Poppies - Blacklaw Primary School

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back to another school term at Blacklaw Primary. I hope you all had a great October holiday and that you are
looking forward to another busy term in our school calendar.
This term we welcome some additional members of staff to the Blacklaw Team. Mrs L Monie will be working in P5/4
(Room 6) alongside Mrs Mercer. Mrs A Matts, a PGDE student, will also be working in P5/4 this term and will return after

Christmas to work in our upper school. Mrs G Bonner is a temporary member of staff who will be covering in
various classes on Wednesdays.
As the weather has now turned and winter months are on us please ensure your child attends school
equipped for outdoor play. We will always endeavour to enable outdoor breaks and lunchtimes over the
confines of indoor breaks. Please remember to label all clothing.

Interim Reports
Thank you to all parents/carers who returned their feedback/comment sheets. We value the
feedback given and will endeavour to continue to work in partnerships with you to deliver the best
outcomes for your child/children.

Poppies

Poppies are on sale in school. Pupils can purchase poppies for a donation of 20p. All monies raised will go to
support the Poppy Scotland Appeal.

School Uniform
Thank you to all parents/ carers who returned the uniform questionnaires. The majority of parents support a
review of our school uniform and are seeking clarification regarding uniform colours and items, which form
our school uniform and PE kit. This term I will be meeting in collaboration with representatives from the
Parent Council/ PTA various uniform companies to look at quality, price and best value for uniforms. I also
plan to consult pupils to gain their views.
In the New Year I intend to update parents with regards to any changes that will be made regarding our
school uniform in preparation for the new session in August 2014.
In the meantime we do have some uniform items for sale at the school. However due to the review taking place, I have
instructed that no additional stock is purchased at present.

Book Week Scotland
Book Week Scotland runs from 25th November – 1st December 2013. To celebrate this event, all of our P1
pupils were given a family book pack from the Scottish Book Trust. We hope that pupils enjoy reading these
books with their parents. You can find more details regarding Book Week Scotland at

www.scottishbooktrust.com

P.T.A.
Our P.T.A. would like to thank all those who supported the recent Holloween Disco’s the children who
attended thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Please note our next P.T.A. meeting will be held on Tuesday
12 November at 7.00 p.m. The P.T.A. need interested parents to enable them to continue.

School Improvement Plan
As a staff team we have been working on finalising targets and new developments that we plan to take forward this
school year. This will be shared with our Parent Council and then with parents later this term.

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School Website
This term we are working on redesigning our school website, so we can share with pupils, parents and the wider Blacklaw

community, the great work which is going on in our school. Mr Williamson, staff, some parents and myself
are looking at various designs/ layouts with support from South Lanarkshire Council.

Videoing Christmas Events
During the course of our Christmas festivities pupils will participate in events e.g. nativity service to
which we invite family and friends to enjoy. Videoing at these events is permitted on the understanding
that any such recordings must be for sole use and must not be used for sale or reward. If you have any
objection to your child being included please telephone me at the school as soon as possible.
Videos or photographs of any school activity should not be posted on social network sites i.e
facebook, youtube, myspace etc. This is a breach of data protection and South Lanarkshire
Council protocols are clear. www.ceop.gov.uk/parents.

Green Team/ Gardening Club update
Our Green Team have been very busy this session so far. With the help of their classmates, they have completed an

Environmental Review of the school and have decided that this year, the three focus topic areas will be
Litter, Biodiversity and Food and the Environment. They also participated in the Overton Farm Scarecrow
competition, and although they didn’t win, thoroughly enjoyed creating their Scary Simon Crowell entry
(now posing in the entrance of the school!) On November 29th, it is this year’s Eco-day and the Green
Team have been working hard to plan the different activities for that day. They have decided on the

following six activities: a presentation by St. Andrew’s Hospice about recycling clothes; a demonstration by
‘Hoot’s Owl’s; fashion designing; making smoothies on the ‘Smoothie Bike’; a surprise Green Team led activity
and the opportunity for all the children in the school to have a go on a Climbing Tower which will cost £1 each.
Within the Gardening Club, all the planters have now been cleared and harvested of vegetables and have been re-planted
with bulbs and winter shrubs. The Gardening Club members have also started counting our Morrison’s Let’s Grow
vouchers – but might be there for a long time yet!! Thank you to everyone for bringing the vouchers into school and
especially thank you to all the adult helpers at the Gardening Club – it could not run without your help.

Book Fair
As always our Book Fair was a great success. Many thanks to the volunteer helpers without whose support we
would be unable to run our Fair. The commission received by the school is a huge 60% of all sales and will
enable us to choose new books for the school. These books will also help provide a wider selection for our
school library. This year our total commission earned has been £667. Thank you Blacklaw!

JRSO – How to keep safe at night
If you have a high vis jacket or if you are borrowing one from the school wear it at night if you can. When
you are crossing the road take as much time as you need, don’t hurry and cross where you can see. If you
do not have a high vis jacket you can buy reflectors for your bag which are only 60 pence. When crossing a

road day or night make sure you’re with an adult.
By Luke and Catherine Primary 6 Room 9 and Room 7

Mobile Phones
It is not necessary for pupils to bring mobile phones to school, as our office staff are happy to contact you if
required or take important messages on your behalf. Please keep all mobile phones at home. Any child who
brings a mobile phone to school shall be instructed to switch it off throughout the school day. We would greatly
appreciate your support with this necessary request.

Pupil Council-Let Us Shine
Please remember to bring your loose change (5p, 2p or 1p’s) for our ‘Let Us Shine’ to support Comfort and
Joyce at our link school in Ghana. Each class has a specially designed bottle to fill with their loose change.
We also have our ‘Roll a Penny’ competition each Friday to support this charity.

LEPRA Fundraiser
On Thursday 14th November we will be holding a ‘Fun Workout’ to raise awareness of the charity LEPRA and to
allow pupils to make a valuable contribution to the work of LEPRA.
Each pupil has been given an envelope to collect donations for LEPRA. Envelopes should be returned on the
morning of the ‘Workout’ where they will be collected by Mrs Marion Barr, the community fundraiser for
LEPRA. We hope that all pupils and families will support this event. Further information about the work of
LEPRA can be found at the LEPRA website www.leprahealthinaction.org.uk

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Netball Festival
On Thursday 24 October at Stewartfield Community Centre the Netball group went to the Netball Festival
accompanied by Mrs. Dougans. Long Calderwood, St. Leonards, Mount Cameron and Maxwellton were also
competing. It was five aside games and Blacklaw had two teams. Wing attack and Wing defence positions
were not included in the matches. We got to play at least three matches each. When we were not
competing we got to watch some very exciting games played by other schools. We learned a lot about the
game and enjoyed the experience. The netball club can’t wait to compete again! It was a great opportunity
to play against other schools and we all loved it!
By Katrina and Fiona Room 10 Primary 7

Show Racism the Red Card
On 10 October ten of our schools footballers went to an event at K-Park (Calderglen)
called ‘Show Racism the Red Card’. There were two schools, Blacklaw and St. Hilary’s.
When we arrived we watched Queen of the South training for ten minutes then we
went in to a small room to do a workshop. We were learning about racism and
stereotype and did a few activities. After that we had lunch and then went to the cage
pitch for football drills. Then we were split into 4 teams of 5 to play mini matches.
Finally before we left we got gift bags and watched the first half of a charity match.
We got pictures with some ex professional football players and also got autographs on
a magazine and Calum won a signed ball.
By Calum, Jaikblu and Jamie Room 10 Primary 7

Orienteering
On Friday 10th October Matthew, Rhiannon and
Emily went to an orienteering event at Halfmerke
Primary. The first task was to find the twenty
flags with clippers on them, we had to clip them
onto the sheet with the numbers of the flags on
them. We also had a map with the flags on it but
it turned out they were in the wrong place! We
came second in that task, and Hunter Primary
won a big trophy with their name on it. The
second task was to find a card with our letter on
it which was A at the end, we thought we were
first but Matthew forgot to write our code word,
which was Apple. I think we came second in that
one too! We also got crisps and a drink for taking
part. It was a fun afternoon and we hope next
year’s P7’s enjoy it too!
By Emily Room 10 and Matthew Room 9
Primary 7

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P4/3 Gunpowder Plot Assembly P7 Fire Talks
Recently primary 4/3 have been working On 29 October the P7’s were
lucky enough to get a firework
on an assembly about the gunpowder safety talk from a fire fighter
plot. We practiced for the assembly named John. Some of the main
over and over again and gathered lots points were: If a firework doesn’t
of facts about the gunpowder plot and explode when you set it off don’t
fire workers safety. We wore ‘olden go near it, leave it for at least 24
day’ clothes and we sang a Guy Fawkes hours. You could hurt yourself or
song called ‘Remember, remember the animals. Sparklers are 15 times
5th of November’ and we did a dance to hotter than boiling water, 8 times
Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’. It was a big hotter that boiling oil and 5 times
success and everyone who came enjoyed hotter than a barbecue! 3158
people were injured in Scotland on
it! bonfire night last year. There are
By Amy and Jack Primary 4 Room 5 only two fire engines to cover one
area, so you don’t want to be
 wasting a fireman’s time when
there could be something really
Scotland Street Museum serious happening out there, so go
Scotland Street Museum was really, to an organised display and don’t
set fireworks off in your back
really fun. When we got there we
went into a cinema room to watch garden!
some Victorian videos of children. By Kirsten and Rhiannon Room

Next we went into a Victorian 10 Primary 7
classroom and a very strict teacher
gave us clothes to wear. We started P5 Ice Skating
off with doing the clock face using For the past couple of weeks we have
been going ice skating. On Thursday
all our times tables up to twelve we had a Halloween party at the ice
then we wrote the ABC in fancy rink and had to wear a hat or a skirt.
writing with an ink pen. Some were a
bit scared of the belt but it wasn’t Next week we are having our
that scary! We used slates to write assessments. We are sad that it is
the answers to five maths questions our last week but it’s been fun. All of

the teacher asked us. us had a lovely day.
By Iona and SFpreoyrtas PH5aRlloAomthl7etics
By Abbie H. P5 and Abbie G.
P6 Room 7 On Friday 24 October some of the P7’s
went to an athletics tournament. We won six

events and Nicole made a new girls record
for the ball throw. We went on a bus sharing

with St. Hilary’s as it was raining. It was
good fun. Overall it was very enjoyable!
By Adam and Ben Room 10 Primary 7

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Promoting Positive Behaviour
Line League Congratulations to the P3’s in Room 3 and Room 4 and P6/5 (Room 7) who won our Junior and Senior Line

Leagues at the end of last term. The winning lines were awarded with an additional break-time to say
‘Thank You’ for working together as a team and being ready to learn after play.

Star Pupils Well done to all the boys and girls who placed their first star into our Golden

Boxes. Keep up the wonderful work and brilliant behaviour!
Blacklaw Good Citizens Many children throughout the school demonstrated their skills at being good citizens in their

home environment by helping out at home during the holiday week in October. Pupils were encouraged to lend
at hand at home by doing jobs such as tidying their bedroom, setting/ clearing the table, hoovering a room
etc. Congratulations to all the pupils who demonstrated good citizenship at home. Keep up the great work!
Beat The Dinner Queue As part of our commitment to promote positive behaviour in our school playground

we have introduced a new reward called ‘Beat the Dinner Queue’. Pupils who are noted to be good citizens,

displaying attributes like kindness, respect, friendship etc. will be given a ‘Beat the Dinner Queue’ pass, which

will allow them and a friend to be first to receive their lunch.

We hope that you will support this initiative to reward pupils who are being good citizens at play.
Diary

Friday 1 November Awards Assembly – 9.45 a.m.

P7 to Glasgow Ski Centre – 3.00 p.m.

Football Club – 3.00 p.m.

Guitar Club – 3.00 p.m.

Monday 4 November Lunchtime Choir P 4-7

Basketball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Athletics Club – 3.00 p.m.

Scripture Union – 3.00 p.m.

Tuesday 5 November P5 YMI Music

Lunchtime Dodgeball

Lunchtime P6 Euroquiz Club

Wednesday 6 November Wednesday Whizz

Badminton Club – 3.00 p.m.

Gardening Club – 3.00 p.m.

Thursday 7 November P5 to East Kilbride Ice Rink

Lunchtime Dodgeball

P7 Football Additional Training

Netball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Friday 8 November P6/5 Assembly – 9.45 a.m.

Firefighters to visit P1

P7 to Glasgow Ski Centre – 3.00 p.m.

Football Club – 3.00 p.m.

Guitar Club – 3.00 p.m.

Monday 11 November In Service – school closed to pupils

Tuesday 12 November P5 YMI Music

Lunchtime P6 Euroquiz Club

Lunchtime Dodgeball

P.T.A. Meeting – 7.00 p.m.

Wednesday 13 November Wednesday Whizz

Badminton Club – 3.00 p.m.

Gardening Club – 3.00 p.m.

Thursday 14 November Lepra Work Out

Lunchtime Dodgeball

P7 Football Additional Training

Netball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Friday 15 November R.O. Assembly – 9.45 a.m.

P7 to Glasgow Ski Centre – 3.00 p.m.

Football Club – 3.00 p.m.

Guitar Club – 3.00 p.m.

Monday 18 November Lunchtime Choir P 4-7

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Basketball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Athletics Club – 3.00 p.m.

Scripture Union – 3.00 p.m.

Tuesday 19 November P5 YMI Music

Lunchtime P6 Euroquiz Club

Lunchtime Dodgeball

Wednesday 20 November Wednesday Whizz

Badminton Club – 3.00 p.m.

Gardening Club – 3.00 p.m.

Thursday 21 November Netball Festival - Stewartfield

Football Tournament – K Park

Lunchtime Dodgeball

P4 to visit St. Leonards Library

Netball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Friday 22 November Room 9 Assembly – 9.45 a.m.

Sports Hall Athletics

P7 to Glasgow Ski Centre – 3.00 p.m.

Football Club – 3.00 p.m.

Guitar Club – 3.00 p.m.

Monday 25 November Lunchtime Choir P 4-7

Basketball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Athletics Club – 3.00 p.m.

Scripture Union – 3.00 p.m.

Tuesday 26 November P5 YMI Music

Lunchtime P6 Euroquiz Club

Lunchtime Dodgeball

Wednesday 27 November Wednesday Whizz

Badminton Club – 3.00 p.m.

Gardening Club – 3.00 p.m.

Parent Council Meeting – 7.00 p.m.

Thursday 28 November Netball Festival - Stewartfield

Lunchtime Dodgeball

Netball Club – 3.00 p.m.

Friday 29 November ECO Day

P7 to Glasgow Ski Centre – 3.00 p.m.

Football Club – 3.00 p.m.

Guitar Club – 3.00 p.m.

Saturday 30 November Christmas Fayre 10.00 – 12.00 p.m.

CHRISTMAS PARTIES

Primary 1 & 2 Thursday 19 December

Primary 3 & 4 Monday 16 December

Primary 5 & 6 Tuesday 17 December

Thank you for your support. I hope that you will continue to work in partnership with myself and staff, within the school,

to encourage your child/ children to aim for our Golden Goals.

Do as you are asked
Treat each other with respect
Always try to do your best

If you have any questions or queries regarding any aspect of your child’s progress in school, please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely

Noreen Black
Head Teacher

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