Standards Quality and Improvement Plan Summary for Parent/Carer August 2012 Priorities 2011 – 2012 Priority 1 - To progress the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence • Our learners are highly motivated and eager participants in their own learning • Pupils, staff and parents/carers are involved in Personal Learning Planning • Our curriculum provides challenge, enjoyment, breadth, depth, progression, relevance, coherence, personalisation and choice • Staff have a clear and shared understanding of what is involved in providing high quality education for learners, including active learning • Common approaches in learning and teaching and planning are developing across all stages • There is increased parental involvement • ICT is enhancing learning and teaching • A Transition writing jotter was implemented at Primary 7 • Primary 7 completed profiles and shared these with staff at High School • Wider Achievement is regularly celebrated and a focus day highlighted many achievements from P1-P7 • We are working towards 2 hours of PE Priority 2 - Learning and Teaching – Develop Assessment, Moderation and Tracking in Curriculum for Excellence • We are up-dating our learning and teaching policy • CfE Personalisation and Choice is being developed • There is increasing enjoyment and real contexts for learning • We are increasing collaborative skills through Cooperative Learning and Critical Skills • Assessment is supporting learning, helping to plan next steps, informing learners and parents of progress • We have introduced additional standardised assessment and support in Maths and numeracy • We further developed 1:1 mobile technology and feedback has been positive
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Priority 3 - To continue to develop Growing Confidence project • We received funding from Big Lottery and Growing Confidence to support out 120 year celebrations • Funding supported an e-book development • Raising children with confidence courses for parents are impacting positively • Confident staff confident children courses were presented by class teacher Shona Pearmain and very well evaluated • Seasons for Growth, Circle of Friends, Restorative Approaches and Playground improvements are impacting very positively • We have increased outdoor learning and implemented Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) • Pupils are demonstrating enthusiasm and motivation in becoming healthier citizens • We are developing self esteem • Our learners are developing as confident individuals with clear self respect, a sense of physical, mental and emotional well-being, values, beliefs and ambition • Our learners are developing as responsible citizens with respect for others and a commitment to participating responsibly in school and community • Our pupils are developing as effective contributors with an enterprising attitude, resilience and self-reliance • Learners continue to demonstrate positive behaviour and respond positively to our reward system • Our learners identify strongly with the school and are proud to be associated with it • Pupils relate effectively to others and manage their behaviour Wider Achievements There were many successful experiences and outcomes this session. Staff worked very effectively to enhance and enrich learning opportunities. The School Council worked with staff to further develop and increase parental engagement and their support to improve communication was greatly valued and had a significant impact. Our celebrations for Sciennes 120 years were so successful and provided learning experiences for the whole school community. There is a great deal of evidence to demonstrate the wonderful impact the celebrations had on the ethos and wider life of the school. We are committed to planning and implementing strategies for improvement and understand the need for support and challenge. We set 2
demanding targets for improvement and aim to manage change effectively and improve learning. Through our self evaluation we believe there is a very good capacity for improvement. We are innovative and guide and manage the pace of change. We work individually and in teams to improve the outcomes for our learners. We endeavour to prioritise and focus on a manageable number of high priority initiatives and support staff to develop leadership. Leadership at all levels plays a very strong role in fostering improvement and innovation in learning and teaching, with a focus on the impact and outcomes for our children. We will develop as skilled, creative practitioners, able to capitalize on the flexibility of broader guidance to develop, exciting and relevant experiences for our learners. Staff are reflective, with a commitment to their own development, learning collaboratively and sharing effective practice with each other, improving practice through self evaluation, in partnership with our children, parents, carers and members of the community. A number of initiatives impacted on learning and teaching. As a result of very good practice in 1:1 mobile technology developed by class teacher, Wendy French and P6, we were invited to participate in a national pilot, which allowed us to increase the scope of the project to include an additional class. Class teacher, Fiona Barker and P5 welcomed the opportunity and contributed to a highly successful project, supported by local authority and now being extended. All classes at P6 and P7 are using i-pads to enhance learning and teaching. Cluster Priorities 2011 – 2012 To showcase Expressive Arts at Cluster Learning Festival • All school participated in event at High School To develop Health and Wellbeing programme across cluster and produce information booklets for parents • A working group produced programme and booklets will be issued in new session To share standards in literacy • Staff in Early Years shadowed in different establishment and shared experiences • Literacy Coordinators meet to share standard and implement Transition Writing Jotter 3
To develop common programme in French and Spanish • Updated programme will be introduced in new session Priorities for 2012 -2013 Priority 1:To continue to develop and embed Curriculum for Excellence: assessment, moderation and tracking by: • Identifying, reviewing and evaluating learners’ progress in Mathematic/Numeracy, Litearcy – Writing and Reading, Health and Wellbeing, Expressive Arts, Social Subjects, Modern Languages, Sciences and Technologies • Developing moderation • Using a range of assessment to track learners’ progress and identify next steps in learning • Sharing best practice • Reviewing progress and attainment in Maths and Numeracy and planning next steps Priority 2: Up-date policy documents to reflect Curriculum for Excellence, providing opportunities for leadership at all levels • Effective policies will be supporting learning and teaching • Staff, pupils and parents will contribute to consultation • Rigorous and robust self evaluation further developed • ICT refresh will have positive impact Priority 3:To raise attainment through high quality learning and teaching by: • Developing policy to include Cooperative Learning and Critical Skills approaches • Extending Active learning in Maths and Numeracy and develop Maths Recovery and Number Counts approaches • Implement next steps in literacy - Big Writing approaches • Involving learners in planning their learning, taking account of breadth, depth, application, pace and challenge • Developing learners’ skills in self evaluation • Re-visiting Assessment is for Learning approaches • Further developing parental engagement to support learning
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Cluster Priorities 2012 -2013 Modern Languages • To improve standards of consistency in Modern Languages learning and teaching in Primary 6 and 7 across cluster schools • To improve transition arrangements in reporting in language teaching and learning • Share the diversity of language within the cluster with parents and carers • Social Studies Social Studies • To share the standard across experiences and outcomes in Social Studies • To enable staff to feel confident within the experiences and outcomes in Social Studies ALISON NOBLE AUGUST 2012
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