Session 2021-22

Tuesday 26 October 2021

This week is due to be very Autumnal once again with frequent rain showers so definitely a week for wearing jackets.

Our P1  were the only classes able to offer a face to face parent night appointment and they happened last night and again tonight.

The other classes will be as follows - 

Tuesday 2 November P3 (Miss Hughes), P4/3 (Miss McFetridge) 3.15 – 5.15

Wednesday 3 November P2 (Mrs Lennon), P3/2 (Miss Thomson), P4 (Miss Johnstone) 3.15 – 5.15

Thursday 4 November P5 (Mrs O’Brien), P6/5 (Mr Priest), P6 (Miss MacLeod), P7/6 (Mrs Palmer), P7 (Miss Thomas) 3.15 – 5.15

These times are all approximate. Some phone calls may be made with school mobile phones so you may not recognise the number.

There may be a few parents who staff wish to see personally but they will be contacted individually.

The Halloween Parade will go ahead this year but a maximum of two classes will use the school hall at any one time – the Parade will be shown on the schools’ Youtube page. Parents are unfortunately unable to attend due to Covid guidance where they cannot be admitted to the school except for an appointment.

The plan for the day is as follows –

The children will be asked to dress up if they wish (no pressure) They should not wear anything too scary eg Scream masks. They should not have too many accessories if possible.

Each class will have a time in the Hall to- parade, dance and, if time permits, play some games (See above).

Apples will be provided, however as I’m sure you appreciate, we will be unable to ‘dook’ for apples this year. 

I'm sure our children will enjoy this type of activity once again and hopefully our parents will make themselves available for the update on their children’s progress.

Sunday 3 October 2021

Looks like the weather is going to be quite mixed this week and certainly a lot cooler than it has been, very much more Autumnal than it has been for some time. Hopefully we’ll avoid wet intervals but all children should be wearing a suitable jacket every day.

There will be four days of school this week due to the staff inservice day on Friday 8^th October. P1-3 will finish at 3.10 and P4-7 at 3pm as usual on Thursday 7 October. The week of the 11-15 October is the October week holiday which will hopefully be dry to enable our children time to play outside.

School Times
All children will return to starting school at 9am and finishing at 3pm from Monday 18 October. Hopefully this will continue from this point onwards without any interruptions as was the case pre Covid.

Football
Some of our football players have been invited to play at St Rochs secondary after school on Thursday 7 October. This will be the first football game since 2019. I’m sure the children will be very excited.

Cop26 Trip
Eight children have been selected to take part in Tree Planting at Cathkin Braes. This is part of a Glasgow Children’s Woodland project. They will be taken by bus to the tree planting site, kitted out in school wellies and waterproofs. I’m sure it will be lots of fun.

Blairvadach
We have also managed to be successful in gaining a place at Blairvadach Outdoor Centre. Our P7s will be going 6-10 December. There will be no cost as the cost will be covered by the Pupil Equity Fund. There are 48 place available.

These three events a certainly positive signs of schools eventually opening up. Certain restrictions remain but it seems that things are definitely going in the right direction.

Halloween
The annual school Halloween Parade was cancelled completely last session. This session children will be allowed to dress for Halloween if they wish. We will not be able to have all the children in the hall at the same time but classes will be able to parade one at a time. This will be filmed and added to Elmvale’s Youtube channel for you all to watch at home.
More details will follow in a letter nearer the time of the event.

Christmas
We also intend to hold a Christmas Fayre for the children only. Parents are only allowed in the building on an individual basis – this guidance remains the same.
As singing is now allowed we intend to do a Christmas Show which will be presented on the school’s Youtube chanel.

Hopefully this is a positive sign of things getting better and certainly returning us to the time when school was much busier and an even more enjoyable place to learn than it was during the very strict Covid restrictions.

Parents Evenings
These are not due to resume until March 2022 at the earliest. Staff will be contacting parents by either phone or conference call - more information to follow.

Monday 6 September 2021

The weather is going to be unusually warm for this time of year – potentially as warm as 29 degrees by Wednesday so it would seem to be another week without jackets.  It also means lots of opportunities for outdoor learning which are likely to take place in the playground but could also involve Springburn Park. However it is possible that the weather might change again from Thursday onwards with lightning – a good learning experience in itself and rain on Friday.

Today’s assembly is on a third school value – Respect and will be presented by Mr Lynn. 

P3 are reading ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ which is a well known book and loved by children so they are going to be in for a real treat. The class will also be studying animals and their habitats. In science they will be exploring light and dark, both of which are also very relevant as we head from  Summer into Autumn and then Winter. The class will begin to learn their x tables and in Literacy characterisation. There will be opportunities to create their own characters linked to the story. Homework will be found on SeeSaw. For any parents who have no ICT device or internet please contact the school as we can help.

P2 will be continuing with their reading books and relearning their sounds. In Numeracy they will be revising numbers to 20. In Health & Wellbeing they will begin the PATHs programme.

P3/2 will be working on their sentence structure in writing and numbers 0-50 in Numeracy.

Monday 30 August 2021

Looks like it is another dry week, sunny in places, not quite as warm as last week but still an improvement on the usual rainy Glasgow!

Our second assembly takes place today at 1.30pm on TEAMs. The theme is another school value – Kindness. This value is encouraged throughout the school and is shown by our staff and children on a daily basis.

Both Primary 1 classes are learning the phonemes ‘a’ and ‘t’ in literacy. In numeracy they are investigating the numbers 0, 1 and 2. Buzzbee is teaching P1 the school values and the importance that these have within school. Primary 1 are enjoying daily visits exploring the ‘Hive’ and learning through play on a daily basis. 

Miss McFetridge  has said that P4/3 will be starting their 'healthy body' health and wellbeing topic and their 'climate change' IDL topic. In maths, we are going to be looking at the properties of 3D shapes and will also be practicing our skip counting and reading, writing and ordering numbers. In literacy, we are going to be learning how to put words into alphabetical order so we can learn to use a dictionary and thesaurus to help us with our writing. We have started learning about characterisation in writing and so need to find lots of good descriptive words to help us!

Thank you for continuing to avoid the roads directly outside of the school, it really does make a huge difference to our children’s safety.

I’m sure that this week will be another amazing Elmvale week with lots of interesting learning experiences in both the nursery and primary. Please look at our Twitter feed @ElmvalePrimary for regular updates.

Monday 23 August 2021

This will be completed each week and provide information about what is happening in class on a regular basis. It has been too long since you had access to this information. The blog will be posted on Twitter and eventually you’ll (parents & children) receive access via SeeSaw.

This week looks like a return to summer weather, Wednesday could even be as warm as 25 degrees so no jackets will be required.

Our first assembly of the new session takes place today at 1.30pm on TEAMs. The theme is one of our very important values – Determination. This value is something that is important to all of our children as it helps them continue to progress but it is also helpful to us as adults to overcome challenges in our lives.

Mr McLauchlan tells me that the Turas room will be opening soon for our core group.  We will have some pupils returning and we will be welcoming some new starts! This term, we will be focussing on our school values and establishing our morning routine. We are looking forward to challenges, activities and, of course, Mrs McClune’s famous toast!

Mrs Palmer P7/6 will be writing about setting using similes and metaphors, making predictions before reading and starting our new novel, Goodnight Mister Tom. In maths, we will be using a number of addition strategies in a variety of contexts. We are starting our new topic of WW2 and we will be focusing on how to manage stress . We are reflecting upon our personal skills and abilities and in French we will be revising greetings. 

Miss MacLeod P6 plan on getting started in earnest with reading, writing, and numeracy and will be doing this most days. We also hope to finalise our Class Charter as well as taking part in some more health and wellbeing activities, including beginning the PATHS program. 

It’s good to see the P6 & P7 starting quickly with their learning in what is only the 2^nd week back after the summer holidays.

This week primary 5 will be creating our Elmvale values display in Art, writing postcards recounting an activity we took part in during the summer and reviewing place value in numeracy. 

P4 will be working on PATHS, Capitals letters and full stops, Handwriting, Reading (comprehension), Reading strategies (focus on predicting),  what we know about climate change for our topic in T1 on COP26 

Look out next week for information from the infants.

Uptodate Covid information –

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

A parent also has given us a link of how to access lateral flow tests easily –

https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

Pick up & Drop off

Please avoid driving & parking outside the school gates as this is now a pedestrian and cycle area 8.30-9.15 & 2.30-3.15. The police are due to make spot checks from time to time.

Hope everyone has an excellent week!

Session 2017-18

Saturday 16 September 2017

Last week was 'Maths Week Scotland' in which I'm pleased to say, many of our children got involved. All of our children have access to Sumdog which is a maths and numeracy focussed computer games program and can be played at home. This is available to all of our children from primary 2- primary 7.  Research shows that when children play this game for about 1 hour a week (not necessarily all at the one time), children's understanding in maths and numeracy improves by up to 18 months. Lennon in P5 and many children in P7/6 have been doing particularly well! 

Mr Feist has kindly linked our Twitter posts to our school website (front page and individual class pages) so if you don't usually access Twitter on your phone, you can look and find out what your class is up to on the website.

We will soon be adding the termly class newsletters to each class page. Some staff are going to start a blog in place of a class chronicle which should give you a great idea about what is happening in your child's class on a regular basis.

I have added last year's Standards & Quality report which should give a clear idea  of the progress made in our school. This year's School Improvement Plan has also been added in the relevant section which shows what we hope to achieve this year.

Ms McGroarty (Principal Teacher) has been meeting Joe Brannan (Active Schools Coordinator) and will hopefully soon be announcing a variety of clubs to take place at various times in the day.

Our JRSO group attended an event at the City Chambers on wednesday and there will be another one at the end of the month. We look forward to them working with us to assist in making the school environment as safe as possible.

I'm pleased to see that most of our children are wearing indoor shoes in school and are therefore helping the school environment to stay clean and healthy for all of our children from Nursery to Primary 7.

I am looking at the possibility of providing a facility to change this website into different languages to enable all of our parents and people worldwide to find out what is happening in our school. More on this later.

Next week will be a shorter 4 day week due to the September weekend which means that the school will be closed on Friday 22nd September and Monday 25th September.

A little further ahead, our Parents' Nights will take place on Tuesday 3rd October and Thursday 5th October. Please note that most events along with holidays can be found in the News & Events section of the website. I will be meeting with Mr Casey from Springburn Parish Church next week and the termly celebrations will be added thereafter.

I would like to wish you all a successful week and a lovely weekend.

Sunday 10 September

 The letters referred to below have been delayed as a result of some technical difficulties with the photocopier. They should be issued this week.

Several staff will attend training this week - Miss Caulfield, Ms McGroarty and Ms Blevins on Tuesday, and Ms Ireland on Thursday. Mr Robertson, myself , Miss Walmsley and Mrs Houston will cover these classes in the teacher's absence.

Ms McGroarty will take the assembly tomorrow and will continue our assembly focus on friendship.

Ms James from the English Department of Springburn Academy will work with children from P7/6 on Thursday morning. Alice McCann from Action for Children will begin working in Elmvale on Thursday 14 September. She will be available each Thursday to support some of our children and their families.

Staff and pupils from Garnetbank PS will visit our Nurture Class (Turus Room) to find out what goes on in here.

Looks like it is going to be a mixed week as far as the weather is concerned with rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully our children will still be able to play outside.

Saturday 2 September

Welcome back after our summer holidays. I'm pleased to say that we have had a very successful start to the new session.
We have two new support for learning workers and three additional nursery staff members, one of whom will work in our nursery class.

The school refurbishment is coming to a close and should be completely finished by the October week. I hope then to be able to open our new bike shed. The school itself is looking fabulous both inside and out and although it has always been an absolute pleasure to work here, the improved environment adds to the happy working atmosphere.

Several letters will be issued this week. One will be looking for an update on contact details and the other will provide helpful information for all parents over the course of the year.

I expect this to be one of our most successful years to date with many interesting educational events and activities for our children which will help them every step of the way with their learning.

Session 2016-17

Sunday 23 March

Welcome back after what seemed to be a long Easter holiday. This being our last term before the Summer holidays, there will be a lot packed into a short period of time.

Tomorrow Mrs Houston will be leading both assemblies. We will also be hearing about the successes and achievements of many of our children -

Miss Blevins entered her class into the Young Writers 'Once Upon a Dream' poetry competition and some of the pupils have been chosen from 25,000 entries to have their poems published. Poems are chosen by editors who look at things that make a good poem i.e. perception, imagination, creativity as well as expression, originality and use of language.

Once Upon a Dream - Glasgow Poets, is scheduled to be published on 30th June 2017.

 The pupils that have been selected are:

 Cassidy Ashe
Aiden Donnelly
Jana Salahal-Deen
Heather McMahon
Abbey Nixon
Albertas Viningas
Nika Gogishvili
Giovanni Ifesinachi
Aiden Byrne
Aaron Cairns

Cecily in P5/4 won a Christmas Card competition meaning that her design will be available for next Christmas. She has received a £50 voucher for the school to be spent in Home Bargains.

Alfie McLevie reached the final of a boxing event in England at the beginning of the Easter holidays and he was also in the the final of another event yesterday. I'm sure we will find out tomorrow how he got on.

Well done to them all!

 There is a planned assembly programme where each class will be demonstrating their learning to invited parents at varying dates over the next few weeks. Please take note of when your child's class assembly  takes place.

A representative from Ardentinny Outdoor Centre will be speaking, to the children who will be going on this residential experience, tomorrow at 9.30am  in the ICT suite. Mr Feist and Mrs Rowan who will be supervising the children will also be at this meeting. Any parents who are unable to attend willl receive a letter outlining relevant information about this trip.

The nursery pre school children and parents will be going by bus to Caledonian University tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure that this will be a highly enjoyable afternoon for all concerned.

The nurse will be in school on Tuesday checking the weight and height of the P1 children.

P1E visit Scotland St school on Wednesday, there is a Golf coach in the afternoon for P7 and P5/4 and there is a Parent Workshop for Maths at 5pm to which all parents are invited.

P2H go on a trip to Pizza Express as part of their Healthy Eating study. I'm sure that this will be a tasty experience!

Two members of the Parent Council took part in an interview to find a new Depute Head Teacher to replace Mrs Baker. The new DHT will be a Mr Robertson. He will begin in August.

Once again it seems to be an enjoyable but busy week. The forecast seems to be dry but cool.

Sunday 26 March

Our Drama Club performed 'Alladdin Trouble' last week over two nights in the school hall. The show was a resounding success. The children were excellent! Elmvale definitely have some talented children who could potentially have a future in singing, acting and comedy.

Mrs Rowan will be leading our assembly tomorrow.

I hope that all of our parents received a copy of the newsletter for Term 3 and an outline of the dates and times of each class assembly that will take place in term 4.

Tomorrow is the start of the infant classes return to the refurbished first floor. Please check the newsletter for details of which classes move first. The work will then begin on the ground floor, main entrance and dining hall. The work is on track to be finished by the end of June.

There are not many events this week except for our Easter Celebration at Springburn Parish Church on Thursday 30th March from 9.45am (all welcome) and our Easter Bonnet or Decorate an Egg event on Friday.  School closes to children on Friday 31 March and reopens at 9am on Tuesday 18 April. I hope that all of our children, parents and carers have a wonderful break!

Sunday 19 March

Our Drama Club performed their first dress rehearsal of 'Alladdin Trouble' in the school hall on Friday afternoon in front of P4-7. Although I didn't see the whole show, what I did see was excellent. We really have some talented children!

The first performance for parents is on Monday night (20th March) in the school hall from 6.30-8.30pm and the second being the following night, same place same time. If you don't have your tickets yet, get them before they run out.

P1-3 will get to see the second dress rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon.

Tomorrow Mrs Houston will be leading our assembly. Primary 6 will be going to the Royal Conservatoire tomorrow for a showcase performance with three other schools as part of their recent music project.

Bobby McCulloch (Road Safety Officer for Glasgow City Council) will be speaking to every class on Wednesday about the very important subject of being safe on the roads of Glasgow.

We finish the week with Red Nose Day where we will have up to 200 noses on sale. These will be sold on a first come first served basis.

The forecast for the week seems to be a little wet to begin with becoming increasingly dry as the week progresses. Please make sure that your child wears appropriate clothing for the weather. Wet intervals take place where the weather is severe. All children are expected to be outside where rainshowers are light.

Have a good week!

Sunday 12 March

This week seems a little quieter. There are just two classes going on trips with P6 going to the Peoples' Palace on Tuesday and all of our P5s going to Caledonian University on the same day.

Our first Parents' Night also takes place on Tuesday 3.30 - 6pm and the last one is on Wednesday 4-7pm. Due to the refurbishment, this event will take place in the hall on both evenings.

Our Drama Club continue to work very hard and will be performing their dress rehearsal on Friday morning. The venue for the show has been changed to the School Hall. If you haven't bought your tickets yet, please do so as soon as possible in order not to be disappointed.

The Scholastic Book Fayre will be running the whole week and books will be available to buy during Parents' Night.

P2 will be experiencing a Hindu Dance workshop on Friday morning.

All in all it looks to be another interesting week at Elmvale!

Sunday 5 March

Last week was particularly busy with many classes going on trips as part of literacy week, going to either Springburn Library or the Mitchell library to meet with authors as part of Glasgow's Aye Write (Wee Write) festival. All our children had a very productive time.

Mrs Baker will be leading her last assembly in Elmvale tomorrow  before she departs on Monday 12 March to her new job as HT of Cadder Primary. Flouride varnishing for P1-4 will take also place tomorrow.

On Tuesday, Caledonian University will be working with our Primary 5 children and the English teacher from Springburn Academy will be working with our Primary 7 children. There will also be football coaches working with both Primary 3 classes.

I will be speaking to any interested parents about the Pupil Equity Fund on Wednesday morning in the Fuel Zone. If you are unable to attend, we will also be consulting parents at our Parents' Nights the following week.

We will be organising a special assembly to thank Mrs Baker for her committment and loyalty to Elmvale Primary on Friday 10 March. Parents are invited to this event although there will be restricted access and viewing due to our refurbishment.

The refurbishment works are making good progress and it is still their intent to be finished by the summer. Considering it has taken some schools in the region of two years to improve their state, it goes to show the great condition in which Elmvale finds itself despite its age.

The weather forecast for the week seems to suggest generally dry weather except Wednesday when it will be wet. Hopefully we can avoid a wet interval.

Swimming and afterschool clubs will continue as usual.

Have a good week!

Sunday 26 February

Tomorrow is the start of this year's Literacy Week which includes World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March and coincides with Glasgow City Wee Write festival. There will be many trips so read on to find out more about our exciting week ahead.

Mrs Rowan will be leading tomorrow's assembly. P2H go off to Springburn Library soon after morning interval and P5C leave at 12.45 to find out about the famous author Cressida Cowell at the Mitchell Library.

On Tuesday 28 February, Baldy Bane Theatre company are performing a show for P6-7 in the school hall just after 9am so don't be late! Meanwhile P4M and P3W are also away on a trip that morning. In the afternoon it is the turn of P2/1 to go to Springburn Library.

Twelve P7s are taking part in an athletic day long event at the Emirates arena on Wednesday and P7F go to the Mitchell Library in the afternoon to find out about the books of Ross MacKenzie.

Thursday is World Book Day so we would like to ask our children to dress up as their favourite character from a book. Many of the staff will also be dressed up. The P1 classes will be going to Springburn Library in the morning and on Friday 3rd March P7/6 will be going to the Mitchell library to explore the works of Mark A Smith.

After school clubs will continue as usual and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra will be working with P6 for the second time and Caledonian University will be working with both P2 classes.

Tickets for the show 'Aladdin Trouble' are on sale in the school office. This show will be performed over two evenings. I'm sure that it will be a great success so whether your child is taking part in it or not, please buy a ticket and come along to show your support for our hard working young actors and actresses.

It will be once again a very busy week at Elmvale!

If you have a child in our school, you should have received the letter on Friday that our Depute Head Teacher (Mrs Baker) has been successful in a recent interview for the post of Head Teacher in the North West of Glasgow. I'm sure like the staff and I that you will be sad to see her leave Elmvale but at the same time wishing her every success in her new job.

Sunday 19 February

We start off this week with our assembly which will be led by Mrs Houston. P6S will be starting a 4 week long project tomorrow with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra who will come in and work with our children. There will be a showcase performance on the 20 March in the Royal Conservatoire Scotland at 9.30am along with 3 other local schools. It is going to be a very exciting experience for our children.  P4 & P5 after school football will continue as usual.

Individual and family photographs will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. This will involve children from both our nursery and the primary. We are unable to involve children from home or other schools. Primary 5/4 are lucky to be having a visit from Generation Science. These scientific experiences are always entertaining as well as thought provoking. The after school infant multi sports club will continue as usual.

Primary 2/1 are currently on doing some work on owls. They have invited in a company who will bring some real owls to school and all classes will have an opportunity to see the owls for themselves. This will cost about £120 and is an example of the type of experience that is paid for using money from fund raising and the school fund in particular.

Our school has been allocated £216000 as part of the Pupil Equity Fund  which has been distributed directly to schools from the Scottish Government. There are very specific criteria that should be followed when creating a plan to spend this money ensuring that money is spent on projects where there has been research which shows a positive impact on raising attainment.
This among other issues was discussed at the recent Parent Council meeting. All parents attending this meeting were given additional information. If you would like further information, please speak to me or the parents who make up the Par