Glenbervie School Newsletter Summer 2017

Dear Parents and pupils,

Term 4 already! Where has the time gone? Term 3 was certainly a busy one with some interesting moments,

Our Primary 5/6/7 pupils , did an excellent job of entertaining us with their

Westerfield at War show. We had a lovely afternoon sharing in the learning of our talented pupils.

Our pupils have excelled with many lovely achievements . Our P7 Rotary team did us proud , representing

Glenbervie at the local competition.

Our Maths Challenge team took on the Enterprising Maths challenge at Elphinstone Hall and Hannah Cooper in P7

represented the school in the Rotary Club Young

Photographers Competition. She produced 3 beautiful

photographs on reflection.

Article 29

You have the right to education which develops your personality,

respect for other’s rights and the environment

Our Primary 3/4 Sportshall Badminton team came out on top at the Cluster Final! They will now go onto compete at the Regional

Final in Banchory on 28th April and we wish them well.

Our Netball girls have also been representing us well in the P7 league, winning 3 of their 6 matches. A fantastic achievement for our first time in the league. A big Thank you to

Groundwater Lift Trucks LTd for

sponsoring our new kit.

Annual Reports , Red Folders and Parent Consultations This Friday our Progress Reports will make their way home to you. These reports are just one way we have been sharing our learning over the year and we hope to see both yourself and your child at our upcoming Parent Consultations. Please find enclosed a letter regarding our Parent Consultation on Tuesday 16 May and Wednesday 17th May. Responses should be returned as soon as possible so appointments can be made. Our AsL teacher Ms Gowie is also available on the Wednes-day. You will also receive your child’s Red Folder on Friday containing Assessment pieces from this year. You may notice that in the case of P4 upwards some of the folders have been de-cluttered to allow current work to be seen and identified more easily. All previous work has been stored safely and will be handed out at the end of their time at Glenbervie. Please return these folders at your earliest convenience. Sponsored Walk Many thanks to all who supported this annual fundraising activity. This year we were vey fortunate to have the company of Linda and Christine as our charitable contributions will be go to support Cancer Research in memory of Alex Johnstone (MSP). We would also like to thank Morag Airth and Yvonne Baddeley for providing a pit stop and refresh-ments for us all. Please ensure that any sponsorship money is handed in to school by Friday 5th May. Thank you

Getting it Right for Every Child The Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach makes sure that all Scottish children, young people and their families have consistent, co-ordinate support when they need it. Aberdeenshire Council has a website to sup-port this process. The site provides information for practitioners, young people and parents & carers. Staff have been completing training on the Website and have been using it as a tool to help them in their day to day teaching. To have a look at it please find it at www.girfec-aberdeenshire.org This year we having been striving to make our class rooms and school dyslexia friendly. We have Brain boxes with tools to help the children, alternative coloured paper and jotters, digital texts that can be altered to support children and many other initiatives. We aim to continue with this next session and enc0ouage our team to use the dyslexia friendly checklists. Sports Day and Afternoon of Action Sports Day has been planned for Friday 2nd June (weather permitting) Timetable of events: 9:30 - Potted Sports 10:45 - Traditional Races 12:15 - Family Picnic 1:15 - Family Fun session Parents versus children in games such as netball, football and Obstacle. Parents, family and friends are invited to attend for all, or part, of the day. Pupils should wear shorts and t-shirt, jogging trousers and top/hoodie. House Vests will be given out. All pupils will require a water bottle, snack and packed lunch. (Packed lunches will be sup-plied for all P1-3 pupils - see separate letter.) We look forward to seeing you all there.

Parent Survey As ever at this time of year we try to do a Parent Survey. This will be coming out at some point this term. Please take the time to fill it in as your views are important and help us take the school forward in a positive direction. Thank you so much for those of you who take time to give us feedback after our shared learning events. It is likely to be a Survey Monkey as this worked well and responses were high when asking for views on our Reporting. School Improvement Update We continue to take forward several school development priorities: Science and Technology Digital Skills Passports are being used to enable pupils to chart their development of ICT skills. Digital Leaders are being trained and are enabling other children to engage in Digital Learning. Improved Reporting & Self Evaluation We are continuing in this journey of Improved Reporting and evaluation by engaging with How Good is Our School 4 and the National Improvement Strategy. Staff are currently engaging in Visible Learning Training and this will form part of our improvement agenda over the next 3 years. We have also been continuing work with Growth Mind sets and Resilience using the Bounce Back Resource, purchases by the GSP. Rights Respecting School Mrs Edwards and the RRS Committee are leading this develop-ment. They are working with the Rights Respecting School Committee towards gaining our Level 2 Award. Visits to other schools and Days of Action are planned. Further information about this session’s development work, and our priorities for next session, will be detailed in the Standards and Quality Report and Improvement Plan (available at the end of term). Transition A full and comprehensive programme is planned for moving on. We welcome our Primary 1 parents on Wednesday 3rd May to an induction evening. Following this there are a variety of planned activities to engage them into the life of Glenbervie school. Our Primary 7’s have a full programme of transition days as part of the Aiming for High programme, starting on Thursday 25th May. These include school based days with our CSN schools and an engineering day. Our Mackie transition days are 14, 15 and 16th June. On these dates in June, it is our intention to move onto meet our new class teachers within the school, so the children are familiar and comfortable with their new class prior to the summer break. At this stage, we are hoping to maintain the 4 classes, however, I am awaiting confirmation and will inform you of new classes and teachers as soon as I can.

Holiday Dates We will be able to provide a full list of in-service/holiday dates before the end of term. We are currently awaiting confirmation of next session’s occasional days (to be agreed at a cluster level). Most of these dates are available by clicking on this link: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/schools/information/term_dates.asp

Celebration of Achievement Parents, family and friends are warmly invited to attend our Celebration of Achievement/Leavers Ceremony on Wednesday 28th June 1:30 pm Village Hall. Please note the change of date, as the previous one conflicted with our Highland Show trip. I’m aware this has not been updated in Skite News so please note the change.

GSP A huge thank you for the continuing support from our GSP. Our quiz night was a huge success and the children also really enjoyed the School Disco. A huge thanks goes to the Mearns FM team Steve and Ken who

helped at both. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on Monday 8th May at 6.30pm. We have been fortunate to secure some funding from the Community Wind fund, which we hope to put towards some playground improvements and outdoor learning.

School Rabbits As we have a seven week summer holiday break this year we are seeking parents and families to help us with our Bunny Holiday Rota. If it is something you think you may be able to help with, please get in touch with Mrs Meston who oversees this and will give you all the information you need to know.

Active Schools It has been a busy time for active schools, with our children participating in Rugby Sessions with James and Hockey sessions with Scott. Both of these end with tournaments in which our school has gone

along to and competed with cluster schools. Coming up this ses-sion the children will have the opportunity to participate in Basket-ball taster sessions and Judo Taster sessions and more information will follow. The Active Schools Team have also organised a Cross Country Series, which I know some of our pupils are participating in, representing the school.

We have been fortunate to gain the support of 3 parents to help re-establish our school football team, which now runs on a Monday evening. We are looking for sponsorship for our new kits, before we play some friendly matches. Please get in touch if its something you can help with.

Glenbervie School Partnership

Diary Dates Friday 28 April Annual Reports and Red Folders

Mon 1 May May Day Holiday– School Closed

Wednesday 3rd May New P1 info Meeting & Dalguise Info session

Monday 8th May GSP Meeting 6.30pm

Monday 15 May Work Experience students start

Tuesday 16 May Parent Consultation– 6-8pm

Wednesday 17May Parent Consultation– 4-6pm

Friday 19May– Mon22 May P6/7 DalguiseTrip

Thursday 25th May P7 Transition Activity day

Friday 2nd June Sports Day

Friday 9th June p7 Transition Activity Day

Wed 14- Fri 16 June P7 Transition Days at Mackie

Thursday 15 June Samba Drumming showcase 2.45pm

Friday 23 June P6/7 Highland Show– Edinburgh

Wednesday 28 June Celebration of Achievement (1:30pm - Village Hall)

Finally, I would like to pass on my thanks to our many parents who help with projects and events throughout the school year. We hope to have a small Garden Party or coffee morning to thank you for your support. A date is still to be confirmed and I will be in touch with details. I would like to thank the staff, pupils and parents for your continued support.

With Very Best wishes,

Jenny Glennie

Acting Head Teacher