Red house were the house point winners for term 1 (Aug – Dec). They had a house party on Friday 16th January. The pupils wore their pyjamas to school and had a snack and a drink while they watched Wallace & Gromit. We look forward to seeing who will win the house reward this term.

P6 Active & Sustainable Travel
Primary 6 have started a new topic to develop their learning about the benefits of active travel and exploring the world around us. This will involve exploring the local community. Carol Smith & Martin Bucknell are AST Support Officers and will be supporting the school this term to deliver this exciting project. The pupils have had their first session with Carol & Martin and were developing relationships and discuss active travel in the local community.


Chiefs at Parent Council Meeting – 20/01/26
A huge thank you to our Chiefs who presented the school and nursery update at our Parent Council meeting this week.

Calderwood Travel Plan – Updated Jan 2026
Calderwood Chronicle 09_01_26
Calderwood Primary Chronicle: 09/01/26
Every fortnight we will issue our chronicle to families via email and our blog.
All other information about Calderwood is on our blog and on Twitter we highlight our achievements.
Calderwood Calendar:
- Family Calendar Link
- Cancelled – 14/01/26 – Nibble and Natter Event
- Postponed – 16/01/26 – World Culture Day Postponed until the national celebration day on 21st May
- New – 16/01/26 – Red House Celebration: Red House can wear their pyjamas to school, no blankets, etc please and we will provide snacks as part of the celebration.
- 20/01/26 – 2:00-3:00pm – Sharing the Learning Event: Linlithgow and Ness: Please arrive at the front office at 1:55pm. This is an opportunity to visit your child’s clan, engage in their learning and see their jotters.
- 20/01/26 – 6:00pm – Parent Council Meeting – in person or on Teams – Agenda to follow
- 30/01/26 – 9am: Clan Connects: Doune: The clan will share their learning on stage in the Arena.
Calderwood Communication:
- Calderwood Scottish Poetry Competition: You can find out more information here.
- Parking: We would request if you are choosing to use the car park, please use it safely and be mindful of the no parkingareas which are there to help ensure that all of our children are safe when crossing the road. The cones along Nethershiel Road are to note a no parking area. Unfortunately, we have concerns raised by residents close to the school that their driveways have been blocked by people parking there at pick up.
- Uniform: At Calderwood Primary we are very proud of our uniform, it also incorporates our value of belonging. You can find all the options for our uniform here and we also have a Sustainability Station in our foyer with lots of uniform options. A reminder that black hoodies, black leggings and branded sports tops are not part of our school uniform.
- Playground: If your children are choosing to play on the trim trail or field during in the playground you might want to provide them with outdoor footwear that can stay in their cloakroom.
- E. Days: You can find our PE Days for term 3 here and the uniform expectations on this days.
Routine reminders: With Calderwood being a large school the reminders below are to help ensure our office can run efficiently and effectively:
- Pupil absence: A reminder to families that it is their responsibility to please ensure they contact the school office by email (preferably) or phone by 9am to make us aware of their child’s absence. Failure to report an absence may result in an escalation to the safe arrivals team or a house visit.
- iPay: All pupil lunches should be recorded at home by the parent/carer including a packed lunch from home. Otherwise children are using their learning time in the morning to order lunches. If you are ordering a packed lunch for a Friday, this should be done by Thursday lunchtime to give the kitchen staff sufficient time to order the sandwiches.
- Appointments: Families should contact the office via email (preferably) or phone, in advance of appointments so they can organise with the clan teacher for the child to be at the office on time.
Calderwood Compliments:
- Happy New Year everyone and welcome back to Calderwood Primary!
- Thank you to everyone who volunteered to support the running of our Christmas parties, we really appreciate your time!
- A huge thank you to our Parent Council fundraising, which has recently purchased us:
- Outdoor toys and outdoor P.E storage and installation
- 10 netbooks
- Fruit for snack time, for children who have forgotten their snack
- Reusable cups for the clans, for children who forgotten their water bottles
Family Calendar – Updated January 2026
Scottish Poetry Competition 2026
At Calderwood we currently have a Scottish focus for learning. All clans will participate in a Scottish/Burns Poetry competition in clan. All children will be encouraged to participate in their own way – whether that is filmed, performed to their clan or to their champion by 23rd January. The finalist will be put forward to a whole school competition on Friday 6th February.
If children in Primary 5-7 clans who like to go through to the final they should learn one of the Burns poems.
Please see below the options of poems the children can choose to learn.
Early & First Level Success Criteria:

Second Level Success Criteria:
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P.E Days Term 3 2025/26
Calderwood Ski Team
The Calderwood ski team competed at the Boyd Anderson event at Hillend on Monday 8th December.
The team narrowly missed out on 3rd place, but we saw some incredible individual and team performances. Out of approximately 200 children, Aaron was the 4th fastest boy overall and the second-fastest P6. Ruairidh came 9th overall and was the fastest P4.
Charlie was our 3rd fastest racer, followed by Niamh, Harper, and Emily.
A special mention to Emily, who is new to skiing and competing in her first race—she impressively shaved 6 seconds off her time between her first and second run.
Well done to the team and we look forward to hearing about how they get on at future competitions.






Impactful Parents Creative Employability
Please find information about Impactful Parents Creative Employability sessions below. Impactful Parents Creative Employability sessions for lone parents and ethnic minority (non-white or non-British) parents.
The dates are as follows:
Wednesdays (January 21st-March 18th) from 9:30am-2:30pm at Voluntary Sector Gateway, Bathgate
Thursdays (January 22nd-March 19th) from 9:30am-2:30pm at Reconnect Howden Park, Livingston
Fridays (January 16th-March 13th) from 9:30am-12:30pm ONLINE
As part of the programme, participants will gain employability skills and an SQA qualification, receive 1-2-1 support towards future employment, and enjoy plenty of fun and engaging creative arts activities. As part of attending, participants can receive up to £15 per day training allowance for attending the programme, plus travel expenses. In-person participants will receive a free catered lunch at every session whilst online participants will receive an art pack with a variety of arts materials which they can use both within and beyond the sessions.
Impact Arts’ friendly, supportive delivery staff will work with participants to ensure everyone reaches their potential and has a great experience. Our dedicated Wellbeing & Opportunities Worker will support participants to gain an SQA qualification and will offer tailored pastoral support. Our Creative Lead tutor will introduce participants to new artistic techniques and will support them in creating artworks using various artforms.
At the end of the programme, there will be a celebratory showcase of work that will be planned, collated and hosted by the participants. Friends and family members can help the participants to celebrate their achievements.
We aim to help each participant to build confidence and develop employability skills to ensure they go on to a positive destination once they complete the programme. This could be further training, education or employment.
This programme is open to lone parents and ethnic minority (non-white or non-British) parents who live in West Lothian who are experiencing barriers to employment.
If you are a lone parent or an ethnic minority parent living in West Lothian or a referral agency, and you’d like to express an interest in joining the Impactful Parents programme, please complete our REFERRAL FORM. A member of staff from Impact Arts will then be in touch. If you’d like more information about the programme, you can visit our website: IMPACT ARTS WEBSITE .
If you have any further questions regarding the project please feel free to contact fin.russell@impactarts.co.uk.
