Category: Learning At St John’s

PACS booklet Autumn East 2015

GPA Poster

Green Pencil
Award 2015

Food for Thought

Scotland’s food and drink
ENTER NOW

The Green Pencil Award is a creative writing competition open to all
P4-P7 aged children in Edinburgh. To tie in with 2015 being ‘Scotland’s
Year of Food and Drink’ our theme this year is ‘Food for Thought’.

Entry forms and full details can be found at
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/greenpencilaward

Hand your entries in to your local library.
Closing date Friday 9 October 2015.

Last night St John’s P5/6 football team claimed an impressive victory against neighbours Duddingston PS in the final of the School Board Cup. St John’s last won this prestigious tournament in 2007 and made it a memorable evening for everyone involved as they recorded a narrow 4-3 win with a last minute penalty. Mr Mark Egan posted an email of thanks which is included below…

” Huge congratulations to all the boys, magnificent effort and thoroughly deserved victory. There must be easier ways to win a trophy but certainly kept it exciting! Special mention to Bailey for remaining ice cool when stepping up to take the winning penalty as I was having a mild heart attack on the side-line. If you have any good photos or videos then please try and share and upload onto the teamer site.

Just want to take this chance to say a few thanks.

Paul for stepping in and helping me run the team.
Gordon for the previous years he has put in with the team and for all the help during the tournament
Colin for volunteering and running all the training sessions. All Colin’s hard work on the training pitch allows Paul and I to take the glory on match days.
PTA for funding the new strips we got this season, much appreciated
All the parents for turning up during the season and being supportive throughout.”

Well done boys, we are very proud of you all!

Dear Parent/ Carer

 

You may have seen some recent media coverage about an incident outside our school on Monday involving a car and pedestrian.

I would like to reassure you that this incident is being taken seriously but it would be inappropriate for me to go into detail as the Police investigation is ongoing.

I am sure you would agree that the safety of our pupils is our highest priority and for this reason I would ask you to ensure that if you are dropping your child off by car that you park responsibly so that all our children can walk safely to school.

Anyone who has witnessed the incident, or who has information which can help the Police with their enquiries and has not done so already, is asked to contact Sgt Mark Pickavance at Portobello Police Station directly.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Barbara A Service

 

Ms Barbara A Service

Headteacher

OoVoo is a high quality video chat application similar to Facetime or Skype. It allows people to connect with up to 12 friends at one time and video chat or have a voice call. You can download it on an iPad, iTouch, iPhone, Android phone, etc. And you must be 13 years old to set up an account, which doesn’t slow anyone down who can subtract 13 years from 2015.
What are the concerns for your child using ooVoo? As with all social media, the main concern is who can search out your child easily. The easier it is to find the child, the faster a predator will find them, start talking to them and find a way to connect with them without the child realizing what is happening. The second concern is the way in which ooVoo is being used. Young children (pre-teen) find this app through their peers or older siblings. It’s Internet-based and often used at home in the YP or child’s bedroom. It has been the case that whilst talking with friends an adult has entered the group chat.
How do you manage your child’s ooVoo account?
1. Always know your child’s password. This will allow you to ensure that they are using ooVoo safely.
2. Make sure that the privacy settings are properly set up. Without using the privacy settings, your child can be contacted by anyone at anytime and anyone can see the profile of your child. (I have my daughter’s set to ‘Nobody’ so that only people who know her ooVoo ID can contact her).
3. You can review the history of your child’s account. You will be able to see who they are chatting and messaging with. Ensure that you know all of these people and are comfortable with it. Note that your child can erase the history.
4. If your child receives an unwanted friend request, ignore it AND check the box to Also block this person from contacting me again.
5. If your child experiences a more serious encounter with an adult contact CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) Command https://www.ceop.police.uk/
6. With young children (pre-teen) You can frequently review your child’s friends to ensure that you know them all.
7. Remind your child to always log out when they are finished using ooVoo, especially if another person’s device is being used.
8. Learn how to use the product! If your child knows that you are involved and understand the technology they are using, they will not feel free to do whatever they please because “Mum doesn’t have a clue how this works!”
ooVoo is not necessarily bad. Like most social media apps, there are some great uses for teens. For example, working on a group project would be a great use of ooVoo, given the ability to have multiple users on the same video chat session. However, the dangers come when children and young people use them in unproductive ways and when the privacy settings are not set tightly. This is where our job as parents is so critical. This is where if you drop the ball you could end up dealing with a lot more than an unwanted friend request.
Thank you.