St Joseph's PS Whitburn

We are delighted to share that we have been awarded our Bronze Level accreditation for the Attachment and Trauma Sensitive Schools Award (ATSSA) and now recognised as an “Attachment and Trauma Aware” school. This is an external sign of recognition of our commitment to develop a culture of compassion and nurture in St Joseph’s.

You can read our report, written by Jenny Nock (award creator) below. We were very happy to have been seen as having 8 ‘particular strengths’. We will continue our journey and hopefully achieve our Silver Award in September.

Bronze Awarding Letter

A big thank you to everyone who was able to make it along to our ‘Share the Learning’ parent-pupil event yesterday. The children really enjoyed welcoming you to their classrooms, sharing their work with you and taking part in some fun activities together. Our next parent-pupil event will take place on Monday 17th June 2024.

Grown ups are invited to join their children in their classes tomorrow to see what they have been learning. Pop along to school 2 – 3pm. The Foodbank will be in the DEN with a pop up shop for Camp clothes for our P7s going to camp. Adult Learning services will also be attending to chat with anyone who wants to know more about how their service can help you.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

This year we thought it would be good if the school and parent council worked together to create costumes so that we all, as a community, can join in on the Gala Day celebrations. To do this, some parents are working with the school to organise costumes for the children to wear. These will come in at a cost of £5 each, with any leftover funds going to the Parent and Nursery Council for future events.

The theme for this year’s Gala Day is Roald Dahl books and St Joseph’s have chosen “The Big Friendly Giant” as their book. The costumes have been designed for the BFG or for Sophie (all items included are detailed below). From your own stock at home, to finish the outfit, you will only need a pair of black leggings/trousers (and potentially a cardigan for Sophie).

The children have been shown the costumes in school, pictures can be viewed below. A letter will be sent home with a return slip for you to order a costume/costumes. Please return the slip to the school  with the money as soon as possible, but no later than 24th of May, and your child will be sent home with the appropriate outfit/accessories.

If you are interested in helping, we invite you to come along to one of our crafting drop-in sessions on Friday mornings between 09am – 12pm at the school on the following dates: 03/05, 10/05, 17/05, 24/05, 31/05, 07/06, 14/06 and 21/06.

Many thanks for your attention,
The Parent and Nursery Council

Over recent weeks, our P6s have been working with Shani from Sustrans Scotland to develop our Bikeability skills. Today we applied these skills while taking part in a group ride within our local area. We cycled as a group to Polkemmet park, saw some of the points of interest within the park then took part in a scavenger hunt. 

On Wednesday 1st May, St Joseph’s Primary will be hosting a ‘Share the Learning’ event within the school. Our learners are eager to welcome all parents to their classrooms on that afternoon so as to share some of the wonderful learning they have done over the past term. There will also be time for some short activities which you can do alongside your child. The event begins at 2pm, all classes will be participating.

If you have children in different classes, please feel free to move between classes during this event.

Iona House met today and created some lego models of things we can ‘reduce, reuse or recycle’. We had fabulous models of bottles, boxes, trees, wellie boots and gardens.

On Tuesday, P6 visited Almond Valley Heritage Centre in Livingston as part of our ‘Whitburn and West Lothian’ topic. We learned about the role mining played in our local history and found out about the lives of miners. We also got to meet some of the animals that live at the centre.

If you did not have the opportunity to complete this year’s “West Lothian Ethos Survey for Parents and Carers” at parents’ evening, please complete it here as soon as possible.

https://forms.office.com/e/Qz3dwMkBvX