Farewell

To Mrs Shepherd, who has worked with all classes across the school this session, supporting the development of approaches to outdoor learning.  Mrs Shepherd's passion and enthusiasm for outdoor learning have enabled her to have a huge impact in the short time she has worked with us.  A huge thanks to her for all her hard work. 

See you soon:

To Mrs Adamson, Mrs Sinclair and Mrs Forbes who are heading off on maternity leave today, with the excitement of adding a new member to each of their families.  Their skills and enthusiasm will be missed next session, but we will look forward to welcoming them back to Ashley Road the following year.  

We are all looking forward to a jam packed final week of term, with lots of fun events before we all head off for the summer break.  Just some of the things to look forward to:

•  P7 Leavers Show - Tuesday 4th -  'Shrek', dress rehearsal to an audience within school.

• P7 Leavers Show - Wednesday 5th - 'Shrek' performed to parents.  (In true 'pay it forward' style, children will be collecting any donations of change that you might be able to offer to support the costs of the show for next session).

• P7 Water Games - Thursday 6th AM - A more recent tradition, the P7s have a blast taking part in a range of water based activities  (and have the opportunity to soak their teachers/the SLT).

• Ice Cream - Thursday 6th PM - the PTA provide all the children in school with ice cream (or an alternative for anyone with allergies).  We gather outside and, if we are lucky, enjoy our ice cream in the sun!

• Saying farewell to our P7s - In traditional Ashley Road style, we will say a fond farewell to our P7s at 3:15 on Friday the 7th, with a 'guard of honour' line up from the rest of the school and some music.  We would encourage our P7 families in particular to come along and cheer on their children as take their final steps out of the primary school doors.  

In Primary 7, the pupils have the opportunity to take part in Bikeability which is a safe cycling course. To help us plan the sessions, please complete this form to indicate if you'd like your child to take part in Bikeability sessions when they are in Primary 7. We are planning to run our sessions during Term 1 and 2 of P7. 

Please complete this form by the 7th July. Thanks. 

Next week, every morning in the playground, we will take out all the lost property. Please take any items that belong to your child. We also have unclaimed school uniform in great conditions, so please help yourself.  Items that are unclaimed by Friday will go to charity. 

Well done to the 'Health' pupil leadership group, who's Healthy Tuck Shop idea turned out to be a great success.  They were delighted to find that they need to buy more fruit to meet demand by the end of the week, and were able to use practical budgeting and stock management skills to full effect.  They raised a total of £71.40 through the enterprise, which they have decided to donate to...

The PTA have created a survey to gather feedback on the Summer Fair.   They would really appreciate it if you could take a fee minutes to complete it.  https://www.surveyhero.com/c/iipqcrkr 

This week Mrs Stannard and Ms Callander, from Kinellar Primary School,  met with members of the Learning for Sustainability Committee.  The group shared how  Ashley Road celebrates and respects children’s rights.  We shared lots of ideas and we look forward to hearing about Kinellar’s rights journey.  

Well done to the 'Library' pupil leadership group who raised £182.50 via their second hand book sale last week.  They were very well organised and certainly developed some marketing skills through the process.  The group will now use 50% of their profits to purchase new books of their choice for our library, and will give the remaining 50% to our Charities pupil group, to donate to a chosen charity.  

The PTA have created a survey to gather feedback on the Summer Fair. To complete it please go to the following link: https://www.surveyhero.com/c/iipqcrkr 

Just one example of the musical fun that is being had in music lessons with Mrs McTaggart this term.  The 'Boomwhackers', simple plastic pipes are really effective when played together as a group.  P4 were impressed by how quickly they were able to pick this up, and the team working skills they used to play this piece as a group!

We've had a brilliant Culture Week at Ashley Road. We'd like to say a big thank you to all parents who came into school to deliver class workshops, spoke at Assembly and set up a stall during our Culture Exhibition. Thank you for giving your time to teach us about your culture. We loved celebrating our diverse culture at Ashley Road.

We will share some photos and videos from the event in our news update next week. 

Ashley Road Culture Group

A great effort from our P7 football team on Saturday.  Although they lost 3-2 to Mile End they played the whole game with no subs as two players had to call off last minute.  The team rallied and played exceedingly well in warm conditions.  

Congrats to our two netball teams who attended the Rosebowl Tournament.  They all played their hearts out and did the school proud.  One of the teams missed out on qualifying for the chance to compete for the Rosebowl by a single goal.  In their classification matches they were again unlucky by one goal!  In fact they drew with the team who made the eventual final!  They all worked hard and their coaches, Emma and Helen were exceptionally proud of them all.  24 teams, 5 hours of netball and lots of fun.

A big well done to all the P7s who chose to take part in our first 'Inter School Maths Quiz'.  We were delighted to have teams from Mile End join us today to participate and have a go at some very challenging maths rounds, including Algebra, Probability, Fractions and Pythagoras!  We were impressed by the resilience and determination everyone showed in the face of a challenge.  

A huge congratulations to Dylan, Jacob and Daniel from P7 who took on the challenge to put together, organise and present the event!

We had a draw for first place with a team from Ashley Road and a team from Mile End sharing the top spot.  Fingers crossed this is something we can do again next session!

Conversations have been held this week between Parent Council members and the Aberdeen City catering team regarding improvements to our school lunch service.  It seems that a positive improvement has been observed in recent weeks, and this will continued to be monitored.  The catering team have asked that we encourage families to do the following things to support their work in managing the service:

• Register with parent pay if you haven't already.

• Pre order lunches if at all possible.  Pre-ordering allows the catering team to plan more effectively and makes it less likely that a child will forget or order.  It also saves time in classes in the morning. 

Please see minutes from the most recent parent council meeting which took place on the 31st of May.

The children have been taking part in a fun filled collaborative, creative challenge set by our 'Skills Masters' pupil leadership group.  The children worked in teams within their classes to create representation of one of our skills mascots.  Our judges found it hard to decide between the many amazingly creative designs, but came up with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.  See the slideshow for the top three!

This year we had 16 P7 children who took part in The Scottish Mathematical Council's Mathematical Challenge in the 'primary' division. This is more than ever before!  A big well done to all who gave it a go - they were very challenging problems this year.

Well done to everyone who entered. 

An example of one of the questions is included if you want to give it a go!

I wonder how many children will enter next year?

In an effort to make better use of this long corridor wall and to brighten up this dingy space we are developing a 'Maths As You Pass' wall.  From top to bottom, this wall will be covered in the number and maths facts which children will encounter during their journey through school from P1-7.  We hope that as children pass each day, they will pick up some of these facts and concepts.  The middle section which is around 4m by 2.5m arrived today to applause from the children in assembly!  We hope to have the first section up for families to see next week during parent meetings.

The first 'Skills Masters' challenge was set by the Skills Pupil Leadership Group to be completed this group.  Children were challenged to work in groups to create one of the skills mascots, reflecting on the skills which they were developing through the challenge.  The group have selected winning mascots which will be announced in assembly next week.  The amazing creations, each one unique have been displayed around the library area, so parents will be able to have a look during parent meetings next week. 

Our new 'Lost Property Patrol' has kicked off as the brainchild of one of our Pupil Leadership Groups.  They created this image, using all the lost property which had piled up last week!  On Monday and Tuesday after school they set up a lost property stall in the playground at the end of the school day, in an effort to  clear out the remaining lost property and will be reintroducing 'class buckets' for children to leave their jackets an jumpers in at breaktime during the warmer weather.  

Parents can help us hugely in reducing the amount of lost property, simply by putting names on all items.   Even written on with a biro, names almost always help items find their way back to their owners!

We are participating in the Rag Bag textile recycling scheme this term.

Please bring any unwanted items for the collection by 9th June. 

 Please see leaflet for further information. 

It is that time of year again!  Children will bring home a paper copy of their annual school report today.  The aim of these reports is to help families understand how their child is progressing in their learning, sharing an update on the levels which children are working at presently. This report includes written comments from teachers. These will usually focus on the core curriculum areas of Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy and Maths and Literacy and English.  Please see guidance attached which gives more specific detail on what individual levels/comments mean.  Any questions on the reports can be discussed at the upcoming parent meetings.  

Due to system that is used across ACC the format of printing the 'sign and return' slip on the reports is on the reverse of the actual report page.  Parents do not need to sign or return these slips. 

P6 have done some fantastic work on their 'hare' in preparation for its departure to join a sculpture trail in support of the Clan cancer charity. Before Harper sets off on its journey, we wanted to give families the opportunity to see the hare in person, so Harper will be in the school playground at drop off and pick up times if you would like to pop by and have a look.  Here was the P6's plan 

Harper The Holistic Hare

'Harper the Holistic Hare was designed by P6 pupils at Ashley Road Primary School.  Harper's head is painted in a range of skin tones, which represents the diversity that exists in our classes, our school and our wider community.  Harper sports a red school jumper, displaying our school's badge because Ashley Road Primary unites our community, it brings us together.  P6 pupils have signed the jumper, just as the P7 pupils sign shirts when they move on from our school.  Leaving doesn't lead to being forgotten.  Below the jumper we have images designed by different members of our school community, showing things we love in this wonderful world.'

We are still looking for families to be involved in our Culture Week.  It would be wonderful to get as many families involved as possible so our week really celebrates the wide range of cultures that exist within our school community.  

Please complete this form by Friday 26th May. We will be in touch after that to confirm plans once we know how many people would like to be part of our culture week.

On Tuesday we had our nursery sports day. The weather was kind once again and all the children had a great time. Thank you to all the parents that volunteered to help walk up to the field with the children and to those that came to watch.  What a great turnout to cheer on the children. 

This week in assembly, we welcomed Myles Edwards, a Scottish 1500m running champion, who  has represented Scotland multiple times.  Myles is also a Co-Founder of the Gathimba Edwards Foundation, a charity which works to provide as many Kenyan children as possible with the opportunity of a bright future.  Myles spoke of his own experiences on the track and how his failures have helped him build resilience and improve.  He also shared lots of stories of individuals he has met through his charity work, who have shown many our 'Coping Cora' skills such as resilience, adaptability and a growth mindset to overcome huge adversity in their lives to access equal opportunities.  I certainly felt inspired by his presentation and am sure it will be one that will encourage the children to be motivated in their own lives. 

A big thanks to everyone who was able to make it along to support us on our Sports Day this year.  We really lucked out with the weather on the one sunny afternoon we have seen for weeks!  The children had a fantastic time and with classic Ashley Road spirit the relay race was a great end to the event.  We are always impressed by the courage, team work and resilience that the children show on days like these.  A big congratulations to Westburn who were the winners of the house cup this year!  A final thanks to all the parent helpers who volunteered their time to make the day a success.

If you passed the school on Monday and wondered caught the whiff of a farm, well this is why.  P4 loved the opportunity go have a visit from the 'Countryside Classroom on Wheels', which is a purpose built, bio secure trailer designed to bring livestock, crop and feed samples to the school playground with the aim of introducing pupils to farming, food production and the countryside and raising awareness of the kinds of animals and crops raised on Scottish farms.  The children enjoyed having the opportunity bring some of their learning from last term to life, and above all loved meeting two lovely sheep. 

Introducing an exciting new event for Aberdeen City Schools, the Big Sing!

Aberdeen City music service are organising a collective singing event, which will include all P4 pupils across Aberdeen City schools.  The children are all learning the same songs and will sing together atv one of three events at Duthie Park on  Thursday 1st June . Our children will be performing from 10 to 10.30am around the bandstand.  The children will arrive on a bus provided by ACC.  

We will seek support from parent helpers nearer the time, but all parents will be welcome to come along and listen to the lovely singing.  Parking will be very limited on the day, so we have been advised to encourage any families to arrive on foot/via public transport if at all possible.  

We look forward to hearing the big group sing together!  Fingers crossed for some sun.  

As part of the Happy Healthy Lives project that the P6s are working on with ACC Create Learning Team, they will be designing and producing a 'hare' which will become part of a sculpture trail.  It is lovely to read about the plans the  children have come up with which they have now submitted to CLAN as their plan for the project.  This message will be displayed with 'Harper'.

Harper The Holistic Hare

'Harper the Holistic Hare was designed by P6 pupils at Ashley Road Primary School.  Harper's head is painted in a range of skin tones, which represents the diversity that exists in our classes, our school and our wider community.  Harper sports a red school jumper, displaying our school's badge because Ashley Road Primary unites our community, it brings us together.  P6 pupils have signed the jumper, just as the P7 pupils sign shirts when they move on from our school.  Leaving doesn't lead to being forgotten.  Below the jumper we have images designed by different members of our school community, showing things we love in this wonderful world.'

I cannot wait to see this wonderful design when it has been completed. 

 Well done to all the children in the school who took part in the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel over the last two weeks. Everyday the teachers have asked the children how they came to school and looking to see the numbers of active journeys to school.  

Our daily average was 65.13% of the children travelling actively to school. On our best day this figure went up to 73.33%! Our regional position for Scotland was 33 and we have come second in Aberdeen.  A great result once again!

As we go forward into the nicer weather we hope families can continue a positive trend on active travel to and from school.  For those families who do need to drive to school, we strongly encourage 'Park and Stride' (parking a street or two away from school and walking a short distance.

We are still experiencing many problems with parking around the school at drop off and pick up times and this was mentioned again at Parent Council.   We hope parents can make safe and sensible choices to help the community and children of Ashley Road. 

As part of our transition support process for P7's moving on at the end of this session, Aberdeen Grammar school has shared the following information:

• The Support for Learning teacher will work with both P7 classes at Ashley Road  - Monday 17th April 2023. 

• On Monday 24th April, the P7s will go to Aberdeen Grammar School for the afternoon for their second HWB session. More information will be given about this visit at the start of Term 4. 

• Transition Link Week will be Monday 19th June until Thursday 22nd June at Aberdeen Grammar School. 

As we start to plan for our P7's final term, we have been working on the planning for their P7 leavers performance.  We have identified the following provisional date, which families can add to their diaries.  Although we hope to stick to this date, this is always the possibility we may need to make a change nearer the time.  

Save the Date:

Wednesday the 5th of July

As work starts on the show next term, we will be seeking support from families to help with props and costuming, so if this is an interest of yours, get your glue gun/sewing needles at the ready!

The Eco Groups spoke with assembly this week regarding a number of Eco initiatives they would like to get up and running as part of our work towards our next 'Green Flag'.    Below is a message direct from the group:

Save Our World

Make the world better by helping the environment. You can help by picking up litter and taking no wrappers on Wednesday. Just one small step to help the world move on. You know there might be more wrappers than fish in the ocean in 2025.

WRAPPER FREE WEDNESDAY

Wrapper free Wednesday is back. Please try to bring in no wrappers on Wednesday and don't drop wrappers. Also we're going to make a fancy little poster so we can see how many people have taken in no wrappers.                                                    .

LITTER PICKER

If you're in the classes in between P4-P7 you can do litter pickers.   Litter pickers collect rubbish for our houses so we can get house points.   We will set up a rota.

Please see attached agenda for the upcoming Parent Council Meeting on Wednesday the 29th of March at 7pm in the school hall.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

It has been lovely to see the P6 'Happy Healthy Lives' art project really ramping up this week.  The children have been actively involved in driving the direction and planning of the project, choosing to focus on how creative learning approaches can help us maintain a positive outlook on the future.  

Yesterday in assembly we had a virtual meeting with children from Dounby Community School in Orkney who have also been working on a creative art project.  One of their creations 'Bob' (see picture) has been visiting schools on his way to be displayed in an exhibition in the National Museum in Edinburgh.  The children were very excited in assembly today to meet Bob in person before he goes on the next step in his journey cross country. 

It also happens that the Local Community Council have sponsored Ashley Road school to participate in another artistic project.  A sculpture trail project called 'the Big Hop' which is being organised by the charity CLAN.  The children will work together and gather ideas from across the school community on how to decorate our 'stargazing hare' which will go on to become part of a local sculpture trail over the summer, before returning to school in October.   Our hare arrived today, to much excitment from P6!

Amazing effort from all our cross country runners today!  Mr Wallace was very impressed by the stamina and resilience and camaraderie shown by all the runners.  I believe there were a few shoes pulled from feet on the muddy hills, but it didn't stop anyone from completing the course.

After some Oscars envelope style confusion, the P5 Girls Team won 1st place.  Great work everyone!

A big thanks from the Charities group for all the donations for the dress up/down day last Friday.  Between the donations on the day and the additional funds which they were given by the Communities group, £783 will be donated to the Turkey/Syria Earthquake appeal.  Brilliant work everyone.  

A big thanks to everyone who was able to make it along to the 'Community Cafe' which the Communities pupil group put on this week on Tuesday afternoon.  Despite the frosty weather the children were delighted to see their efforts in preparing snacks and hot drinks were appreciated.  The group raised around £100 via donations on the day, which they passed on to the Charities group to donate.  

A reminder that it is school policy that devices that can take photos, connect to the internet (phones, smart watches etc) or be used for communication should not be taken into school unless necessary.  

For children who do bring devices that can connect to the internet or take photos, they should be handed in to the class teacher at the beginning of the day where they will be kept safe and then be returned at home time.  If you are unsure if your child's device is acceptable, please get in touch to check.

Parents and members of the local community have been in touch  to share concerns again regarding the inconsiderate and dangerous driving and parking around the school.  Disappointingly this continues to be an ongoing theme.  A number of individuals within our school community are putting personal convenience over the safety of our pupils.  There seems to be an increased risk on days with wet weather when more families choose to drive to school.   

• I ask in the strongest possible terms that families do not park or stop to drop on yellow lines/yellow zig zags/corners.  This type of parking significantly reduces visibility for pupils crossing the roads.

• If you do need to drive to school, please 'park and stride'.  Parking slightly further away from school (even one street away) and walking a brief distance significantly reduces the congestion around school.

We have two JRSO (Junior Road Safety Officer) pupil led groups who have been speaking in assembly about the importance of being safe on the roads around school and aim to produce banners to be displayed on Ashley Park Drive.  

This year we will again be taking part in the Big Walk and Wheel. This takes place over two weeks on the 20th-31st March.  Every day the class teachers will ask how the children travelled to school. The event is looking to increase how many children are either walking, wheeling, scooting or cycling to school. We submit those numbers and we can compare how the school is doing with other Aberdeen and Scottish schools. There are also prizes to be won too for the school! I wonder which class will be the best this year from our school?

Of the 44 amazing applications submitted, we have been able to provide staffing support/find space around school to run 23 of these clubs for this block.  If the standard of the applications is anything to go by, the clubs are going to be brilliantly organised by their team of pupil leads, and I'm sure the children attending will have great fun! 

A big thanks to the school team as this large number of clubs is only possible due to a large number of staff giving up time over their lunch hour to provide their support.  

The document attached contains an Eventbrite link to each of these lunchtime clubs and booking is open now.  Please only sign up for one club per child at this point to ensure there are opportunities for as wide a group as possible .  By the end of the week a message will be sent out to open booking for any remaining places. 

Ashley Road Community Cafe

Ashley Road’s community cafe is going to raise money to be donated to the Turkey and Syria earthquake appeal.

When Tuesday 14th March @ 1:45 - 2:30

Come to the AshleyRoad playground it will be at the benches area near the nursery and we will have professional staff (our wonderful group).

We will have biscuits, brownies, coffee, tea and hot chocolate for you to purchase.  

If you would like to attend, please complete the form below so the group can plan appropriately.  LINK HERE

As part of our transition support process for P7's moving on at the end of this session, Aberdeen Grammar school has shared the following information:

• The Support for Learning teacher will work with both P7 classes at Ashley Road  - date and time tbc.

• On Tuesday 21st March there will be a pastoral visit where one of the Depute Head Teachers and the Principal Teacher of Pupil Support will meet the pupils at Ashley Road. 

• On Monday 24th April, the P7s will go to Aberdeen Grammar School for the afternoon for their second HWB session. More information will be given about this visit nearer the time. 

• Transition Link Week will be Monday 19th June until Thursday 22nd June at Aberdeen Grammar School. 

At assembly we have looked at World Book Day and the Theme this year which is: You ARE a Reader.

The children will have received their Book Day tokens which they can use to purchase one of the special World Book Day books or receive £1 off a book of their choice. 

The World Book day website also has information about access to a selection of free audiobooks using the Yoto App: https://www.worldbookday.com/world-of-stories/ 

There is also a  Share a Story  page where there are links to a selection of books being read: https://www.worldbookday.com/share-a-story-corner/ 

Aberdeen Libraries are running a competition to design a new space themed banner. 

Click on the link to find out more!

Last week saw a big order of timber sleepers arrive (kindly funded by the PTA - over £1000).  

Our next step is to source topsoil to fill the raised beds so classes can start to plan what they would like to grow.  The damage to the pillar at the front gate will make this process more difficult, but be are hoping to find solutions to work around this. 

If you have any cuttings, seeds, bulbs or small shrubs that you would be happy to donate, we would appreciate your support!  Equally, if you are a particularly knowledgeable gardener and are able to offer some time and advice to your child's year group, please get in touch - you can do this via the VOICE BOX.   

If you wish to make any donations 

• Evergreen shrubs would be great.

• We hope to gather a mix of bulbs that would flower in spring and in summer. 

• Avoid plants which are spiky/have thorns.

• No plants which are poisonous/have poisonous berries.

• Hardy bulbs that do not have to be lifted in the winter. 

In the meantime it has been fun to see how the empty raised beds have captured the imagination of the children, who have imaginatively transformed them into cars, boats, aeroplanes amongst other things.  

After great success earlier this session, Pupil Led Clubs are back, for their second 6 week block of the year.  The 'application window' is now open and closes on Friday the 3rd of March for those who wish to apply to run a club.  To apply, children from P4-7 should follow the link below and complete the form (with as much detail as possible).  

The principal of these clubs is that they are fully run by pupils, with staff working alongside to facilitate and support.  All the ideas, organisation, resourcing and running of the clubs is in the hands of our young leaders.  The skill development evident through the process during block 1 was outstanding.   We hope to have the clubs up and running for the last three weeks of this term, and the first three weeks of the summer term and will share details on how to register to attend clubs at a later date.  

From a 'hands up' survey in assemblies, it looks like 70-80% of children wanted to apply to run a club, and with limited adults to support, the strongest applications will be selected to go ahead.  This block, we are also inviting video 'adverts' which can be added to enhance applications and give groups a better chance of being selected!

I can't wait to see what will be on offer!

Form link here

Form link here.  

Mr Wallace (who teaches P7Rm1) would like to offer the P5-7 pupils the opportunity to attend a 5 week block of 'Running Club', taking place on Thursdays at 3:45 on Harlaw Playing Fields From the 2nd to the 30th of March.  If you are keen to get involved, please use the Google Form below to register.  There are a limited number of spaces dur to required ratio's off adult supervision, so these will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.  Mr Wallace will let children know at the beginning of next week who will be able to attend on Thursday.  See further information on document attached. 

We are currently getting bookings organised for the P7 trip to Dalguise next session.  A form has been shared to gather information from families regarding the potential uptake/payment menthods.   If your child is in P6 currently and you have not yet completed this form, please follow the link HERE. 

Our pupil lead improvement groups have now had their third meeting and are on their way to planning and implementing some meaningful changes within school on their group theme.  The groups have a timescale of only six weeks to plan and implement their changes, so are now half way through!   The digital leader within each group has updated a simple 'site' to share their proposed changes, and may provide some photo updates as their work gets underway.   This site is fully in the hands of the pupils, so reflects the improvement ideas from a pupil's perspective with minimal adult interference.  Have a look at the ideas, are there any you might be able to help with?

Pupil Leadership Group Site

Penny was lucky enough to attend a session with author and recent Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell as part of the Imagine Festival in London. Her top tip for writing was to think of it as telling a really big lie - the more detail you put into your writing, and the more you base it on a tiny grain of truth, the more it comes alive in your reader’s head. Cressida Cowell also signed a copy of 'How to Train Your Dragon' for the Ashley Road School library!  A big thanks to Penny for the book, and for sharing her story in assembly! 

Ashley Road/Broomhill community council have been working on a project regarding the redevelopment the Ruthrieston sports grounds, which is a great asset for the school and the local community. 

In recent years, the sports grounds have fallen into disrepair and are no longer able to meet the needs of the wider community.  The community council recently had a meeting with Sport Aberdeen who have committed together with the City Council and funding from the Lawn Tennis Association to undertake a redevelopment project to upgrade the facilities and create a modern, safe, and functional space that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Any interested parties are invited to attend a public meeting on the 8th of March at 7:00pm, at Holburn West Church where Sport Aberdeen will be discussing the proposed redevelopment plans and outlining some proposals for the grounds.

The  redevelopment of the sports grounds will greatly benefit our school and the community as a whole so it would be great to see members of the community getting behind the pr

Thank you so much to Ashley Road school community for getting involved in the impromptu bake sale last Friday. All money raised has been sent on to aid the relief work in Turkey after the recent earthquakes.  Ashley Road community raised and donated £2000 to the appeal. We can not thank you all enough for the hard work baking and all the money donated. We are very proud of our school.

PTA

We have now had confirmation that schools have been granted an exceptional closure on Monday 8 May to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III.  Both the school and our ELC (Nursery) will be closed to all pupils for the day. 

Some more lucky 'Golden Ticket' discoveries happened this week to help us identify our 'Birthday Bunch'.  This crew will be popping into classes each week with their celebration gear, happy spirit and birthday certificates to hand out.  

Aberdeen Sports Village is looking to find the diving champions of tomorrow!

All children from P2-6 will take part in a fun circuit style session with the diving team in school.   Some have taken part this week and the other classes will take part next week.   

The children will participate in a series of activities that will allow the team to assess children with natural physical and mental attributes which may make them successful in the sport of diving.  

They also hope to encourage more children to take up the sport of diving. Your child may receive a letter if the team thinks your child can be 'fast tracked' in the process of developing from a beginner to an elite level diver!

All the children who take part will receive a certificate which has a voucher for a free diving taster session at the Sports Village. 

Mr Wallace is a keen runner and would love to set up a weekly  running club for P5-7 on a Thursday at 3:45 - 4:30 on the pitches at Harlaw.  To do this we would need a number of parent helpers who would be willing to commit to supporting the club weekly.  If you feel you may be able to help, please get in touch with Mr Wallace through Seesaw, or with the main office by emailing Ashleyroad@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

With the annual cross country competition coming up, it would be great to get this club up and running.

On Monday 30th January, the Primary 7's will visit Aberdeen Grammar School for their first transition visit (this was originally planned for a date in December, but it was cancelled). During the visit, they will meet some key staff and participate in STEM and Science activities. Pupils will be at the Grammar over lunchtime, so should take a packed lunch. After lunch, pupils will walk back to Ashley Road for the remainder of the afternoon. 

Please see attached letter from Shona Milne, Interim Chief Education Officer which explains that that due to further strike action by teaching unions, the school will be closed to all pupils on Wednesday the 1st of February.  Our ELC (nursery) will be open as usual.  Further strike dates have been identified for Tuesday the 28th of February and Wednesday the 1st of March, which may also result in school closure.  Final information on these dates will be shared nearer the time.  

This week we have had some mysterious 'Golden Tickets' hidden around school.  The lucky finders of these tickets were given the opportunity to  take part on the 'White walls to bright walls project' by getting their hands messy and getting stuck in with the first coat of paint!  Sadly the weather was against us so we have had to pause until next week, but you can see the volunteers have made a great start!  It was brilliant to hear the children chat about the 'Physical Fuzz' skills (fine motor, stability and balance)  and 'Coping Cora' skills (resilience - due to the cold) they deveeloped through the process.

Meeting Agenda 25th Jan 2023