With only 8 weeks left until the summer break, teachers are reflecting on children’s progress over the session, reviewing learning and providing reports on each child’s attainment. Pupil reports will go home to parents on Friday 10th May.
Staffing Update
Mrs McKay (office) has reduced her working days and now only works Tuesday and Wednesday at school. Mrs Robertson will work in the office alongside Mrs Neary on a Monday, Thursday and Friday.
Communication with Parents
We have consulted with a number of parents, both formally and informally, about the communication between home and school. I would like to take this opportunity to update you on some aspects of the communication strategy going forward.
- Twitter will continue to be used by most classes to share learning experiences. Our pupils are delighted when their learning is recognised by parents, other schools in the learning community and more widely. This session Heathery Knowe Primary School has been tweeted by Sir Tim Peake, Judy Murray and Jeremy Strong. This builds the ambition of our pupils and ensures that no careers are out of reach. Parents will be asked for consent to share their child’s photograph on the website and twitter again in August. This consent can be withdrawn at any time by contacting the school office.
- Going forward, we will set up email groups for each class. All information (letters, link to the blog etc) will be shared via email. Over the next few weeks we will be requesting an up to date email address for each family. If you are happy to receive information using this method then you will stop receiving paper copies of letters unless it requires a signature from August 2019. This will reduce costs and increase the time Support Staff have to work directly with pupils.
- The Big Blether will continue on a monthly basis with sessions running at 9.15am and 5pm. The Big Blether is an informal opportunity to share views of the school and consult on aspects of school improvement.
Snapshot Journals
Pupils have brought home their jotters for families to look through and comment on. We have reviewed the value of this through a PTC meeting along with ‘Big Blether’ (parents) and ‘Wee Blether’ (pupils) discussions . From this it was evident that pupils and parents enjoyed sharing their learning at different points in the year.
Teaching and Learning approaches have changed considerably over the past few years and we feel that the jotters do not capture all of the learning that takes place in our classrooms. Next session pupils will keep a Snapshot Journal. Pupils will select pieces of work or photographs that they are proud of and they will be collated into a Snapshot Journal. Journals will replace jotters coming home and they will be sent home each term. This means that pupils are able to choose the work they would like to share from across the curriculum and captures the wide range of activities that takes place in school. All jotters will be available for parents to look through at open afternoons or at any point in the year by making arrangements directly with the school.
Lockerbie Manor
Current Primary 5 pupils will have the opportunity to attend a 5 day residential experience at Lockerbie Manor from 2-6th November 2020 whilst in Primary 7. I hope the parents who attended the information evening found it helpful.
The maximum cost for the experience is £245. Primary 5 pupils are starting to fundraise and this will be used to pay the bus and then any further profits will be used to reduce the cost for each pupil. The deposit is £50 and we are finalising the date for this with Manor Adventure next week. The final balance will be due on 17th August 2020. Different payment options will be issued next week.
I will confirm a date and cost for current Primary 4 pupils as soon as we can secure a date with Manor Adventures.
What’s on next week?
Monday – Bank Holiday (School is closed)
Tuesday – Inservice Day (School is closed to pupils)
Thank you for your continued support
Kind regards
Kirsty Duff
