety

Your child’s safety is of great importance to us. With this in mind there are safety measures in place for you and your child to follow:

  • Children should cross the road with the assistance of the crossing patrols or the pelican crossing outside the school
  • If you are dropping off or picking up your child by car please use the area provided across from the school entrance. Please do not enter the school grounds or park on the zigzag lines.
  • We ask that you do not bring your car into the school grounds during school time whilst children are in the vicinity
  • When waiting outside the school entrance for your child please keep the pavement clear so that our pupils can pass by without having to go onto the road
  • Please help us in keeping our neighbours happy by not parking across their driveways
  • You will have noticed a ‘No Dogs Allowed’ sign at the entrance to the school. This policy must be adhered to and includes the tying up of dogs just inside the school entrance. We would ask that you tie dogs up in a safe place outside the school

Inclement Weather

We can only hope that this will happen very infrequently but I will not hold my breath!

On very wet mornings it would be better for children not to arrive until quite near bell time. However, as this is not always possible, children will be allowed into the school building at 8:50am.

At lunchtimes, on very wet days, children who stay for lunch in school will be permitted to stay inside. They will be supervised by members of staff. If your child goes home for lunch they should not return to school until around 1:30pm. They will then be allowed straight back into the school.

Children will be given quiet activities during this time.

Our Janitor, PSAs, Management Team and our P7 pupils will monitor the classrooms during this time. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for good weather.

Attendance and Absence

In all matters relating to pupil care and welfare we endeavour to keep our children safe by being able to account for their whereabouts at all times during the school day. In order to do so successfully we would ask for your support by adhering to the following points:

  • If your child is going to be absent from school please phone us between the hours of 8:30am and 9:15am or make direct contact with a member of staff. This includes children who may be late. There is also an answer phone facility available prior to 8:30am
  • If your child does not appear in school by 9:15am or by 1:45pm all attempts will be made to contact you by phone. This will include mobile numbers and emergency contacts. If we are unable to make contact we will send out an attendance officer to ensure your child is safe and well
  • If your child is to attend eg a dental appointment please let the office or class teacher know of this on the previous day
  • If a child is to go out of school for appointments please note they must be collected from the school office
  • On return to school after any absence please ensure a written explanation of the absence is given to your child’s class teacher. This letter will be kept on file.
  • Please keep the school informed of any changes to circumstances eg emergency contact information
  • We understand that it is not always possible to take holidays during school breaks but we do ask that where possible your child is not absent during term time. Please note that no homework will be given to children who are going on holiday
  • Because of the nationally recognised importance of attendance to a child’s achievement, opportunities and attainment, as Head Teacher I have a duty to monitor pupils’ attendance levels and will contact parents/carers regarding attendance/timekeeping concerns if necessary. This may be by mail, a telephone call or undertaken a home visit. If your child’s attendance drops below 90% this is flagged up on our computer and you will receive notification from the school. If you wish to discuss any attendance issue please contact me

Lunchtimes

As already stated we always have your child’s safety and security as one of our main priorities.

Only children going home for lunch are allowed out of the school grounds at lunchtime

All children going for a home lunch from Primary 3-7 should be collected from the school office. Primary 1 and 2 to be collected from the primary 1-2 exit. In the interest of safety no other child should leave the school grounds during lunchtime.

If you insist on your child leaving the school at lunchtime and he/she is not going home please contact me by phone or letter to discuss the matter.

Promoting Positive Behaviour

Our pupils are known for their excellent behaviour both in and around the school. They are always encouraged to see themselves as part of the whole school with responsibility of working towards the wellbeing of all its pupils.

Our Golden Rules are well known by the children and all pupils are given a copy of these and are expected to follow them.

Our Behaviour Management Policy was completed with input from staff, pupils and parents. The policy ensures that our parents/carers are informed of any pattern of disruptive behaviour very quickly by means of a staged approach.

If a pupil continues to misbehave despite several warnings from his/her class teacher you will receive a GREENletter. A continuation of any disruptive behaviour will receive a BLUE letter with an exercise to be completed. Any further disruptions will receive a PINK letter which is an invitation for parent/carer to meet with the class teacher.

We ask that you continue to work closely with us in this area and thank you for your continuing support.

Golden Time

The school operates the Golden Rules and to celebrate achievement of keeping to the rules throughout the week we have Golden Time on a Friday afternoon from 2:40pm. This year we have an allotted time of 25 minutes set aside for Golden Time. Golden Time is awarded on a daily basis; 5 minutes per day. In the unlikely event of a child not gaining their full 5 minutes for any of the five days then he/she would lose that amount of time on the Friday.

Our parents/carers play an essential role in assisting us in maintaining our high standards of behaviour and we greatly appreciate your support. We are very proud of our pupils’ excellent behaviour and know this will continue.

Lost Property

At the end of last session we were left with a number of lost jackets, jumpers, packed lunches etc. Mr Cuthbert, our janitor, has collected these and put them on our stage area for children to check to see if anything belongs to them. The children will be given until Friday 9thSeptember to reclaim any lost property. After this date all unclaimed clothing will be put into our recycling container.

We do ask that all items of clothing have your child’s name printed clearly. You can imagine what it is like trying to sort out one child’s black sweatshirt from another!

At the end of each week children are asked to check their cloakroom for any of their property eg jackets, jumpers etc and take them home. The janitor will clear the cloakroom area on a Friday after closing and remove any items to the lost property area. This can be checked by the children during the next week but any unclaimed items will have to be disposed of by the end of the week as we have no space to safely store lost items.

Staffing

We have had a number of new staff joining us this year. Miss Cumming joins us as Depute Head Teacher.Miss Cumming will have pastoral responsibility for P4-7. I will continue to have pastoral responsibility for Primary 1-3 as well as the role of additional support needs co-ordinator. Miss McCaskie joins us as Primary 5b teacher. We also have two new probationer teachers; Miss Devlin and Miss McBride. Mrs Akram, Mrs Campbell and Mrs Ness join us as additional support needs teacherssupporting pupils across the school. Our classes for this session are

Primary 1a / Mrs Brooksbank
Primary 1b / Mrs Connor
Primary 2a / Miss McCabe
Primary 2b / Mrs McDermott
Primary 3a / Mrs McPhail Smith/ Mrs Murray
Primary 3b / Miss Ritchie
Primary 4a / Mrs Allen
Primary 4b / Miss McBride
Primary5a / Miss Devlin
Primary 5b / Miss McCaskie
Primary 6a / Mrs McCabe
Primary 6b / Mrs Goudie
Primary 7 / Miss Crook
Non class contact and additional support teachers / Mrs Akram
Mr Bonnar
Mrs Carmichael
Mrs Campbell
Mrs MacMillan
Mrs Ness

School Meals

The price for school meals is £2.00

The Primary Menu can be downloaded from the East Renfrewshire Council website. These menus change every 3 weeks providing the children with a wide choice of healthy foods. Pupilsnow register their choice of food online each morning in class. Each child will be given a coloured band which will correspond to their choice.

This week has been Week 1 Week beginning Monday 22nd August will be Week 2 and Monday 29th August will be Week 3, Week beginning Monday 5th September will be back to week 1 and so on……

A copy of the menus for the three week period will be posted on our website.

Payments 4 Schools

A parent leaflet on how to work with Payments 4 Schools can be found on our website.

It would be very beneficial if you could pay online so that your child does not need to carry money with them to school. This can be done for meals and for trips.

If this is not possible can I please ask that you ensure that your child has their money with them every day. Children should enter the school before 9am via the P1/2 door and put their money into the machine prior to bell-time. This includes tuck money. This cuts down on any disruption to classes.

Please note our machine does not accept 5p, 2p or 1p coins.

Dates for Your Diary

This newsletter is more a passing on of important information. As stated above a comprehensive guide to the school can be found on our website at

Right at the beginning I stated we had settled in quickly to our routines and the school holidays already seem a distant memory. The diary is beginning to fill up so here are the up and coming events due in the next few weeks.

  • Thursday 18th August - our P7 pupils attend Safety in the Park
  • Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7thSeptember -the school photographer will be visiting the school. She will be taking individual and family groups on the Tuesday and class and school groups on the Wednesday. Further information will be sent to you shortly
  • Thursday 8th September- Meet the teacher evening
  • Wednesday 24th August – P7 Lockerbie Manor Meeting

Let us entertain you!

As you are aware we have traditionally held a Christmas concert which involves the whole school. Whilst this is always a very busy and worthwhile event,last year we had some feedback that has led us to consider other options. Some parents felt the show was too long and others felt it was too cold and dark for younger children to come back to school in the evenings. We are therefore proposing to change the format next session to have a nativity play for Primary 1-3 which will be held during the school day and in addition to have a summer concert for Primary 4-7 with Primary 7 leading the show over two evenings. We would like to hear your thoughts on these proposals and will be happy to take other suggestions on board.

Looking Ahead

The AGM of our Parent Council will be held in the school on Tuesday 30th August at 6:30pm. All parents form our Parent Forum and any parent/carer is free to come along to the AGM and find out what is happening and help to vote in a New Chairperson. You will be made most welcome.

Our Meet the Teacher event will take place on the evening of Thursday 8th September from 6:30pm. A separate invitation will be sent out to you providing further information. I hope many of you will be able to come along to this event.

P7 Residential Trip – Lockerbie Manor- Information Evening Wednesday 24th August at 6.30pm

We are an Eco friendly school and try to use email where possible. If you have not already done so can you please send us a copy of your email address or call into the office and speak to our office manager. Thank you.

Our next newsletter should arrive with you during the first week in September. If you do not receive one please let us know.

Newsletters are sent out regularly usually at the beginning of each month to update you on what is going on in the school. You can always download one from our website. Our contact details are:

☺Phone: 0141-570-7240

☺Email: through the school website at:

☺Or simply call in

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