Ileach Article: Sept 2022
Port Charlotte Primary – First In Argyll and Bute to win Gold Nurture Award
Port Charlotte Primary School have been awarded the very first Gold Level Nurture Award in Argyll and Bute! We are absolutely delighted that all our work on Whole School Nurture has been rewarded with the highest level of award given so far by Argyll and Bute’s Our Children their Nurturing Education programme. Whole School Nurture is a focus on wellbeing and relationships and a drive to support the growth and development of children and young people. Healthy social and emotional development is key to successful achievement in life. John Stuart, the assessor who came to visit Port Charlotte, said he was ‘blown away’ by the children’s understanding of nurturing approaches and how they care for and understand one another, he loved the warm, welcoming ethos in the school and he stated that the work we are doing is nothing short of outstanding. Well done to everyone at PCPS!
Ileach Article: May 2022
Port Charlotte Primary Wins Top Nurture Award!
Lorraine Gillies, Principal Teacher writes…
Port Charlotte Primary School has always been a nurturing school, however with the appointment of Maggie as Head Teacher our nurturing journey really began. Having a nurturing approach in a school really means that all children have the emotional and psychological support that they need to grow, develop and learn. It means that relationships between all stakeholders are at the core of everything we do. We follow the principle that all behaviour is communication.
Our staff have been super at supporting this approach and have undertaken lots of training about neuroscience, child development and building relationships. Our pupils are very kind and supportive to each to each other, they are learning all the time about how to support each other and they emulate what the staff model, reinforcing our nurturing ethos. Things that we have been working on that have helped develop our nurturing ethos are mindfulness, simple school rules, working in mixed age group teams/clans, learning Makaton, learning about empathy, our nurture group and doing a lot of learning about emotions and how to deal with them.
We recently reviewed our nurturing ethos with our pupils who had lots to say about it. Eion Brown said “The staff treat us really well. They talk to us and they are good craic!” Archie Gibbs said “I learned that accepting our feelings, showing we care and being kind and helpful all help our mental health”. Ruby Skinner said “The older children help the younger children. We also help children who find things harder than others. We don’t treat children who find learning difficult any differently.” Dylan Davidson said “I am in the best school in the whole world. I like learning.”
We believe that this approach is allowing our pupils to thrive and follow our school motto of ‘Be the Best we can Be’. We are so pleased and proud that all our hard work has been recognised by Argyll and Bute Council’s new ‘Our Children Their Nurturing Education’ Award Scheme; especially since we are the first of 2 schools in Argyll and Bute to be awarded a Silver Nurture Award, the highest level awarded so far. We are really proud of our ethos in Port Charlotte which we will continue to build on and we would like to thank the pupils, staff and parents for all their continued support and hard work. Well done all at PCPS!!
