Loch Primary School
and
Nursery Class
February 2016
Newsletter
Loch PS Vision and Values
Thank you to everyone who took part in the consultation about
our school vision and values. Pupils, parents/carers and staff all
gave their views and opinions on what they felt most
represented Loch Primary School and the outcome is shown
below:
These will now be displayed throughout the school and on our
website for everyone to see!
Successes and Achievements!
Congratulations to our Burns Choir who performed really well
at the Bridgeton Burns Club Prize Giving Ceremony on 12.2.16
showing everyone why they achieved Second place in this
competition! Everyone was very proud of their super singing!
Congratulations also to the following pupils who received
‘Commended’ for their Burns Art work!
P1 and 2 Category ~ Robbie Spence, Lexi Wells, Sophie Elder,
Kyle Currie, Liam Hannah
P3,4 and 5 Category ~ Dominika Gastol, Kirsty Spence, Chloe
Reid
P6 and 7 Category ~ Kyle Elder, Jodie McMahon
Well done to our P6 and P7 pupils for taking part in the John
Wrights Sports hall Athletics at the end of last month ~
everyone tried really hard and enjoyed all of the activities!
This month Head Teacher Awards have been achieved by the
following pupils:
 Our Primary 1 class for being excellent, polite messengers
around the school!
 McKenzie Price P1, for settling so quickly into his new
class and school!
 Brooke Haughian P5, for being a super helper in the shed
at playtimes with the playground games!
Our Rights Respecting School Committee has once again been
selecting pupils to receive a Citizenship Award. This month
these have been awarded to:
 Emma Samson and Aiden Wells, both P6, for helping a
classmate use the computer to write a letter!
 Sean Hely P3, for helping a classmate in the sand!
 Aiden McCloskey P1, for helping the older pupils in the
shed at playtime!
Once again thank you to our pupils who have brought in their
wider achievements outwith school each week to Assembly ~
we love hearing all of this good news!
A very big ‘well done’ to everyone who has received a Star
Award this month for being Successful Learners, Confident
Individuals, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors ~
keep up this good work!
School Improvement
This month 7 members of staff have continued to attend
training to deliver French and Spanish Modern Languages in line
with the Languages 1+2 Initiative. The children will enjoy
learning two additional languages!
Four staff members have attended Literacy Training this
month and two more will attend in May. The staff have shared
their learning with everyone and already some of the new
strategies have been implemented across the school!
This month we have had an ICT Refresh to update the
workstations in each classroom. From Room 3 -7 we now have
two workstations in each room. We have also purchased new
Literacy and Numeracy software and look forward to the
children using these programs to support their learning.
On our In service Day on 5.2.16 everyone took part in Nurture
training provided through the Nurture Group Network. This is
our first session and we will have a follow up training day in
August. All staff found this very beneficial and were reassured
that we are already implementing many of the principles
discussed to provide support for the pupils. Miss Simpson, PT,
also attended a Nurture Conference on 12.2.16.
On 10.2.16 Miss Edmond, Nursery Team Leader, attended
Science training and has shared her learning with the nursery
staff who look forward to trying out some of the new activities
with the children!
At our Staff Meetings this month we have been looking at
some new Science resources provided by SLC and have
continued to promote our Presentation of Work procedures
ensuring a consistent approach.
Nursery News
Everyone has been very busy once again in the nursery class!
The children celebrated Burns Day and all had a taste of
haggis, neeps, tatties and shortbread! They also celebrated the
Chinese New Year by tasting different Chinese foods, dancing
to Chinese music and making lanterns. The children also
enjoyed setting up the home corner as a Chinese Restaurant.
Our Dental Nurse Lorna Murray visited on 26.1.16 to support
the children with their toothbrushing and Mr Moffat came
along once again on 28.1.16 to do a Story telling session which
everyone really enjoyed.
Our first Parent’s Meetings for our 3 year old children took
place this month and we were delighted that lots of news has
been shared about how well everyone is progressing. Thank you
to everyone who managed to come along!
The ‘Tiny Talking Team’ have been busy discussing what they
like to do at the Writing table this month. The children said
they like to draw pictures and letters, they like using felt pens,
they draw pictures and write their names and they draw some
people! They decided it would be good to have sparkly pens,
dinosaur pens, spiderman pens and pencils, some Frozen paper
and Disney paper along with stickers and stamps. So, lovely new
resources have been bought for the Writing corner and the
children have all been enjoying using these!
The boys and girls have been enjoying learning about Dinosaurs.
They have been learning to identify the features of dinosaurs
and comparing them. They used natural resources to make
their own dinosaur world and used junk modelling to create
their own dinosaurs. The children made dinosaur eggs using
plaster of Paris and miniature dinosaurs. They used real tools
to extract the dinosaur and experimented with dissolving them
in water.
In the Maths area the children used gummed shapes to make a
dinosaur picture and were matching and sorting using miniature
dinosaurs. They played the dotty dinosaur game to explore
shapes and colours. They learned to measure, investigate and
compare sizes and amounts sharing their findings with others.
In the Literacy area the children have been taking part in lots
of discussions about dinosaur facts and information through
researching and listening to stories. The children were
experimenting with mark making to develop their writing skills.
The children used interesting writing materials to draw their
own dinosaur and described what they looked like. They made
signs for some of the dinosaur names that they have been
learning.
At gym the children participated in a variety of dinosaur games
and have been moving to musical instruments.
Health and Eco Committee
This month everyone has once again continued with carrying
out their class responsibilities. P1 and P2 pupils have continued
to take part in the ‘Big Birdwatch’ and have enjoyed seeing
different birds in the school grounds!
P6/7 carried out a ‘Rag Bag’ Appeal during this month which
raised £28.80. Thank you to everyone for their donations!
Thanks once again to everyone who has sent in their
Sainsbury’s Active School Vouchers ~ the collection continues
until 3rd May 2016. We greatly appreciate your support with
helping us use the vouchers to purchase new resources for the
children!
As 9.2.16 was Safer Internet Day we have had a focus on
Internet Safety during this month. Miss Simpson, PT, is
carrying our Internet Safety lessons with each class and each
class had a challenge to promote internet safety throughout
the school. On 19.2.16 everyone shared their learning at
assembly and it was fantastic to see such a wide range of
presentations including a Rap, a chant, short plays, internet
safety rules and leaflets. Well done to everyone for their hard
work in ensuring safe use of the internet!
On 15.2.16 our P5/6 and 6/7 pupils took part in a Dementia
Workshop provided by student nurses from the University of
the West of Scotland. Everyone enjoyed the visit they were
given an introduction into the mental illness of Dementia and
Alzheimer’s. The children were given the opportunity to find
out what life would be like for a sufferer of Dementia as it can
affect the five main senses which we use to navigate through
life. They used special goggles to hamper their vision while
pairing socks, they found this very tricky. They also had to try
and complete a series of tasks wearing special rubber gloves to
alter how things felt when they touched them. The nurses
presented the children with a range of scents and they had to
work out what each one might have been. At the end of the
workshop the class were given the opportunity to review their
learning and to ask any questions about the illness to which
they had been introduced throughout the course of the
workshop.
Our P4 -7 pupils enjoyed their Eco Air Quality Workshops on
19.2.16! They had the opportunity to learn about the
importance of air quality and how different things can impact
our environment. They enjoyed taking part in a prediction
game to guess the quality of the air in a range of places for
example, the countryside, a British town, an industrial area and
also a city far from Britain – Shanghai! The children were also
encouraged to draw diagrams to show the types of things
which can affect air quality such as car exhaust fumes and
factories. They were informed of ways in which they could
help improve the air quality of their own town or city such as to
cycle or walk, to take public transport instead of the car and
to turn off equipment which uses energy when they are not
using it. The children were given a homework task by the
leaders of the workshop which asks them to take a walk around
their local area while spotting anything which could have an
effect on the quality of the air. They will be completing this
throughout the month of March.
There’s Lots Going On At Loch!
We have had a busy February this year!
 Our Healthy Tuck Shop continues to take place weekly.
Each week there will also be Fair Trade items included
for sale in the Tuck Shop.
 This month our classes have once again had their joint
visits to the Library with St Anthony’s PS pupils!
 Miss Thomson and Miss Motherwell have started an Arts
and Crafts After School Club for P5-7 and the children
attending are enjoying doing some fun activities!
 Paul Graham, Active Schools Co-ordinator, has continued
to organise after school Multi Sports Clubs for P1 and P2
on an Monday and P3 and P4 on a Thursday ~ thanks once
again to Paul and the volunteers for working with the
children!
 On 12.2.16 we had a visit from Andy from Scottish SPCA
reminding everyone about looking after animals. SSPCA
will come back in the summer term to carry out
workshops in each class!
 On 12.2.16 all of the P2 pupils had a journey back in time
to when Great Grandma was a girl when they visited
Scotland Street School to find out what school life was
like in the past!
 P1 and P7 pupils had Dental Health checks carried out on
22.2.16 and the Dental Nurse, Lorna Murray, spoke to the
Nursery parents/carers on 23.2.16.
 Our P4 pupils had a fantastic time on 25.2.16 learning all
about Energy through a ‘Power from the People’ workshop
from Generation Science!
Diary Dates
At the beginning of the session in August everyone received a
copy of all of the school holidays and in-service days for this
year. If anyone has misplaced this please remember that all of
the dates are also included in the Calendar on our School
Website and a reminder is given in our monthly newsletters.
 Our Parents Association continues to 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 25th and Monday 28th
March 2016 for the Easter Holiday Weekend.
 The school closes on Friday 1st April 2016 at 2.30pm for
the Spring Break and pupils return on Monday 18th April
2016.
 The school will be closed on Monday 2nd May 2016 for the
May Holiday and again on Thursday 5th May 2016 for an
In-service Day.
 The school will be closed on Friday 27th and Monday 30th
May 2016 for the May Holiday weekend.
 The school closes at 1pm on Friday 24th June 2016 for
the Summer 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.
Take time to visit it at:
www.loch-pri.s-lanark.sch.uk
You can also follow school updates through our Twitter
account: @LochPS