Category: Latest News

It’s hard to believe that it’s the 1st of March already – where have the weeks gone?  I am pleased to see the beginning of lighter nights and the signs of Spring as shoots of daffodils begin to pop through.  However, the weather is still chilly so I would recommend that pupils still come to school drested for winter weather.

Wednesday is our Celebrating Success Assembly day where we share the achievements of the children in and out of school.  Today we were celebrating the children who had achieved Green, Silver or Gold for excellent behaviour or hard work.  The class teachers announced the children who earned the ‘Stane Superstar’ trophy, the 100% attendance for February letters were issued to pupils and we celebrated P7s achievement in reaching level 3 of HeartStart training.  I also taught the children a new song – ‘When Seeds Grow’ in preparation for our Easter Service at the end of the month.  At the end of assembly, I revealed who had earned the ‘Secret Student’ prize by being a super audience member during assembly.

We had a short section during assembly about World Book Day today.  While we aren’t  dressing up this year as it’s been such a busy period in school, we will still mark the occasion by having some lessons in class – the children will all get a £1 World Book Day voucher to take home tomorrow too.

I enjoyed being with the children at interval time today and chatted to lots of children about their favourite book following our assembly.  It would seem the most popular remains Roald Dahl!

After interval, it was time for Tea with Mr. Clark.  It’s been a couple of weeks since the last one due to Health Week and the holidays, so there was quite a few children attending.  We had a picnic in the hall and the children enjoyed a snack and drink while chilling out on the blankets and cushions.  This is the reward for pupils who have been Stane Superstars

After lunchtime, I was working with three children from each class for a ‘Head Teacher’s Learning Conversation’ looking at Maths work.    The children brought their maths work for me to look at – I was very impressed with the quality of the children’s work and the standard of their discussion .  The children could reflect really well on what they were learning and how they liked to work.  I will feed this back to the teachers to allow them to ensure their maths lessons meet the children’s needs as much as possible.

Our new football team played in the Cluster Friendly today at Calderhead High School against Alexander Peden Primary.  Our children had a great first half, with the  coach from the other team commenting on how well the team played together.  Unfortunalty we didn’t win, but the children played their best and displayed excellent sportsman behaviour.  Thank you to Mr. McKenna, our janitor, for accompanying the children and coaching the team.

The Parent Council met this evening and we had a very full discussion about the upcoming fundraising events, including the Bingo Night at  the end of the month.  We also spent time discussing the Pupil Equity fund and how this money could be best used to ensure excellence and equity for all children.  We also started to discuss the school roll for next year and some of the options that we may have for different class formations in August.

A reminder for Cross Country children to bring their kit for tomorrow’s after school club.  Mrs. Scott will be taking the club tomorrow as I have to attend a meeting after school.

I was out of school all day on Monday to attend the Pupil Equity Fund Seminar organised by the Scottish Government and Education Scotland.

You will be aware from coverage in the local media, that the Scottish Government is allocating additional funding to schools to help close the attainment gap for those children living in poverty.

This seminar allowed Head Teachers from different local authorities to find out more about how this funding will work and how we can plan for it when it is received in August 2017.

The next step for Stane Primary will be consulting with parents via the Parent Council, pupils and staff to consider how this will be best spent to ensure excellence and equity for our pupils.

It was nice to be back in school today – especially because I had a queue of children who had achieved Gold on our Promoting Positive Behaviour system.  This is a very high level to achieve and take excellent, consistent effort and behaviour. It was a pleasure to give these children their certificates.

I also had the lovely job of escorting some of our P6 Enterprise Pupils to the local Cash and Carry so that they could stock up on sweeties for their Pick’n’mix stall.  They were spending some of their profits on more stock – real ‘Apprentice’ style planning!  The sweets will be on sale every day for the next few weeks.  All money raised will go towards the children’s outing to Edinburgh.

Later on in the day, some of the P6 Enterprise children came to my office to pitch for further assistance with their fundraising.  Their pitch was excellent and I was very impressed with the quality of their work and the enthusiasm.

Primary 1/2 and Primary 2/3 had a very interesting morning with visitors from Warburton’s as they learned all about Healthy Eating by making a healthy sandwich.  Thank you very much to the ladies for a great morning – and for leaving lots of healthy brown loaves for the boys and girls (and staff) to take home.

The day ended with our after school Multi-sports club for Primary 1-3 pupils.  The children had a great time playing all sorts of active games with Ryan, the coach from Active school.

Tomorrow, our new football team will be playing at Calderhead High in the first of four matches in the Sportsman League and we will have our Celebrating Success Assembly where, among lots of other things, 50 children will be presented with 100% attendance for February letters and the children who’ve completed at least one active journey to school each week will be given their February badge.

Don’t forget that the next meeting of the Parent Council takes place on Wednesday 1st March 2017 in Shotts EU Congregational Church Hall.  All parents/carers are welcome to attend.

Storm Doris well and truly hit Shotts today but all members of staff managed to make it in to school despite a few challenging journeys.

We had great fun sledging and playing in the snow at lunchtime – I had a wee shot on the sledges too and so did the janitor.  It was lovely to see the children enjoying themselves in the snow.

Unfortunately some of the children hadn’t come dressed for outdoors – can I ask everyone to ensure that children have suitable outdoor shoes and a change of clothes when the weather is like this. We will always try to get the children out to play in the snow!

We’re nearly at the end of our Health Week and the children have all had an opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities with different specialists.  The plan had been for Rugby sessions to take place outdoors today and Tae-Kwan Do to happen in the hall, but we made a quick change to have Rugby in hall and Tae-Kwan Do in classrooms instead.

The children really enjoyed their sessions – you can see the photographs on our Twitter feed.

Tomorrow is the final day of Health Week (NB there is no ‘Dress Down Day’ as children are in their sports clothes anyway.) Miss Tiffney will be leading P5/6 and P6/7 children throug their HeartStart Assessments and some of the children will get to take part in a Boot Camp fitness class.  P6/7 will be outdoors for this so don’t forget suitable clothing!

Let’s hope the journey to school is a bit less adventurous than today!