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SOUTH SCHOOL MAY NEWSLETTER

19th May 2004

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Time has flown past once again and it�s time for our monthly Newsletter. I do hope that you find these helpful and I would appreciate your comments regarding our communication between school and home.

Walk To School Week 24th � 28th May
Please continue to encourage your child to walk to/from school and make good use of our zebra crossing. Next week there will be a focus in walking to and from school as part of the National Campaign.

On Friday 28th May we shall hold an official opening of the zebra crossing. Jamie Stone MSP will take the honours of cutting the ribbon. This will take place at 1.30pm. Please come along and support our �Safer Routes To School� programme.  Children will have an opportunity to wear black and white clothes on that day � the staff really felt that a fun focus would appeal to all. The children will be asked to pay �1 to take part and all monies will go to the school fund and help subsidise class summer trips.

Pupil Reports & Open Day
The class teachers are in the process of writing the children�s reports. We plan to have them issued home during the week beginning the 7th June. An Open Afternoon will follow this on Thursday 17th June from 2- 3pm. This will be an opportunity for you to view your child�s work in their classrooms and chat informally with their teacher. If you wish to discuss your child�s progress in greater detail then please contact their teacher, after you receive the report and arrange a time convenient for you both.

Changes within the school
As from next session, August 2004, it is planned to slightly amend the times of the school day. This needs to take place to break the school day up into more regular blocks of time.
School will start at 9.10am and finish at 3.10pm.
This allows the day to be split with 3 blocks of 100 minutes which allows the class timetables to be more structured:
9.10am � 10.50am
11.05am � 12.45pm
1.30pm � 3.10pm
(Children in P1 � P3 have always had 30 minutes less of class time and this means they have a longer lunch break � this will not change i.e. 12.15pm � 1.30pm).
I hope this change doesn�t cause any problems but please contact myself if you envisage any. This will be greatly appreciated.

Composite Classes
Due to the drop of the school roll in August, we will be reduced to 6 classes in the school. At present the school roll stands at 166 pupils and in August it will be 145.
This means we will have - P1/2 class, P2/3 class, P3/4 class, P5 class, P6 class and P7 class.
The classes will be organised according to their age.
This will not affect the level of work your child will be covering as each child progresses from what they have achieved at the end of this term.
There will be a meeting next week for all present Nursery to P3 parents to attend on Wednesday 26th May at 7pm � this will be an opportunity to discuss the composite classes.

If you have any concerns or queries regarding any of these matters then please contact me to arrange an appointment.

Kind regards,

Pat Bowers � Headteacher