Category Archives: Pupil Council

Learning Walk Part 3 .. Visit to Woodmuir Primary!

Today our Pupil Council went along to Woodmuir Primary School, along with Addiewell Primary for the finale of our Cluster Learning Walks. The Pupil Council gave us a presentation about their school.

We asked the Pupil Council some questions about their school:

  • What is your favourite thing about your school?
  • Is there anything you would like to change about your school and why?
  • What is it like being in multi-composite classes?
  • Do you get awards at your school? What kind of awards?

We also asked Ms Hamilton, their Head Teacher some questions about her job:

  • What is your favourite part of your job?
  • What do you like about your school and why?
  • How many pupils and teachers are in your school?
  • How do you plan your assemblies?

There were lots of things that we found interesting about Woodmuir Primary:

  • There are 23 pupils in their whole school.
  • They have 2 classes.
  • In the mornings they go for a walk and have a quick assembly everyday.
  • They have toast after break time every day.
  • Outdoor learning is an important part of their learning and they have lots of outdoor spaces.
  • There is no fence around their school.
  • Woodmuir is a new school so it looks really nice.
  • They have unisex toilets.
  • P5-7 have been learning about the Mars Rover.
  • Some of their school values are the same as ours.
  • They have walls in their classrooms.
  • P1-4 were learning about Art.
  • We even got to meet Ms Gordon who used to teach at our school.

Thank you to our tour guides and answering our questions.

A big well done to Harry for helping Miss Burton navigate her way to Woodmuir (after getting lost!).

Pupil Council Learning Walk … Take 2!

Today our Pupil Council went along to Addiewell Primary School, along with Woodmuir Primary to continue our Cluster Learning Walks. The Pupil Council gave us a presentation about their school and showed us a video.

We asked the Pupil Council some questions about their school:

  • What IDL topics are you learning about?
  • How do you use digital technologies in your school?
  • What kind of outdoor learning do you have?
  • What is your school motto and values?
  • What type of whole school events does your school have?

We also asked Mrs MacMillan, their Principal Teacher some questions about her job:

  • What is your favourite part of your job?
  • What are you most proud of in your school?
  • How do you deal with behaviour in your school?
  • How do you plan your assemblies?

There were lots of things that we found interesting about Addiewell Primary:

  • Together Time
  • How they eat their snack together
  • Wheelie Wednesdays
  • Improvements they had made in their playground
  • Their school motto
  • Everyone was very friendly
  • Cozy Corners in their classrooms
  • Their movie models in P5/6/7
  • That it was a combined school with St. Thomas Primary

Thank you to Charley, Jessica-Lee and Ryan for being our tour guides and answering our questions.

New School Aims

As a school we have recently created new school aims from information we gathered from pupils, parents and staff. Our new aims are:

  • We aim to prepare all our young people with the skills, knowledge and attributes for the challenges of the future.
  • We aim to create a learning environment which stimulates, challenges, supports and provides opportunities to develop independent learners.
  • We aim to deliver an innovative and creative curriculum which is relevant to our children’s lives and promotes personalisation and choice.
  • We aim to provide high quality learning and teaching experiences to enable every child to reach their full potential.
  • We aim to foster our core values through creating a positive and welcoming school ethos.
  • We aim to support each child’s skills and talents through recognition and celebration of individual achievements.
  • We aim to promote effective partnerships between home, school and the wider community.

Our new Pupil Council rewrote the aims into child friendly language, these will be displayed in classes.

school-values-child-friendly

 

 

Cluster Pupil Council Learning Walk

Our Pupil Council decided that they would like to organise a Learning Walk in different schools so they could find out what it is like to be a pupil in a different Primary school. Our cluster schools Addiewell Primary and Woodmuir also agreed that they would like to join us.

Today was the first part of the learning walk, pupils from Addiewell and Woodmuir joining us. The Pupil Council put together a presentation with information that they would like to share about our school.

Then we had a question and answer session, the pupils asked us and Miss Burton questions about our school, some of them really made us think!

  • What is the best thing about our school?
  • How do our assemblies run?
  • Do you feel safe in school and why?
  • How does the Pupil Council run?
  • How does the Pupil Council organise events?
  • What sporting events do we take part in?
  • Why did you want to become a teacher?
  • How do you ensure the teachers plan interesting learning?

Then the Pupil Council took the pupils on a tour around the school, the pupils from the other schools then gave us some feedback about our school. They all commented on how we had a fun and welcoming school which was bright and open.

What Mid Calder Primary looks like?

  • It is very open.
  • I like the library.
  • The displays are colourful.
  • the new Nursery building looks good so far.
  • P.E. looks good.
  • Open space.
  • Very creative.
  • Tidy.
  • Pretty.
  • Very productive.
  • Big.
  • More children than our school.
  • A lot of work happening.
  • People look like they are having fun.

What Mid Calder Primary sounds like?

  • Sounds very welcoming.
  • Loud.

What Mid Calder Primary  feels like?

  • Happy.
  • Hard working.
  • Friendly atmosphere.
  • Warm.
  • Fun.
  • Our school – Addiewell.

Thank you to the pupils from Addiewell and Woodmuir and Mrs  MacMillan and Miss McLaren for visiting us, we look forward to visiting your schools soon.

West Lothian’s Digilearn Event

On Friday, Mid Calder Primary School were invited along to West Lothian’s Digilearn Event to share our journey to becoming an AAL and Bring Your Own Device school. As they were part of our Technical Troopers and Pupil Council Junior Leadership Teams during the key stages of this journey, Calum, Ben, Grace and Kirsty joined Miss Burton and Miss Sherlow to present to Head Teachers, teachers and a range of other practitioners from across West Lothian.

They did a fantastic job in sharing the ongoing process that MCPS are going through in our engagement with AAL and BYOD, and received lots of lovely feedback about about how professional and inspiring they were when presenting. Well done Calum, Ben, Grace and Kirsty!

School Improvement Plan: Pupil Version

At our Pupil Council Meeting this week we looked at the School Improvement Plan and what this would look like, sound like and feel like in our school. The pupils worked together in small groups to use OneNote to collaborate together using the one document, with the other pupils supporting the younger ones.

Here is a copy of our School Improvement Plan in a child friendly version: pupil-version-sip-16-17

Bring Your Own Device Parent Information

Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended our Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) parent information session. For those who were unable to attend, here is the PowerPoint that some of our Technical Troopers, Pupil Council and House Captains brilliantly presented. Thank you to those pupils for giving up their time to share our BYOD journey so far.

Pupil Council: Recognising Achievements

Today at our Pupil Council Meeting we discussed different achievements we would like to complete by P4 and P7.

For example by P4 it might be:

  • I can take part in  a school trip.
  • I can receive Star Pupil.
  • I can take part in the Nativity/ concert.

By P7 it might include:

  • I can use my own device in school safely.
  • I can take part in a residential.
  • I can apply for House Captain.

Look out for our finished achievement lists!