Blackfriars Primary School          

               January Newsletter          

Dear Parent/Carer,                                                                                                                                                    

I hope you all had a fantastic winter break and I would like to welcome you and your children back in 2024 at Blackfriars Primary. New Term! New Year!  

New Head Teacher

As you know we bid farewell to Mrs Henderson in December. We gave her a great send off and she leaves with all of our thanks and best wishes.

Our new Head Teacher is Mrs Laura Crossan and she will start at Blackfriars on the 14^th February. We look forward to welcoming Mrs Crossan as we begin a new chapter in the Blackfriars story. Welcome Mrs Crossan!

Mr McCormick, as Acting HT, and Miss Houston as Acting DHT, have been looking after the school in the interim period and will continue to do this until Mrs Crossan starts in February.

We are also delighted to welcome Mrs Marie O’Donnell to Blackfriars. Mrs O’Donnell is our new clerical worker and she will work with Mrs Ferrier in the school office.

What’s Going On?

There are lots of opportunities foe extra-curricular clubs this term

Monday – Karate at the Breakfast Club

• Lunchtime Futsal (P4 and P5)
• After school Spanish Club

Tuesday – Lunchtime Dance (P6 and P7). Look out for details of the dance competition in March!

Wednesday – Lunchtime Play Club (P1 and P2)                                                                                                                                

Thursday – Lunchtime Athletics (P6 and P7)

Friday – Lunchtime Yoga (P6 and P7)

• After school Tennis at the Leisure Centre (P1)

There are also curricular sports sessions happening over the course of Term Three.

Wednesdays - Determined to Dance for P3 classes

Thursdays – Handball (P6 and P6/5)

P7 residential Trip

P7 children are looking forward to their residential trip to Lockerbie Manor in February. We are very grateful to Mrs Ritchie, Miss Taylor, Miss Houston and Miss Lynsey who will go along with the children. We’ll look forward to seeing the photos and hearing about all of their adventures.

Parental Engagement

It’s great to see so many parents and carers coming in to school to take part in the  various family engagement opportunities that we are able to offer.  Look out this  Term for Count on Us Numeracy sessions, Homework Sessions, Gardening Club and

the Blackfriars Blether.

Eco News

Family Gardening

Our Family Gardening Gang is up and running for the new term. We meet most Fridays from 1.45-3pm (check SeeSaw for weekly notices). All parents and carers are welcome to come and join your child in learning how to maintain and improve our school gardens. This term we'll be planting trees, planting vegetables in our polytunnel and taking part in the RSPB Big School Birdwatch and the Keep Scotland Beautiful, Big Spring Clean. We look forward to seeing you!

Eco Committee

Our Eco Committee have been busy identifying all the things that Blackfriars needs to do to look after our

local and wider environment. They have written an action plan and are currently working on ways to reduce

littering in and around our school, to encourage more wildlife to our school grounds and to ensure everyone

 in our school knows about sustainability. If you would like to help out with or be involved with our Eco Committee please let our office know.

BLACKFRIARS PRIMARY-Every Day Counts!

 Please remember that if you intend to take your child out of school for a holiday or an extended break it is important that you complete our “Extended Leave” form. Please be advised that a holiday or an extended break during school time will have a negative impact on your child’s attainment. Holiday absences are recorded as unauthorised and will be included in your child’s attendance statistics.

Please ensure the school office has your current mobile telephone number as we may need to contact you in an emergency or over the winter if there is inclement weather. We can’t contact you if we don’t have your number so please do not expect text updates and emergency calls if office staff don’t have your most up to date mobile number! We really need to have an emergency contact for your children also…just in case we can’t reach YOU! We are still getting “unobtainable” for quite a few mobile numbers with no alternative numbers provided by yourselves.

In the event of adverse weather please listen to local radio who will inform you of any school closures. Our School App and our school Twitter feed will also provide relevant information.

Raising Attainment Team

Our Raising Attainment Team continue to work with groups of pupils in school to help with their learning.  EAL learners benefit from  support from Mrs Wilson and Miss MacNamee. Mrs Veitch and Mrs Marsh work with teachers and with groups of learners to support attainment in Literacy and our particular focus this session is on writing.

If your child is lucky enough to be offered extra help from the targeted Intervention Team please try to get your child to school every day as we don’t want them to miss out on the extra help!

We have an excellent team of Support for Learning Workers who run a variety of groups to support children with their Health and Wellbeing. We currently run groups for Theraputty, Dyslexia Support, Developmental PE, Kit Bag, Soft Start/Soft Finish.

Mrs McAughey has recently started a ‘Walking Bus’ to help children come to school in the morning.

Expressive Arts

Miss Taylor leads on Expressive Arts in school. In addition to our ongoing Baby Strings programme this term Miss Taylor has arranged for whole school Ready Steady Sing Workshops, P1 Drama Performances with RCS Fair Access, Celtic Connections Music and Dance Workshops for P7 and visits from the Citizen’s Theatre for P7.

Child Protection

We have very robust procedures already in place to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our pupils in Blackfriars. These procedures will not change. However, as we continue to “Get It Right For Every Child,” please remember your first point of contact if you have any concerns is Mr Martin McCormick P2-7 and Miss Houston P1.

Care Experienced Co-ordinators

Our Care Experienced Co-ordinator is Mr McCormick P2-7 and Miss Houston P1.

All weather play

It is important that our pupils get the opportunity for fresh air and light in the long winter months. We also encourage as much learning outdoors that we can. Therefore, your children may be outside on cold, wet, miserable days. Please ensure you send your child to school dressed for poor weather conditions. This will help keep them warm and dry as they play and learn.

Communication

We like to let you know about what’s happening in school and use two main platforms for communicating with families: Seesaw and Groupcall

For information about what’s happening in class and for homework please check your child’s Seesaw account. You are also able to message your child’s teacher with questions and queries about classroom learning through Seesaw. To contact school about other issues please contact Mr McCormick or Miss Houston via the school office.

We use Groupcall to share information with families via e-mail. Please ensure that we have your up to date e-mail address so that you can receive these e-mails.

For reasons of cost we have decided to discontinue our use of the Blackfriars School App. We feel

that Seesaw and Groupcall serve our purposes well.

We also communicate by twitter. Please add us…

@BlackfriarsP

Have a look at our website…

www.blackfriars-pri.glasgow.sch.uk

Safety and Security

The gates to the school are locked during the school day, with the exception of the front gate, which is left unlocked so that we can receive visitors to school. If you are visiting school please close this gate behind you as you leave. Many thanks!

A reminder to P1 parents please. If you arrive to school after 9:00 and the side gates are closed please drop your child off at the school office, rather than walking through the playground to the P1 pods. Thank you!

With thanks as always for your ongoing support!

Kind regards,

Blackfriars

Provisional Dates for your Diary Term Three 2024