Dear Parents/Carers,

October and November have been really busy and all of our children and staff are now looking forward to a well-deserved rest.

Class Activities

A number of classes throughout the school are involved in additional activities: our Primary 5 have completed their swimming programme in Whitehill Pool. Not only was this enjoyable for the children, but they have all gained valuable swimming skills and their confidence in the water has increased. Primary 2, 3/2 and 3 children are still participating in the Youth Music Initiative and working with Mrs Convery our Music Teacher. Primary 4 and 3 have just completed the ‘Determined to Dance’ programme and were able to perform all that they had learned for the rest of us at a whole school assembly. Our Primary 1a and Primary 2 children have been involved in a lunchtime ‘mini kickers’ club. This will continue until the Christmas break. Primary 1b and Primary 3/2 will get a chance to do this after Christmas. Our Primary 4 children have been involved in a lunchtime ‘play’ club. This will also continue until the Christmas break. PEEK have started working with our Primary 5 children as part of the Community in Motion project. These sessions are aimed at building the children’s resilience through play and are enjoyed by both the children and the PEEK instructors.

Various outside agencies and professionals work hard to deliver these programmes in a fun way that enhances our childrens’ learning and we are grateful to them for offering them these opportunities.

After School Activities

We also have a number of after school initiatives available for our children. Primary 7 are still enjoying the after school ‘Determined to Dance’ class on a Wednesday. The Primary 6 and 7 children are learning football skills on a Monday with Miss Kane and Miss Burke has started a homework club for our P5-P7 children on a Tuesday evening.

As always, I can’t thank school staff enough for giving up their precious free time so that our children have access to these opportunities.

Glasgow Rocks Basketball

As you know, our Primary 7 have been learning Basketball skills from the ‘Glasgow Rocks’ Basketball team. They have thoroughly enjoyed this and on Tuesday got the opportunity to compete against other schools in the area at a tournament in the Emirates Arena. Miss Boyle and Miss Mullen said they played extremely well but unfortunately they did not make it to the next round. Well done, Children!

Fischy Music

As you know, part of our School Improvement Plan for this year is to look at improving our children’s health and wellbeing through promoting positive behaviour. One of the initiatives we used to do this was Fischy Music. This is about using music and singing to help us feel better. The Fischy Music team, Jed and Margaret, came into our school over two weeks and worked with every class, teaching the children ‘feel good’ songs that had a hidden message, for example how we should never give up even though it can get very hard. The children loved it and it was nice to see the whole school, pupils and staff, perform the songs at an assembly last week. In addition to this, they worked with 10 children from P5-7 to write and record a song, again based on a health and wellbeing theme. These children also got to perform their song to the whole school at that assembly. I always decribe our children as ‘a school of singers’ and this was very evident that day.

Determined to Dance’

Last night, a number of children who had taken part in the Determined to Dance after school club represented the school at a Dance competition held in St Mungo’s. The children were amazing! I was astounded at how much they had learned and at how talented they all were. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a place. The children should not be too disappointed by this, as the standard from all of the competitors was very high.

Meet the Teacher/Open Evening

This year our meet the teaching evening took on a different format because of our school refurbishment. On the 11th November I invited all of our parents and carers to come along with their children to see our fabulous newly refurbished school. Thank you to all of you who managed to come. It was lovely to see the children proudly showing off their ‘new school’ to you and for us to hear your positive comments.

School Assemblies

Each month, one of our classes is responsible for leading a whole school assembly on a topic of their choice. In October Primary 3/2 performed an excellent assembly about ‘The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark’ and in November Primary 6/5 taught us all about their topic of Australia. Both of these assemblies were superb and showed off the talent of staff and pupils as they shared their learning of their class topics with us. Well done Miss Casey and Primary 3/2 and Miss McGorry and Primary 6/5!There will be no class assemblies in December as our P1-3 children will be performing their Annual Nativity Play and our Primary 4-7 children will be entertaining you with a variety of Christmas songs and carols.

A Community in Motion Primary 5 Parent Event

Our first Community in Motion Primary 5 Parent event for this year will take place in Dalmarnock Primary School next Thursday 10th December. The Primary 5 children have already received a letter giving details of this. If you ara a P5 parent/carer and would like to attend with your children, please return the form to the school office. Our First Primary 6 night willtake place on Thursday 21st January here in St Michael’s. More details about this will be given to you in due course.

Hallowe’en Disco

As always, our Hallowe’en Discos were a huge success thanks to a very dedicated parent council and Mrs Mellon who was our in house DJ. The children enjoyed themselves and, as always, the costumes were very creative. Thank you for supporting this event.

Christmas Fayre

Last Friday night, the 27th November, we held our Christmas Fayre. Again, this was a huge success and the Parent Council have reported that it raised just under £1300. Thank you very much for your support. As you know, the parent Council work tirelessly to raise money that helps provide the extra things for your children that the normal school budget doesn’t allow for. If you feel you would like to join the parent council and further support the work they do, please come along to our next meeting on Monday 11th January at 7.00pm. The parent Council and I would also like to thank two community partners for their help and support in making this event a success; Katie from The Five Ways Inn and Susan from Tesco, Parkhead. Both these ladies are dedicated to making a difference in the community they work in and are working with us just now to raise funds so that we can send all of the children on a Summer Trip this year.

Christmas Show and Nativity Play

Our Christmas Show will take place next Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th of December at 1pm. The P1-3 children will perform the nativity ‘It’s a Baby’ and P4-7 will entertain you with Christmas Songs and Carols. Tickets for these events can be bought from the school office.

Christmas Parties

Our Christmas Parties will take place the week after next. Primary 1,2 and 3 will be on Wednesday afternoon 16th December, Primary 4 and 5 will be on Thursday afteroon the 17th and Primary 6 and 7 will be on Friday 18th. I will send out more details about these next week.

Christmas Cinema Trip

The Parent Council have arranged for all of our children to go to the Cinema to see ‘A Good Dinosaur’ on Monday 21st December. I will send out more details of this event in due course.

Cinderella

Again, rather than visit a theatre, which can be very costly, around £12 per child when you count buses and admission prices, we have decided to invite a professional theatre company in to perform a pantomime to the children in the comfort of our own assembly hall. M & M Productions will come into the school on Thursday 7th January to perform ‘Cinderella’. The total cost of this is £900. Therefore we are going to charge £2 per child to make up the rest from school funds. This theatre company have come into school the last two years and the pantomime has been fabulous, well worth a £2 admission fee.

Shoebox Appeal

Miss Reilly and the pupil Faith in Action Group and Miss Burke and the pupil Global Citizenship Group would like to thank you for your generosity for their Mary’s Meals Shoe Box Appeal. They are still putting the boxes together and will let you know how many they managed to complete and send in due course.

School Toilets

The janitor has reported an increase in the amount of vandalism to our newly refurbished school toilets. We have had children blocking sinks and toilets, knocking ceiling tiles into the roof space and even urinating on the floor. I would be grateful if you could speak to your children about this as I am certain they would not do any of these things at home. Any child caught vandalising the toilets will be suspended and their parent will be billed for the repair.

PEEK Breakfast Club

Our community partners PEEK have started a morning play session on a Thursday. The children come in for their breakfast and then go into the gym to play, supervised by our PEEK instructors. This has already proven to be popular with 45 children attending yesterday. Unfortunately, due to other commitments that PEEK have, they are unable to continue this for the last two weeks of this term. It will, however, start up again in January. PEEK are also going to be holding an after school play session in our playground after Christmas. As soon as I have the details of this I will pass them on to you.

P.E

Staff have reported that despite many reminders, some children are still not bringing their gym kit into school and are therefore unable to participate in the lesson. P.E is an important part of our school curriculum and helps contribute towards the health and wellbeing of all our children. Please ensure that your child brings their gym kit to school so that they do not miss out on this vital part of the curriculum. If your child does not have their Gym kit a blue voucher will be sent home by the class teacher to let you know. Please sign this and return it to school. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Latecoming

We still have a number of children who come into school late on a regular basis. Therefore, can I ask again that you try to get your children to school on time? Being late means that your child misses important lessons and this can be very disruptive and damaging to their education. Our Education Liaison Officer (Attendance Officer) is now looking closely at our persistent latecomers and intends to contact/visit their parents/guardians if he does not see improvement. If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me at the school

Pupil Absence

Within Glasgow Primary Schools, good attendance is encouraged at all times and children rewarded accordingly. Parents are asked to contact the Pupil Absence Reporting Line (0141 287 0039) if their child is going to be absent. This should be done before 9.30 on the first day of absence. If the child is going to be absent for some time, it would be helpful to know at the earliest opportunity.

Car Parking

Grace, our lollipop lady, has reported that a number of our parents are still parking on the Zig Zag lines and on the crossing that she uses. This is not only selfish but puts our children at risk. Please think carefully about where you park.

Enrolment

We have already had an enrolment week in November for children starting school in August 2016. If you have a child, or know of someone who has a child who should be starting school in August they should be enrolled for school. Our next enrolment week will take place from Tuesday 12th January- Thursday 14th January from 1pm-3pm.

School Website and Twitter

Our school website and twitter account are now up and running. This is another way for you to find out what is going on in the school. We even post pictures of events such as class assemblies or the Christmas Fayre.

Our Twitter hash tag is: @StMichaelsGCC

Our school website address is:

Concerns

If you have any concerns regarding any aspect of your child’s education or wellbeing please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can do this by either speaking to or writing a short note to the class teacher or by making an appointment to see myself, Miss Reilly, Mrs Mullen and Miss Mullan.

Dates for you Diary
Wednesday 9th December at 1pm / - Christmas Nativity Play and Concert
Thursday 10th December at 1pm / - Christmas Nativity Play and Concert
Thursday 10th December at 6pm / - Community in Motion Primary 5 Parent Event in Dalmarnock PS
Wednesday 16th December / - P1, 2 and 3 Christmas Party- Details to follow
Thursday 17th December / - P4 and 5 Christmas Party- Details to follow
Friday 18th December / -P6 and 7 Christmas Party- Details to follow
Monday 21st December / - School Cinema Trip – Details to follow
Tuesday 22nd December at 2:30pm / -School Closes for Christmas Holidays
Wednesday 6th January 2015 / - School re-opens for new term.
Sacramental Dates
Friday 22nd January at 2pm / - Parent Meeting for those Children making their First Reconciliation.
Thursday 10th March at 7pm / - First Reconciliation in St Michael’s Church
Friday 1st April at 2pm / - Parent Meeting for those Children making their First Holy Communion
Saturday 14thMay at 10am Mass / - First Holy Communion in St Michael’s Church

I hope you have found this newsletter to be informative and apologise again for the amount of information it contains. Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A.M Stafford

Head Teacher