n g ra ng e S ch o ol

Carro
www.carrongrange.falkirk.sch.uk 26.11.10 No. 4

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to our end of November newsletter.

We have just completed a very successful 3 days of In-service, during which time all staff have worked very hard,
focusing on Curriculum for Excellence.
It seems unbelievable that it will soon be December, and that we have our Pantomime Trips and other Christmas
preparations under way already!!
Tension is mounting as auditions are taking place for ‘Carrongrange Has Got Talent’ – Mrs Peat and Mr McGinley are
working hard to keep up the incredibly high standard of last year - - who will be the 2010 winner??
Please note changes in dates for our ‘Christmas Coffee Morning’ and the Christmas Disco. Our end of term service will
be held in Larbert East Church at 10.00 am on Thursday, 23rd December.
November has been a very busy month as usual, and I hope you will enjoy reading about some of our activities,
including our Eco Warriors, led by Mrs. Burton, have done a great job organising ‘Gardening Days’ to keep on top of all
the work that has to be done at this time of year, and our Student Council had their first meeting last week.
Our great news is that, earlier this term, we were awarded a ‘Star Performer’ ‘Learning to Achieve’ Award for our
Social Enterprise Café Project, and just this week, Ross Paget and Lynsay Carson came with me to Falkirk Town Hall
for the Council-wide Celebrating Success Awards. We won the ‘Provost’s Award’ and a Silver Award for the Category
of Employment and Economy. This is a tremendous achievement and a great compliment to all the hard work of staff
and pupils. Particular mention goes to Mrs Hutton and Mrs Hastings, to Mrs Macguire and to Mrs Maxtone who is
currently covering for Mrs Hutton in her absence. The project, which now gives Carrongrange pupils opportunities at
both Muiravonside and the Tryst Cafes, has widened to give opportunities to pupils from Denny and Grangemouth High
Schools, students from Forth Valley College and Clients from ASSET. This would not be possible without the
fantastic support from Real Jobs Falkirk, who have also given pupils the opportunity to volunteer at Muiravonside
during the holidays, and, during term time at the café in the Dawson Centre.
In order to keep the project going, we are looking for parents/carers who might be interested in joining the Board of
a Social Firm. If you are interested, please give me a call.
Mrs Moore has worked very hard to put together a portfolio showing all the work that is done in the school for
Enterprise, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will receive our second Falkirk Council Education Services
Enterprise Gold Award at the end of the month.
We are very excited at the prospect of hosting the Forth Valley ‘Young Scotland’s Got Talent’ event on 22nd January.
There are more details in the attached flyer – put the date in your diary!!
A brief reminder that, with the increasing possibility of wintry weather, can you please ensure that we have up-to-
date mobile telephone numbers – please see the advice regarding inclement weather below.
Also – a reminder that, if your child is absent from school, please phone the office to let us know. This prevents us
from having to send a Groupcall text message, which is quite costly.
In the event of the school having to close after 9.00am, we will contact you on our Groupcall system, by text message.
The Groupcall system will show us when you have received our call, and we will assume that we can send your child
home, unless we hear otherwise. If there are any difficulties with this, please contact the school directly.
If road conditions have prevented school transport from picking up your child, please keep them at home, as a safe
return home cannot be guaranteed.
If it was not possible to contact all parents by Groupcall, and the bus or taxi was ready to leave, parents of pupils
remaining in school would then be responsible for transporting their children home. Pupils would remain in school until
alternative arrangements had been made by the parents concerned.
PTO
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We are looking forward to welcoming Mr Keenan to our staff. He is our new ICT/DET teacher, and he will be joining
us before the end of term.
Mrs Hutton and Mrs Hardie are both absent just now, and we all send them our very best wishes and look forward to
seeing them both back. Thanks just now to Mrs Maxtone and Mrs Haddifon who are covering in their absence.
Good luck with all of your Christmas preparations – we look forward to seeing you at the various events during
December.
Very Best Wishes
From

Gillian Robertson
Headteacher

Bronze Awards
1A - Tom Hutchens, Kieran Kane, Lewis McPhail
1F - Cameron Brown, Chloe Ann Connell, Bradley Finch, Holly Moffat, Lyle Rettie, Conner Purcell,
Erin Swinton
1R - Jordan Aikman, Tommy Couper, Ross Neil, Gary Scott
1W - Darren Anderson, Lewis Broadley, Ashley Horne, Aaron Kiloh
2A - Stewart Adams, Bekka Blackwood, Tommy Buller, Jon Eadie, Jordan Grivas, David Jinks,
Cameron Johnston
2E - Dylan Beveridge, Avril Graham, Keith Monteith, Tommy Rutherford
2G - Jamie Cieslak, Asad Hussein, Jordan Kilgour, Cameron Lewandowski, Abby McLaren
2J - Megan Jamieson, Eilidh Leadbetter, Dan Ware
2M - Darius Aikman, Lamara Boyce, Julie Ann Butler, Chloe Hamilton, Alexander Johnstone,
The Award System Alexander Rankin, Ben Scobie
is as follows -
3B - Ian Anderson, Allan Crowe, Liam Egan, Lewis Fleming, Michael Lapsley, Nicholas Peberdy,
Grant Waplington
6 Blue Cards = 3S - Olivia Day, Melissa McIntyre, Shannon McPhillips, Jordan Montgomery, Zoe Murphy,
Bronze Award Christopher Rooney, Nicole Sligo, Ashleigh Taylor, Ashleigh Tetsil, Kieran Wells

5 Bronze Awards = 6L - Martyn Donnelly, Alan Farquhar, Ryan McIntosh, Andrew Snedden
Silver Award
5 more Bronze Christmas Disco
Awards = Assembly Date
Wednesday 22nd December
Gold Award Tuesday 30th November at 9.15am - Whole School Assembly
2.00 - 3.00pm
This day will be a dress down day and pupils are asked to
bring in food items for our Christmas Food Appeal for Age
Concern.
Christmas Coffee Morning
You are welcome to join us for a cuppa after each assembly.
Friday 17th December in the Chill Out
10.00 - 12noon

Stalls, Carols and Refreshments

£2.00 per ticket Monday 29th November - S1-S3 Parents Night - 4.00 - 6.30pm
Page 3 Carrongrange School

Mrs Moore’s group

December Birthdays sold poppies to Xmas Service
1F - Holly Moffat staff and pupils
and raised £87.50.
Thursday 23rd December at
2E - Avril Graham, Tom Rutherford,
10.00am - Larbert East Church
Iain Wightman
2M -Conner Georgeson Everyone Welcome
3S - Christopher Rooney
3W - Craig McCallum, Scott Morton
4M - Patricia Pender
5N - David Harley, Jack Wilson School Funds
6G - Joe Ure If you shop on the internet you can help raise funds for the school by
using the following link which will take you to the websites you require.
The school will receive a percentage of the cost of your purchases.
http://www.edupayment.co.uk/schools/Carrongrange+School-85571

Pupils of the Month

Bruce House Scott House Wallace House

Hallowee’n Party
On Friday 30th October, the DJ group held a Hallowe’en Disco. Prizes were given out for the best fancy dress outfit.

Lucky Horseshoes
Morrisons "Let's Grow"
Class 5N are making Horseshoes
We have collected 1,784 vouchers and are
to sell at the Christmas Coffee planning to use them to buy much needed
Morning. Here are some photos of gardening gloves, trowels and seeds.
them working hard to get them Without your support this would not have
ready to sell. been possible, so a big thank you.
Page 4 Carrongrange School

Class 1R have been learning about money in the classroom and have put into
practice using money at Morrison’s supermarket and café.

Pupils in Class 1W enjoy art, music and sensory experiences. They have visited the Falkirk Wheel and Dobbies Garden
Centre. Pupils in the class are awarded small silver cups during the month in recognition of their achievements. The
child with four silver cups becomes class champion. Darren Anderson was named Class Champion because of his
consistently pleasant personality, happy outlook, contribution in class and physical determination. He needed no
prompting or support to instinctively raise the cup as his class mates looked on.

S1 and S2 - Carol Singing

10.00 - 10.40am
Tuesday 7th December - Carron Co-op
Carrongrange Has Got Talent
Classes 1A, 1F, 2A, 2E and 2M
Wednesday 15th December
2.00pm
Wednesday 8th December - Asda, Stenhousemuir
Tickets £2.00
Classes - 1A, 2A, 2E, 2G, 2J and 2M
Letter will be issued next week
giving full details.

The Family Fund helps families with severely

Parents Support Group disabled children and young people aged 17 and
under to have choices and the opportunity to enjoy
There will be a regular drop-in meeting in the Parents Room
ordinary life. They give grants for things that
on the last Thursday in the month from 10am to 11 am,
make life easier and more enjoyable to the disabled
starting on Thursday 27 January 2011. A warm welcome and
child, young person and their family. The Fund is a
a cuppa are guaranteed, and Liz Storey, the Family Support
registered charity, helping around 55,000 families
Worker for the school, will be at the meetings. Parents can
in the UK with around 33million in grants a year.
decide to organise future sessions on topics of interest
with guest speakers or therapists, but initially just pop in An application pack can be downloaded from
for a chat at the end of every month. www.familyfund.org.uk or telephone 0845 130 4542.

Christmas and New Year Holidays

School Closes for Christmas and New Year Holidays on Thursday 23rd December at 1.00pm
School Re-opens on Thursday 6th January at 9.00am