Learning across the school
The P1 to 3 classroom has seen more fantastic learning this week, with Dinosaurs continuing to feature very large (in more ways than one) and the amazing Dinosaur timeline continuing to take shape.
Home learning/homework for pupils in P1 to P3 continues to be issued via Seesaw; please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any issues accessing this.
Mr Bolwell has asked me to inform parents in the P4 to 7 class that the following homework will be issued to pupils on a weekly basis:
Maths Homework.
Maths homework exercises will be issued on a Monday from now on.
The children have practised a few exercises first to get the hang of them and they should start on the next one. They can do as much or as little as they like during the week but they must complete the exercise by Friday when it will be taken in and marked.
More exercises will then be handed out the following Monday.
This is in addition to the regular homework they get which is:
Spelling words.
The children copy their spelling words into their spelling homework jotter each Friday and practise them though the week in class and at home by:
Looking at the word
Covering it
Writing it down
Checking to see whether they have spelled it correctly.
They are then tested on their word list first thing on a Friday and the test is marked in class.
Reading
Pupils should read their Accelerated Reader Book for 10 minutes at least every night. Pupils will bring home an appropriate book each day.
You can find all homework activities in your child’s homework folder which comes home in their bag each evening and should be returned to school the next morning. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions around this.
The Patch Project
We are delighted that Emily Love from the Patch Project will be visiting us again on the morning of Wednesday 1st February to deliver her second workshop with our P6 and 7 pupils on personal safety.
Active Schools
I had an excellent meeting with our Active Schools Co-ordinator David McAlister on Thursday and we have started planning how he can support us to further increase our physical activity and safe play activities across the school. David and his team will be working with us to develop leadership skills in our P6 and 7 pupils and to increase our staff expertise in leading games.
P7 Residential
I spoke with the P7 pupils on Friday to explain that we are in the process of trying to arrange a P7 residential trip in June. Along with being an amazing learning experience in itself, this will allow them to get to know other pupils from the smaller Mid Argyll Schools ahead of them moving to the High School. Families of our P7s will receive a letter about this at the start of the week and we would appreciate a response by the end of the week to help us firm up our plans.
Musical Pupils
We know from the Christmas Gifts Showcase that we have a number of musical pupils in school and as I have mentioned above, I saw more musicality in the P4 to 7 class this week. In addition to this, it is fantastic to hear all of our P6 pupils learning instruments with Mr Tarn on a Tuesday morning. Once they are more confident with playing and looking after their borrowed instruments, they will able to bring them home to practice.
Parent Council
We had an excellent Parent Council Meeting on Wednesday with really important discussions covering plans for a family gardening morning in March, PE, physical activity and swimming, a school trip and safety on the road outside the school.
You will receive the minutes from Julie Brown, Chair.
Strike Action Update
This is the information that was sent to you directly by our Heads of Education on the 17th January and still stands, as of 30.1.23:
We are writing to inform you of additional strike action which has been announced by a number of Trade Unions which will have an impact on Argyll and Bute schools on Thursday 2nd February. It is anticipated that ALL schools within Argyll and Bute will be closed on that day although we expect nursery provision will be unaffected. We would ask you to make arrangements for childcare for the 2nd of February and will send further communication to you towards the end of next week to confirm that the strike action is progressing.
Have a lovely week and don’t forget to get in touch if you need to. Happy February break too, when it comes on Friday and don’t forget that pupils do not return until Tuesday 14th February, as Monday 13th is a staff training day.
