Week 20 marks the half way point of the school year and this week we have been gathering and analysing data to measure school improvement and pupil progress.
How Good is OUR School?
During the school year, our pupils have been using the recently published document, “How Good is OUR School?” to identify strengths of the school and identify ways to improve. One of the display boards in the dining room has a ‘You said …we did’ board to make suggestions on ways to improve. This week one pupil asked that the Senior Leadership Team spend more time teaching in classes alongside their class teacher. This is something that will be planned in partnership with classes in response to the pupil’s suggestion.
All pupils identified strengths in the school and areas for improvement as part of a school wide consultation led by the Junior Leadership Team. Many of suggestions for improvement were focused on improving the play equipment available in the playground during breaks and this is something that the steering group are already focusing on. Some pupils highlighted the need to continue with the work we are doing around anti-bullying education and further developing ways to ensure pupils play well together whilst choosing to be kind and respectful to one another. In many ways these suggestions go hand in hand as by improving the range of resources available to pupils,we will be able to ensure pupils are engaged in purposeful play activities.
Improving consistency in Numeracy and Mathematics
This week a new numeracy and mathematics resource arrived in school. This resource will be used to support the teaching of numeracy and maths in a consistent manner across the school. The new resource is called Tee-Jay and is used by many other schools in the learning community.
Collecting Opinions to Grow our School (COGS)
Now that the busy Christmas period is over and we have settled into January, it is time to review the Christmas experience at Heathery Knowe Primary School and Nursery Class. Towards the end of next week, we will open a survey via twitter to collect opinions on the activities we offered over the Christmas period and the cost involved. Once the responses have been collected we will be ready to start planning for next year.
PTC Valentine’s Disco
The Valentine’s Disco is coming up shortly. Following the success of selling tickets for the Halloween Disco, the PTC have decided that the Valentine’s Disco will be a ticket only event. Pupils will be able to buy disco tickets during the week leading up to the disco but will not be able to pay at the door. This will help us to speed up the entry into the hall and ensure pupils enjoy the full disco time. Pupils will still be able to bring money for snacks.
Breakfast Club
To ensure that the breakfast club continues to operate each day, we need more volunteers for the rota. Breakfast Club runs each morning from 8.15am – 8.45am. If you are able to help on a rota basis, please let someone in the PTC know or call the school office.
Uniforms
Thank you for your continued support with school uniform. If your child needs new indoor shoes then we will put a note in your child’s homework diary next week. Tesco Direct no longer stocks our uniform but it can now be purchased from another online supplier. The link to the new supplier will be placed on twitter and the website next week.
What’s on next week?
Monday-Wednesday – HMIe will be inspecting our school
Thursday – All Primary 6 pupils will participate in Champions for Change programme to challenge sectarianism
Friday – Launch of the School Travel Plan with pupils
Thank you for your continued support
Kind regards
Kirsty Duff
