Respect Kindness Caring Self-Confidence

Carstairs Junction Primary School and Early Learning & Childcare Our Wee School’s a Good Wee School

th Friday 7 May 2021

Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.carstairsjunction-pri.s-lanark.sch.uk/ Follow us on Twitter: @CJPS18 Coronation Street, Junction, ML11 8QY Tel: 01555 870301

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice three-day weekend; I know for some it meant seeing family members for whom they haven’t seen in a long while. It was a pity about the weather, however encouraging to see signs of Covid-19 restrictions easing slightly.

We continue to thank you for your support and remind you of the need for everyone to remain vigilant and continue to stick to the current Covid-19 Scottish guidance procedures.

Staffing Update We are delighted to share with you that Ms Stewart will return to teach in Room 4 from Monday 24th May. Ms Stewart has been working with us remotely on developing aspects of our school improvement plan and has been leading small groups and supporting individuals remotely.

Ms Cornish will continue to provide support to pupils and groups within the school as part of our Scottish Attainment Challenge priorities.

INSET We had a very productive day at our INSET, and I think we all managed to navigate the challenges of moving from Whole school Google Meets etc to stage meetings etc…every day’s a learning day!

As part of the day, we focused on reviewing our School Improvement Plan priorities in Numeracy. We were delighted to be joined with Mr Tony Mayer, SLC Development Officer for Numeracy & Mathematic who shared with us further training on a mental maths programme we have adopted called ‘Number Talks’. We look forward to sharing and demonstrating to you what Number Talks will look like and sound like across the school & ELC in the coming months.

We also spent time talking in our different departments about transition planning. Although we can’t have our transition days as we would ‘normally’, we certainly have a packed diary and look forward to sharing the transition information with you.

Nurture Accreditation As mentioned in our March Newsletter we have now been awarded UK Nurture accreditation. We are over the moon with the official report we received, which was bursting with positive affirmation of our nurturing approach. We wish to thank again all the pupils, staff and parents who contributed on the day. We have uploaded the assessment report onto our school website for you to read. Here are a few comments taken from the report:

There is a clear commitment and passion to Parents talked about the responsiveness of place the needs of the children at the the school and what they learned about heart of school practice. their own children and needs.

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There is an extraordinary level of trust in the The school prides itself in its welcoming staff and school by parents experiencing ethos. difficulties.

Staff talk knowledgeably about using their understanding of children’s development The overwhelming theme was a timely and to plan for individual pupil progress. appropriate support for development.

Review Meetings We have had a busy week with Room 2 and 4 review meetings taking place. The meetings went well and great partnership working between home and school was in abundance!

South Instrumental Music Service (IMS) Our P4 and P5 pupils classes have been taking part in music projects led by the IMS. P4s are involved in ‘Spring into Summer’ on a Wednesday and P5s are participating in ‘Here comes the Sun’ each Thursday. The P4s and P5s are attending the music sessions virtually. Many thanks to the Support Staff who have been ‘instrumental’ in supporting these sessions! The lessons are led by music tutors employed by SLC and will continue throughout the term.

Transition Grammar are organising class groupings for S1 pupils to create a focused learning environment and encourage positive relationships. They would like parents to assist with this process by suggesting other pupils that you think your child would benefit working with. P7 pupils moving on to Lanark Grammar in August will bring a letter home today. Please could we ask that they are completed and returned by next Tuesday (11/5/21).

Parents as Partners

Parent Council Our next parent Council will be a bit special as we say a huge thanks but also a farewell to our Chair, Secretary and Treasurer in their respective roles. We have been assured that it is not a final ‘farewell’, just time now to focus on other commitments.

You are warmly invited to our AGM on Wednesday 19th May at 9.30am. The role of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer will be decided by voting.

We absolutely need new members and ask you to consider becoming part of the Parent Council.

Please do not feel that you need to attend every meeting. Meetings are generally held on a Wednesday morning, but this will be reviewed at our AGM and we will try to accommodate the majority of the Parent Council as best we can.

In a nutshell, at the Parent Council you can expect to: ➢ receive updates about the school’s educational progress ➢ be involved in organising school events and activities ➢ hear about how funding is spent ➢ know how to volunteer to be involved in the school ➢ work on behalf of all the parents at the school ➢ learn about our community links

If you wish to know more about the role of Chair, Secretary or Treasurer I am happy to talk the role through with you. In some schools there have been Co-Chairs where more than one person is Chair. This can work well as you can have each other for support and to share the workload.

Community News

Kind Donation We would like to thank Universal Connections for their recent supply of cleaning and wellbeing boxes for families to take home.

Community Led Action Plan Room3 have been taking part in a recent community project called ‘Active Travel’. The class explored possible walking and cycle routes during a walk around Carstairs Junction and transferred this knowledge to create their own maps of the community. Room 3 further investigated the importance of active travel and the sustainability of travel. The children looked into the volume of pollution produced by different forms of transport then ranked these into the most sustainable. Finally, the children created their own placards to encourage members of the community to walk or cycle rather than take the car which will be displayed on the school fences. Room 3 enjoyed being part of this project and will continue to think about they different ways we can travel around to protect our community.

Diary Dates

19th May Parent Council AGM via Google Meet (joining instructions to follow) 10th June Lanimer holiday 11th June Lanimer Holiday 18th June P7 Leavers’ Celebration 21st June P7 Treat 24th June School closes for Summer Break at 1pm

Please note these dates may be subject to change.

As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact the school office and you will be directed to an appropriate member of staff.

Kindest regards,

Jill Armour Head Teacher