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Mount Pleasant Index

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MOUNT PLEASANT PRESS
Visit us at www.mountpleasant.highland.sch.uk

08 JANUARY 2007

Welcome back to the start of the spring term! Thank you to everyone who gave Christmas cards and gifts at the end of last term. I hope you all had a lovely time with friends and family and wish you all a happy and healthy 2007.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
15 January SRTS Meeting – 2.30pm
16 January Badminton starts for P6
23 January PSA Meeting – 6.30pm
7 February P7 Sponsored Walk
8 February In Service Training Day for staff
8-12 February(inclusive) February long weekend for pupils
19 February School Board Meeting – 7.00pm
20 February Nursery selling pancakes for ‘Pancake Day’
20 February(proposed date) Inter Schools Quiz in Miller Academy
19 March Caithness Science Fair week
30 March Schools close at the usual time for Easter Break

RESCHEDULED SAFER ROUTES TO SCHOOL MEETING
This meeting will be held on Monday 15 January 2.30 pm in the Parents’ Room. All parents are welcome to attend.

ADVERSE WEATHER/EMERGENCY CONTACT
By now all parents (P1-7, Nursery 3 & 4 and SEU) should have received information regarding the 0870 number to be used if you think the school may be closed due to adverse weather. We still have not had all the return slips. If you have lost/misplaced/don’t think you received on, please contact the school office immediately to arrange for a replacement. It is essential parents have this information available to them.

It is also extremely important that all emergency contact details held by the school are kept up to date. Please think carefully and inform us immediately of any changes to phone numbers etc. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

HEAD LICE - Please be vigilant and check children’s heads regularly!
Schools are no longer permitted to issue alert letters to all parents. If we become aware of anyone having head lice we will only contact the parent/carer of that child. This will be done by letter or a personal telephone call.

SWIMMING
Please note that swimming sessions for the first nine weeks of this term are for P7, P4, P3 and P5. P7 pupils should meet their teacher at the pool at 9.00 am on Wednesday morning.

CO OP COLOURING COMPETITION
I would like to say a big thank you to Mr Sinclair, manager of our local CO OP store on Mount Pleasant Road. He recently invited our pupils to take part in a colouring competition and the CO OP provided £200 to be spent on prizes for the winners. Mr Sinclair suggested we buy the prizes from our book fair and as a result the school has benefited in two ways, eighteen children received prizes of their own choice from the book fair AND the commission earned from these prizes bought £120 worth of books for our library!!

The following children are the prize winners for the competition:-
Zoe Craigie and Jake Dunnett N3
Jack Sibbald and Sorcha Campbell N4
Charles Angus and Sophie Irvine-Dunnett P1
Cameron Mackay and Sophie McIvor P2
Chloe Hawthorne and Marc Deighan P3
Chloe Mackinnon and Michael Smith P4
Craig Wares and Cara Jones P5
Matthew Stanger and Shelley Mackay P6
Sophie Urquhart and Connor Dunnett P7

Well done to all the children who entered the competition and I hope you enjoy seeing their entries which are to be displayed in the CO OP store.

EDINBURGH TRIP – FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES
Primary 7 are undertaking a sponsored walk from the school to Scrabster and back (approx 5 miles). It is proposed this will go ahead, weather permitting on Wednesday, 7 February. Any parents from other classes wishing to sponsor P7 in their efforts can do so on a general sponsor sheet at the office.

SCHOOL HANDBOOK
Please note the school handbook has been updated in preparation for the annual enrolments. If any parent would like a copy, please contact the school office and Hilary will arrange for one to come home via school bag mail.

BOOK FAIR COMMISSION
Thank you to everyone who bought books from the recent book fair. The total commission raised came to £658.94 (including the £120 from the COOP prizes). This has been spent on new books for the library and project boxes. These were on display on the Open Afternoon so I hope some of you had time to have a look at the new books.

FIRE SAFETY TALKS/COMPETITION
I would like to thank Mr Smith (Hannah P5) for coming into school and delivering Fire Safety talks to all pupils. This coincided with all local schools being invited to participate in a Fire Safety at Christmas competition held by Dounreay. We had winners in both the P1-3 and the P4-7 categories. They were:-
Kerri Mackay – P7 Rosie Fidler - P4
Morgan Kennedy – P2 Jamie Sinclair – P2
Tegan Souter – P1

PARENTS’ EVENINGS/PARENT HELPERS
Thank you to all the parents who came along to the Parents’ Evening (afternoon and morning for Nursery) meetings. We had a great turn out and it was lovely to see so many parents interested in the work of the school and their children’s progress. Thank you too to the parents who helped out at the book fair and in promoting the PSA and School Board.

ACTIVE SCHOOLS COORDINATOR
Kenny Russell, the Active Schools Coordinator was as busy as ever last term. Our pupils participated in both a swimming gala and a rugby festival organised by him. He has asked me to pass on his thanks to the pupils and parents both for participating in the events and for the support given to the competitors.

Kenny also attended our last PSA meeting where he explained to the parents there about his work and what he hopes to achieve. The main aim of Active Schools Coordinators is to encourage more children to be more active more often. To do this Kenny relies on a band of volunteers and he has asked me to pass on the following to our parents:-
‘Active Schools are looking for more volunteers. We are not looking for a lifetime commitment, any time parents/carers are able to give will be greatly appreciated. Perhaps parents waiting after school between the two finish times would like to help out with an activity. We are not necessarily looking for sports coaches but people who are willing to be an extra pair of hands/eyes.’
If you have some time to spare even for just a few weeks please contact the school office and we will pass your details to Kenny.

BADMINTON WINNERS
Mrs Mennie held a badminton tournament with Primary 6 at the end of term and the winners were:

1st Jack Fidler and Declan Campbell
2nd Justin Gunn and Jamie Moffat
3rd Maree Sutherland and Abbie Leonard

CHRISTMAS TREE COMPETITION
Congratulations to Hannah Smith, P5 who won a Christmas Tree for her house and one for the school. Her decorated Christmas Pudding was a prize winner in the recent Forestry Commission competition.

THANK YOU…
…to Mrs Peddie and Mrs Jones who very kindly donated some books to the school. Some have gone to the school library and some to the Nursery library.
…to Mrs Cameron For donating a lucky draw prize of £5. this was drawn at the last Assembly of the term and the winner was Samantha Barry, P4.
…to Mr Wares for the selection boxes donated for Christmas Party prizes

ENROLMENT
Adverts will be appearing in the local press soon informing parents of the enrolment arrangements for P1 and Nursery 3 & 4 pupils for next session. Please watch out for these and pass the information to anyone you know with children of the appropriate age.

RETIRAL
As you know Agnes, the school cook retired at the end of last term. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the collection we had for her. At the end of term Assembly Agnes was presented with a plaque, made by Callum Mc Clelland, and a cheque for £350 which was the total amount collected from staff and families.

CHRISTMAS OPEN AFTERNOON PROGRAMME
I hope everyone who attended the open afternoon had an enjoyable time. Certainly the feedback from parents has indicated that the children provided a good afternoon’s entertainment.

Primary 6 designed, produced and sold the programme for the Open Afternoon as their Enterprise Project. Thanks to their hard work the money they raised from this came to £142.69 and has been donated to the Couthie Corner.

CHRISTMAS POST
Primary 7 also carried out an Enterprise Project last term. Theirs was to plan and organise the Christmas Post. Stamps were designed, produced and sold by the pupils and their efforts raised £127.90. This money has been donated to the SSPCA at Balmore.

TERM 3 CHARITY
The Charity the school will be supporting this term will be ’Red Nose Day’ which is held in March.

TERM 2 CHARITY - RNLI
Our collections at Assemblies throughout term 2 raised £116.90 for the RNLI. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

PSA NEWS
The next PSA meeting will be held on Tuesday, 23 January at 6.30pm. All parents are welcome to attend. Copies of PSA minutes are available on the school website and also on the notice board outside the school office.

SCHOOL BOARD
Copies of School Board minutes are available on the school website and also on the notice board outside the office. The next meeting will be held on Monday, 19 February 2007 at 7.00 pm.

Hilary has decided to step down as clerk to the School Board. The Board would like to express their thanks for the excellent work she carried out. This means we now have a vacancy for a clerk and anyone interested should contact the school office for further information.

CHRISTMAS RECYCLING
CHAS, (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland) the charity we support with our collection of ink cartridges also collect mobile phones. If anyone was lucky enough to get a new mobile this Christmas, please consider disposing of your old one by donating it to this charity. We will be collecting mobile phones until Tuesday, 31 January.

We will also be collecting old Christmas cards for recycling up to Friday, 20 January for recycling.

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