April 2019

Lawthorn Primary School
Newsletter
Term 4
2018-2019

Dear Parents/Carers,
I hope you all had a happy and peaceful holiday and I would like to
welcome everyone back to the final term of this session. I hope you
like the new format of our newsletter. We will endeavour to text this
to you at the beginning of each term. It will also be available, along
with our important dates and key information on our school app.

Staffing
As always in a busy school, we have a number of farewells and
welcomes to our staffing. Firstly, I would like to take the opportunity to
thank Mrs. King, who will begin her maternity leave in May. Her hard
work and support is invaluable and we look forward to welcoming her
new addition to our Lawthorn family. Ms. Lewis in our Early Years Class
has also left to take up a secondment as a Senior Early Years
Practitioner at Fairlie Early Years Class on a full-time basis. We wish her
well as she begins her new adventure. In the meantime, her post will
be covered by Miss Rowe, whom we warmly welcome to our school. I
am also delighted to welcome back Mrs. McLachlan as she returns from
her maternity leave at the end of May.
Finally, I would also like to welcome some students who are on
placement within our school: Miss Richardson will be working in P2/1,
Miss Morrison in P3A and Miss Taylor in P4.

School Vision and Values
In consultation with children, families, staff and members of our school
community, we have reviewed our school Vision and Values.

Our new school vision is to:

‘Nurture, inspire and support our children to achieve their potential’

Our new school values are:

Kindness Honesty Respect Responsibility

We aim to promote a values-based approach and we believe that our
vision and values help to define the uniqueness we have at Lawthorn
Primary School. They give us purpose and clarity and we aim to foster
an environment where these core values are a focal point and
respected by the whole community.

Social Media
As you are aware, the internet has become a powerful tool to connect
and to share ideas and opinions. In recent years, social networking
sites such as Facebook have grown in popularity and many people use
them to communicate with family, friends and others. However, social
networking can also be a cause of stress and anxiety to some
individuals. I would therefore ask that those using social media, do not
comment negatively on other people’s children as this can be very
distressing for both parents and children. Anyone wishing to raise
concerns should do so in the correct manner, by speaking to the class
teacher or a member of our management team. Thank you!

Pupil Equity Fund
We aim to raise the attainment of all children at Lawthorn Primary
School and this session we have put the Scottish Government’s funding
to close the attainment gap to good use.

In our bid to improve the Health and Wellbeing of our children, we
have been working on the development of our playground. A variety of
playground games have been painted to promote positive play and
encourage children to be active. These have been enthusiastically
welcomed by children at all stages of the school. The Buddies and Play
Leaders community group have also purchased a variety of resources
for our playground and are working with children throughout the
school to introduce these. Further resources have also been purchased
to support Physical Education throughout the school, introducing
children to a wider variety of games and activities.

We have also invested in a collaboration with Brian Donnelly, an
independent consultant who has been involved in anti-bullying work
since 2007 and worked directly on Respect for All, Scotland’s National
approach to Anti-Bullying. Brian has been working with all classes
throughout the school and has provided information and consultation
sessions for parents. As a result, children throughout the school have a
clearer understanding of bullying and the impact it can have on
individuals. If you would like further information on the work Brian has
done with the school, please look out for him at Parents’ Evening on
Tuesday 28th May.

We have also put our Pupil Equity Fund to good use by purchasing a
variety of resources to promote active learning within our infant
department, including new role play equipment, new construction, new
sand and water trays and art easels. The children have been really
excited about these and are putting them all to good use.

We have centralised our literacy and numeracy resources across the
school and have purchased additional materials to enhance learning
opportunities in these areas. These include, active literacy materials,
literacy and numeracy games and Count on Us, numeracy boards. In
addition, Mr. McKenna from Count on Us Education will be working
with teachers and children to implement these at all stages.

We continue to promote enjoyment for reading across the school in
order to raise attainment. In doing so, our School Library community
group has purchased new shelving and seating for our library as well as
a wide range of new and exciting books. These include non-fiction,
graphic novels and novels to challenge our more able readers. The
shelving is currently under construction and we cannot wait to see our
new and improved school library!

P7 School Show
We hope you enjoyed our P7 school show. All our staff were extremely
proud of the children for their fabulous performance!

Parents’ Evening
Please note that our Parents’ Evenings will be Tuesday 28th and
Wednesday 29th May. Appointment letters will be sent out in children’s
schoolbags. Appointments for P7/6 will be on 24th April and 1st May to
enable parents/carers to meet with Mrs King before her maternity
leave.

Health Week
Please note that our Infant Health Week will take place from 3rd June
and our Senior Health Week will take place from 10th June. During
these weeks, we would like to invite families to come along and take
part in some of the activities and events organised. Look out for further
information on these activities in your child’s school bag in May.

Transition
This term there will be an increased number of transition events for our
P7 children. These include a Greenwood Academy music project,
additional visits from the maths department and further visits to
Greenwood Academy.

Our Early Years Class children will also be involved in a range of
transition events including regular visits to our P1 classrooms, gym
activities, playground activities and induction visits with their parents
and carers.

All children throughout the school will take part in Bump Up Afternoon
on 19th June. Information on class structures and class teachers for
next session will be provided asap.

Parent Council Events
We would like to invite all families to take part in the Parent Council
treasure hunt on the weekend of Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th April
and our Summer Fayre on Friday 7th June. Further information on these
events will be sent out in children’s schoolbags. We are always
grateful of family support at these events and the funds raised have
gone towards the purchase of our new playground buddy shelter as
well as partial funding towards our end of year trips.

Thank you for your continued support!

Best Wishes,
Miss Grossart (Head Teacher)