Loch Primary School

and

Nursery Class

August 2014

Newsletter

Staffing Update

This month we have had a few changes in our staffing:

Mrs Adie has decided to take early retirement this month after working for 35 years in Loch PS! Everyone would like to thank her for all of her hard work, enthusiasm and commitment shown to the staff, pupils and families throughout her career. We hope that she retires with many fond memories of her years as part of the Loch PS team and would like to send her our best wishes for a long, healthy and happy retirement!

Welcome to our new staff:

Miss Edmond started in the Nursery Class in a new post as Team Leader. Mrs Holtham has also started in the Nursery Class working on Thursdays and Fridays as Nursery Teacher sharing with Mrs Murray.

Mrs Colvin will be working with us on Thursday afternoons as our Specialist Support Teacher for Primary pupils covering for Mr Gardner during his secondment as Acting DHT at Cairns PS.

Attendance and

Time-Keeping

Once again we continue to aim to achieve our attendance targetof 95% this session. It is important that everyone continues to make a great effort to come to school on a regular basis and on time to help us to achieve this target. Classes who manage to achieve 95% or above will receive an Attendance Award each week at Assembly. Pupils’ attendance is also recorded in their Pupil Reports to keep everyone informed.

Please remember that should your child be unwell it is important that you can contact the School Office on 0141 634 7217 and leave a message stating the cause of absence and possible date of return. The School Office will be open daily from 8.30am. In accordance with SLC Policy we require to telephone parents if we have not been informed of a reason for a pupilbeing absent from nursery or school. This procedure is to ensure each one of our pupils is safe and secure.

It is equally important that each pupil arrives at the school in time for the bell to ring at 9.00am. We understand that everyone can, on occasions, sleep in and run late for school for many reasons, however regular lateness can be very disruptive to the child’s education and would urge everyone to be in the class line for the bell ringing.

Please remember that your child will be marked as ‘unauthorised’ should they go on holiday during term time. Any work that has been missed will be given on their return to school.

Through Integrated Children’s Services we have our Attendance Officer and May Fotheringham, our School Nurse, to work with families experiencing difficulty in ensuring their child attends school regularly and on time. Their role is a supportive one, working in partnership with home and school, providing advice and guidance and carrying out home visits to help address this issue.

Each month we will contact parents/carers if pupil attendance has fallen below 90%. Where attendance continues to decrease, meetings will be arranged with the school in the first instance to discuss this and then with Frances Swinburne, our Senior Manager Pupil Support.

In Loch PS we believe that it is extremely important for all children to attend school on time and on a regular basis to ensure they receive their entitlement of a full education and we will work with all of our families to achieve this. We are currently achieving 97.5% whole school attendance ~ a fantastic start to the new school year!

School Uniform

It is great to see so many of our children looking very smart in their new school uniforms.Thank you to everyone for remembering that our school uniform colours are navy blue and gold.We encourage wearing school uniform as it shows a sense of pride in being part of Loch PS Community. A reminder that parents/carers can order school uniform at any time of the year through Gilmour’s online ordering service. There is a small delivery charge for this and all orders will be delivered to your home address.

To do this please type in:

When the web page opens, go to the drop-down list for ‘Badged School Uniforms’ and choose L for Loch PS.

School uniformcan also be ordered through the school, please ask at the School Office if you require an order form.

Although we are ever hopeful for warm, dry weather we are well aware of how changeable our weather can be and therefore it is important that your child brings an outdoor jacket to school with them each day.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO NAME ALL ITEMS OF CLOTHING!

THANK YOU.

For health and safety reasons please remember that if your child wears earrings to school these should be stud earrings. Again for health and safety reasons please remember that no jewellery should be worn at PE ~ thank you!

Successes and Achievements!

We were delighted to learn that three of our pupils were finalists in the ‘Walk to School’ badge design competition! Congratulations to Dylan Lowe, Martyna Czerniejewich and Paige Lowe for their fantastic designs!

This month our new Primary 1 pupils have received a Head Teacher Award for settling into the school so quickly and coping well with our school routines! Great work P1!

Primary 7 pupils have also received a Head Teacher Award for being excellent representatives of Loch PS when they attended the recent ‘Crucial Crew’ event and their attitude and behaviour were commended! A great start to P7!

Five of our pupils were invited by SLC to join with five of St Anthony’s PS pupils to form a Pupil Focus group as part of the Inspection of Children’s Services. They met with the two Inspectors on 25.8.14 when they confidently talked about all aspects of school and their lives in Rutherglen and Cambuslang. Once again our pupils were fantastic ambassadors for Loch PS and have received a Head Teacher Award for this! Congratulations to Jack McEnroy P6, Rachel Crichton, Abby Jameson, Glenn Dingil and Kieran Mitchell, all P7!

Our Rights Respecting School Committee have been busy selecting pupils to receive a Citizenship Award. Nicole Dunsmuir and Megan Turner, both P2, have received this award for helping a new classmate to settle in to Loch PS!

We are continuing to celebrate pupils wider achievements outwith school each week at Assembly. Please encourage your child to bring any medals, trophies, certificates, etc, in and share their successes with the whole school at assembly! Our ‘Amazing Achievements’ notice board shows all of these successes!

School Improvement

Thank you to everyone who recently attended the ‘Meet the Teacher’ session for their child’s class. Everyone received a School Improvement Information Leaflet at the session and copies were also sent home for parents/carers unable to attend. Once again, updates on our progress in addressing our priorities will be given in our monthly school newsletters.In relation to our Literacy priority, Miss Simpson and Mrs Sistrunk attended two sessions on Early Literacy development this month.

Our ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions form part of our Transition Programme enabling new pupils to settle into the school easily and supporting our pupils moving into a new class. At the end of this newsletter there is a short questionnaire regarding our Transition Programme for parents/carers to give their views. Please take a few minutes to complete this and return it to school ~ thank you!

School Captains

Primary 6 and Primary 7 pupils took part in an election to vote for our first set of School captains for session 2014 – 2015. This year the P7 pupils wrote their speeches and presented them to their classmates. From this, the following P7 pupils have been elected:

Rachel Crichton and Kieran Mitchell

Abby Jameson and Glenn Dingil

Paige Lowe and Josh Redmond

Congratulations! Already the pupils have taken on their additional playground and lunchtime duties and responsibilities very successfully!

Health and Eco Committee

At present our Health and Eco Committee class representatives are remaining the same as last session as we have submitted our application for the 3rd Eco School Green Flag! We hope that our assessment visit will be a successful one and then the new committee will be established!

The committee are once again collecting Morrison’s ‘Let’s Grow’ vouchers and would be grateful for all donations to help them purchase additional items for use in the school grounds. This collection will take place throughout August, September and October. We look forward to seeing how many vouchers we can collect this time around!

Promoting Positive Behaviour

Our ‘Bronze Award’Personal Point Scheme and our green Happy Face slips have started, so look out for these and please remember to praise and encourage these positive achievements! All pupils who receive a green slip on a Friday also get to ‘Green Playtime’ on a Monday, which is an additional 5 minute break. Already we are off to a great start with most pupils having been able to enjoy this reward for positive behaviour! Our Rights Respecting School Committee are continuing with the ‘Best Line Award’. The winning class receives an extra 5 minute play on a Friday afternoon.

There’s Lots Going On At Loch!

We had a busy start to this new session!

  • Miss Aitkenhead has already started the ‘Youth Music Initiative’with our P5 pupils each week.
  • P6 pupils have started their block of swimming lessons which will continue until November.
  • Our Healthy Tuck Shop has already started and takes place weekly. Each week there will also be a Fair Trade item included for sale in the Tuck Shop.
  • P7 attended ‘Crucial Crew’ on 19.8.14 where they had a range of activities to enable them to develop a greater understanding of substance misuse as part of their Health and Wellbeing curriculum.
  • Our P1 parents/carers and pupils had the opportunity to enjoy having a school lunch together on 20.8.14. We had a very busy dinner hall that day! Thank you to all of the parents/carers who were able to come along and thank you to the Kitchen Staff for their hard work in preparing all of the additional food that day!
  • On 27.8.14 our P1 pupils had their photograph taken by the Rutherglen Reformer ~ look out for it appearing soon!
  • Universal Connections visited P6 and P7 on 28.8.14 to talk to them about the service they provide.

Diary Dates

A copy of all of the school holidays and in-service days for this year will be provided soon along with the annual data forms ~ please check inside the envelopes so that you receive advance notification of all of the dates for this year.

All of the dates are included in our school website and a reminder will be given in our monthly newsletters.

  • Our Parents Association meet every Friday morning at 9am in the school meeting room. If you are interested to find out about how you can help them to support the school please come along any Friday ~ you will be made very welcome! Further PA information is also included on our school website
  • Whole school and nursery family and individual photographs will be taken on Wednesday 10th September ~ look out for slips in school bags!
  • The school will be closed on Thursday 18th September and Friday 19th September for two in-service days.
  • The school will be closed on Friday 26thand Monday 29th September for the September Weekend Holiday. Pupils return to school on Tuesday 30th September.
  • The school closes for the October Week on Friday 10th Octoberat 2.55pm and pupils return on Monday 20th October.

School Contact Details

Head Teacher: Sheena McNeill

Telephone: 0141 634 7217

Fax: 0141 631 3462

E-Mail:

Please remember that you can always see lots of photographs of nursery and school events on our website. You can visit it at:

Loch Primary School

Transition Programme ~ Parent / Carer Views

Please take a few minutes to tick the points you feel are successful in making transitions smooth for our pupils and add any additional comments in the box below ~ thank you for your support!

Primary 1 Programme:

  • Pupils visit the school for two days in May / June.
  • Our Primary 1 teachers link with the Nursery Class.
  • Parents/Carers have two Information Sessions whilst the pupils are in class.
  • Pupils receive a ‘Ready to Start School’ Award and a welcome gift from our Parents’ Association.
  • Parents/Carers come into school to help settle their children during the first few days at school.
  • Parents/Carers are invited to have school dinner with their child.
  • Parents/Carers are invited to a ‘Meet the Teacher’ Session in August/September to learn about daily routines in class and school. Those unable to attend receive copies of Information Leaflets discussed.

Primary 2-7 Programme:

  • All pupils take part in a ‘Moving On’ session in June to spend a short period of time in their new class and meet their new teacher.
  • Staff complete a ‘Transition Booklet’ and pass this on to the new class teacher to ensure important information is shared.
  • Parents/Carers are invited to a ‘Meet the Teacher’ Session in August/September to learn about daily routines in class and school. Those unable to attend receive copies of Information Leaflets discussed.
  • Our P7 pupils engage in an extensive Transition Programme with Cathkin High School which starts in September of each year and continues throughout the session. Parents/carers will receive copies of this when it has been finalised by CHS.

Additional Comment: