The BBC short story writing competition for 5-16 year olds is back.
Submit your 300 words on the theme ‘A Christmas to Remember’ by Friday 13th November and your story could be read out on the Lynette Faye show at Christmas.
The winning stories from each category will be turned into an animation.
All the details can be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/twominutetales or by searching BBC Two Minute Tales
Miss Alix Campbell, representing Finvoy Young Farmers’ Club called into school to donate this contactless digital thermometer. We really appreciate their gift and generosity, once again.
P6/7 have been learning about light. On a lovely sunny day they used they drew around their shadows at different times to make these shadow clocks.
RNLI have shared this letter to help keep everyone safe.
Children in P6 and P7 received certificates for improvement in Tables in their Friday Quiz. It is great to see the improvement in such a short time. Sam in P6 had a best time of 3.54 minutes and Lucy C P7 had a best time of 2.15 minutes.
Certificates were awarded to some P2 and P3 children for Achievements in Reading Egg and Accelerated Reading Schemes.
P2 Toby - Reading Eggs Map 5 and 6, Ella - Reading Eggs Map 4, Izabelle - Achieving Accelerated Reading Target
P3 Joy - Reading Eggs Map 10, Harry - Reading Eggs Map 2, Charlie Reading Eggs Map 4, Ethan - Reading Eggs Map 12
The Headteacher Assembly Awards for P1 and P2 and P3 were presented in Assembly this week.
P1 and P2 Robbie-Leigh - Being kind, Hollie - Being a Good Friend, Bethany - Great Handwashing, Luke - Excellent Homework
P3 Joy - Being a Good Friend, Lily - Being Kind and Caring, Cameron - Excellent Homework, Jacob - Great Handwashing.
In PE on Wednesday, the children in P4 and P5 were creating their own aiming games using balls, hoops and quoits. In groups, they planned and made very creative games. The children can’t wait to swap around to try the other games out next week.
As part of the Sustran Active School Travel Programme, which aims to encourage more journeys to school by foot or wheels, we had our ‘Ditch the Dark Day on October 7th. Active travel, such as cycling, walking and scooting to and from school has great health benefits. Many of our children met at the Church carpark and either walked, rode bikes or rode scooters to school.
Within their classes, the children then did activities on wearing bright clothes when on the roads and they also did other road safety activities.
A number of our children were given a lesson on how to move from riding a bike with stabilizers to riding without stabilizers. We were amazed at how successful this was in such a short session.
Five children have now been appointed as ‘Digital Leaders’ for our school. The role of the Digital Leader is to help teachers to set up laptops and iPads for their classes, and also to assist the other children in their classes with some of their ICT projects. Congratulations to Emma P6, Lucy C P7, Cameron P7, Sophia P4 and Tilly P5 who are our new Digital Leaders.
Following on from the success of School Council in previous years, eight children from P4-P7 have been chosen to serve on School Council for 2020- 2021. All children who were interested in becoming a school Councillor, wrote a manifesto giving reasons why they should be chosen to be on the School Council. There was then a class vote, and the following children were elected:- Beth P4, Mark P4, Anna P5, Dan P5, Flora P6, Kirsty P6, Susanna P7 and Lucy S P7. They are now looking forward to working alongside the teachers, to try to implement some of the changes that pupils have suggested, to make our school a better place
We had our annual competition to write a lunchtime prayer. This prayer will be said by everyone before eating lunch and dinner every day throughout the year. We had some really good prayers and eight winners were chosen. Congratulations to Oliver whose prayer was chosen as the overall winning prayer. It is good to thank God for all the good things He has given us.
The Public Health Agency, in partnership with Health & Social Care Trust dietetic teams, are running webinars on healthy lunchbox and snack ideas, which parents may find useful. The next dates are Friday 11th September at 12noon and Thursday 17th September at 6pm. For further details click here and joining instructions please check the PHA social media channels.
The ‘For Parents’, ‘Other’, section of our website has also been updated with three documents on healthy lunch boxes, healthy breaks and healthy food choices.
It is lovely to have all the P1s in school this week. This is their first group photo.
The first full week for our new P1s is over and they have all settled in so well. They have enjoyed meeting their friends from playgroup and making new friends with the P2 children. They have also enjoyed playing in the playroom.
The following information was shared by the Department of Education today.
We are learning more about COVID-19 every day. As a result the Department of Education’s advice and guidance to the education system may need to change from time to time as the pandemic develops. Our guidance will continue to reflect the prevailing public health position and up to date scientific advice from the Department of Health and Public Health Agency.
Symptoms and Testing
In recent days the Public Health Agency has seen a significant increase in individuals requesting a COVID-19 test where they do not have COVID-19 symptoms.
Testing is only available for individuals who have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been advised by the Public Health Agency Contact Tracing Service to have a test.
The symptoms of COVID-19 are:
�. A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual); or
�. A high temperature/fever – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature); or
�. A loss of or change in sense of smell or taste.
If an individual does not have these specific symptoms, they do not require a test.
At this time of year, it is common for colds and similar viral infections to circulate. In many cases, children will be well enough to attend school and continue their learning with little or no interruption to their education. In other cases, for instance where they have quite a heavy cold, they may need to take a day or two off to recover.
If a pupil or staff member does not have symptoms of COVID-19 but has other cold-like symptoms, they do not need to be tested and do not need to self-isolate. The individual can attend school if fit to do so.
Additionally, where a pupil displays gastrointestinal symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhoea, they should not attend school until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least 2 days. In these instances they should follow the school’s usual attendance policy in respect of these symptoms.
Where an individual has COVID-19 symptoms and they refuse to book a test, they should not return to school for 14 days.
This term, we will be discussing the NSPCC’s PANTS rules. These are designed to teach pupils how to stay safe from sexual abuse, without giving explicit information or telling scary stories or even using the term “sexual abuse”.
In the lesson, children will learn about the ‘PANTS’ acrostic, which stands for: • Privates are private. • Always remember your body belongs to you. • No means no • Talk about secrets that upset you • Speak up, someone can help. The lesson will be fully age-appropriate. More information about talking PANTS can be found here .
As part of our plans to safely get children back to school we have been asked to consider staggered drop off and pick up times to limit interactions and congestion at the school gates. To help us in this, please complete the very short (4 questions) survey here. We realise that some days a different arrangement may need to apply, but please choose the option that best represents your household’s preferred pattern on most days.
If there is adequate spread over the time slots given as a result of parental choice we will not need to arbitrarily assign time slots for families, e.g. alphabetically by surname.
Please complete the survey by 9pm on Monday, 17th August. Any families who have not completed the survey will then be assigned a slot. We apologise for the tight timeframe.
We will be in contact after the survey has closed to share the results of the survey and confirm arrangements. If possible we will try to accommodate the preferences indicated in the survey.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to complete the survey.
Two documents from the Department of Education regarding Restarting School have been added to our website’s Covid-19 section, under ‘Other Information’.
Please click here for a letter from RNLI with important water safety information.
