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April 2024

Rights Respecting Schools Gold Award

Huge congratulations to everyone for all the awesome work that has taken place in the run up to our Gold Award Rights Respecting School visit.  We are delighted to say that the team have confirmed that we have received the award.  Please have a look at the report below which describes the rights work which we have undertaken and the great impact which it has had across our school community.  Thanks again to all the partners who participated in the accreditation process. 

Ashley Road RRSA Gold reaccreditatin report March 2024 JP.pdf

Exploring Worldviews - Parents Questionnaire

Now that we have completed our first whole school 'Exploring Worldviews' block of learning (over the last three weeks before the Easter break) we are keen to gather views on the approach to help us to continue to refine and improve the approach and materials before we revisit the theme next session.  We would greatly appreciate it if families could take five minutes to complete the attached survey. 

Article of the Month

Right Of the Month

Have a look at our 'Right Of The Month' slides.  This month the right we are finding out more about is article 31, which related to Rest, Play, Culture and Arts, which has been linked to World Art Day!

Bikeability

A big thank you to our group of parent volunteers who have carried out bike checks ahead of our upcoming  first round  of Bikeability for Primary 6. We rely on the ongoing help of parents to keep this programme going and are always looking to recruit new helpers.

A reminder that if you are interested in undertaking the one-day Bikeability training course to become one of our instructors, contact the school office  (ashleyroad@aberdeencity.gov.uk) and we'll be in touch with possible dates.

Assembly Focus

Understanding Allergies 

This weeks assembly linked to National Allergy Awareness Week and International Mother Earth Day. 

We looked at what allergies were, what causes allergies and types of symptoms. Research has shown that around 1/4 of the UK's population has an allergy.  A group of children in the school spoke about their allergy and how it affects them. We also reinforced the message about the school being a no nut zone as we have children who have allergies to nuts. 

Linked to Mother Earth Day we shared some of the Journalist Team articles that had looked at how we can protect our planet and the small steps we can take to make a difference. 

P4 Enterprise Project

Parental Engagement Event

A big thanks to everyone who made it along today to attend the P4 parental engagement session which focused on the enterprise project they are planning linked with their 'Our World Of Work' topic.  The children greatly enjoyed recruiting their parents to the cause and setting them to work on their marketing campaigns for '.Friendly Flappers - Feeders for flyers'.  They cannot wait for the Summer Fair where they will be putting their business model to the test to see if they can turn a profit!

Active Schools Fun Run Series 2024

Please see the attached poster for all the details about the Fun Run series and how to sign your child up. 

PTA Summer Fair

The Summer Fair will take place on Saturday 25th May. More information will come out soon!

Neurodiversity Assembly Theme

Linked with Autism Awareness Week which has happened recently, our assembly theme this week was on neurodiversity.  The children were brilliant in recognising that we all see things differently and that our differences are what make us interesting and unique.  We watched some insightful clips about autism, ADHD and dyslexia which helped us all to understand things from the perspective of others and consider how we can help through the simplest of actions.  This type of understanding is so important as we all work to embody our school values - Kind, Respectful, Inclusive.

Pupil Leadership Group Charity Bakesale

Cakes For Cancer

A message from the Charities and Community pupil leadership group:

On Friday the 26th of April we (The Charities and Communities Pupil Group) will hold a bake sale from 3:15pm. The money that we earn will go to a cancer research/support charity and for this reason we would like to request a small donation of baked goods or treats. Any donations should be handed in to your teacher or to the school office on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th of April. Due to schools food safety guidance we are unable to sell/consume any foods which have been baked at home so any baked items would need to be purchased and be in their original wrapping. 


The bake sale will take place under the shelter on Friday the 26th at the end of the school day. 

Thank you for your continued support,

Charities/Community group.

Josh
Alexandra

Journalist Articles

Here are some more articles written by our fabulous Journalist Team!

Eden
Nelson
Zoe

Project Woodwind Update

A big well done to all our P6 performers who who took part in the Spring Concert, many compliments were made about their performance, especially considering the short time they had had their instruments.  Their next performance opportunity will be at the 'Big Sing' event on the 22nd of May at Duthie Park.   The event takes place for all P4 pupils across Aberdeen City Schools and this year our P6s have been invited along to share their musical skills.  Busses will be provided to take P6 children to and from the event.  Parents will be very welcome to attend to spectate at the event.  

We hope to build a progressive approach to this programme which allows children to develop their interest and skills over many years, in collaboration with our colleagues in the music service.  Next year, we hope to be able to offer the following:


P3/4 -  'Playing' Together

Opportunities use the 'Toots' and 'Doods' (introductory flutes and clarinets) through class music lessons in school.  


P5 - Have A Go At Home

We are looking into the possibility of lending out some instruments for families who are really keen, to do some self directed learning in preparation for the excitement of the P6 woodwind project.  We will be in touch later this session to see if this is something families would be interested in.  


P6 - Universally Musical

As has happened this year, next session all P6 pupils will be given a real woodwind instrument for the year and will receive fortnightly tuition in school with Miss Dow, our amazing woodwind instructor.  


P7 -  Band Club

Miss Dow will be offering the children an opportunity to continue on with their instrument in P7 as part of an after school 'Band Club'.   The club will take place on a Wednesday from 3:15 - 4:10 and there will be a limited number of places.   It is likely that those children in 'Band Club' will have opportunities to preform publicly at least twice in the year and any children attending would be invited to participate in the Wind Band which takes place on a Saturday at the Music Centre should they wish.   


We continue to plan with the music service to ensure that as part of this project, there will be opportunities for children to continue to develop these skills as they move on to secondary school.

RunFest Success!

Big congratualtions to Harris in P6 who took part in the 1k RunFest event at the P&J on Sunday.  All the training is really paying off as he darted around the course to come in an amazing 3rd place out of 116 runners with an awesome time of 3:41!  His classmates were delightd to cheer for him as we celebrated his success this week in assembly. 

Dates For Diary

Some important dates for events coming up this term:

- Room 10 - 9:30am

 -Room 13 - 2:00pm

March 2024

My Movie 27.MOV

Some of the amazing work by one of the P6 classes on the theme of 'Creation'.

Worldviews - Sharing The Learning

This afternoon the children took a tour of the school, leaving their classes set up with examples of the learning they have been doing over the last three weeks on our newly formed 'Worldviews' topic.  The children then visited each class to find out what other year groups have been working on.   The teachers have been delighted to see our school values clearly embedded throughout the times spent on this theme, with Curiosity, Kindness, Respect, and Inclusion being at the centre of all this learning.  Early next term we will be looking to gather some feedback from pupils, staff and families on  their perception of the topic to consider how we can adapt and uplevel the input next session.  

Ashley Road's Got Talent 

And Lots Of It!

Amazing talents on show today at both talent shows.  Our judges were amazed by the skills and confidence on show, with a noticeable number of amazing musical acts this year!

Show 1 was won by Yuchan who played an amazing piece on the piano.  the judges were even more amazed to find out that he was learning to play by using videos on Youtube! 

Alastair P5 with a remarkable magic act which had the audience baffled.  Mr Rae may well have some competition in the future!

Rights Respecting Schools Success

A big thanks and congratulations to everyone for the work in the build up to the Rights Respecting Gold Award accreditation visit which took place last week.   The day involved the assessor meeting with SLT, teachers, PSAs, parents, partners and an endless list of children to talk about their leadership roles, learning about rights and how they know rights are live within our school.  It was lovely to hear the reflections of each of the different groups, and how these themes are positively impacting on the children's knowledge, skills and attitudes.  Our Learning for Sustainability leadership group who lead on Eco/Global Goals and Rights based themes across the school met together this week to

We won’t get a formal ‘yes or no’ in terms of the Gold award at this point in time as the assessments have to go through a moderation process, but suffice it to say that Jenny (the assessor) was impressed by the work we have all done and the impact that it is clearly having for our learners and within the community.  She was so impressed that she hopes to be able to use the school as a case study for UNICEF, creating videos which would be shared with school across Scotland to support and up level practice. 

P5Rm14 Parental Engagement

A big thanks to all the families who made it along to P5Rm14's French cafe last week.  The children loved hosting their families and sharing their skills, encouraging families them to order their snacks and drinks in French (with help on hand).  

The Great Glee 

Well done to our wonderful Glee group who put in an amazing performance at the Beach Ballroom last week.  Their amazing singing and dancing talents were obvious for all to see and they were complimented on how well they worked together as a team.  Although we did not make it through to the next round this year, the group were delighted with how they had performed and have certificates to take home to help them remember this big achievement!

Careers Letter to Parents

Careers Week 2024

13th - 17th May

A key part of everyday learning at Ashley Road Primary School is the teaching and development of skills. Next term, as part of our skills-based learning, we wish to strengthen our ‘Connecting Skills’ by connecting directly with you. As such, we’re asking enthusiastic family members to  help us launch and run a Careers Week. This event will take place between the dates of Monday the 13th and Friday the 17th May.

Please see the letter attached for more information on how you can get involved.  Use the link below to sign up!

P6 Sports Leaders

Our P6 Sports Leaders Group once again planned a sport session for a P3 class this week. They worked hard to come up with a plan of activities to do with the class last week and put it into action today. They have also worked with one of the P2 classes earlier in the session and are also going to look at planning some sessions with the nursery children next term.   Well done Sports Leaders!

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel - Week 2

We have now complete the two weeks of the Big Walk and Wheel survey for this year. 

The results final results for the school are:

Total number of active journeys: 3,108 - We beat last year's total by 289 journeys!

Daily average score of active journeys: 65.18% - up from 61.89% last week. 

Our overall position across the UK: 232nd  out of 728 large sized primary schools. 

Our position in Scotland: 29th out of 106 large sized primary schools. 

The overall leading class in the school after the two weeks is P3 Room 6 with 240 - journeys!

Well done on such a great effort again this year.

ACC School Lunch Survey

The Aberdeen Parent Council Forum, of which the Ashley Road School PC is a member, has been having ongoing discussions regarding school lunches. As a collective parent council body, the APCF is keen to gather feedback from parents/guardians and children on this matter.

 

As you might remember, we carried out a survey last year to gather evidence of issues experienced by our children during their school lunch, and some actions have been taken as a result to address some of the identified problems.

 

In order to identify areas that might still require improvement, it would be very helpful if you could complete the ACPF survey via his link by no later than Friday 22nd March, 2024. The feedback will be exported to the council and discussed further with the view to drive improvements.

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10i_zZmkKHr8w8fx1aespQYcPkIM6tpuWDlOBHI0ioJw/edit 

 

Responses are anonymous and any collected data will be stored in line with the Data Protection Act 2018.  If you have any comments or queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Ashley Road School Parent Council on pcashleyroad@aberdeen.npfs.org.uk .

Home Lunches - Safety Arrangements

To minimise risks we have reviewed procedures around children leaving school to go for home lunches.  From Monday,  any children who are going home for lunch, must be collected and signed out by an adult from the school office.  This is to ensure:

Cross Country Challengers

A big congratulations to all our P5, 6 and 7 pupils who attended the Cross Country trials at Balgownie today, despite the dreich weather!  Mr Wallace and Mrs Morrison were mightily impressed by the resilience shown by all involved!  Fantastic work Team AR!  A huge well done to the P6 girls who were 2nd place in the team prizes!

Copy of My Movie 26.MOV

Guess Who's Back!...

The Mystery Of Physical Fuzz Is Solved

There was a buzz around school this morning as the children arrived when they spotted a small furry purple foot hanging over one of the roof areas on the top floor...

It was... Physical Fuzz.

The children were delighted to see he had returned, knowing that we can finally find out the answer to where he has been all this time and what happened in the library!  Fuzz was interviewed and the video shared with all classes today to finally bring a close to the investigation.  Watch the video to find out what happened!

Backup Ashley Road Going for Gold ppt

Rights Respecting Schools Award

Gold Award Application

On Thursday the 21st of March we will be welcoming Jenny Price from 'Rights Respecting Schools' to Ashley Road to carry out a reaccreditation assessment for the Rights Respecting Gold standard.    At the 'gold standard' schools/children must demonstrate that they meet the following criteria:

1. Teaching and Learning about rights: for the whole school community through training, curriculum, assemblies, topics, focus days/weeks, displays.

2. Teaching and Learning through rights: by modelling rights respecting language and attitudes and making strategic decisions that involve students.

3. Being ambassadors for the rights of others: developing as rights respecting citizens.

Have a look at the slides to see all the work that goes into this aspect of learning across school life.  Fingers crossed that all the hard work that children, staff and families do on this theme is recognised!

March Article of the fortnight

Right Of The Fortnight

Can you guess what it is?

Ramadan

Ramadan

What does it mean to you? Pupil voice in assembly

We listened to a lovely input from a group of P7 pupils this week in assembly on Ramadan, what is means to them and how it impacts on their daily lives.  It was great to see the children so enthused to share information about their Worldview and see the audience so keen to find out more.  

Bikeability Arrangements Current P6 into P7

Our Primary 6 pupils will soon have the opportunity to undertake Bikeability training , providing them with the skills and understanding they will need to cycle on today's roads.

We are always looking for more parents to help deliver this training to our senior pupils, no matter the age of your own child. If you would be interested in signing up to a one day course to become a Bikeability instructor, then we'd love to hear from you.  Please simply contact the school office  (ashleyroad@aberdeencity.gov.uk) and we'll be in touch with possible dates.

ELC Quality Assurance Visit January 24

As part of ongoing quality assurance processes in school, our ELC recently had a visit from central officers to work with staff to review standards and progress.  As part of this process the team pull together an 'Ebook' with comments and reflections on the provision.  Staff were delighted with the positive feedback and wanted to share this with families. 

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel

We have now complete the first of the two weeks of the Big Walk and Wheel survey for this year. 

Some of the results for the school so far:

Total number of active journeys: 1,480

Daily average score of active journeys: 61.89%

Our overall position across the UK: 190th  out of 728 large sized primary schools. 

Our position in Scotland: 27th out of 106 large sized primary schools. 

The overall leading classes in the school after the first week is P3 Room 6 and P4 Room 16 both with 118 journeys!

The total journeys in the event last year was 2,819. Can we beat that this year?

ARS Travel Plan.pdf

Ashley Road Travel Plan

Please have a  look through our new school Travel Plan.  Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey which we have based our travel plan around.  Thank you also to the parents, local councillor and pupils that formed the consultation group to finalise our plan and our actions that we will take forward.   We hope that through continued collaboration with our families and local community we are able to keep our streets safe and ourselves fit!

Marvellous Musicians @ Ashely Road

Lots of amazing musical talents to celebrate this week and next due to the work of our fantastic Glee group and the ongoing collaboration with the music service on 'Project Woodwind'.  On Monday last week our 92 P6 pupils attended the Beach Ballroom to perform a four part ensemble piece to the tune of Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins and 57 of the year group opted to perform on Tuesday evening at the Spring Concert to an audience of hundreds.  The performance was fantastic and as a result of all hard work that has been put into the project, Ashley Road was presented with a 'Music Mark' award.  

Next Tuesday our Glee group will be taking their talents to the same venue as they enter the first round of the national Glee competition with two songs 'Spaceman' and 'On Top Of The World'.  We recorded their final rehearsals to share with families - see the videos below.  Big thanks again to the PTA for providing funding for their snazzy silver sequined waistcoats which fit perfectly with the theme of all the songs this year - Space!  Fingers crossed we have as much success as we did last year!

IMG_5569.mov
IMG_5570.mov
IMG_5551.mov
IMG_5556.mov

Planting Out

A big thanks to the PTA for providing funding to add some larger shrubs to the playground planters.  Hopefully these shrubs will help reduce the footfall on top of the planters and help the bulbs grow.  We hope over time with the right care and attention the plants grow and add some interest to the playground. 

P7 Show Dates

This year's P7 show has been selected and an overwhelming majority of children have decided to go with 'Seussical Jr'.    This fab Broadway production is going to be a wonderful way for the children to show their talents and skills in their final team at Ashley Road.  


We expect performances to P7 parents to take place on:

Wednesday the 3rd of July 24

Room 10 - 9:30am

Room 13 - 2:00pm

School Comms - A Move From Xpressions To Email

At our recent parent council meeting we discussed school comms in an effort to ensure that all families have the best chance of receiving school updates and keeping informed.   We need to ensure that school staff are able to get responses from parents in a timely way regarding school visits/consents etc.   The group agreed that families in general would be more likely to receive/effectively monitor messages via email than Groupcall Xpressions due to the technical issues which sometimes arise with the app.  We have therefore agreed that from this point forward, messages from school will be sent via email only, and we will no longer use the Xpressions Groupcall system for outbound messages.  

The following information still applies:

P5Rm15 Parent Engagement Session 

It was great to see so many families come along for P5Rm15's parent engagement session, though which the children were able to show off some of the coding skills which they have been learning through their IDL topic.  Building an arcade game and operating complex Sphero codes, a number of parents remarked on how things have moved on since their school days.  Coding skills are likely to be a key feature of many careers in the future and we hope these experiences help open up important future opportunities! 

Rotary Quiz Success!

A huge well done to our Rotary Quiz team who battled 7 teams from nearby schools through the first round of the series last night.  They did a great job and having only returned the shield three days ago, will be bringing it back to Ashley Road having taken first place.  Now for some general knowledge revision to prepare for round 2!

Summer Fair Plant Stall

The Summer Fair takes place on Saturday 25th May.  The PTA are already busy planning the fair and will be looking to have a plant stall.  They would like to ask any budding gardeners to keep excess plants or seedlings to donate which will be sold at the fair. These can be handed in the week of the fair to school.  We did have some plants last year and they sold very quickly. 

International Women's Day Assembly Focus

This week in our assembly we have been focusing on the theme of gender equality due to International Women's Day, which is today - Friday the 8th of March.  The children are clearly very aware of how these issues have impacted on individuals in the past and continue to in the present day.  

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel

Ashley Road will once again be taking part in the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel this year. This runs from 11th March until 22nd March. It is the Uk's largest walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling challenge. It inspires pupils to make active journeys to school, improve air quality in their neighbourhood and discover how these challenges benefit their world. 

On each day of the challenge schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils walking, using a wheelchair, scooting or cycling to school. 

A school's best five days will determine their final position and schools at the top of the leader boards will receive an exclusive Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel certificate. 

The previous two years we have achieved a high active travel score and were rewarded with a visit from the Stunt 3 Sixty Bike Team. 

Brilliant Book Club P6 + P7

Brilliant Books - Book 4

P1-3 Multi Sports Club

Afterschool Multisport for Ashley Road  P1-3 Pupils.

We are pleased to announce P1-3 Multisport will be commencing in Ashley Road Gym Hall.  These sessions are open to all pupils in P1, P2 & P3 and are delivered by student volunteers.

Spaces are allocated on a first-come first served basis.  If the session becomes full please still complete the booking form as the pupil will be added to a waiting list.  If your child is added to the waiting list, please wait to receive further notification from the coordinator prior to commencement of the first session.

Day: Tuesdays             Time: 15:30 – 16:30 - Children can wait in the library area at bell time. 

Venue: Ashley Road Gym Hall          Cost: FREE

Dates: 8 Week Block – including: 12th March, 19th March, 26th March, 16th April, 23rd April, 30th April, 7th May, 14th May 2024

To sign up: https://www.sportaberdeen.co.uk/news/mep_events/ashley-road-p1-3-multisport-2 Closes on Monday 11th at 12 noon. 

Future Day

Thursday 21st March

Our P7 House Team Leaders would like to invite children to think about (and dress up) to reflect the future career they aspire to have.   Their 'outfit' could be something as simple as a workplace name badge drawn/written to show their future role.  'Future Day' as they have decided to call it, will take place on Thursday the 21st of March.  As with any 'dress up' day in school, the following applies:

We look forward to seeing where the aspirations of our future workforce lie!

Physical Fuzz Has Gone Missing!

This Wednesday we arrived to school in the morning to discover that a crime had been committed!  Our library area had been ransacked and one of our skills mascots 'Physical Fuzz' had disappeared!  A local police inspector was able to attend to help investigate and shared some important clues with us all.  Due to the timing of the incident, we know it couldn't have been any of the children and have managed to narrow down the possible suspects to teachers who 'stepped out' of the staff meeting after school. 

 Officer Sim was in school all morning helping the children identify and investigate the clues!  Our sharp eyed pupils have all spotted shoe prints, hair, fingerprints and other clues in the library area and have started to gather their suspicions regarding potential motives... 

In assembly on Thursday and Friday, the suspects were interrogated with questions which had been carefully prepared by all the classes and their answers scrutinised for potential leads!

The buzz and exactment across school has been palpable!

Watch the vide to see all the action!

My Movie 241 (1).MOV

Witness Statements

Connecting Cathy.mp4
Coping Cora.mp4
Creative Curl.mp4

Parent Council

Our next Parent Council meeting will be on Wednesday the 6th of March at 7pm in the school hall.  We hope to see you there!

Talent Show

On the last day of term (Thursday the 28th of March) we will be holding our annual talent show!  Children across the school have the opportunity to prepare an act to perform to their class if they wish. One act from each class will be put forward to the final show where they will perform and compete 

We have had singing, dancing, magic, science shows and all sorts of talents to watch in previous years!

Spring Concert

We are delighted to share that lots of our wonderful P6's will be playing their flutes, sax and clarinets together as an ensemble at the Spring Concert this year!  If you would like to go along and watch, tickets are now on sale from thelittleboxoffice.com/beachballroom.  We hope to see you there!

To ensure this page loads quickly, previous posts have been archived.  To see updates from Aug - Feb 23 - 24, click on the button below.