Loirston School Bulletin No 1

 

Dear Parents/Carers

A very warm welcome to the new school session. It is great to see all the children back at school looking so smart with their uniforms on. We would like to offer an extended welcome to pupils who have newly enrolled in the school and to our nursery and P1 children who appear to be very excited as they join us. We look forward to working with you over this school year and sharing our children’s achievements both within and out with school.

Dates for your Diary 1/9/14 – Homework begins 8/9/14- P1 pupils begin attending full days. 16/9/14 – Curricular evening for P1 parents 18/9/14 – In Service School closed to pupils 19/9/14 – September Holiday School closed to staff and pupils 22/9/14 – September Holiday School closed to staff and pupils 10/10/12 – School closes for October Break

 Staffing updates

This session we would like to welcome Miss Cummins to our staff. She will be teaching in Primary Three and we look forward to working with her this session.  As you know Mrs Collie from Yellow 8 is on Secondment to the authority . In order to fulfil her duties  Mrs Turner is working extended hours and I will be working within the Yellow 8 setting for timetabled periods each week.

In-Service Days

During the in-service day on the 18th August the staff were engaged in training in child protection, and planning how we will continue to develop the Curriculum for Excellence within our school. We will be looking at new planning methods and assessments in line with the curriculum. Throughout this session we will keep you informed of all developments. We have also put a focus in term one of reviewing our behaviour policy and procedures. Our School Improvement Plan for this session will be uploaded this week and you will be able to access it on the Loirston Blog. The address for which is noted above.

Yearly Calendar

Attached to this bulletin you will find a yearly calendar that shows all the holiday dates for this session. We would also draw our Primary One parent’s attention to the curricular evening date. We have a curricular evening on 16/9/14.  This evening will be for P1 parents and carers and will run from 6.30 – 8.00pm.  At this we aim to give you an insight into the teaching of phonics and reading in P1.

 Parents’ evenings have not been added to the calendar yet as following information from our parent survey last session we are reviewing the organisation/timings of parents’ evenings and issuing of reports. Dates will be added as soon as they have been finalised.

School Uniform/Naming of Clothes

As you are aware we strongly recommend the wearing of school uniform which can be purchased from the school office – polo shirts can be bought from the school office which has the school badge sewn on them.  I would suggest however that the packs of polo shirts from Asda etc. are better value if being worn under the sweatshirt.

All clothing (but especially sweatshirts and hoodies, as they are all the same) should be clearly labelled or marked with your child’s name.

We would like to thank you for the very large demand we have already had for uniform.  It is great to see how many children are proudly wearing their uniform each day.  We have a different colour of hoodie for our P7 pupils. They are the senior pupils of our school and we wish them to be recognised as such. Should you wish to purchase any uniform items please come to the office.

All children should also have a pair of shorts and gym shoes available in the school for gym each week. With regard to gym, it would be appreciated if girls would avoid wearing big/dangling earrings to school as there is the potential for accidents in the gym hall and for Health and safety they will need to be removed/taped with micropore tape to take part.  This is city council policy.

 

Information Updates

At all times we need to ensure we have up to date information regarding the children in our care. With this in mind if you have any updates to give the school could you please ensure that you call/write and let us know. This could be updates of new phone numbers including new mobile contacts, any changes in health (i.e.) allergies developed or other medical conditions such as asthma etc.

With regard to any health concerns you may have, Jill Rattray our school nurse would be happy to help out, lend a listening ear or offer advice.

She can be contacted by telephone on 859751 or by e mail on jill.rattray@nhs.net

A quick reminder to all parents/carers should your child be absent from school please call the office after 8.30am to keep us informed. 

Staff Car Park

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of access to the staff car park. No parents should park in the staff car park or drop off pupils there. The car park can become very congested. Pupils coming into school through the staff car park are in danger from reversing traffic etc

Dogs in School

Again, just a reminder that dogs should not be in the school grounds or tethered to the school property. This is Aberdeen City Council’s policy and as above is in the interests of the health and safety of our children.

Social Networking Sites

Another quick reminder with regard to social networking sites such as Facebook. I have spoken to and advised all staff to ensure that their Facebook sites are locked and that it would be entirely inappropriate for staff to engage with pupils or indeed parents through such sites. I hope you will support the school in ensuring that your child whilst on Facebook is in a safe environment, using appropriate language and contacting appropriate people. My advice would be to lock the site so only friends have access to the ‘wall’ area. Again I would reiterate the advice given last session. Once any information regarding a pupil, parent or member of staff is posted on a social networking site it comes into the public domain. We should all be aware of the fact that comments made are potentially libellous.

Homework

For all our classes, homework will not officially be given until the week beginning the 1st September. More information with regard to what to expect at each stage of the school can be found on the Blog.  Should you wish to receive a paper copy of this please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

School Lunches

School lunch tickets are at a price of £2.10 this session. Tickets can be purchased on a Monday and Friday morning from the cook. They may be purchased singly for £2.10 or as a book of 10 for £21.00. Payment can only be made in cash or cheque. Cheques should be made payable to Aberdeen City Council. Staff cannot sell tickets during lunch service due to health/hygiene and sheer numbers of pupils to be served in the time given. Therefore could you please ensure you purchase a ticket at the appropriate time. Should you have any queries regarding school lunches or have any specific dietary requirements please do not hesitate to contact Linda Scott, our cook. She will be happy to discuss these with you. You can contact Linda on 01224 89595.

Water in School

Pupils are allowed to drink still water freely in the class to prevent dehydration and help children to remain alert. Each pupil can take in a water bottle which they can fill up at the water fountains. Still water is the only drink allowed in the bottles as fizzy/sugary drinks etc. can cause tooth decay.

School Trips

The authority have issued Aberdeen City Council Schools with updated guidance regarding school trips.  We now have new paperwork to be filled in and sent to the authority four weeks prior to a trip. Therefore when your child will be going on a trip a form will come out with it as standard.  That form must be returned to the school as soon as possible.  Previously we would phone if we did not have permission slips.  The new council policy requires us to have these forms back and verbal agreement will not be acceptable and if forms are not returned, the pupil will not be allowed to go on the trip.  All visit forms are passed to the authority on completion.

This session we are also attaching to this bulletin a visit plan note for all the routine visits we do throughout the session (i.e.) walks in the locality, library visits, visits to Health Centre etc.  The authority requires all pupils to complete this form for the routine events that happen in the school each year.  Please complete the visit forms and return them to school as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your support on this matter.  We realise it possibly feels like another thing you have to remember.

Parent Council

Here at Loirston we have a very active Parent Council who raise some much needed funds for the school.  In the past they have run School Fayres, discos, bingo nights etc.  They have also secured funding for equipment such as ICT for the school.  We are always grateful for their support.  Therefore we would like to welcome new parents to come along and join our Parent Council this session.  Even if it is only a small amount of time that can be devoted it is always appreciated.  Meetings will be scheduled and posted on the Blog. We really do appreciate all their efforts and it makes a real difference to our school.   Come along and you can find out what it’s all about.

Nursery News

As you will be aware Nursery hours across the city have extended to 3 hours 10 minutes per day and Nursery sessions now start at 8.20am and 12.20pm. The nursery staff would welcome any feedback you have with regard to timings etc, please have a chat with any thoughts you have as you drop off and pick up.  We welcome your feedback. With regard to snack money, staff would like to thank all who have paid their £20 for this term already. This session in line with the rest of the school Nursery staff will be working on Assessment within the nursery setting.  Another priority for this session will be developing the use of outdoor play including improving the facilities we have on offer.

Behaviour

Last term the pupils and staff  worked on updating their expectations with regard to a pupil and member of staff at Loirston School. We also reviewed our school aims and values for this session.  Our aim is for all to feel happy, safe and achieve their potential at Loirston.  All classes have had some input into these expectations and they are displayed in the class and hall areas. They will also be reinforced during weekly assemblies, class and playground time.  In the coming week I will post a copy of these on the Blog.  This session we are also using the House Points and Golden Time reward scheme in order to further promote positive behaviour across the school.  I will also post an explanation of this on the Blog for you to familiarise yourself with.  As with all information placed on the Blog, please contact the school office with any requests for paper copies.

Learning Journeys

Thank you for all the feedback we received last session with regard to our Learning Journey processes here at school.  The purpose of the Learning Journey is to share information with you at home regarding how your child is getting on at school.  The Learning Journey may be in an electronic format or a paper format and this session we have agreed some new procedures with regard to how these will be used.  In the coming couple of weeks you will receive a guide regarding Learning journeys that we hope you will find useful.

Useful information

Bulletins are intended to be a method of keeping all parents up to date with information from the school.  As you will have noticed here we have a wealth of useful information to share with you and to put it all in paper copies would make a bulletin look more like a novel than a news bulletin.  Therefore I wish to point out that all updates in information will be posted on the blog.  Should you wish to receive paper copies of any information please contact the school and we will happily provide this for you.  To give you a flavour of information we will be putting on in the coming weeks please see below:

School improvement – This document lets you see our Improvement plan for the coming session. It is made up from information from our pupil/staff audit and feedback received form parent/carer questionnaires

ASN  – We have updated and agreed procedures to support all children in their learning here at Loirston.  A guide with information will be available on the blog

Standards and quality report – A document that gives you a review of developments during last session.  Our areas of strength and priorities for development

Expectations for homework – guidelines on what you can expect for your child’s homework each week.

Learning Journey Information – As previously mentioned a guide on its purpose and what ot expect each term

Behaviour schemes/procedures – A guide to agreed expectations, procedures and reward schemes to be used in the school

Many other useful pieces of information will be added and we will let you know when something has been added by posting n the blog.  Should you have requested paper copies of bulletins you will receive a note to say information has been posted.  As you will see some documents are of a great length and I will not be looking to print them out unless we receive a request to do so.  We do try to be Eco friendly!!

Football Update

As some of you will be aware we had a large turnout at the trials for the upper stages (P6/7) football team last week.  A note was placed on the Blog to ask any parents who would be interested in running a Second Team to contact the school.  Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you would like to be involved in this.  We will also be running a Primary Five team this session.  We greatly appreciate the support we receive and would like to extend a Big Thank you to the parents who already support teams in the school by running training sessions and teams for the school.  We wish all teams to have a fun and successful season.

Tuck Shop

P7 Pupils will be running a Healthy Tuck shop this session and attached to this bulletin is a price list.  The tuck shop will run each day at break time in the community lounge.

Comments & Complaints Policy

An update of our Comments and Complaints Policy will be uploaded to the Blog this week and you will be able to find it under the Parent information tab.  We always welcome any feedback you have to give us about your experiences with the school and we do strive to offer an open door policy with regard to any comments or areas of concern you may have.  Should you have any queries at all please contact the school we will try our best to alleviate any concerns you may have and thank you for any helpful suggestions you may have to give us.

No matter how small a concern or query may be please do not hesitate to contact the school to arrange to meet with your child’s teacher etc.

School Blog

Here at Loirston we try to be eco friendly at all times and all relevant information will be published on our Blog. Bulletins go out on average of one every four weeks and all bulletins are available on the Blog.The details for it are as follows:

https://loirstonconnect.edublogs.org/

In order to reduce our usage of paper and photocopying all future Bulletins will only be available on the Blog. Should you wish to continue to receive a paper copy please complete the slip attached to this bulletin and return to the school office by September 5th.  If you do not return a slip you will not receive a paper copy of any future bulletins!

Thank you for your co-operation and support. We look forward to a happy, successful and rewarding session.

Kay MacDonald Head Teacher