Head Teacher’s Note

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South Lodge Primary School, Castle Road, Invergordon, IV18 0LW

01349 852521

Southlodge.primary@highland.gov.uk

Website— http://southlodgeprimary.com/

OUR NEWSLETTER IS BACK!!! First can I start my piece here by apologising for the length of time from

our last newsletter to this one. Schools are becoming more and more busy and finding the time to sit down

and put together the newsletter is getting tough. However, even if we have little news to tell we will do our

very best to have a monthly newsletter to go out.

So, our new term is up and running and everybody is busy in their new classes. I would like to take this op-

portunity to welcome our new children and families to South Lodge and we hope that they will be very happy

here. Our school roll continues to grow and we now have 149 children in P1-7!! It has been a very a long time

since our numbers were so healthy so I am just delighted that people are choosing our school to come too and

long may this continue. Our Nursery also is seeing high numbers too and with the children already enrolled to

start after Christmas and Easter, our numbers will be in the high 30s for our Nursery children so great news

all around. In addition, some of you may have seen our wonderful new Nursery environment after our com-

plete refurbishment over the Summer holidays. Work had continued right up to the day before the children

came back to school so it is taking a bit longer than hoped to have the Nursery looking like we would want

but the Nursery staff are working so hard to have the setting look great. We plan to have an open event where

you can come and see our new setting and join in on the fun and I will bring you those dates as soon as we

have them finalised.

Continuing with improvements to the school, our Library is tantalisingly close to opening! This space, believe

me, is going to wow the children (and you all). I have given a sneaky peek to a couple of visitors who have

visited and their faces were a picture when I showed them what we have manged to create. We hope to coin-

cide the opening of the Library with our Nursery open event too so we can have one big event here at South

Lodge where you will all be invited to attend. Again, as soon as I have the date for the last small touches to

the library then you will all be informed. However I must take this opportunity to thank a couple of people.

First of all a massive thanks to one of our parents, Kayren Wilson who has given me so much of her time to

paint the walls with the wonderful colours that are in there. She has done a fantastic job and I cannot thank

her enough. Thanks also to Mrs Riggs and her family for the hours and hours of work they have all put in to

getting the library to where it is now. Poor Mrs Riggs can finally see her lounge floor at home after painstak-

ingly covering every book with plastic, labelling the books etc. Words cannot express how grateful and thank-

ful I am for the hours of hard work that she and her family have put into this project. From the bottom of my

heart – thank you so much.

A new school year also brings a new school improvement plan and I am in the stages of completing a parent

friendly copy of this huge document. The main document is over 50 pages long so I would not like to bore

you with all that detail but will produce for you a much more streamlined version! However if you wish to

have a copy of the main plan then you are of course more than welcome and just ask at the office if you

would like a copy. Again, as soon as I have completed the streamlined version, I will let you know.

If you have any questions, issues to bring up or worries of any sort then please do not hesitate in contacting

me.

Kind regards Mr Hayes-MacLeod

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Parents Consultations

NEW SLET TE R—S EPTEM BE R 1 7

The Book People Book Fair

At the same time as our Parents Evening we are holding a book fair as usual. The difference this time is we are giving the Book People a try this year as they have so many lovely bargains all ready for you to start on your Christmas shopping. The fair will be with us from Monday 25th September until Wednesday 27th September so you are more than welcome to pop along at any time , with or without your children (in case you are not wanting little eyes to see what you are purchasing).

Apologies in advance

Day at the Races—Summer Picnic

A massive well done to our cooks, staff and children for helping South Lodge be the WINNERS again, yes again, of the much coveted plate for the third time.

So much work and effort goes into this picnic and is a fantastic day for all.

Can’t wait until next Summer….

Parent consultations will be held on either Wednesday 27th or Thursday 28th September. Please check in the attached envelope and select your preference of day and/or times. If no form is re-ceived back from yourselves by Friday 22nd Sept then we will make an appointment for you.

Please do not be alarmed at the amount of forms enclosed in with this pack. We thought it best to get everything over and done with early one. We would be very grateful if the forms could be back by Friday 22nd September (short notice I know but it gets them out of your way).

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Unfortunately we are having a spell of recurrent head lice . Please be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly. Further information can be found on the attached leaflet.

Lunch Money

Please can we remind everyone that it is extremely important that you do NOT send your child back to school within 48 hours of a vom-iting/diarrhoea bug. This is a Highland Council wide policy that applies to both pupils and staff to try and prevent the spread of this unpleasant illness. If your child returns to school within the 48 hours after an episode then they WILL be required to return home.

We would like to say a massive thank you to Alashea Grant and her mum, Michelle, for raising £215 towards our new library.

Just before the Summer holidays they both took around a sponsor form in aid of the Little Prin-cess Trust, Castle Gardens Residents Fund and South Lodge Primary School and asked people to sponsor both Alashea and her mum in having their gorgeous brown hair cutting off short. The Princess Trust gladly accepted their hair in order to make wigs for children who have sadly lost their own due to cancer treatments. The raised money was then split between South Lodge Pri-mary School for our library and the residents of Castle Gardens Care Home for a lovely gazebo for their gardens.

Fundraising thank you

Our Cook has a new system for collecting lunch monies. As of last week she no longer gives back change to anyone without the correct money. The new rule, enforced by the Catering Department, is that any change will simply roll over to the next week’s meals meaning the pupil will show as in credit (if you put in a £20 note and only need to pay £13.80, then £6.20 will be put in credit for the following week). You can still pay just the required amount but will have to put in the exact amount into the brown envelope that your child brings home.

You can also pop into the school to pay the cook in person during the day up until 2pm (early mornings preferred though as she is serving at lunch time).

Headlice

Vomiting Bugs

In the nursery we are focusing on the story of the Little Red hen. Through this we will learn about harvesting and considering others feelings.

We would like to remind parents/carers to provide appropriate outdoor clothing for their children (i.e jacket, wellies ) together with a complete change of clothes. Please ensure your children’s clothes/boots etc have their name clearly marked inside.

Our phone number has changed and the old one is no longer work-ing. If you want to contact the nursery, please phone the school number 01349 852521 and there you can either leave a message or go through to speak to the office. Hopefully this week we will be giv-en our own option number where you will be able to phone the nursery line direct or have an option to leave a message for us.

Dates for your Diary

Monday 25th September Book People Book Fair arrives in school

Wednesday 27th September Parent Consultation

Thursday 28th September Parent Consultation

Monday 2nd October Harvest Assembly and Good Work Awards

Tuesday 3rd October Safe Highlanders for P7 (arrive back 3.55)

Friday 6th October School breaks up for October holidays

Friday 27th October Halloween Dressing up day (details will fol-low)

Tuesday 31st October Parent Council Halloween Party 5-7pm

Thursday 14th December Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas Dinner, Hansel & Gretel Panto performance

Friday 22nd December Break for the Christmas holidays

Other events planned for next term—details to follow once organised.

Halloween Party

Our Halloween Party will be held on Tuesday 31st October between 5.30-7pm and is open to all South Lodge pupils and

their siblings.

Tickets are priced at £5 each (with siblings under 3 going free). The price includes everything so there are no extra costs on the night.

Tickets can be ordered/collected from either the school reception or from Kayleigh Connelly or Kara

Swanson when you see them out and about the school grounds.

Fundraising Ideas

If you have any ideas of things that you feel we need to raise money on for the school we would love to hear from you. We are also looking for more helpers so whether

you have plenty of time, or can only spare an hour, we would love it if you joined the Parent Council. We have attached a form so you can indicate your preference in

which area you are willing to help.

Website: https://southlodgeprimary.com And follow us on Facebook—South Lodge Primary School

Vaping/E-Cigarettes

We would like to advise all parents/carers that the Highland Council treat Vaping and E-Cigarettes in the same category as normal cigarettes. Therefore we kindly ask you all NOT to smoke any vaping or E-cigarettes on the school premises.

School Car Park

After a couple of near misses we are asking all parents not to walk their children through the main car park but to keep to the paths. We have seen children running in between the cars which is very dangerous.

I am sure you have seen the brand new gates at the side of the school to keep the children safe. These gates are locked from 9.30am until 2.45pm with the exception for delivery men.

I am sure you will understand these rules as we all want to keep the children safe.

Welcome

A warm welcome to our Probation Teacher for P6—Miss Clare Cross. We hope she

will be very happy with us at South Lodge and in the Highlands too.

Body Shop At Home Fundraiser

And finally we are hoping to raise some money for school funds using the Body Shop at Home squares form enclosed in your envelope. All you need to do is sell the squares on the form (£2 per square) and return the form together with the money to the school office. The school then receives half of the money raised per form and one of the people who have purchased a square has the chance of winning the rest of the money raised.

Please return your forms and money by Friday 29th September 2017.