Fair Isle Primary Fair Isle Primary School School Curriculum Rationale

December 2017

Wordle and wall display by the children

Document written by pupils, parents, parent council and staff

Our Island

Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom. It is situated roughly 24 miles from Shetland and the same from Orkney. Fair Isle is 4.8 km (3.0 mi) long and 2.4 km (1.5 mi) wide. It has an area of 3 sq mi (7.8 km2), making it the tenth largest of the Shetland Islands. It gives its name to one of the British Sea Areas. The majority of the islanders live in the crofts on the southern half of the island, with the northern half consisting of rocky moorland. Fair Isle has been occupied since Neolithic times and has a rich heritage to explore. Fair Isle was bought by the National Trust for Scotland in 1954 from George Waterston, the founder of the bird observatory. The population has been decreasing steadily from a peak of 380 in 1861. There are currently around 50 permanent residents on the island. These include 1 pre-school child, 3 primary aged children, 4 at secondary school and 2 at university.

Fair Isle can claim to be the best place to witness bird migration in the country, with around 390 species recorded, including over 30 species that had never been seen before in Britain. The Fair Isle Bird Observatory was founded by George Waterston in 1948. A museum named after him can be visited and it is packed with displays of the island’s history. Fair Isle is well known for birds but, thanks to traditional crofting methods, it also has over 250 species of flowering plants. Grey and common seals can be seen year round, porpoises, whales and dolphins mostly in summer.

Fair Isle has a large number of visitors in the summer and accommodation can be found at the Bird Observatory at the north end of the isle, one of our three guest houses or in a self-catering cottage located at the south end.

The term 'Fair Isle Knitting' is now used worldwide but this unique style was developed on Fair Isle long ago, when local knitters discovered that fine yarns stranded into a double layer produced durable, warm, and lightweight garments. Fair Isle garments, often described as masterpieces, have been continuously made in the island for centuries, have been worn by explorers, royalty and the style conscious for decades and still forms a crucial part of the island economy with many people still producing traditional and more contemporary versions which visitors can buy.

Fair Isle is not connected to the National Grid and electricity is provided by the Fair Isle Electricity Company. Power is generated by two diesel generators and two wind turbines. A new system of 3 windmills is currently being implemented which will provide the Isle with 24hr/day power.

The isle is also served by a community nurse and fire and coastguard crew. Employment by the Shetland Islands Council includes the ferry crew, roads and school staff.

The island can be accessed by plane and boat. Tingwall Airport near Lerwick serves the island with flights and the locally based ferry, the ‘Good Shepherd’ sails once a week in winter and three times a week in Summer. The ferry is our main way of getting goods and vehicles on and off the isle. Royal Mail is delivered mostly on the plane and courier deliveries on the boat. Both methods of transport are often severely disrupted due to weather.

INSERT CHILDREN’S WALL DISPLAY PHOTO

Our School

Fair Isle Primary school provides high quality education for 3 to 12 year olds.

Our unique geography means that our children have to leave the isle to attend secondary school in Lerwick after P7. They board in the Anderson High School Halls of Residence and return each 3rdweekend and holidays. This is a large transition for the children and it is our priority to ensure this is made as easy as possible for them. Planned activities at the high school are undertaken by our P7 pupils. These include P.E, collaborative learning and S1 transition days. Folders of work and collaborative P7/S1 work is also undertaken between the primary and secondary schools. We visit the high school to help with physical orientation and we have close links with pupil support and the ASN department which are utilised if needed.

Prior to this the children will have been on many school trips, sometimes mixing with other Shetland schools for a variety of activities. All trips are residential and activities are planned to make full use of our time on the mainland. Each year a week long residential trip is planned to an outdoor centre along with the other two remote islands of Foula and Fetlar. This helps build relationships with the other pupils who also stay at the Anderson High School Halls of Residence from S1. This is increasingly important given the low pupil numbers in all of our schools.

Our school trips are a large part of our primary curriculum to aid transition but also to provide the pupils with activities they cannot access on Fair Isle e.g. swimming lessons, library, museum, cinema, road safety and art galleries etc. We try to attend any school’s activities organised in Shetland e.g. going to the circus and learning new skills, small school’s sports day, opera, plays, pantomimes and concerts. All our trips contain swimming lessons which are taken by trained swimming staff and progression is monitored through awards. ‘Free’ swimming is also undertaken every night. These trips are very expensive and so another large part of our curriculum has to be enterprise and producing high quality merchandise to sell to visitors. The Bird Observatory and local shop support us with this and we also sell directly to cruise ships who visit.

We are very fortunate to live in a community where education and learning is valued and the school is very well supported by all.

Fair Isle Primary Our unique circumstances and strengths

We appreciate and We use our community – The school is valued and embrace the rural and people and place – to supported by the remote environment we learn from/with community live in

We provide meaningful We are the most remote and relevant learning Fundraising/Enterprise school in the U.K experiences

We enable our children School Trips to combat to overcome the barriers We are geographically our geographical access to their learning due to isolated to services and social our geographical inclusion circumstances

We ensure we have good Transition to high school links with other schools, is carefully planned to Support for parents for the high school and support institutional and P7/S1 transition hostel and other outside social adjustment agencies

Caring and dedicated Flexibility of staffing and Welcoming and inclusive staff timetabling

Close links between Welcoming to visitors to Being active, healthy and pupils, staff, parents and enhance our learning outdoors community

Multi-composite class – Our approach to learning Health and wellbeing is teaching and learning and assessment is varied integrated throughout all together and pupil-centred aspects of the curriculum

Our learners have personalised learning programmes

Our curriculum is based on

 Our unique circumstances  Curriculum for Excellence/Benchmarks  Equity and Excellence  GIRFEC  SHANARRI  Developing the Young Workforce  Raising Attainment  Assessment is for learning

At Fair Isle Primary School, we believe that the starting point for learning is a positive ethos and climate of respect and trust based upon shared values across our school community. We work hard to ensure that Fair Isle Primary School and Pre-school is a safe, welcoming, inclusive, child-centred, happy place to learn and work. We value quality relationships, friendships and teamwork based on trust, respect and compassion. We want every pupil to achieve the best that they can through interesting, creative and challenging experiences. We will nurture an ethos of inclusion, safety, equal opportunities, fun, care and compassion working in partnership with each other and with the local and wider community.

We aim to  establish good patterns of behaviour (caring, cooperation, sharing), nurture self-esteem and build confidence and independence  develop a culture of ambition and achievement  work in partnership with parents, the community and other agencies in order to meet the needs of every child in our school  promote the outdoor environment as a space for learning and encourage everyone to explore, appreciate and respect their world  promote equality, equity, honesty, fairness and respect to all within the school community

We want our pupils to be confident and leave with happy memories. Our Values (written by the children)

Do respect each other and their personal space

Do work Do be kind hard/try your and help each best other

Do listen to each other

Do look after Do be gentle all property

Do be honest

Rationale: A Shared Vision

At Fair Isle Primary we ensure that all children develop the attributes, knowledge and skills they will need to flourish in life, learning and work. They will be able to demonstrate the four capacities (successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens) through the four contexts for learning (curriculum areas and subjects, interdisciplinary learning, ethos and life of the school and opportunities for personal achievement) and in a curriculum which reflects the seven principles of design (breadth, progression, depth, personalisation and choice, challenge and enjoyment, coherence and relevance).

This curriculum will:  Allow pupils to contribute to the ethos and life of the school community

 Provide opportunities for personal achievement and support all learners in developing skills for learning, life and work.

 Have a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and health and well-being with all staff having a responsibility to develop, reinforce and extend learning in these areas.

 Provide opportunities for mixed-stage learning which is interest-based, coherent and relevant.

 Place the emphasis of our curriculum on breadth, challenge and depth and on the entitlements of learners rather than subject based content.

 Provide a broad general education including all the experiences and outcomes.

 Provide progression through the experiences and outcomes that is consistent with their learning needs and prior achievement.

 Allow learning to be organised more flexibly to take into account personalisation and choice.