Category Archives: Technologies

Surprise visit to mark Digital School Award

Pupils at Mid Calder Primary and Nursery School had a surprise visit from Donna McMaster, West Lothian Council’s Head of Service for Education Curriculum, Quality Improvement and Performance, recently.

Mrs McMaster dropped in to congratulate the school on gaining national ‘Digital School’ status for excellence in digital technology in teaching and learning.

The Digital Schools Award recognises the dedication and innovation shown by Mid Calder Primary in areas of leadership and vision, digital technology for learning and teaching, school culture, professional development and resources and infrastructure.

Donna McMaster commented: “I was delighted to have been invited to Mid Calder Primary School to congratulate pupils and staff personally on their achievement.

“Mid Calder is the second primary school to achieve the Digital Schools award in West Lothian, earlier this year Kirknewton Primary School was also recognised as a digital school.

“Bathgate Early Years Centre was the first facility to pick up the prestigious award in West Lothian, and it is believed to be the first early years centre in Scotland to achieve the accolade.

“It is fantastic to see the work which has been achieved to embed technology into the school ethos and how technology is being embraced by the pupils, staff, parents and carers.”

Depute Head Teacher, Sarah Burton, Mid Calder Primary, West Lothian said: “The Digital Schools programme offered our school a supportive structure to evaluate our digital learning journey and where we needed to go.”

“It has also enabled our Technical Troopers pupil group, to take on a valuable leadership opportunity within our school. We are very proud of how digital learning is embedded in our school from nursery to primary 7, and this award was a chance to celebrate this work and share with others.”

Mid Calder Primary Wins National Award for Excellence in Digital Teaching and Learning

Wednesday 6th September – Mid Calder Primary and Nursery School have gained national ‘Digital School’ status for excellence in digital technology in teaching and learning.

The Digital Schools Award recognises the dedication and innovation shown by Mid Calder Primary in areas of leadership and vision, digital technology for learning and teaching, school culture, professional development and resources and infrastructure.

22 primary schools from cities and towns across Scotland were recognised for their work on digital technology in the classroom at a special presentation ceremony.

Recognised by Education Scotland and supported by HP, Microsoft and Intel, the award is designed to encourage and recognise schools that make the best use of digital technology in the classroom.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, said: “This programme positively impacts upon pupils’ motivation to learn as well as recognising achievement by teachers and schools in advancing the integration of technology in the classroom. I commend all the primary schools receiving their digital schools award on their great achievement.”

Depute Head Teacher, Sarah Burton, of Mid Calder Primary, West Lothian said: “The Digital Schools programme offered our  school a supportive structure to evaluate our digital learning journey and where we needed to go.”

“It has also enabled our Technical Troopers pupil group, to take on a valuable leadership opportunity within our school. We are very proud of how digital learning is embedded in our school from nursery to primary 7, and this award was a chance to celebrate this work and share with others.”

Mid Calder Primary in West Lothian is now among 43 Scottish primary schools from across Scotland that are recognised for excellence in digital teaching and learning

 

 

 

 

P6 Class Charter and Blogging

Primary 6 have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. We have spent a lot of time creating a class charter and we have also learned how to write a blog post. Here is Leah’s post all about our charter. Please comment to let us know what you think.

https://sway.com/uk76bSsBqryB6jc8?ref=Link

Over the year, various pupils from the class will have a chance to contribute to the P6 blog and keep you all updated on what we are learning.

 

Digital Schools Award Accreditation

27th June 2017

Dear Mid Calder Primary,

Following your recent Digital Schools Award Scotland validation visit by June Jelly, I am delighted to inform you that Mid Calder Primary School has been successful in its application to become a Digital School in Scotland.

On behalf of all the partners involved in the Digital Schools Award Scotland I would like to congratulate the whole school on achieving this award.

The Digital School Award is recognised by Education Scotland and we are delighted that your school has been among the first to receive this new award.

We are confident that Mid Calder Primary School will be a pioneer among schools where digitally enhanced teaching and learning is helping our children and young people prepare for living and working in the 21st Century.

Kind regards

Aoife O’Connor

Programme Coordinator
Digital Schools Award Scotland

Term 4 Celebration Assembly

Today we had our final Celebration Assembly. The Technical Troopers past and present were recognised for their contributions across our whole school community, from supporting teachers to setting up for CEMs, presenting to WL Head Teachers and staff to organising our Digital Award Accrediation. They have worked very hard to embed digital learning across our school and nursery.

We awarded Remarkable, STEM Superstars and Top Scorers for the term. Congratulations to everyone who received an award.

 

 

Congratulations to Cunigar for winning the house cup this term.

Digital Schools Award Validation Visit

This afternoon, Mid Calder Primary School welcomed a special visitor- Mrs Jelly, a Digital Schools Award validator. The purpose of this was to find out if our school could become the third one in West Lothian Council to be given the Digital Schools Award.

Mrs Jelly’s visit began with a presentation from some of our past and present Technical Troopers who shared examples of the amazing digital learning that goes on in our school. They described Mid Calder’s journey to becoming a Bring Your Own Device school, as well as explaining the impact that this has on both our pupils and staff. Miss Burton and Miss Sherlow also shared the many achievements and recognition Mid Calder has received for our use of a range of digital tools to support and enhance learning.

Mrs Jelly was then invited to visit our nursery and several classes across the school to see digital learning taking place first hand and to engage in discussions with our pupils and staff. Both her and Mrs Compton, who joined Mrs Jelly on her visit, were extremely impressed by what they saw and heard.

A big thank you to all of the pupils and staff who showcased digital learning so confidently, and to Mrs Compton for her continued advice and support. We eagerly await the results in the post. Watch this space…

 

P7 Skype with West Calder High School

On Wednesday the P7 pupils going to West Calder High School had a Skype session with S1 pupils. They had prepared questions that they wanted to ask. During the session the P7 pupils took turns to ask their questions and S1 pupils answered them. It was great to hear about life at the school from the pupils. The Head Teacher and Head of Year also came to have a quick chat. Skype was a great way to talk to the high school and ask our questions without having to travel all the way there.

Digital learning in P2/1

This week in P2/1 we have been using digital technology to support our learning in maths.

We have been using the netbooks to explore the topmarks website to help us learn about sharing (division).

You can visit the link below and practice your skills at home.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=sharingv2

 

We have also been using programmable toys to help us learn about position and movement. We have been using BeeBots to give and follow directions.

We have also been using the free Beebot app on the Ipads (This is available to download for free from the app store).

Digital Parenting – Issue 5

The next edition of Digital Parenting is now available to read, print and download. Digital Parenting contains really useful information and advice for parents and carers to help keep their children and young people stay safe online.

https://parentzone.org.uk/system/files/attachments/Digital%20Parenting%205.pdf

 

Digital Learning in P1

This  week we practised logging on and off  the netbooks independently.

Logging on can still be quite tricky as we need  to recognise both lowercase and uppercase letters.  Logging off correctly means that the netbook is ready for the next person to use.

The Technical Troopers came down to support us with all of this which was very helpful. Once we had all logged on successsfully, we discovered that the Technical Troopers had planned a Purple Mash activity to help us consolidate some of our learning about pirate ships.

As we painted each part of the ship we were able to name the part and say something about its purpose. We were then shown how to save our work too, so we can share it with our families at home.

A very big thank you to the Technical Troopers for helping and supporting our Digital Learning this week. We loved having you in our classroom.

We also used the netbooks and  i-pads this week in Literacy and Numeracy tasks. A very popular game that helped us to recognise and read words was the Poop Deck Pirates game.

 

In Maths and Numeracy we used Hit the Button and Dino Park Maths to practise our addition and subtraction.