1. Or check Aberdeenshire School Closures website
TERM 2 NEWSLETTER
Curriculum Development
Rights Respecting School Award
As we work towards the Silver Award (Rights Aware) we are looking at communicating our commitment to being a Rights Respecting School to the wider community. The children, led this term by Mrs Johnstone, will be planning a special event and promotional materials which we will share with Parents and the Community on Thursday 22nd November at our family event for Book Week.
MAD Time
MAD Time will run every Monday from 1.15pm till 2pm. Parents are welcome at every session unless otherwise communicated. We value your support with MAD Time and it is a great way to keep up to date with pupil leadership.
Young Aberdeenshire Volunteering Award
We were very disappointed when Adventure, Service, Challenge wrote to tell us they had ceased as an organisation.
Over the course of this term we will be rolling out the Young Aberdeenshire Volunteering Award.
Pupils will earn awards for volunteering in their school and local community:
Volunteering activities can be carried out at school - things such as litter picking, buddying or managing the library. A simple log on a volunteering timesheet allows pupils to record the time they spend on the activity. These will be signed of by Mrs Johnstone termly.
Article 12: We have a right to have a say in decisions that affect us.
The children were given choice of which pupil leadership group they would like to be a part of this session.
Dear Parents/Carers
Welcome back to term 2. We hope you had a relaxing holiday, making the best of the lovely Autumn Weather. The chill factor is now setting in!
This term we will be focusing very much on presentation skills, particularly with a focus on talking and listening, drama and music, as we prepare to take part in a variety of community events and our Christmas Show. We would value the support of our parents and carers to encourage the children to practice lines, readings and songs at home as the term progresses.
This is an action packed newsletter so please make a cuppa, get comfy and have your diary to hand!
Quality Improvement Visit
Kay MacDonald will be visiting the school, with one other Head Teacher from our cluster, on Friday 16th November for our annual Quality Assurance visit. We are looking forward to having Kay back to school to support with school improvements.
It is important that parental voice is represented at this visit so I would very much appreciate it if parents who are free during the school day could indicate their availability either to the school website or by posting on my Facebook page. I will then select a small group to meet with the QI team.
Thank you for your support.    
Bronze: 
Completion of 10 hours
Silver:
Completion of 20 hours
Gold:
Completion of 30 hours
Platinum:
Completion of 45+ hours
Adverse Weather Information:
Do not call school.
Tel:
Pin number:
Or check Aberdeenshire School Closures website

2. Curriculum Development
Clubs
Monday - Chess Club 3.15pm-4.15pm for P3-7
Wednesday – Knitting Club pm
A £6 deposit is required at the start of this term.
Thursday - Netball Club – 6.30pm at Lathallan School. This club is for girls in P5, P6, P7
Friday - Good news Club 12.30pm - 1pm
Technology Club – 3.15pm – 4.15pm
The children are learning coding skills through the use of Scratch. We would greatly welcome an extra adult to support Craig with Technology Club. Please get in touch if you are available on a Friday afternoon for one hour.
P1 Photo – The Evening Express will be in school on Thursday 8th November to capture the P1 photo. Don’t worry, we will issue a reminder on Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Remembrance Service
The Battles Over programme of events was sent our last week. This extra special celebration will be split into 3 mini events:
6am – Battle’s O’er Piped by Lathallan School
10:40am Gather at Johnshaven War Memorial
6.40pm Commemoration and celebration
Pupils will take part in the gathering and commemoration. We hope to see all of our families, at some point in the day, to show their support to this special day, remembering those lives who have been lost in battle.
Ceilidhmakers
Each school year we are delighted to work with the Aberdeenshire Youth Music Initiative. Last session being a particularly successful relationship with Jazz musician, Richard Ingham. Such fun!
This session we welcome Christine Kydd and Ewan McVicar to join us for songmaking. We will be writing, singing, recording and performing our songs for you on Wednesday 6th December. (Time to be confirmed but please do make note in your diaries of this afternoon performance.)
For more information on the exceptional talents of Christine and Ewan please visit:
Johnshaven Book Week
On Tuesday 20th November the Scholastic Book Fair returns to Johnshaven School for one week. Once again we will celebrate our book week to run alongside this exciting fundraising opportunity:
Book Fair: children will be issued with a catalogue in advance for parents to view (top hint – Christmas Gifts!!) Children will then be given an opportunity to view the wide variety of books and prepare a ‘wish list’ which they will bring home to their parents.
Book Disco – will run from 3.15pm – 4.30pm on Wednesday 21st November. Children may come to school dressed as their favourite book character that day. Tickets will be sold (£2) for the disco. Those not wishing to attend should be collected at 3.15pm as normal.
There will be opportunity to purchase glow sticks and jewellery at the disco. More information will be distributed closer to the time.
Family Book Celebration – a celebration of children’s literature. We invite parents to find a short reading from their favourite childhood novel to read to the children.
Mr Ness, Mrs Kydd and Mrs Johnstone will also share their favourites.
At this event the Right Rockers will share a short presentation about the progress of becoming a Rights Respecting School and share our new song, ‘We’ve All Got Rights’
This will also be an ideal opportunity for parents and the wider community to purchase books from the fair.
Meet the Author
Children’s author and cartoonist, John Fardell will join us for a whole school illustrating workshop on Friday 23rd November at 10am. Again, we would very much appreciate the support of any parents who would like to meet John and help out at the workshop. This will be a fantastic family event, not to be missed.
Find out more about John Fardell here:

3. Christmas Fair Christmas Show Christmas Panto Trip Christmas Lunch
This year we are organising the Christmas Fair at the Village hall on Saturday 1st December from 10am – 12pm.
Christmas Show
The children will be performing in ‘Straw and Order’, in the Village Hall, on Thursday 13th December at 7pm. We are very excited about our production which we have already started working on! Lots of songs and lines to remember so please do try to support your child with this at home to promote confidence and performance skills.
Raffles
We would be very grateful for donations towards the Christmas Raffles and activities at the Fair. If you are able to donate anything please consider a donation towards:
Children’s hamper – drawn at show
Adult hamper – Drawn at show
Bar of chocolate or other confectionary
Bottle – wine, soap, bubbles etc anything
Thank you!
Christmas Panto Trip
On Wednesday 19th December the whole school will attend HMT Aberdeen to see this years pantomime, ‘Snow White’. Pupils will travel by bus to the Theatre in the early afternoon and so will eat lunch early too.
At the theatre we will be seated as a large group and we have purchased ice cream for interval. Should anyone not like ice cream we will provide an alternative treat.
Straight after the event, we will return to the bus and make our way back to school, where all children MUST BE COLLECTED BY AN ADULT. We anticipate returning at around 5pm but will keep updating on both FoJ and my personal Facebook group page. We advise that all parents keep referring to these pages. All staff are attending so there will be no one answering phones in school.
Last year, staff we held back for up to an hour waiting on parents collecting their children. I hope not to repeat that unfair ending to the evening, especially given the other commitments staff have at this busy and important time of the year with their own families.
Christmas Lunch
The Christmas Lunch will be held on Tuesday 18th December. An order form, detailing the choices for lunch will be issued at the beginning of December.
Christmas Party
On the last day of term, Friday 21st December we will have our Christmas Party. Again, parents are welcome to attend from 2.15pm when we hope to be joined by a special guest.
Children who cannot go home for lunch may bring their party clothes to school so that they may change at lunchtime.
Communication
Our school website has been updated and populated with lots of information and guidance for the year ahead. In the Parents tab you will find a list of all forthcoming events for your diary. Please do visit the website to familiarise yourself with it.
Twitter
We have finally re-established our twitter page and will regularly update with celebrations of what is going on in school. This a great way to report to parents about learning and achievements.
Ipayimpact
We have been made aware of difficulties with making payments to iPay Impact.
Did you know that you should be accessing your account via the Aberdeenshire website on the link below?
Once there select ‘My Aberdeenshire’ and login from here.
Should you experience any further difficulties activating or accessing your school meals account please call free:

4. Staffing In-Service Little Nippers
This term we welcome Miss Dunn to P4/7. Miss Dunn is in her 4th Year of BA Primary Teaching at Aberdeen University. She will be with us throughout November and in January.
Miss Dunn is settling in very well to the class and will begin continuous teaching next week. We wish her well.
In-Service
A reminder to all parents/carers that the children will not attend school on Mon/Tue 12/13th November as these are In-Service Days.
Over the course of the two days staff will be working on the school improvement plan. A copy of this years plan can be found on the school website.
Visible Learning
Develop a whole school language of learning
Feedback
Numeracy
Audit of resources
Outdoor Learning
Practical Maths
Right to Play
Continue with Nature Nurture staff development programme.
Continue with PSA positive playground behaviour programme.
Tracking and Monitoring
Manageable tracking of the Four Capacities P1-7
NSPCC Visit
Scheduled for 28th November, the focus of this visit is around online safety.
Little Nippers
Little Nippers meet every Monday from 9.30am – am in the GP room in school. Little Nippers is open to all families with children aged from birth to four. We are delighted to see our numbers are growing with 11 families attending last session.
The Early Years team will continue to visit every second week this term:
Monday 19th November – Messy Play
Monday 3rd December – Confidence to Cook
Achievements
Congratulations to P6/7 who have earned their Young Leaders role following successful completion of the Young Leaders training and assessment.
Aylea Barnett – P7
Freya Cronshaw – P7
Emmy Keenan – P6
Leo McKenna – P7
Annabelle Koroma – P6
Congratilations to the following pupils for earning their first Accelerated Reading certificates:
Super Reader
Hannah Watson
Advance Reader
Heather Woollacott
Annabelle Koroma
Mia Mason
Star Reader
Freya Cronshaw