Coalsnaughton Primary School
Newsletter This term has flown by and now we are only two weeks away from the October holiday! We have had a very busy start to our new session and lots of learning has been taking place.
Reading As part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, Clackmannanshire Council has formed a partnership with Strathclyde University to raise attainment in Literacy. This project is being led by Sue Ellis and is designed to help educators co-create, with their pupils, a bespoke reading curriculum for their school. Our staff have been attending training sessions and have been trying out some new ideas and approaches with the children. We have committed to working with Strathclyde University for the next two years to help us to continue to improve our children’s skills, abilities and attainment in reading. If you are interested in supporting reading in our school, for example, by volunteering to read to our pupils we would be delighted to hear from you! Equally you could just commit to reading to your child every night for a short period of time. Parents and carers who are actively involved in reading with their children at home can improve, on average, their child’s reading score by between 12-18 months!
The Scottish Sun have teamed up with Collins Big Cat books and are giving away free book tokens between 24th September and 18th November. We have registered our school and if we can collect enough tokens we will receive 105 free books for our school library. We are a small school so please ask neighbours, family and friends to help us!
Meet Largo the Literacy Lion. Largo will be promoting literacy opportunities across Clackmannanshire in a fun and interactive way. Largo will be visiting Alloa Library in the Speirs Centre from the 3rd of October until 19th of October. He will be encouraging children to join the library and to "create their bookmark". There will be two allocated drop in sessions for children to attend at the library with a parent/carer to meet Largo, complete a literacy activity and choose a favourite book for him to read. The drop in sessions will be on Monday 8th of October 4pm - 5pm and Thursday 11th of October 4pm - 5pm. The library are keen that parents/carers bring along inactive library cards to start using them again or ID and proof of address to sign up for a new card. I have asked if Largo would make a special visit to Coalsnaughton so fingers crossed that he has time!
Clackmannanshire’s ASN Fayre If your child has any Additional Support Needs you may be interested in the ASN Fayre being held in Alloa Academy on the 6th October 10 a.m. - 1p.m. There will be representation from Educational Psychology Speech and Language Therapy Volunteering Matters Enquire ASN Helpline £ Money Matters Sports & Community Learning & more.. Free tea, coffee and cakes will be provided and a free crèche for children will be run by Play Alloa. If you are interested please register in advance to attend and for the crèche by e-mailing education@clacks.gov.uk or telephoning (01259) 452436.
Period Poverty ‘All Clackmannanshire’s schools will now provide free sanitary products. This is in line
with the Scottish Government agreement that local authorities and the university and college sector should provide access to free sanitary products for those attending schools, colleges and universities in Scotland.’ As a school we have been providing these for our children for some time. The senior girls have worked with me to enhance our provision. Four of our senior pupils are now Period Poverty Champions. These girls are responsible for checking the supplies available in our dedicated collection points and for replenishing stock.
Harvest Service Donations Our Harvest Service is scheduled for Thursday 11 th October at 2.00p.m. We will be hosting it in the Village Hall. We will be collecting tins and packets of dried food for the Food Bank in Sauchie. Senior pupils will present this to members of the Food Bank that afternoon.
Halloween Arrangements The Halloween Party will take place on Friday 26 th October at 1.30 p.m. If you would like to help out at the party please contact the school office and leave your name or Dojo a staff member and we will get back to you. All help will be appreciated! Pupils will register in class and then walk down to the Village Hall for the parade at 1.30 p.m. You will have the opportunity to take some photographs. As space is limited we ask that parents and carers who are not helping leave the hall shortly after the parade. This will allow us to start the party games! The costumes will be judged by independent judges throughout the party and the winners announced at the end. As is tradition, we will be having our annual pumpkin competition. This year parents have requested that it is NOT on the same day as the Halloween Party. All entries have to be brought into school by 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday 31st October. The pumpkins will be independently judged in the morning and the children will be able to take them home that night. Please note - the Nursery party will be on the morning of Friday 26 th October. See the nursery staff for more details.
Help Required We are looking for some parent volunteers to help tidy up the front entrance and our nursery garden for the winter. If you would like to help us please contact the office.
Sportscotland Gold School Sport Award We are delighted to inform you that in recognition of our school’s achievements in sport we have received our second GOLD School Sport Award from Sportscotland. We are among the first of a small group of schools to have achieved this on two consecutive occasions! Well done to all our children, staff our Active School team for their dedication and commitment. Together we have been able to provide our children many sporting and leadership opportunities that have contributed to such a great achievement!
Parent Council The Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 25th October at 6.00 p.m. The Parent Council would welcome any new members. We are hoping to run two sets of meetings after the AGM. One during the day prior to the evening meeting. This would hopefully allow more parents to be involved. The minutes will be put up in the Parent Noticeboard in the playground and the nursery entrance. Many parents do not attend the actual meeting but are still members and help out in other ways.
Road Safety Week 2018 This year Road Safety Week will run from 19th – 25th November. The Road Safety weeks are run by a road safety charity organisation called Brake. The theme is Bike Smart. Cyclists and motorcyclists are among the most vulnerable road users in the UK, with more than 100 riders injured every day in needless, preventable crashes. We will be focussing on this in school. If any of you are keen cyclists or motorcyclists and would like to come along to talk to the children and show them your bike/motor bike we would love to hear from you.
A number of parents and local residents have raised concerns over taxis and parents parking on the pavements around the school (especially on the corner just outside the school). Can we please make a plea that this stops as we are worried that someone is going to be hurt? Dates for your Diary Saturday 6th October – 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Alloa Academy – Clackmannanshire ASN Fayre Thursday 11th October – 2.00 p.m. Harvest Service (PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF TIME) Village Hall (To be confirmed) Thursday 11th October – Nursery – P4 Fluoride Application NHS Team in school Monday 15th – Friday 19th October – October Holiday Monday 22nd October – Pupils and staff return Thursday 25th October – Parent Council AGM all welcome! Friday 26th October – Halloween Party 1.30 p.m. (Village Hall to be confirmed) Tuesday 20th & Tuesday 27th November – Parent Evenings Thursday 29th & Friday 30th November – In-service Days (No pupils) Thursday 6th December – 5p.m. – 7p.m. – Christmas Fayre
Kind regards
Colleen ClarkBurns (Headteacher)