Calderwood Primary and Nursery

A huge well done to all the pupils who took part in our Dragon’s Den event today. Our overall winners are children from:

Early Level: Ness Clan

First Level: Leven Clan

Second Level: Ben Lawers

Our Dragons had a difficult decision for every level. They commented on the confident individuals who presented and pupils showed success in their learning.

Our Dragons were from Morrison construction, Education Scotland STEM team and Heriot Watt Engineering department. A big thank you to them for their time.

You can see some of the designs and ideas in these sways;

Go to this Sway

Schiehallion and Thistle – Ocean Literacy Trip

On Tuesday 26th March 2024 Schiehallion and Thistle Clans had our second visit to Heriot-Watt University – we explored the University as a whole (including lecture theatres!), the National Robotarium and even spent time in the Oriam with an inflatable whale.

During the visit we learned all about Ocean Literacy and what happens when litter enters our waterways. We also had time with Whale experts and learned more about how robots can be used to film and interact with animals in their natural habitat.

Below are a number of pieces of learning inspired by our trip and photos of our trip:

P6 Euroquiz

Our amazing Schiehallion and Thistle Clans took part in the 2024 heats of Euroquiz alongside Primary Schools from across West Lothian on Thursday 21^st March 2024. They were phenomenal ambassadors for the school and our top teams managed to achieve scores in the forties out of a total of 60 available points. Two teams came joint first place within our school with a gargantuan score of 43/60 respectively!

Many congratulations to St Joseph’s Primary School for scoring 55/60 and going forward to the Scottish Parliament for the next round. A huge thank you of course also goes to Zoe Gordon for facilitating and organising the Euroquiz and fuelling such an interesting, varied and expansive IDL topic at Calderwood Primary School.

“Hope” Anti-Bullying Production

Calderwood Primary had a visit from “Take Away Theatre” last month, who performed “Hope”, an anti-bullying production, to our P4-7 clans. P4 and P6 clans also participated in follow-up workshops. The performance was delivered by professional actors and was thought-provoking and entertaining for the children. The children were captivated throughout the performance. The workshops for P4 and P6 clans provided the opportunity for the children to explore the issues raised in the performance in greater depth. Through Health and Wellbeing lessons, children also completed activities in clan related to the performance.

Calderwood Primary Chronicle: 22/03/24

Calderwood Chronicle 22_03_24

Calderwood Commitments:

11/03/24- 27/03/24: Milk order open on iPay for Term 4 – milk will not be available to order after this date.
Parents Portal: We would encourage all families to sign up to Parents Portal as you can now complete your EE2 forms for excursions online. You can find more information here.

Calderwood Calendar:

Term 4 Family Calendar
22/03/24 – Parent Council: Magic Miles Walk
28/03/24: World Autism Acceptance/ Awareness Day: Dress down in your favourite colour– no donation
28/03/24: School break for holiday
15/04/24: Start of term 4

Calderwood Communication:

Conifox family pass
Parent Ethos Survey
Lego Plea
Calderwood Companions Plea
Aladdin Picture Sway
Our vision and values: we have created this Sway to share with you the vision for Calderwood. We appreciate your views and opinions – Please take a few minutes to complete this survey.
Champion Update:
- Ms Robertson is taking a break from Calderwood in Term 4 as she studies to be a teacher, she will return the last week of term. We wish her lots of luck with her teaching placement. Miss Threadgold will cover in her absence.
- Mrs McCann joined us as a PSW last week and Ms Lee will join the team on Monday, this brings our pupil support team to the equivalent of 9 full time PSWs.
- Next week we are interviewing for 2 new lunch time supervisors, this will bring our lunch time champ team up to 5.
- Mrs Herbison who has been doing non contact teaching is finishing up with us at Easter, I would like to thank her for supporting us on our journey and helping us with staff absence.
- After the Easter holidays, Mrs Bates will return to her Principal Teacher post. The champion team would like to thank her for all her contributions and support during her time of Acting Depute Head Teacher.
- You can find an updated champion list here.
- You can find the champion taking your child’s can for their teachers non contact time here.

Calderwood Construction:

You can find extension plans and drone footage here.
Works look ahead.
- External facing brick install continues
- Internal partitions, second side sheeting continues 1st floor
- M&E 1st fix ongoing 1st and ground floor
- Start soft landscaping in trim trail area.

Calderwood Compliments:

This week our Primary 6 clans took part in the West Lothian Euroquiz. Well done to everyone who took part!
It was fantastic to see such a great turn out for Champion Conversations this week, thank you to the children who helped us to run this event.
Our Primary 2 children and Tummel had a fun time on their trip to Almond Valley this week. Thank you to our parents/ careers who supported the trip and to the champions who helped to make it possible.

Champion Conversations

A big thank you to our pupils who helped out at our recent Champion Conversations. They did a great job of directing parents to the correct clan room. They were polite, helpful and welcoming throughout the whole night. Well done everyone.

Caring Cafe Citizen Certificate

This week we launched our new lunchtime initiative – Caring Café Citizen Certificate. We are looking for pupils to go above and beyond during lunchtime and respect our Café environment. Pupils who demonstrate being helpful and caring are then invited to sit at the High Chair area on a Thursday with a friend, they get a certificate home, 10 house points and are added to our Caring Café Collage. Well done to our first winners.

Almond Valley Trip

Tummel, Tay, Rannoch, Leven and the P2s from Linlithgow had the best day at Almond Valley this week. We learned all about shale and the mining that used to happen in West Lothian. We saw lots of animals and learned about their habitat and what they eat. We also had lots of fun in the park. Thank you to all the adults who helped us on our trip.