Management News and Views – Page 3 – Carmondean Primary School Blog

ERASMUS+ Visit Imminent

The long-awaited visit by our ERASMUS+ Partners is almost upon us. Our visitors begin arriving in Scotland from Sunday, 13 November, work with us from Tuesday, 15th to Thursday 17th, and fly home again on Friday, 18 November, hopefully having had a wonderful time and having learned loads about Scotland and the Scottish Education System. All the children are very excited about the visit and have been preparing gifts for our visitors and learning about their countries and cultures. All the hard work has been done, now it’s time to reap the rewards. Check the Erasmus+ Tab at the top of the Blog to keep up to date with what’s happening.

Pupil Ethos 10/10/16

Pupil Ethos week beginning 19 September, 2016

Pupil Ethos, Week Beginning 12 September

This Week’s Pupil Ethos

August Newsletter

The August School Newsletter can be accessed by clicking the link below:

2016_08_26 August Newsletter

First Pupil Ethos Network on the BLOG

Our Pupil Ethos Network can now be viewed on the BLOG. We aim to update the Ethos Presentation each week to keep everyone updated on in-school events and latest information affecting classes. Enjoy!

Welcome Back

Well, after seven long weeks off, it’s back to school this coming week. We look forward to welcoming our new Nursery and Primary 1 children, as well as those older children who are returning to us after, what we hope has been, a great holiday. You will notice lots of changes around the school as the new hall continues to be built around us. The front entrance of the school, as we know it, no longer exists, so we have had to use the ‘art room’ to build a temporary office and parent/carer entrance. By the time you read this, the route to the temporary office and entrance should be sign-posted.

At the moment, we are without telephones at school. We don’t know what the problem is, but we are hoping it will be fixed soon. In the meantime, if you need to contact the school and can’t drop in in person, please email or leave a comment to this post on the Blog. We’ll get back to you ASAP.

Please remember that you can order and pay for your child’s school lunch online at iPay Impact. More and more of you are using this system and it is making the process much easier.

We are all looking forward to the new term, so staff, we’ll see you on Monday, and children, we’ll see you on Tuesday for the start of what will definitely be an interesting and exciting school year.

Guinness World Record Djembe Performance

You may recall just before the end of term, a large group of our Primary 7 children took part in the Guinness World Record Attempt to have the largest Djembe Ensemble. We are very proud to report that the attempt was successful and many school children in West Lothian, including Carmondean PS, are now officially world record holders for this event. You can watch the You Tube video of the attempt by clicking the link below.

Guinness World Record Attempt

Open Morning Mobbed

The Carmondean PS Open Morning, which showcased some of the work we have been (and will be doing) to improve the school through children leading their learning, work on the Technologies and the progress of our Erasmus+ project, was attended by well over 100 visitors today. Responses were overwhelmingly positive and suggested that almost all people who completed the questionnaire felt that the work being done in school in these areas spanned the spectrum from Good to Excellent. A big ‘Thank You’ to all visitors and to all children, their teachers and our marvellous support staff for all the efforts they put in to make today’s Open Day such an outstanding success.

West Lothian Young Writer, 2016

It was another very proud moment for Carmondean Primary School and for one of its pupils tonight at the 41st West Lothian Young Writer Awards. Although many young stars shone brightly throughout the evening, it was our own Joy Koay (Primary 7) who outshone them all to become West Lothian Young Writer, 2016. Here she is receiving her prize from the current West Lothian Reader in Residence, Mr Harry Giles, who gave a dramatic rendition of Joy’s work to the assembled audience. Ms Millar was also called up onto the stage to accept the Young Writer Shield on behalf of Carmondean P.S. This was certainly the proudest of proud moments for Joy and her family and for our school. In the audience was world renowned writer and illustrator Nick Sharratt (Illustrator of many Jacqueline Wilson books, amongst others), and he clapped as loudly as the rest of the audience when Joy was presented – praise indeed! Well done, Joy, on behalf of everyone at Carmondean P.S. And remember … Keep Writing!

Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies

On Wednesday, 01 June, our Primary 4 and 5 children blew us all away with a stupendous performance of ‘Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies’. The show was an outstanding triumph with so many excellent performances, we can’t possible name them all. A big ‘thank you’ to all staff who helped produce the show and to the children and their parents for making it all possible.

Hosanna, Hosanna!

I have just returned from the afternoon performance of our Primary 6 and 7 school show, ‘Hosanna’. Never before have I seen such professionalism and commitment to a project from staff and pupils alike. If you were there, you will, like me, undoubtedly feel really privileged to have been part of it – it was an outstanding and magical experience! Words cannot express how proud we are of everyone who had anything to do with ‘Hosanna!’ The quality of the acting, speaking and singing was way beyond what most people think primary school children are capable of – they now stand corrected! A huge well-done to everyone involved in something that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Children Sharing Images via Social Networking and the Internet

Parents who are concerned about their children sharing images of themselves and others online may be interested in this news item from Child Protection:

Selfie Cop is an app that can be installed on the phones/tablets of children (targeted at 8-13 year olds) and their parents to help children learn to think more about images they share. Every time the camera is activated on the phone/tablet, SelfieCop pops up and asks the child if they are sure about sharing this image – the image will also be available for the parent carer to view. The app is installed with the child’s awareness and permission – it’s not about spying on their activity, it’s about trying to instill good habits around thinking twice before sharing images.

Selfie Cop Website

Views on Parking Sought

The Parent Council is trying to find out people’s views on parking around the school and the difficulties it causes. If you have a comment about parking, please go to the Parent Council Tab on the Blog home page, scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find the ‘Reply’ box. Type your comment there and it will be added to the conversation. Please make your views known, as this is a thorny issue.

Parent Teacher Interviews Feedback

Parents and carers who attended the Parent/Teacher Interviews on Wednesday and Thursday of this week were invited to complete a short questionnaire about their experiences. One hundred and seventy responses were recorded anonymously. The results were overwhelmingly positive and can be viewed by clicking the link below:

Parent Teacher Interviews Questionnaire

Happy New Year

The Management and Staff at Carmondean Primary School wish all our stakeholders and anyone connected with our school a happy, successful and fulfilling New Year in 2016. We sincerely hope to continue the good work being done already in the school, improving some aspects of it, and, we are looking forward to the building of the new gym hall. It’s going to be an exciting year at Carmondean for us and all our partners. Have a good one and we’ll see staff back on Tuesday, 05 January and pupils back on Wednesday, 06.