Coalsnaughton Primary School
Newsletter May 2018
Well folks it is hard to believe that we are only 4 weeks away from the end of term. It has been another very quick and busy year! Staffing Mrs Duncan, our administrator is still absent. Many thanks to Mrs Brown who has been helping us out on a Tuesday and Friday! The situation is not ideal but you can leave a message on the answer machine, e-mail the school on coalsnaught@edu.clacks.gov.uk I check the emails regularly and will respond as soon as I can. Alternatively you can send us a private Dojo message. Many thanks to our junior administrators (P6 & P7 pupils) who work in the office at break and lunchtimes to help us out. Many people have commented on what a great job they are doing and how polite they are! We are sad to inform you that both Mrs Murchison and Mrs Monk are leaving us at the end of term. Both ladies will be missed greatly and have both made a massive contribution to our school team in their time here. We wish them well in the future. We welcome Angela Watson and Lauren Johnstone to our nursery team. Both ladies are now in post and have settled in well. End of Term Reports The teaching staff are working hard behind the scenes to complete your child’s end of term report. These will be issued on Friday 15th June. We are trialling a new shorter version this year and would welcome any feedback. Pupil Equity Fund You will remember that the Pupil Equity Fund was introduced this year. Schools received £1200 for each pupil in Primary 1 – S3. The money is allocated according to how many pupils are eligible and registered for free school meals.
That is why it is so important that if you have a child who is eligible but you chose not to register them for whatever reason that we need to encourage you to do so in order that we receive our full entitlement as a school. The funding is intended to allow schools to deliver activities, interventions or resources which are clearly additional to those which were already planned. This will help us to make improvements in Literacy, Numeracy and Health & Wellbeing for our children. This year our allocation was £31,200. We have used the money to:
employ Mrs Seeruttun as our Attainment Teacher one day a week. Mrs Seeruttun has been working with pupils 1-1 and in small groups to support their learning. She has also worked with the staff team to carry out and support our assessment processes. employ Mrs Monk for 10 hours to support pupils in class and in the playground. purchase assessment and reading materials. take the children on educational trips linked to our social studies curriculum framework and to provide the children with opportunities to meet new people, visit new places and experience new things. fund resources and set up our Busy Bee Learning Hub.
Feedback from staff, parents and pupils has been positive. For session 2018/2019 we have £36,000. I have spoken with the Parent Council, staff and the children. I have also collated your responses from the Two Stars and a Wish parent consultation that you were recently issued. The evaluation as to how we spent the money last year has been positive and we are all in agreement that we will:
increase Mrs Seeruttun’s time to two days a week. continue to plan trips and experiences for all our children. continue with the Busy Bee Learning Hub. purchase resources to support the Reading Project that we will be involved in next session with Sue Ellis from Strathclyde University.
Pupil Evaluation of session 2017/2018 Below is a table detailing the children’s collated thoughts and their opinions. Pupil Findings May 18 What children thought made a difference this session.
What they would like to see happen next year.
Evaluation
Career Week
Continue to develop this initiative next session.
We have had more speakers this year. P6/7 have worked with Michelle Carr from Forth Valley College on Developing the Young Workforce. P7
Daily Mile, playground shed and resources especially the tyres.
Buddy Training Young Leader Training
The children would like a track, basketball court and hopscotch game installed. Pupil Council members and HT will visit Alva Academy with the community police officer to speak to the senior pupils that live in Colasnaughton to get their views on how we can make our playground better for everyone. Young Leaders twice a week rather than once.
Soccer 7s, judo, skiing, cross country, dodgeball, football, basketball, gymnastics etc. Lunch time and after school clubs. Children like meeting other schools at sporting events.
We will continue to attend as many sporting events as possible. The funding for transport has been withdrawn but we will use our PEF money to sustain this.
Burns Competition
Continue with whole school Burns Competition.
Topic Planning
Continue with pupil involvement in IDL/Social Studies planning
Max in the Middle
Max in the Middle
Risk Factory
Risk Factory
visited the college. We have bought numeracy and literacy displays for the children to interact with. The playground shed has been erected. New benches have been purchased.
Pupils feel that most people are getting along well. We achieved our Clackmannanshire Primary Schools Sports Association GOLD Sports Award for attending 15 events! Scottish Attainment Challenge Funding has allowed us to continue providing the vast amount of sporting activities/ lunch clubs/after school clubs/attend sporting events. The children enjoy attending activities and events. They like meeting other pupils from different schools. The Hunter Family continue to support us in judging the winners of the competition! The children enjoy coconstructing their topics with their teacher. The additional trips and excursions have been welcomed by the children! 6/7 have had input last session. We will arrange input in session 2019/2020 for future senior pupils. P6/7 are booked to go on
Sports Committee
Sports Committee
SPARK (Counselling Service)
SPARK
Now The Listening Post
Teachers/Pupil/staff relationships good.
Maintain the supportive ethos within the school.
Gardening
Mrs Moffat will be starting a gardening club and we will be initiating Weeding Wednesday!
Mindful walks & activities
Each class will be allocated a box of relevant mindfulness and nurture resources. The Big Pedal and Bikeability will continue.
The Big Pedal – Bikeablity
Spelling
Continue with Read, Write Inc & look at how we teach spelling.
Writing Stories
Continue with focus on writing – introduce Word Aware/ Go on experiential learning trips. Continue with focus on numeracy – work with cluster on improving numeracy ability & quality of pupil experience.
Maths
the 27th June. The Sports Committee continue to do a good job. They now have a monthly Sports Award. They have worked with Alison Mackie and have submitted a renewal for our SportsScotland Gold Flag award. This was replaced with Marg ofrom the Listening Post, Wellbeing Scotland. A number of pupils have benefitted from their 1-1 sessions with Margo on a Friday. The school is really settled. Visitors comment on how polite and well behaved our children are! P3/4/5 have enjoyed weeding with Mrs ClarkBurns.
We have bought in some Mindfulness resources.
The pupils are enjoying this and the Walk to School tracker! We have adapted our Read, Write Inc approaches. P2 –P7 do the Single Word Spelling Test twice a year – results show gains for most children. Experiential trips and activities have been used to motivate the children to write. P6/7 have been working with Alva Academy on maths starter activities. The children have enjoyed the daily starter questions
Running a business/stationery shop
Busy Bee Learning Hub & Education City
Continue with enterprise activities and our pupil council running the tuck shop. Continue with the Thursday Busy Bee Learning Hub.
Tea with Mrs C
Develop this initiative further.
Furry Friend Friday
Continue with this initiative.
Attendance
We will continue with our Attendance Mission! We would like all our pupils to have an attendance of 95% and above.
and most are gaining in confidence. The tuck shop has been a great success! The Junior Administrators man this at breaktimes. We have used PEF money to extend learning for our families –a weekly learning hub utilising our Early Years attainment member of staff and our existing staff has been established. A three year license for Education City has been purchased incorporating the home package. The winning houses meet with me on a monthly basis. This has been successful in that it allows the children to feedback their thoughts and opinions. We introduced our school dog, Russell, on a Friday. Russell has been a huge success and he offers support for children’s social and emotional wellbeing. The children love having him in school! We have developed our Attend Today Achieve Tomorrow initiative. We have our new posters, our new policy and are proactive in contacting parents regarding their child’s attendance.
If you have any thoughts on how you feel we can improve, please feel free to share them with us. Nursery Outdoor Development Update Mrs Wilton and the Nursery team have secured the funding for the development and a large sand pit and a den area will be installed next session.
Two stars and a Wish Please take the time to complete and return the form. Your feedback is extremely important to us. If you could return them as soon as possible I would be grateful. Summer Fayre The Parent Council will be holding a Summer Fayre on Saturday 9th June 10.30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. We are looking for volunteers to help!! Tables are available for £10 if anyone would like to set up their own stall. There will be a clothes/shoes stall, books stall and many activities including Splat the Teacher! Donny McDonald Donny is a business man who previously lived in Coalsnaughton and attended our school. He recently contacted the school and gave us donations of clothes, shoes, books, games etc. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his kind donations! They will be on sale at the Summer Fayre. Primary One Induction Due to circumstances we have had to reschedule the Primary One Induction morning to Tuesday 12 th June at 9.00 a.m. Sport and Active Living Strategic Framework Clackmannanshire are in the process of producing a new framework and would like to your views. Please access the link below https://clackmannanshire.citizenspace.com/communications-department/sportandactiveliving-2/
Free School Meals and Clothing Grants We have sent a form for you to fill in if you are eligible. The clothing grant this year is £100 per child. Please see the information below. This tells you what you need to do when you have completed the form. From Tuesday 12th June 2018 we will be accepting applications for Free School Meals / Clothing Grant Applications as follows: Location: Days: Times:
Kilncraigs House, Greenside Street, Alloa, FK10 1EB Tuesday's and Thursday's 9.30am - 11.30am & 2pm 4pm
You MUST show us proof of your qualifying benefits as stated on the application form. If for any reason you are unable to come into Kilncraigs, you can hand your completed form into any CAP office.
Summer Holiday Programme You can find information about the Summer Holiday Programme by accessing the link below http://www.clacks.gov.uk/culture/activesummer18/
Dates for your Diary Thursday 31st May – Parent Council 6 p.m. Monday 4th – Wednesday 6th – P7 at Dalguise Residential Thursday 7th June – NO BUSY BEE LEARNING HUB due to staff attending the Clackmannanshire Towards Excellence Awards! Saturday 9th June – Summer Fayre 10.30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. Tuesday 12th June – 9.00 a.m. - P1 Induction Tuesday 12th & Wednesday 13th June – P7 Bridging Days at Alva Academy Thursday 14th June – 1.30 p.m. TALK Clacks Fun Afternoon all parents and carers welcome! Friday 15th June – Whole School Trip to Aberdour Beach Thursday 21st June – P7 Activity Day at Alva Academy Thursday 21st June – Busy Bee Learning Hub – Come and see our P1/2/3 Read Write Count Bags in action! Friday 22nd June – Sports Day – Races in the park at 1.30 p.m. Tuesday 26th June – Award Ceremony – P7 Parents Wednesday 27th June – P6/7 at the Risk Factory Thursday 28th June – 2.00 p.m. P7 Graduation Thursday 28th June – 5.00 p.m. Limo to pick up P7 pupils at the school. Thursday 28th June – 6.00 – 8.00 p.m. School Prom Friday 29th June – School closes 1 p.m. Happy Holidays!!!! PUPILS RETURN TO SCHOOL – Monday 20th August 2018 Kind regards
Colleen ClarkBurns (Headteacher)