The pupils at Heathery Knowe PS and Nursery Class have been immersed in literacy this week as part of the celebration of World Book Day. Thank you to all parents and carers for supporting the events, helping with home learning activities and encouraging the pupils to read and write for enjoyment. The Junior Leadership Team will gather feedback from pupils next week and this will be used to inform the planning of future events.
Red Nose Day
Miss Harris and the pupils working in Room 8 will co-ordinate Red Nose Day events for the school on Friday 15th March 2019. We use this opportunity to help pupils become aware of their role as responsible citizens in a global context. It builds upon the pupils’ awareness of the need for support in the local community through the East Kilbride Food Bank collections at Harvest and Christmas, extending it to their awareness of the need to support citizens of Scotland and the wider world. Each class will participate in activities that are appropriate for their age.
Health and Wellbeing
We have invested in a whole school resource to support all pupils in the development of social and emotional learning skills. It supports pupils to improve skills in perseverance with learning and working as part of a team. The skills developed through this programme dovetail skills for learning, life and work with social and emotional health and wellbeing. Positive Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) will be used across all stages of the school from August 2019.
- Increased knowledge of, and skill in, the steps of social problem-solving: stopping and thinking; identifying problems and feelings; setting goals; generating alternative solutions; anticipating and evaluating consequences; planning, executing and evaluating a course of action; trying again if the first solution fails.
- Increased understanding and use of the vocabulary of logical reasoning and problem-solving, e.g., “if…then” and “why…because.”
- Increased ability to recognise and interpret similarities and differences in the feelings, reactions and points of view of self and others.
- Increased ability to apply social problem-solving skills to prevent and/or resolve problems and conflicts in social interactions.
- Increased understanding of how one’s behaviour affects others.
- Increased self-control, i.e., the ability to stop and think before acting when upset or confronted with a conflict situation. Lessons in this area also teach identification of problem situations through recognition of “upset” feelings.
- Increased understanding and use of the vocabulary of emotions and emotional states; e.g., excited, disappointed, confused, guilty, etc. Increased use of verbal mediation.
Danish Gymnastics Event
The National Danish Performance Team are a group of 28 gymnasts who tour the world displaying their spectacular level of Gymnastics and Dance. Primary 6 pupils at Heathery Knowe Primary School are participating in a special gymnastics event at Calderglen High School on Tuesday 12th March. Pupils will participate in a fun gymnastics workshop being delivered by the visiting coaches from Denmark.
There is an evening display for the public to enjoy on Thursday 14th March. Information regarding this event can be accessed using the following link:
Raising Attainment Showcase
On Thursday 30th May, we will be showcasing the new resources purchased and developed over the course of this year. Parents are invited to come along to the school and view the wide range of resources developed to improve attainment at Heathery Knowe Primary School and Nursery Class.
During the session, you will have an opportunity to view a wide range of resources including:
- ‘The Hive’ nurture room
- Positive Alternative Thinking Strategies resources
- Samples of the new book banded reading resources (novels, skinny novels and reading schemes)
- Numicon (numeracy resource)
- Tee Jay Mathematics Resources – including assessment and home learning materials
- Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Material
- New Playground Equipment
- New Active Literacy Resources (e.g. phonics phones)
- Talk 4 Writing resources
- Hollow Blocks Play Resources
- Digital coding and programming ICT resources
We look forward to welcoming you to school for this event.
What’s on next week?
- Monday – Head Teacher from Maxwellton Primary is visiting the school for a shared learning visit
- Tuesday – Primary 6 are attending Danish Gymnastics workshop
- Tuesday – I am attending the Equity and Excellence Conference
- Wednesday – Big Blether – Focus of discussion is digital communication
- Thursday – Primary 4 are visiting Pizza Express as part of their learning in Health and Wellbeing
- Friday – Red Nose Day (assembly, class activities and bake sale)
Thank you for your continued support
Kind regards
Kirsty Duff
