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Inspection Celebration Assembly
This morning we welcomed children, staff, parents and carers, and friends of PUSCPS to join us to celebrate our recent inspection findings. It was lovely to welcome back Mr Eagleson for the occasion.
Our house and vice captains led the assembly and we joined together to sing some of our favourite songs:
- Our School Song
- You are a Star
- and a new song that we have been learning Glorious
They also shared with us our school and nursery gradings.
Miss Burton shared a few words about our school and Mrs Dickie shared a few words about our nursery. We also watched some videos that we made this week which share why we are so proud of our school.
https://vimeo.com/251737663
https://vimeo.com/251732671
We even had a special school cake – which we really enjoyed eating (shhhh … don’t tell our parents/ carers!).
Thank you to everyone who came along to join our celebration.
Glowing report for Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School
Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School has been praised for its positive relationships between children and staff.
The school, received praise in a number of areas following a recent routine inspection by Education Scotland.
Inspectors highlighted a number of key strengths including the high quality, inclusive ethos which permeates the school, resulting in children, staff and stakeholders feeling valued and respected, the quality of the learning experiences in the nursery and the leadership of the headteacher in creating the conditions for staff to build on their strengths and take forward the agenda for school improvement.
The report also noted that the pupils are happy, confident and caring children who are eager to learn, they have a strong voice and contribute enthusiastically to bringing about change in their school.
Executive councillor for education, David Dodds, said: “This is a fantastic report for Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary and everyone involved with the school should take great pride in their work. It is wonderful to hear of the inclusive ethos that is embodied throughout the school and the fact that pupils are so enthusiastically involved in school life. With this attitude I’m under no hesitation that the school will continue to thrive and achieve in the future.
Inspectors also recommended that the school continues to strengthen approaches to planning, tracking and monitoring to identify which interventions are having the greatest impact on outcomes for all children and raises attainment and achievement.
Acting Headteacher Sarah Burton added: “We are delighted to have received such a positive report and I have to commend all the staff here at the school for the fantastic work they put in on a daily basis to deliver for our pupils. The report is great testament to the work of my predecessor, Steven Eagleson who was headteacher at the time of the inspection and to the positive contribution of parents and the wider school community.
There are always areas to work on and I can assure parents and carers that every member of staff will continue to work towards providing pupils with the very best environment for learning. We always try to put the pupils at the heart of everything we do at the school, allowing them to partly shape their own learning and it is great to see the inspectors have acknowledged this.”
(Issued by media and communications officer Lewis Carr)
Inspection Report
Dear parent/ carer,
Please find attached our school and nursery inspection report which has been published today. You can also find the report at:
https://education.gov.scot/assets/inspectionreports/pumpherstonpsncins160118.pdf
There is further information at: https://education.gov.scot/inspection-reports/west-lothian/5500028
This is a huge success for our whole school community and recognition of the hard work that goes on at PUSCPS. It is also a tribute to Mr Eagleson in his leadership of the school.
We look forward to inviting you along to our assembly at 9:15am on Friday to celebrate this success.
Kind regards,
Miss Burton
Scots Assembly
Letters went home today to let you know about our annual Scots Assembly, which takes place on Friday 26th January. This is a celebration of the role that grandparents and other older relatives and friends play in our children’s lives. It is intended for older friends and relatives, who we would like to invite to come and join us. Please return the tear-off slip from the letter by Monday 22nd January (limited to two tickets per family). Children will be auditioning in their classes during the course of this week and additional invites will be sent home for parents of those children selected to perform.
Stand up to Cancer
A big well done to everyone who took part in the Stand up to Cancer fundraising events. We received our certificate this week.
Our Inspection Findings
As our school inspection results are published on Tuesday 16th January, we would like to invite our parents, carers and families to our assembly on Friday 19th January to share our inspection results and findings with the school community. We look forward to seeing you there.
Celebrating Successes at PUSCPS
At our in-service day on Monday we looked at ways we celebrate successes and personal achievements in school and if we needed to make any changes. We shared this at our New Year Assembly on Tuesday.
One of our P6 children suggested that everyone used Class Dojo and these points could be used as house points, so we have decided to trial this approach. Children can receive points for living the school values. On a Friday the house and vice captains will collect the house points and we will share them at the assembly. Also if you are the top scorer in your class for your house, each Friday you will receive a Top Scorer card and this will be entered into a termly draw. The lucky winners will receive a voucher. The winning house each term will receive a treat of their choice.
Each term we will have a celebration assembly to celebrate those children with achievements in reading (as it is in our school improvement plan) and STEM (Science Technologies Engineering and Mathematics). We will also share the house winners and top scorers at this assembly.
At our Pumphie Pals Meeting we discussed what Golden Time should look like in our school and here is what we came up with:
- The most popular name for it was Fun Time Friday, as it a time on a Friday that we have fun with our friends across the school.
- We decided that sometimes we want it be structured and suggested activities for this.
- We also decided we would like shorter amounts of time in class Fun Time Friday. During these times we can take in things from home but no electrical items. There are enough activities for us to do in class but if we choose to take something into school, we have to take responsibility for looking after it.
- Fun Time Friday should be ready to begin at 11:45am and finish at 12:15pm.
- Everyone will always have at least 5 minutes of Fun Time Friday.
- If you have lost Fun Time Friday you will complete a reflection sheet with Miss Burton/ Miss Dickie. This sheet will be taken home to be signed by your parent, carer and returned to school on Monday.
We look forward to earning our dojos and sharing our successes with you!
You will find some of our changes in the PowerPoint below, we will continue to reflect, adapt and consult on the changes.
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/celebrating-success-86035280
Christmas Service & Sing A Long
This morning we had a festive start to our day with our traditional Christmas Sing a long. The Green Gang organised a Christmas Jumper day and we all joined together to remember The Christmas Story. Rev. Povey also joined us to share the Christmas message.
We announced the winners of the Festive Home Learning task, which you will see below. A big well done to everyone who took part.
Thank you to our P7 narrators and to Mrs Campbell for organising the service. Also thank to all of you who could join us.
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/festive-home-learning-task-winners
I would like to thank the children, staff and parents for all making me feel so welcome at PUSCPS. I hope you all have a lovely family Christmas together and I look forward to seeing all the children when we return to school in the New Year.
Miss Burton
RSPB Visit
Primary 4 were very lucky to be the first class to welcome our visitors from the RSPB to our school.
We had lots of discussion about habitats and what we can do to help animals who want to live (or do live) in our school grounds.
We went on a walk around the school to look out for habitats which we have and we got to keep record of how many we have and how many points we scored.
Our school got 119 points and we were only missing 2 habitats! We were very proud of our score and really enjoyed being out to explore our school, even if it was very chilly!
Here are some photos of us all having fun:
