Following on hotly from our P6 Handball team’s success in reaching the West Lothian League finals last week, our P7s topped the scorers at the West Lothian Sportshall Athletics on Friday. We’re definitely on a roll – keep it up sporty kids!
Category: Management News and Views
The category for whole school news and events
Gymnastics Showcase
We had an outstanding display of gymnastics prowess at our Gymnastics Showcase last Thursday, 01 February. The invited parents who attended were suitably impressed with the routines across the spectrum of abilities from gymnasts in training who go to gymnastics clubs, etc., to children demonstrating the weekly Gymnastics lessons routinely taught in PE. Special thanks to Mrs Ferguson, our PE specialist teacher, who organised the event and trained the children – it was well worth it!
Book Bug Questionnaire for P1 Parents
We hope you are enjoying the Book Bug Resources presented to your child at our gifting event. The Scottish Book Trust is looking for some feedback to inform future Book Bug gifts and events, so would appreciate if as many P1 parents could complete their questionnaire online. There is a prize for one lucky parent of a bundle of books for their child. The link to the questionnaire is here:
Thank you in advance for your support.
Winter Ready
By now, all pupils should have brought home their Winter Ready Instruction Sheet which will have their GLOW Username and Password printed on it. This sheet gives instructions about how to access GLOW to continue learning and teaching over the Internet in the event of a school closure due to severe weather. Older children will be able to do this independently, but our younger pupils will need some adult help. Included in the Help Sheet are instructions on how to download a free copy of Microsoft Office to a computer or other device – every GLOW user has 5 licenses they can use to download the software to their devices. Maybe Santa will be bringing a selection of laptops and tablets so parents may find this useful news! Hopefully, we won’t have to implement remote learning and teaching as the weather will not be so severe, but just in case …
Ready, Read, Repeat!
Our Ready, Read, Repeat! focus on reading day has got off to a great start. The children and staff came into school this morning dressed as book characters and everyone is now involved in the main thrust of the project. Each stage in the school (P1-P7) has £1,000 to spend to create a Reading Corner. The children will be designing their own vision of a comfortable area to read for enjoyment and will then select furniture and fittings to make their vision a reality. In addition, every child will be able to select a book for their new reading corner which will be purchased and dedicated to them. This is a huge amount of money and it will take an even larger amount of effort to pull it all off. However, we’re confident that, at the end of the day it will be Mission Accomplished and we will be able to begin ordering the new furniture, fittings and books and get started on building our reading culture. Maybe we will have a parent drop-in to show off our work when everything is complete – we’ll ask the children if they think that would be a good idea. Meantime, here is a photo gallery of the various outfits and activities going on at the moment:
Red Nose Re-engineered
Our Primary 6 children have been involved in an exciting activity – to design the next Red Nose for Comic Relief 2019. We had loads of great ideas, but our school captains selected these six as the ones going forward into the main competition. Well done to everyone who took part, but especially our winners.
F.L.A.G. European Project Recognised for Quality
Our Erasmus+ Project, For Learners Around the Globe (F.L.A.G.), has been awarded the European Quality Label, the highest award given by eTwinning, the organisation who monitors all projects. This is how we got the news:
Congratulations! Your school has been awarded the European Quality Label for the excellence of the work in the eTwinning project “For Learners Around the Globe/FLAG”. This means that your work, the work of your students and your school have been recognised at the highest European level.
As a result you will receive a certificate which you can attach to your website(s) and display in a prominent position in your school. Also, your project will be displayed in a special area on the European Portal at www.etwinning.net.
Once again congratulations on this unique achievement and I hope that we may meet at one of the eTwinning events during the year.
With my best regards,
eTwinning Team
Congratulations to everyone at Carmondean PS who contributed to this outstanding success.
Primary 6 Inventors’ Showcase
Primary 6 children had the opportunity to show off their work to their parents, friends and some visitors from other classes yesterday and today at a display of learning about their Interdisciplinary Learning Topic, ‘The Industrial Revolution. There were many ingenious inventions on show and the children incorporated many other curricular areas into their presentations and ‘pitches’. A big ‘Well Done’ to everyone.
Cross Country Flying
At today’s Primary 6 West Lothian Primary Schools’ Cross Country Running event, Carmondean children were flying. We took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the Girls’ race and 1st and 2nd in the Boys’ race, as well as chalking up many other highly placed finishers in both races. It seems the lunchtime running club run by Mrs Ferguson, our P.E. Specialist, is paying dividends. A huge ‘Well done!’ to everyone who took part in the race, but especially to our successful podium finishers pictured below.
Parents’ Evening Online Booking
By tomorrow, you will have received a letter or email giving information on how to make an appointment for Parent/Teacher Interviews on Wednesday, 11 October (5.00-7.30 p.m.) and Thursday 12 October (4.00-6.30 p.m.). You can access the system for booking appointments by clicking on this link:
Parents’ Evening Online Booking
Please refer to the letter or email received to see the correct class names for your child’s class.
If you do not have access to the Internet, or would prefer to book through the school office, please contact us on 01506 432492 or drop in and our office staff will be happy to add appointments on your behalf.
Parent Staff Association/ Parent Council Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Parent Staff Association/Parent Council will take place in Carmondean Primary School on Monday, 25 September @ 6.00 p.m. All parents/carers (particularly those who are new to the school) are welcome to attend this event. We are keen to encourage greater parental engagement within the school and this is an ideal opportunity to get involved in your child/ren’s education. You can see the agenda by clicking the link below:
We hope to see you then.
Meet the Teacher
Carmondean Primary School’s annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ event is scheduled for this Wednesday, 30 August at 4.30-5.30 p.m. The event is a ‘drop-in’, so you can come and go as you please during the designated times. We hope as many of you as possible will come along and find out about what your child will be learning this session.
Welcome Back
We look forward to saying ‘Hello!’ to our new Primary 1 pupils and welcoming back our returning learners to Carmondean Primary School on Tuesday at the usual time. It looks like it will be another busy school year – let’s do this!
Parents’ Workshop – AAL (Anytime, Anywhere Learning)
On Tuesday, 02 May, parents have the opportunity to attend a workshop which will explain one of the initiatives being introduced as part of our School Improvement Plan (SIP). One of our SIP priorities this session was to refresh and update our Technologies curriculum. Introducing AAL (Anytime, Anywhere Learning) to Carmondean PS was one of our key targets and we are pleased to say that we are now ready to go with it.
AAL involves children in BYOD (Bring Your own Device) to school to use it to enhance learning and teaching. After the workshop and after children and parents have signed our updated Internet and AAL user agreement, children in Primaries 6 and 7 will be able to use the devices they already bring to school to enhance learning and teaching. This will not be a free for all with children using their phones and tablets to text each other or to access social media, but planned AAL lessons. It will be made clear to the children which lessons are AAL and which are not.
The Parent workshop will give parents of children in any class the opportunity to come along and hear about AAL and to ask any questions they may have. Mrs Laura Compton from the West Lothian ICT team will be present to describe how it all works and to provide answers. Also, some school staff and pupils will be present to demonstrate some of the activities that AAL will be useful for. So bring your smartphone and take part, or, come along and use one of the school devices
We hope to see as many parents/carers as possible at the AAL Parents’ Workshop on Tuesday, 02 May @ 6.00 p.m.
Google Expeditions
A big day is planned for Carmondean PS tomorrow (Monday, 16 January). We eagerly await the arrival of Google Expeditions who are going to take us on several Virtual Reality expeditions to places we would probably otherwise never be able to see. Why not have a sneak peek by clicking on the link below.
We’ll post further information and news and views of how it all went after the event.
Playground Appeal @Tesco Bags of Help
As you will be aware, this year the staff and children at Carmondean Primary have been working on our Building a Perfect Playground project. We have already transformed parts of our playground, the children are loving the changes made so far and are benefiting so much more from their time outdoors, but we still have lots of ideas for improvement on our wishlist!
After many attempts, we have just received word from the Tesco’s Bags of Help Scheme to say that our application for funding has been successful! Our school is eligible for an award of either £5,000, £2,000 or £1,000 – the actual amount we are awarded will be determined by a public vote in local Tesco stores from the 2nd -28th of January.
If you are going shopping, please consider making a trip to Tesco to vote for Carmondean’s Building a Perfect Playground project as the highest number of votes will secure the highest award.
You will be able to vote in the following Tesco branches –
RBS EDINBURGH EXP EH12 9BH
EDINBURGH COLINTON EH13 9AH
SOUTH QUEENSFERRY EH30 9QZ
PENICUIK EH26 8NP
EAST CALDER MN ST EXP EH53 0EJ
BATHGATE BLACKBURN RD EH48 2ES
Can’t wait to hear the results! Thank you in advance for your support.
Happy New Year
WE are looking forward to getting stared to the new term at Carmondean Primary School and Nursery. See you Wednesday, 04 January, 2017.
Pupil Winter Ready Survey
If our school is closed due to extreme weather conditions, learning and teaching will still carry on through our School BLOG.
To find instructions for using the BLOG for this purpose, click the link below:
Please fill in the online form by clicking the link below to let us know if you are ‘Winter Ready’:
https://goo.gl/forms/TGuBF2tpOjSukSNx2
