NEWSLETTER NO 4
SCHOOL SUCCESSES
Colonel Jock Competition
A number of pupils from the school took part in this event and several pupils were prize winners. The main prize winners from the school were; Kathleen MacDonald (Singing and Fiddle), Gilleasbuig MacVicar (Piping), Ciaran Ross (Chanter), Iain Cormack (Singing).
Well done to everyone who took part.
Gaelic Awards 2013
Portree Primary School has been selected as a finalist in the inaugural, national Gaelic Award’s Sport Award section. The Awards Ceremony takes place in Edinburgh on 20th November and Mrs MacDougall will represent the school at this event.
Commonwealth Games Design a Badge Competition for Cubs, Beavers & Scouts.
The national winner of this competition, whose design will be worn by all Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, next year, is Kai Purdy, a pupil at the school. Kai’s design will shortly be posted on the school website.
South Highland Schools’ Cross Country Championships
Pupils from Portree Primary School recently took part in this event and all performed really well. Special mention goes to Leon Miles-Shinnie who came 4th in the boys’ race out of a field of nearly 200.
ACTION IN RELATION TO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS 2013/2014
If parents are in any doubt whether to send their child/children to school in particularly bad weather, the school’s advice would always be to err on the side of caution. Information relating to school closures or bad weather affecting Portree Primary School will be available through the school’s telephone messaging service and on the Highland Council weather website.
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HIGHLAND COUNCIL NUMBER TO PHONE INITIALLY 08700 546 999 PORTREE PRIMARY PIN NUMBER TO BE ENTERED WHEN PROMPTED 042810
WEBSITE – www.winter.highlandschools.org.uk |
SCHOOL CLOSURES DURING BAD WEATHER
If a decision is taken to close the school before the school day starts a message will be placed on the telephone messaging service and the Council’s website will be updated. Highland and local radio stations will also be informed. If the school has to close during the course of the school day information will again be put on the messaging service.
PARENTS’ OPEN AFTERNOON AND PARENTS’ EVENING
The plans for this year’s parents’ consultation events are as follows:
- A parents’ open afternoon will be held on Friday 22 November from 2.00pm. All parents are welcome to visit the school, see their children in class and see some of the work they are doing. They can also chat to teachers and if they wish, take their child/children home early when they leave the school.
- A formal parents’ evenings will be held on 28 November (some teachers may spread this over two nights, 27 & 28 November). Again this year every child has been given an appointment time. Parents who have more than one child at the school, where possible will be given appointment times that are close together. Appointments will last for 10 minutes and the focus of teacher/parent discussions will relate to on-going progress, any points arising from the open afternoon and other relevant issues.
CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES – EARLY WARNING
Christmas Bonanza Draw
Please find attached tickets for this year’s draw, which parents are asked to sell to friends and family. It is important to bear in mind that there is no pressure on parents to sell tickets if they are not in favour of this kind of promotion. Also pupils should not sell tickets out-with their local area or their immediate social circle and they should not pester people to buy tickets.
For those parents who are happy to sell tickets, the money raised this year will be used to fund additional ICT equipment, particularly tablet devices, for the school. All sold ticket stubs, unsold tickets and money should be returned to the school by Thursday 12 December.
Christmas Concert
The annual Christmas concert will take place on Thursday 12 December at 6.45pm in the Community Centre. The doors will be open at 6.00pm and the cost of admission will be £6.00 for those paying at the door. To help limit long queues on the night, discounted tickets can also be purchased beforehand at a cost of £5.00 from the school office. Parents and children can purchase tickets at any time from Monday 25th November. Those people who have purchased tickets will be fast tracked to their seats and will not have to wait in the queue. Parents’ relatives and friends of the school who attend the concert are asked not to take along pre-school children who are likely to become tired, noisy or unsettled at the concert.
School Christmas Parties
Information about the dates and times for Christmas parties will be made available at the start of December.
NURSERY TIME CHANGES + OTHER INFORMATION
Following a recent consultation process to look at changing the times of nursery sessions following a request from Comman- na- Parent, afternoon nursery times will change from January 2014. Morning session times will remain as before.
Afternoon sessions will now run from 1.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. and morning sessions will continue to run from 9.30 a.m.- 12.00p.m.
From August 2014 a nation- wide change to nursery hours will be implemented with children entitled to 600 hours as opposed to the current 475 hours of nursery provision. This presents a number of challenges for all schools and centres who run two sessions and more information will be given to parents, as the authority and the school decide on how this will be implemented.
In terms of nursery enrolment for session 2014/ 2015 the authority has indicated that due to on-going consultations about the increase in nursery hours, enrolment will not take place until March 2014 and not in February, as was previously the case.
CHILDREN IN NEED 2013
P7 & GM7 are again organising Children in Need activities and the sale of merchandise. Information will be sent home by pupils regarding the activities planned.
EMAIL UPDATES
The majority of parents are now receiving school correspondence by email which is working well. However a few parents have changed/ updated their email addresses without telling the school and as such they may be missing out on school mail. Please ensure any changes to email addresses are communicated to the school. If school clerical staff find that email addresses are not accepting emails they will contact parents for updates.
