Community events
I was very fortunate to attend two events in the village this weekend and to catch up with some of you at those. On Saturday I did the Taynish 5k to help raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support, a charity which is very close to many of our hearts. I also decided before running on Saturday that if I managed to complete the run (up and down some BIG hills!), I would kickstart our school fundraising for Children In Need (see below); I have made a donation accordingly.
On Sunday I went along to the soup and sandwich event in the Village Hall, organised by the Tayvallich Initiative. I heard all about the group’s exciting work and plans to grow the Tayvallich Community and make it more sustainable. Sadly, I didn’t win the cake/treasure hunt competition but I know that the cake went to a very deserving winner!
HMIE Inspection
It is now just over a week until our visitors come to see all of the fabulous work going on in our school community. We are very grateful to those of you who completed the surveys for the inspection team. Information about the inspection week meeting with parents and carers will be issued this week.
Early Level Joint Learning and Remembrance
In joint outdoor learning on Thursday the ELC and P1-2 children made a beautiful Remembrance Garden. On Friday we all went out just before 11am and watched our ELC children lay the wreaths they had made before we had a two minute silence to reflect. The staff were so impressed by how sensible and respectful the children were. Please check out some pictures in the Gallery here: https://www.tayvallich.argyll-bute.sch.uk/remembrance-activities/
Times Table Club
Pupils will remember how Miss Fraser ran a very popular lunchtime maths session last session for pupils from P4 to 7 who could not get enough maths during class time.
This term we are building on the success of that with Times Table Club, for any and all pupils who feel they need extra support with multiplying. This is, of course, a vital skill and is the magic key for unlocking a range of concepts in maths – not just a whole range of multiplication and division problems, but also doubling, halving, factors, fractions, prime numbers, squares and square roots of numbers… even the area and volume of shapes!
Want to know more? Come along on Wednesday to Miss Forgrieve’s classroom, from 12:30-1:00.
Children in Need
As you know, we will once again be supporting BBC Children in Need Day this year and seeing whether we can break our fundraising record of over £100 from last year. Our P6 fundraising lead has been working hard to get ideas from all of our children and we have decided on the following activities for Friday 17th November:
- Pupils are welcome to wear pyjamas or spotty clothes to school on Friday
- Pupils are welcome to bring a small teddy to school on Friday
- The ELC will make cakes for a bake sale
Games and activities will also take place in classes.
If you would like to make a donation, it could not be simpler – just go to:
Tayvallich Primary School is fundraising for BBC Children in Need (justgiving.com)
We will not be accepting cash in school this year so please make a donation using this link instead.
Family Learning Workshop
As you know, we have our first family learning workshop planned this week on Tuesday 14th:
Please join us for a session on how learning works and how we can support our children to learn both in school and at home and make the most of their amazing brains. We will look at memory, the brain, retrieval practice and exactly what helps (or doesn’t help) different brains to learn. The session will be fun and informative and there will be refreshments. Mrs Carter will lead the session with input from others with expertise in the topic.
There is no homework to be done in advance (!) but if you were able to watch (or re-watch) the film “Inside Out” as preparation for the part of the workshop on learning, memory and emotions, that would be fantastic.
Our intention was to have this session in school from 6pm until 7.30 but some of you have let me know that the timings and practicalities may be difficult for you due to childcare issues. It is possible that we may have to move to an online event this time and if this is the case, I will send you a Google Meet link on Monday for the session. If online, it will run from 6.30 until 7.15 as we will not need as much time for refreshments and chat!
ELC family activities
Don’t forget to check out our school calendar for details of our Bookbug Session on Monday this week and Grandparent Games session on Wednesday:
https://www.tayvallich.argyll-bute.sch.uk/events/
Have a great week and you know where I am, if you need anything.
