JANUARY

2016

Christmas Decorations

Pupil Council

The Pupil Council have had a great influence over our

Christmas preparations this year. They asked for im-

proved Christmas decora-tions in the hall and as a re-

sult each class designed, planned and created their own 2m by 1 m Christmas

Banner. The hall looked very festive and the feedback from pu-pils and staff has been very

positive.

St. John Vianney’s RC Primary School Newsletter

St. John Vianney’s Christmas Carol Concert

The Christmas Carol Concert went off with a bang! All classes

between P4 and 7 prepared their own songs and musical ac-

companiment to great aplomb. .

The singing was beautiful and the musicians played exceed-

ingly well.

A big thank you to Mrs Evans for all your hard

work in preparing the classes.

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a very busy December!

Christmas Nativity

P1e, P2g, P2/3 and P3d performed a wonderful Nativity and of

course this was made possible by the inspired direction of

Mrs Reid, Mrs Coventry, Mrs Dixon, Ms. Garvin and Mrs Malt-

man.

A big thank you to Mrs Evans who lead the singing of the choir

of angels and our merry band of musicians.

And of course we cannot forget Mrs Spence our Wardrobe

Mistresses extraordinaire; who prepared all of the costumes!

Christmas Dinner

Everyone enjoyed being served by the Staff.

The food was delicious! ( Thanks to our ter-

rific catering staff). The children were wear-

ing some great hats that they had created

themselves.

P2’s trip to Edin-

burgh Castle

P2 had a terrific trip

where they saw and

heard ‘the One

O’clock gun; pre-

tended to be

Queens , Kings and

Servants in the great

hall. They even saw

the Crown Jewels!

Scottish Week

The Scottish Competition

Pupils from the Nursery to P3 will be

performing a Scottish song, dance or

poem and the p4-7s are having mini

Scottish Competitions in their classes.

The pupils are busy learning their cho-

sen piece off by heart and the 3 winning

competitors from each class will be put

forward for our grand final on the 9th

February.

This month the school will be celebrating

Scottish Literacy. Each assembly has focussed

on how we celebrate New Year, the Life and

works of Robert Burns.

The week beginning the 24th is our Scottish

week and all classes will be learning about

Scottish stories, poems, songs, dances and

music.

As a very special treat we will be welcoming

the Storyteller Mrs. Mash and Mr. Pretzel the

bagpipe player to the classes.

McFlashmob

As part of our cel-

ebration of all

things Scottish

the classes are

learning some

new dance moves

to the Proclaimer

song ‘500 miles.’

This will be per-

formed as a giant

whole school

McFlashmob in

the week before

the February

break.

SQIP Progress Report

Improvement in Performance

All classes are regularly learning how to

improve both their mental maths agili-

ty and problem-solving skills.

The Read, Write Inc, Fresh Start and the

SEAL support groups have been intro-

duced and making a impact on pupils

learning in literacy and Numeracy.

Learners’ Experiences

Teachers have undertaken training in

the use of the iPad to enhance the

learning experiences for the pupils.

iPads are used throughout the school to

create animations, movies, mind-maps

and presentations.

Pupils are now learning how to formu-

late their own Success Criteria and have

taken part in discussions with their

teachers about their progress and the

next steps in learning.

Welcome to

New Members

of Staff

We are happy to

announce the new

appointment of

our P.E. Specialist;

Miss Hutt and that

Mr. Ramsay has

successfully been

appointed P5/6

Class Teacher until

the Easter holiday.

Welcome to the

Staff!

Dates for the Diary

25th - 29th January Scottish Week 26th - 27th January Mrs Mash the Storyteller 1st Feb Lenten Appeal begins 3rd Feb P7 Transition Mass 10th Feb Ash Wednesday Liturgy 12th Feb February Week 22nd Feb All resume 25th Feb P4m and a trip to National Museum of Scotland 1st March P4a Assembly 3rd March World Book Day 3rd March P6 Trip to Dynamic Earth

ICT Group

Over the past few months, our ICT group have split their focus in two main directions: maintaining ipads and creating a new school website. The group have been responsible for installing apps and system updates on all pupil ipads, they have also been aided by the boys and girls from P6 & P7 who help to distribute, charge and collect the devices each day. The ICT group is also pleased to report that the new website nearly ready and hope that this will be operational before the Easter holidays.

Tanzania Group

Just before Christmas, our Tanzania group completed a ‘Tour of St John Vi-anney’ video for our friends at Omi primary. The video, as well as photos and messages from each class, has now been given to a representative of the Twende Pamoja partnership. This representative, who is currently vis-iting schools in Tanzania, will show the video to the boys and girls at Omi primary and, upon their return to Edinburgh, will feedback how the video was received and, hopefully, provide us with a response from Omi primary.