Coalsnaughton Primary School
Newsletter
March 2018
Extreme Weather Many, many thanks from not only the school staff but from the Head of Education, Mrs Anne Pearson for all your support, patience and hard work in getting the school open following the recent extreme weather. We even got a mention in the Alloa Advertiser!!!!
School Review As many of you will be aware the Education Team recently completed a school review in our school. (They are reviewing all schools in Clackmannanshire.) Our review took place between November and February. The review process was very thorough. The team spoke with parents, pupils, partner agencies and staff. They visited classroom to observe the teaching and learning and they carried a thorough audit of our systems and processes. I am happy to say that it was a very supportive and positive experience! Overall we did well and there were no surprises! We need to continue to improve our attendance and we really need to focus on improving our pupil attainment. These go hand in hand! If the children are not here we can’t teach them! I have attached a letter from our Improving Outcomes manager, Lorraine Sanda.
Attend To Achieve As mentioned above we need to raise our attainment so that most of our children are achieving national levels. In order to do this one of our strategies is to improve attendance for our children. I monitor attendance on a monthly basis. We appreciate
that at times children are ill, but our target is for our children to be achieving 95% attendance and above.
Burns Winners 2018 We had judges from the Falkirk Burns Federation, the Hunter Family, in school to judge the competition this year. They did a great job! Here are the results. Primary 1 First - Becky Stoddart Second – Equal - CJ Smith & Rowan Davie Primary 2 First – Neeve Grant Second – Equal – Grace Robertson & Logan Monaghan
Primary 3 First – Dylan Love Second – Equal – Sean Elliott & Eve Davie
Primary 4 First – Sophie Brown Second – Lewis Monaghan Third – Payton Michie
Primary 5 First – Sophie McLaren Second – Katie Munro Third – Harley Michie
Primary 6 First – Sasha Smith Second – Elvita Smulkstyke Third – Equal – Leah Robertson & Kayleigh Haddow
Primary 7 First – Equal – Adele Stoddart & Anna Davey The children who were first in each class will have their names engraved on the Coalsnaughton Primary School Burns Shields that were donated by the Hunter Family. A big well done to all the boys and girls though as they all did so well learning their poems.
School Safety & Security We all take the safety of our children very seriously and I know that you all support us in this. However, children are still trying to access the car park gate. This may seem like a minor issue but I am worried that a car leaving or entering the car park will cause a child injury or that there will be a fatality. We recently had a near miss and I do not want to be responsible for harm coming to any of our children. I will do my utmost to keep nagging that children do not enter or leave by that gate. I have purchased a ’No Children’ sign and Derek will install it next week. I have also purchased a lock for the gate to deter children from entering/exiting that way during the school day. Maintaining the secure access of our school is also a priority for us. We have been instructed by the Education Team to be extra vigilant and ensure there is no unauthorised access into our building. Therefore, we will be ensuring that visitors sign in and out at the front office. A concern was raised by a member of the community regarding the safety of our children walking to and from the school as a result of the recent road works around the village. We have been monitoring this and have spoken with the children. We have not found there to be any additional issues or concerns. The main crossing point that always concerns me is at the shop. Historically Coalsnaughton has never had a crossing patrol and the children have crossed themselves there.
I would ask that if your child has to cross a road can you ensure that they are supported in doing so safely. It reported to me yesterday that children have been throwing items onto the top road and racing to retrieve them in a bid to beat the oncoming cars! This is extremely dangerous and we have spoken with the pupils about this. Parent Evenings We traditionally have two evenings in November and two evenings in March. The sessions run from 3.30 p.m. until 6.00 p.m. As you are all aware we are happy to reschedule your appointment if the time you are allocated is unsuitable. We also coordinate our staged intervention meetings with the parent evenings so that if you have a child on staged intervention you attend just one meeting. We would like to have contact with every family! Miss McLaughlin was not available for the Parent Evening on the 21 st March but will contact her parents on her return to offer a rescheduled appointment. June Reports We are looking at piloting a new report in June and will be seeking parental views at our Busy Bee Learning Hubs over the next few weeks.
Pupil Equity Fund This additional funding was allocated to schools across Scotland for the first time last June and has been used to help us close the poverty related attainment gap. Schools received £1200 in 2017-2018 for eligible pupils in Primary 1 – S3. The money was 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, we need to encourage you to do so in order that we receive our full entitlement as a school. Our school has been allocated £36,000 for session 2018/2019. The funding will continue to allow us to deliver activities, interventions or resources which are clearly additional to those which we would normally be able to provide. The funding is helping us to make improvements in Literacy, Numeracy and Health & Wellbeing for all our children not just children who are in receipt of free meals. We need to work with you, our children, cluster schools and our partners to share our plans and seek your views on how we are going to use the money allocated for next
session. We will be discussing this over the next few weeks at the Busy Bee Learning Hub and the Parent Council. Concert at Alva Academy The children will be performing their Scots Songs at Alva Academy on Monday 26 th March at 1.30 p.m. along with another local Primary School. A letter and tickets have been issued to all our families. If you are unable to make that date we will do a re-run of the performance on Thursday 29th March at 11.00 a.m. in the Village Hall. Nursery Aged Pupils If you know of any families that have children aged two and above can you please encourage them to give us a call or pop in to see us? This will help us to plan for next session. Many thanks in advance. Author Visit – P3-P7 Children’s author Philip Caveney visited our school on Thursday 12 th March. Philip read from some of his books, answered questions and spoke to the children about his work. The children had the opportunity to purchase some of his books, which he signed for them. We purchased four books for our school library. Science Generation Science have been in school this term to deliver workshops to our children. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this and this will be followed up by a visit to the Science Museum in Glasgow on Friday 23rd March. Dates for your Diary Monday 26th March – 1.30 p.m. – Concert at Alva Academy Thursday 29th March – 11.00 a.m. – Re-run of concert for parents/family members/friends at the Village Hall. Thursday 29th March - NO BUSY BEE HUB Last day of term. Friday 30th March – Friday 13th April – EASTER HOLIDAYS Monday 16th April – Pupils Return to School
Have a brilliant holiday, take care and enjoy your time with your family!
Colleen Colleen ClarkBurns (Headteacher)