Category Archives: Nursery

Achievements, Anytime Anywhere Learning, Events, Nursery, Nursery Learning Stories, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Technologies

Surprise visit to mark Digital School Award

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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.”

National Maths Week 2017, Nursery, Nursery Learning Stories

Numbers in the Nursery!

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We have had a busy week in our new nursery embedding numeracy in to our play activities. During snack the children have been paying attention to how many food items they have to take and during the preparation they have been discussing cutting things in half! Here are the grapes being cut in half.

“It makes one grape in to two grapes!”

 

We have been using our new Promethean board to play interactive games. We have been counting objects up to 10, but some of us can count much higher than that!!

              

 

On Thursday we went on a number hunt in the nursery. The numbers were hiding behind QR codes and we had to use the ipads to read the code and find the number. Once Mrs Murray had taught some of the children how to do it, they were able to teach their friends!!

Outside in the garden the children were ordering our number mats as they jumped. We have to check that we have 8 trikes parked at the end of the day and the children have been counting how many potatoes they had harvested and how many peas were in a pod! What a busy week!

                    

 

Newsletter, Nursery, Nursery Newsletters, School News

Nursery Newsletter August

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Dear Parent/Carer,

It has been a busy and exciting first week in our new nursery building with the return of our preschool children and welcoming new families and children to our school.

Our nursery motto is ‘playing to learn, learning to play’ and that has been evident as the children explore their new building and resources. The staff worked hard over the holidays to ensure the learning environment was set up and ready for the new school term, and it lovely to hear positive feedback from you all.

It is great to see so many of you choosing to wear our new nursery uniform, which was designed by a pupil last session. This helps to give the nursery a sense of identity in the larger school community.

We would like to welcome Mrs Williamson and Mrs Murphy who are new early years practitioners in our nursery team.

We look forward to seeing you all at Meet the Teacher on Thursday 7th September at 6:30. This is a session for parents and carers, which will let you find out about learning in the nursery and how you can support your child at home.

Miss Burton

Depute Head Teacher

Nursery August Newsletter

Nursery

Nursery trip to Five Sisters Zoo

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The nursery children enjoyed their trip to Five Sisters Zoo.  The sun was shining and the children were very excited.  We started with a minibeast hunt and then had time to look at some of the animals.  There was a quick trip to the park before lunch and then it was back to looking at the animals.

“I think it was all really good.” – Charlotte

“I liked the bit when we were finding the animals” – Jack

“I want to go again!” – Chloe

The lions were the favourite animals, but the other animals the children enjoyed seeing included the lemurs, meerkats, the snake and the bears.

A big thank you goes to all our adult helpers – we can’t do trips like this without your support.

Nursery

Nursery assembly and transition

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The morning and afternoon classes performed their end of year assemblies this week.  The children had worked hard to learn all their lines.  They sang their hearts out for the audience and there was barely a dry eye in the house.

The pre-school children also visited Primary 1 to find out from the current classes what it is really like in the school.  The Primary 1 children explained all about the routines and expectations.  The nursery children had the opportunity to ask questions and clarify their ideas.

Nursery

Nursery Sports Day

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The sun may not have shone, but the nursery children had great fun at their Sports Day.  They joined in with lots of games and had a good run around.  The children described it as “fun”, “great” and “the best”. Sports Day ended with an ice lolly and a ceremony to present each child with a sticker and a rosette for taking part.

Nursery Newsletters

Nursery Newsletter – May 2017

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Dear Parent/Carer,

The final term is always an exciting but busy term for our school and nursery. Our preschool children have already started their transition programme, and parents/ carers received a separate letter detailing information about these events. As you can see steady progress is being made with our new Nursery building and we are keeping everything crossed that we will start the new school session in our new Nursery.

Sarah Burton

Depute Head Teacher

May newsletter nursery 3