Just to finish off our John Muir work we decided to build some bee homes using bamboo canes. We are hoping after the summer to see some busy bees making good use of them or at least some bugs will have moved in. Well done to the whole class for all their hard work on this project.
As we approach the end of another School Year the Parent Council would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported our fundraising activities throughout the year.
With your help the Parent Council has raised over £3,700 this year from events such as our Summer and Winter Fairs, our Bingo Night and the Easy Fundraising Scheme. This money has been put to good use by contributing towards the cost of class trips and transport to sporting events outwith the school (£1,200). We also paid for a visit from Scottish Opera (£755) to the upper school earlier this year, which was a great success. With the help of a generous donation from the Muir Hall Windfarm we were again able to pay for a visit from the Hopscotch Theatre Group (£625) who performed a Pantomime for all the children in December.
We were also lucky enough to be awarded a grant from South Lanarkshire Council totalling £340 which enabled us to purchase a Welly Rack with Cover and some Camping Sit Mats as requested by the school. This year we have spent just under £3,000 helping to provide opportunities and enhancing the children’s learning experiences.
Although the fundraising events are an important part of the Parent Council’s role, we also play an essential part in discussions relating to other school matters and meet on a regular basis (roughly once a month) with Mrs Easton, Mrs Alexander and other staff members to discuss ongoing items and give our opinions. It is therefore vitally important that we have as many parents as possible from the children in Nursery through to Primary 7, to ensure we can provide them with varied opinions and ideas.
Our AGM will be held on Tuesday 6th September at 7pm in the school. Please do try to come along, all welcome.
Yours sincerely,
Gail Ramsay,
Chairperson, Parent Council.
We are very proud of one of our Primary 5 girls who recently competed in the Scottish Championships for Tumbling. Eilidh Logan was awarded a Gold Medal for her age group and is the Scottish Champion for 2016!
Very well done to Eilidh!
Our Dyslexia Awareness Week was from Monday 6th – Friday 10th June and throughout the week classes learned a lot about dyslexia, including strategies which can help with reading, spelling and organisation, such as paired/shared reading, active spelling strategies and making lists/using a diary. Some classes researched famous people with dyslexia and most classes enjoyed watching the BBC Newsround Programme “My Dyslexic Mind”. Some classes learned about how dominant their left and right side of the brain was and they researched different learning styles, completing a questionnaire to determine if they were visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners. A few classes used Mind Maps as this is an effective technique to help people with dyslexia to organise their thoughts for learning. All of the pupils in P4-7 wrote about what they had learned through the week and stuck this on the whiteboard at our assembly on Friday 10th June. At this assembly children from each class came and shared their learning. It was very clear to see that the children had learned a lot and were very enthusiastic to share this learning with us all.
P3/4 shared their Mind Maps
P5/6 researched famous people with dyslexia
P7 told us about their personal learning styles and their ‘No Paper Day!’
What the children learned about Dyslexia
On Friday 3rd June we had a Dyslexia Awareness Raising Assembly where we learned about dyslexia, how it can affect learning, the strengths people with dyslexia have and how they can get support. We also looked at the many, many famous and successful people with dyslexia, including Prince Harry, Richard Branson, Will Smith, Holly Willoughby and many more! The highlight of our assembly was a talk from a former pupil who spoke about his experience of having dyslexia and how much support his friends, family and teachers have given him which has helped him to be the very successful S3 student he is today.
