Fri 28th November

Happy Friday afternoon,

The trees and lights have gone up and Spa Primary is very much in the mood for Christmas. Lots of work still being done but sprinkled with a little bit of glitter. No-one can ever work in a primary school and not get in the Christmas spirit. We look forward to seeing lots of you over the coming weeks.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs F

Every school is required by the Department of Education to have a School Development Plan (SDP). This outlines the strategic direction and priorities for our school over the next 3 years. The SDP is a large and detailed document. We would like to share this easy read version for families with you. This informs you of the strategic intents and projects for this year. Next week our School Council will help us write a pupil version so we can all buy into the vision for the next 3 years.

We are asking each P7 child to supply either shortbread or festive biscuits for our Open Night and refreshments after the play. Please bring in by Monday 1st.

If your child is helping on Monday night at our Open Night they will need to be here for 5:40 in their full uniform (unless told to come in their PE kit). All children must enter through the kid's gate and make their way to the outside door of the P5 classroom. They will need to be collected from the same outside door of the P5 classroom at 7:30. Pupil helpers must be collected here, we will not let pupils make their own way out in the dark. Please do not come in through the side door or main entrance as school will be busy with our prospective parents and children. If you have put your name down for serving tea and coffee please make your way to the P7 room for 6:30. Everything will be ready for you to serve. Thank you for allowing your child to come help and support us in this way. Our pupils always impress.

Tickets for our P1-P4 performances are selling like hotcakes. we are almost sold out for Mon night but more left for the afternoon performances. Monday will be the last day for first orders. After that we will make any tickets that are left available to those who want extra. If you haven't sent in your child's costume can you please make sure it is in for Monday at the latest. Dress rehearsal will be on Thursday.

This year we are taking the whole school to Lisburn Cinema on Fri 12th December. This will cost £10.50 per pupil (£3 entrance and £7.50 for the bus). As can be seen, transport has got unbelievably expensive. We plan to see Zootropolis 2 although the cinema cannot confirm this until the week before. Just in case you are planning to take your child over the next few weeks. Payment can be made on SchoolMoney from today.

Christmas dinner must be booked by Fri 5th.

We are trying to rebuild and rejuvenate our Friends of Spa school community. To do this we plan to hold 4 nights in January to "Beat the January Blues". These will take place one night a week for 4 weeks. You can come to as many or as few as suits you. They will be free of charge, their soul purpose being to get our school community together and use our school building for community. At the moment we have secured a Bake night with demonstrations on decorating or sugar craft and a night of Yoga. We will let you know the other nights before Christmas. All we want to know is what night of the week suits you best to get out. This isn't a commitment to attending, it's just to help us plan the best night to get the best turnout.

Friends of Spa are putting together a Christmas Hamper full of Christmas goodies for children. Raffle tickets for this will go on sale on SchoolMoney on Mon 8th Dec at £2 per ticket. We will then make the draw on Thurs 18th Dec, our Christmas party day. If you would like to contribute to the hamper please leave into the office by Fri 5th Dec. All money will go to school funds.

Click on the link below to see how you can raise free money for school every time you shop online. We received over £500 this year from EasyFundraising.

A big well done to our girl's team who played in their second tournament of the year. Playing 6 matches they came away with 5 wins, 1 draw and 0 goals conceded. Congratulations also to Jenny Gunson for being awarded Player of the Tournament. Our boy's team didn't get an outing with frozen pitches but this will be rescheduled soon.

What a brilliant first session was had with St Francis this week. Their P3/4 class came to Spa on Wednesday. They all started off with some parachute games and ice-breakers. They then completed a paper chain challenge. After some fun and games outside they made Christmas Baubles to give to others over the Christmas season. They are all looking forward to their next time together.

Next term our clubs will be as follows:

Mon- Yoga

Tues- Football

Wed- Performing Arts, Hockey and VR

Thurs- Hip Hop and Cross Country

All clubs will start the week beginning the 5th and run for 10 weeks. All clubs run from 2:00 - 2:50 and 3:00 - 4:00, except for Hockey and Cross Country which are only for the senior school. Please pick-up on time. All clubs are available to pay on SchoolMoney from today but you have up until first week back to pay.

As we have several of our lovely families dealing with cancer at the moment we have chosen to support Action Cancer as our charity this Christmas. All money raised from our Preloved Sale and Christmas Jumper Day will be sent to Action Cancer.

Mon 1st Dec- New P1 Open Night- 6:00- 7:30, Cross Country, Downpatrick

Tues 2nd Dec- P6 Christmas Forest School- note change of date

Wed 3rd Dec- P5 Christmas Forest School, Well-being Warriors visit Nursing Home, P6 last swim

Thurs 4th Dec- Dress Rehearsal for P1-P4.

Fri 5th Dec- P7 Christmas Forest School

Mon 8th Dec- P1-P4 Play at 1:00 and 6:30, P6 Shared Ed at Spa

Tues 9th Dec- P1-P4 Play at 1:00, P6 Climate Change Talk

Wed 10th Dec- Preloved Sale, P2 Christmas Forest School

Thurs 11th Dec- P3 Christmas Forest School, Whole school Flu Vaccination

Fri 12th Dec- Whole school visit to cinema.

Mon 15th Dec- Whole school Christmas Dinner, P4 Christmas Forest School

Tues 16th Dec- Pyjama, Hot Chocolate and a Movie Day- more info to follow

Wed 17th Dec- Christmas Assembly, Choir go carol singing, P1 Forest School (note change of date).

Thurs 18th Dec- Santa and Parties, Christmas Jumper Day- £1 to Action Cancer

Fri 19th Dec- Last day of term- school closes at 12:00