November 2017 newsletter

St. Serf’s Primary School Newsletter November 2017 Dear Parent/Carer

P4/3 assembly P4/3 led our Harvest Assembly this year which was themed around their Viking topic. They orgainised our Harvest Gifts and then we donated these to Gate foodbank in Alloa. Well done to all the boys and girls and thank you to Rendall for your hard work.

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P4 assembly P4’s assembly had a Halloween theme and we learned more about the traditions of Halloween. Well done to Primary 4 and thank you Mrs Douglas for your hard work.

Headteacher’s Awards Well done to the following children who received the Headteacher’s Awards last month: P7

Aidan Groarke Isla Ferguson Lily McFadden

Josh Cairns Charley Auld Owen Broadley

Molly Burnett Amelia Przybek Steven Bates

P6

Chloe Docherty Olivia McLean Harvey Chambers Olivia Dobbie

James Marshall Lauren Archibald Pagan Bernard Joe Handy

Nathan Wright Kiera Wilkinson Jenna Woolley

P5

Robert Ferguson Kaydan Herrington Megan Auld Thomas Newton

Victoria Lewinska Ben Bates Charlie Firth Casey Smith

Nicolette Xerri Lucy Anderson Kim Robertson

P4

Emma Fairweather Chanel Jarvie Emma Black

Natalie Mulligan Ava Brown Cira Doherty

Nathan Henderson Gracie Nicoll

P3

Harry McCormack Niamh Thomson Kerys King

Sam Rae Dylan Roche Caden Bond

Emma Broadfoot Euan Bryce

P2

Tegan Drummond Mollie Westwood

Fletcher Taylor

Cooper Banks

P1

Alli Macaulay Jack Rice Myka Rae

Jamie Bernard Tyler Wilson Ella Jarvie

Brooklynn Couper Hadiyah Javeed Joel Hoga

Nur

Millie Handy Elsie Burnett

James Cowie Jacob McClung

Ebony Davis Finlay Mullen

Reminders Please ensure that your child brings a jacket to school. Pupils are out at break times unless the weather is particularly bad. Also, please ensure to put your child’s name on their jacket.

School Committees This session we are changing the way our school committees are organised. We want all of our senior pupils to have the opportunity to be part of a committee as this develops a range of skills including organisation, time management, communication, team working and leadership. We believe these are important skills for all of our young people in preparation for high school and beyond. Our committees are: Pupil Leadership, ECO, Rights Respecting Schools, Junior Road Safety, Charity & Fundraising Champions, News Team and Sports Committee. Pupils selected those committees of interest to them and will have their first meeting this week.

World of Work We recently advertised some “jobs” in school for our P5, P6 & P7 pupils to apply for. Jobs include playground assistants to keep our toys and resources tidy and in order, tour guides to show visitors around our school, catering assistants to help with the catering for events, press team to record and report on events, technicians to support during assemblies and librarians to keep our libraries tidy and organised. We received lots of applications and pupils took part in training before starting their job.

In January we are planning a whole school World of Work context for learning and look forward to welcoming parents and other visitors to share their work experience with our pupils and help raise aspirations. More information about all we have planned to follow.

Rotary Shoebox Appeal Thank you for supporting this appeal that provides gifts for deprived families and orphans in Eastern European countries. This year we donated 79 boxes.

Children In Need Thank you for supporting Children In Need. Pupils looked fantastic and raised a fantastic £274.15

Parent Council The Parent Council held two very well attended Halloween discos on Thursday 26th October. Once again we were amazed at the wonderful spooky costumes. Thank you to all the helpers on the night and for the wonderful home baking contributions.

The Parent Council are busy organising their next fund raising event – A Family Christmas Quiz Night on Thursday 30 th November. This is a ticket only event.

Parent Evening/Afternoon Our parent meetings were very well attended. We hope you found these useful and that you took the opportunity to visit the hall and find out more about the work we are doing to raise attainment and improve the health and wellbeing of our pupils. Our P7 helpers did a fantastic job and represented our school very well. Thank you for taking time to complete our school values questionnaire as it is important that our values represent the view of pupils, staff and parents. We will share our new revised vision and values in the new year.

Coffee Morning Both nursery and school have held drop in coffee mornings/afternoons for parents. Thank you to those who have managed along to one. This is something we would like to do more of in the future and we will share our next date with you soon.

Christmas Activities

Although it is only November we are already planning lots of festive activities.

Letters for some events will follow shortly.

Dates for your Diary 23rd & 24th November 30th November 4th December 4th December 4th December 5th December 11th December 12th & 13th December 13th December 14th December 15th December 15th December 18th December 18th December 19th December 19th December 20th December 20th December 21st December 21st December 22nd December 22nd December

Pupil holiday (staff in-service days) Parent Council Family Quiz Night P6 class assembly Super Student Celebration School Christmas Post starts P6 School Christmas Fayre, Parents 3pm-4pm P7 Christmas Party, pm Christmas Concert (am & pm) Christmas lunch P6 Christmas Party, pm Nursery Sing-a-long P5 Christmas Party, pm M&M production – Cinderella P4 Christmas Party, pm Nursery Search for Santa, am & pm P3 Christmas Party, pm Nursery Christmas Fun Session, am & pm P2 Christmas Party, pm Nursery Party, am & pm P1 Christmas Party, pm Christmas Service – St Serf’s Church, 9.30am Christmas holidays start,

Christmas Jumpers To get in to the festive spirit pupils can wear Christmas jumpers to school on Tuesday 5 th December for the Christmas Fayre, on Wednesday 13th December for Christmas lunch and Monday 18th December for the m&m pantomime, Cinderella.

Early Lunches To accommodate our Christmas Fayre and afternoon performance of our school concert we will have an early lunch on Tuesday 5th December and Tuesday 12th December from 11.45am -12.30pm.

Parent Library Looking for some Christmas reading? We have a wide range of free books in our parent library in the front doorway of the school.

Childcare News

Clackmannanshire Council are working in partnership with four local Childminders to provide 6oo hours high quality funded childcare for entitled 2’s. This is a new and exciting initiative which offers a flexible approach to your child’s early learning and childcare within a smaller environment. We currently have 2 Childminders in Menstrie and 2 in Tullibody who can offer this provision, where they have availability.

Applications are welcome from all areas; however we do not provide transport for children outwith Menstrie or Tullibody.

If you are interested in finding out more and for information on eligibility please see: http://www.clacks.gov.uk/learning/nurserytwoeligibility/ or contact Wendy Mackay on 452446 / wmackay@clacks.gov.uk

NHS Forth Valley NHS Forth Valley have asked that we share with you the following information: The latest winter health information and advice is now available at www.nhsforthvalley.com/winter. It includes details of local pharmacy opening times across Forth Valley over the festive period, information on the Minor Injuries Unit at Stirling Community Hospital and details of the ALFY advice line for older people.

You can also find out more about the Pharmacy First scheme which provides free treatment for many common conditions without the need for a prescription. You can follow us on Twitter @NHSForthValley or like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/nhsforthvalley to keep up to date with all the latest news from NHS Forth Valley.

If you have any matters you would like to discuss, please contact the school to meet with myself or your child’s class teacher.

Ann Marie Kane

Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with what is happening in school. We post lots of photographs but don’t include pupil names.

School Contact Details (Nursery & Primary) St. Serf’s Primary School St. Serf’s Road Tullibody FK10 2RD

Tel: 01259 722950 Email: stserfs@edu.clacks.gov.uk Website: www.st-serfs.clacks.sch.uk Twitter: @StSerfsPS