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FEBRUARY 2006
NEWSLETTER

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Pat Bowers
01955 603203
pat.bowers@highland.gov.uk
1st February 2006

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Here we are in February and we have had a super settled start to the New Year. Lots of activities have been happening over the past few weeks and more to come in the weeks following.

• Our joint Christmas Service with Pulteneytown Academy was held in the Salvation Army Hall and Major Norman gave us all a warm welcome. This was the first school service ever held in their hall and we had a super celebration to put us all in the mood for Christmas. £114 was raised with the collection and donated to the Women’s Refuge. Thank you!

• P5 and P6 are enjoying traditional music once again with weekly sessions from Addie Harper and Gordon Gunn.

• The P.S.A. had an extremely successful January Sale – raising £360. Many thanks for your contributions.

• The children in P4 and P6 have completed their rugby sessions with coach, Brett Morris. The children have worked on their rugby skills as well as being part of a team. P3 will have a rugby session next Monday from Ricky Coghill.

• We had great fun on Wednesday with our Burns Day lunch. It was super to see most children having a school lunch and enjoying haggis, neeps and tatties! Our toast to the haggis was well accepted with a glass of Irn Bru. Many thanks to Gayle Jappy from Wick Pipe Band for piping in “the great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race” and to Jan, Wilma and Sharon in the kitchen for their efforts. Check out the photographs on Here

• Paul Robinson, the Active Schools Co-ordinator will be in the school play ground over the next few weeks, encouraging the children to play games and have fun!

• Today we had a whole school presentation of pipes/piping from the “Kellypipers”. The children found out about the history of various pipes as well as listening to the traditional music and had time to question the experts.

•  P1 enrolments take place this week; please ensure you have made an appointment with myself.

• This week brings us Chinese New Year and the forthcoming Year of the Dog so we have Chinese Fortune cookies on sale in the tuck shop priced at 10p. I’m sure the children will enjoy opening these special treats and finding a paper fortune inside.

FEBRUARY BREAK
School will be closed on Thursday 9th February and reopens Tuesday 14th February 2006 for all pupils. Staff will have an In Service Day on Thursday 9th February and we will be undertaking work on the well being of pupils and staff.

CAITHNESS MUSIC FESTIVAL
Class teachers are in the process of selecting children to take part in verse speaking for this event, if your child is willing to take part then please inform their teacher and send in the £1.50 entry fee. Mrs Rodgers, our music specialist will also select children for musical events. All entries must be submitted to myself by Monday 27th February 2006.

BIG HEART DAY 2006
We will be fundraising again this year to support the tsunami charity (over a year on). The children and staff have agreed that we should have a non-uniform day and bring in £1.The children should wear a heart design on their outfit and there will be a prize awarded for one person in each class with the most original idea! This could be a heart badge, design on a T-shirt, perhaps face paint, Hearts football strip ……etc! Your child could even wear a red outfit!
We will have an Assembly at 9.30am to share our efforts.
Please encourage your child to enter into the spirit of this Highland wide event on Wednesday 8th February 2006. We will divide the monies raised between the Tsunami & Indian Earthquake charities.

Many thanks for your continued support and please contact me if you have any concerns regarding your child’s education or issues relating to South School.

Kind regards,

Pat Bowers

PS - An incident occurred last Friday (27/01/06) which gives me great concern and I request your assistance. A silver Nintendo DS along with two games (Crash Bandicoot and the Chronicles of Narnia) went missing from the P4 cloak room. A pupil had brought it in for Golden Time and was so shocked to realise that it was missing from his school bag that he didn’t tell his teacher! If your child knows anything about the missing property then please contact me as a matter of urgency. The police have been informed.
Children will not be permitted to bring in their own items for playtimes or Golden Time following this incident. A number of children are bringing in MP3 players, PSPs and similar items on a daily basis; this will not be permitted either for their own personal safety.
I’m sure this will meet with your approval.

The following two pages of information are from the Highland Council.

CHILDREN WHO NEED ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR THEIR LEARNING
Most children and young people need some support for their learning at some point in their school life. Usually the class teacher in primary school and the subject teachers in secondary school can provide this support. Some children, however, need significant additional support, long or short term, for whatever reason, in order to make the most of their education.

In Highland we use a Staged Approach to supporting children and young people with additional support needs. This means that if there is concern about a pupil’s progress the school should carry out a review in partnership with the pupil’s parents or carers. This review will consider whether it is necessary to offer further support. Sometimes it may be helpful to involve specialist teachers, and sometimes the head teacher may suggest consulting the community paediatrician, the educational psychologist or other specialists.

If a parent or carer is concerned about their child’s progress in school it is usually best therefore in the first instance to speak to the child’s class teacher or the head teacher.

A new Education Law came in to force on November 14th 2005, the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act. This new law aims to improve and modernise the ways in which Councils identify and respond to the educational needs of all children and young people. It strengthens the rights of pupils to receive any additional educational support which they require. It also places new duties on other services such as NHS Highland to help support the education of children and young people with additional support needs.

The Scottish Executive has prepared a Code of Practice to accompany this new law. The Code of Practice explains the duties which Councils now have and sets out good practice. It emphasises the need for schools and others to work in partnership with parents and carers, and highlights the importance of Individualised Education Planning for pupils with significant Additional Support Needs.

If you would like more information about this change in education law and what it may mean for your child you can contact: your child’s school, or CHIP+ ( Children in the Highlands Information Point) telephone 01463 711189, e-mail chip.birnie@ukgateway.net  . CHIP+ has produced a series of information sheets for parents about the Act. You can also find information on the Act on the Highland Council Support for Learners website – go to the Highland Council website www.highland.gov.uk  and then click on Support for Learners in the A-Z Directory of services.

ADVERSE WEATHER – ECS Winter Weather Website
As you will be aware, the schools’ telephone PIN number service for adverse weather information has been running successfully for a number of years. However, with ever increasing access to ICT solutions, it is now appropriate for the Highland Council to expand its service to parents to include web based adverse weather information.
The Education, Culture & Sport Service, therefore, has now developed a new winter weather website, which parents will be able to log onto from home in order to access school closure information. There will be links to the website on both the Highland Council and the Highland Virtual Learning Community websites. You can access the winter weather website at the following web address: www.winter.highlandschools.org.uk  Please click on the relevant geographical area for local school closure information.

The winter weather website allows parents to access school closure information on the internet, thus reducing pressure on the very heavily used PIN number system. However, please note that schools will continue to update the PIN number facility as well as the new website. Our aim is to provide clear, unambiguous information to parents with regard to school closures during periods of adverse weather. I would therefore encourage you to use either the PIN number system or the new winter weather website in this expanded winter weather information system.

Please also remember that the local radio stations shown below will continue to provide regular winter weather updates with regard to school closures.

Moray Firth Radio
Normally hourly news bulletins-and half-hourly summaries will carry local information on weather, roads and conditions affecting schools. In severe conditions normal programmes will be interrupted more frequently to carry emergency bulletins.
Please do not telephone local Radio for advice but listen to appropriate broadcasts.

Finally, please remember that it is ultimately the responsibility of parents or carers to decide if a pupil should attempt to travel to school, by transport or on foot, in adverse weather conditions. The Education Authority encourages full attendance at school, but in severe weather conditions the safety of pupils is much more important. Parents should therefore continue to use good judgement in deciding whether it is safe to send a child to school.