Loch Primary School
and
Nursery Class
September 2014
Newsletter
Attendance Update
As previously mentioned, our attendance target for session
2014-15 is 95%. During August we managed to achieve 97.5%
whole school attendance! In September we are currently
achieving 96.97%! We continue to award classes at Assembly
with attendance of 95% and above. This month we had one
week where every class achieved this resulting in an extra 5
marbles for each class jar being awarded for this fantastic
achievement!
Successes and Achievements!
This month our new Primary 5 Junior Road Safety Officers,
Alisha Dingil and Aiden Wells, received a Head Teacher Award
for being excellent representatives of Loch PS at the SLC
‘JRSO Open Day’ event! Great work! All of the Primary 5 pupils
had the opportunity to become Junior Road Safety Officers,
and those who were interested in this completed an application
and were interviewed by Emma Ramsay and Ian McDonald, our
previous officers, along with Miss Wilson. Congratulations to
Alisha and Aiden for being successful!
Gary Burns, P6, has also received a Head Teacher Award this
month for being very honest when he handed in £2.50 which he
found! Well done!
Our Rights Respecting School Committee have continued to
select pupils to receive a Citizenship Award. This month Emma
Ramsay, P6, received one for being kind to others! Carson
Marshall also received one for helping a friend who was injured!
Daniella McGeoch, P7, also helped a friend who was unwell and
received an award for this! Fantastic work by all of these
pupils!
Please remember to 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 displays the great work of our pupils!
School Improvement
Already the staff have been very busy reviewing our Playroom
and Classroom Organisation and Management procedures to
ensure that we are providing an organised learning environment
for the pupils. All staff will be involved in visiting other classes
to share good practice in this area. We have also spent time
reviewing our ‘Presentation of Work’ procedures from P1-7 to
ensure we have consistent standards throughout the school.
Staff have been busy in Working Groups reviewing our practice
in the areas of Literacy, Numeracy and Sciences, as identified
as priorities within our current School Improvement Plan. Time
is being spent looking at the experiences and outcomes within
these curricular areas to ensure progression and continuity
throughout each level and at points of transition.
During our In service days this month time was allocated to all
staff completing training in relation to the new SLC
Educational Excursions and Visits procedures. All staff
engaged in reviewing our Curriculum specifically focussing on
the purposes of the curriculum, contexts for learning, pupils’
entitlements and the principles of the curriculum. Further time
will be given to developing these aspects throughout this
session. We also participated in a Learning Community training
session looking closely at the experiences and outcomes within
our curriculum and will continue to develop this work in our own
establishments, with a follow up Learning Community session on
the February In-service Day.
P5-7 Enterprise Committee
and P6-7 Charity Committee
Our Enterprise Committee representatives will once again work
with Miss Simpson throughout this year to plan and organise
our super Community Cafes. The P5-7 pupils involved are:
P5: Kyle Elder, Taylor McCallum, Louise Fellows, Aiden Futter
P6: Craig Innes, Jack McEnroy, Ian McDonald, Ben Smart
P7: Kieran Mitchell, Mark Allen, Glenn Dingil, Paige Lowe,
Rachel Crichton, Katie Baird, Abby Jameson, Chloe Mardon
Our Charity Committee representatives will work with Miss
Moffat and Mrs Currie to plan a range of events for us to
support throughout the year. The representatives are:
P6: Emma Ramsay, Brenden Bullock, Brooke Stewart
P7: Kirsty Falconer, Melissa Fleming
Already these two committees are busy planning for our first
Community Cafe which will take place on Friday 3rd October to
support MacMillan Cancer Research. Information regarding
the Coffee Morning has already been sent out to everyone. The
Scholastic Book Fair will once again be available at this time
and the flyers for this will be sent out soon.
We look forward to seeing everyone once again at the Cafe!
Pupil Council
Our class representatives for the Pupil Council this year are as
follows:
P1: Aleighya Allan and Aaron Clelland
P1/2: Miren Crichton (P1) and Sebastian Urban (P2)
P2/3: Julia Jensen (P2) and Iona Baird (P3)
P3/4: Gemma Grieve (P3) and Darren Burns (P4)
P4/5: Jodie McMahon (P4) and Morgan Spence (P5)
P5/6: Emma Samson (P5) and Sophie Fleming (P6)
P6/7: Tyler Rogers (P6) and Liam Crichton (P7)
The pupils will be working with Mrs Sistrunk and Mrs McNeill
to improve a range of aspects linked to our School
Improvement Plan.
The Nursery Class also have the ‘Tiny Talking Team’ with
monthly meetings to discuss aspects of the nursery class. The
children participate in this team on a rota, giving them all the
opportunity to take part. They have recently been looking at
how to remind everyone to tidy up in the nursery and have
given great suggestions such as ‘a picture of a bin, a shovel and
a sponge’, making a tidy up song and using instruments to let
everyone know when it is tidy up time!
Health and Eco Committee
Our new P5 Junior Road Safety Officers Alisha and Aiden have
been busy carrying out the SLC Annual ‘Travel to School Plan’
to find out how all of our pupils get to school each day. This
information will be useful in our review of the School Travel
Plan.
All of our pupils have participated in the SLC Road Safety
Calendar Competition this month providing the children with an
opportunity to discuss all aspects of keeping safe on the road.
Our Officers are busy selecting the winning entries from each
class!
The Health and Eco Committee are delighted that they are
already receiving Morrison’s ‘Let’s Grow’ vouchers and would
like to thank everyone for these! The collection will continue to
take place throughout August, September and October. Last
year we managed to collect 1900 vouchers! This year we would
like to try to collect vouchers to buy the following items:
Digital Scales ~ 375 vouchers; a Hand Mixer ~ 411 vouchers;
Chopping Boards ~ 165 vouchers; a Muffin Tin ~ 96 vouchers
and a Loaf Tin ~ 100 vouchers. If we have any vouchers left
we would also like to buy a Water Butt at 1017 vouchers. We
look forward to seeing if we can collect a total of 2164
vouchers to buy these items ~ let’s see if we can achieve this
year’s challenge!
There’s Lots Going On At Loch!
September has continued to be another busy month!
 Miss Aitkenhead has continued the ‘Youth Music
Initiative’ with our P5 pupils each week.
 P6 pupils are enjoying their block of swimming lessons
which will continue until November.
 Our Healthy Tuck Shop continues to take place weekly.
Each week there will also be a Fair Trade item included
for sale in the Tuck Shop.
 The Credit Union Junior Savers Scheme has started once
again with the PA collecting the pupil’s money on a Friday
morning.
 Our older pupils have been enjoying their Rugby sessions
this month and are looking forward to taking part in a
Rugby Festival with other local primary schools at a later
date!
 P7 pupils enjoyed their first visit to Cathkin High School
on 10.9.14 as part of the ongoing Transition Programme.
Everyone took part in a ‘Mini Sports Day’ allowing the
children to meet new friends from other schools within
the Learning Community.
 During this month we have had 3 pupils from Cathkin High
School carrying out School Work Experience with us in
the roles of Early Years Worker and School Support
Assistant. The pupils enjoyed their time with us at Loch
PS!
Diary Dates
Everyone should have received a copy of all of the school
holidays and in-service days for this year. These dates are also
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.
 The school will be closed on Friday 26th and 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
October at 2.55pm and pupils return on Monday 20th
October.
 The school closes at 2.30pm on Friday 19th December for
the Christmas Holiday. Pupils return to school on Monday
5th January 2015 at their usual time.
 The school will be closed on Friday 6th February 2015 for
an In-service Day.
 The school will be closed on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th
February 2015 for the February Holiday.
School Contact Details
Head Teacher: Sheena McNeill
Telephone: 0141 634 7217
Fax:
0141 631 3462
E-Mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Please remember that you can always see lots of
photographs of nursery and school events on our website.
You can visit it at:
www.loch-pri.s-lanark.sch.uk