June 2017

Drakies Primary School

https://drakiesprimaryschoolblog.wordpress.com/

Neswetter Our final newsletter of the school session! Another fantastic year with fantastic pupils, brilliant staff and supportive families. Mis s Watson 

School Imp rovement

Schools in Scotland use a document from Education Scotland called ‘How Good Is Our School: Version 4’ . This is

Drakies Primary School used by staff to evaluate and reflect on where we think we Drumossie Avenue are on the journey to an excellent school. This has very much been a staff led focus with input from Parents and IV2 3SG Tel: 01463 236032 Pupils. SCHOOL HOLIDAYS SCHOOL SCHOOL CLOSED REOPENS This school year our School Improvement Plan priorities Friday 30th Tuesday 15th June 12pm August were : moderation and consistency of re ading from early to Monday 18th Wednesday second level, improvement in attainment and progress in September 20th September numeracy skills, parent engagemen t with our Health and Monday 9th Monday 23rd October October Well Being program me and transitions from Nursery to P1 and Primary 7 to S1. School Twitter @DrakiesPS Reading Part of our improvement action plan was to source new reading materials – especially for P4 -7. Most of our school

School Uniform fundraising was targeted towards this. We are in the

There is lots of unnamed and process of moderating the different reading levels. Mr unclaimed school uniform at the main door. If you would Failes and Miss Rose have worked tirelessly to ensure our like any of this uniform resources are up dated and relevant to our Drakies pupils. please donate an amount to the school office for Next Year  Focus on P1-3 reading materials and school funds. addition al support resources. P1-4 classes to have an improved focus on phonics and blending.

Numeracy In June we held a parent information evening for Numeracy led by Mr Mackenzie and Mrs Henstridge. Our teaching staff and support staff had numerous training sessions with the Numeracy Development Officer. Next Year  We are continuing to use Numeracy

Progression and have agreed as a whole school that we will formally assess our pupils at the start of each learning block.

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School Improvement (cont….) Health and Well Being Miss Graham has led a very successful Healthy Living Group involving teachers, support staff, pupils and Kitchen catering staff. There was one meeting about Relationships and Equalities involving parents. Next Year  Raise awareness for Learners, Parents and Staff training and involvement in Equalities and Diversity policy. Parent and Carer involvement of HWB frameworks/benchmarks.

The year ahead brings more action points to consider for school improvement and as a staff we have decided on the 3 main areas of improvement.  Curriculum – Vision, Values and Aims - STEM – science, technologies, engineering and maths, Modern Languages, Emerging Literacy, Developing the Young Workforce and Highland Numeracy Progression.  Assessment and Moderation - Literacy / Numeracy - Ensuring consistency across classes and schools within Millburn Associated School Group  Leadership Of Learning – Raising pupil voice, staff leaders and parent involvement

The blog will soon show our yearly review of the school improvement plan in more detail as well as next steps for the year ahead.

School Information Staffing Mrs Pirie will remain Acting Head Teacher at Strathdearn Primary School until Christmas 2017 therefore Mr Mackenzie will remain Acting Depute Head Teacher until Mrs Pirie’s return. And in addition Mrs Gray will remain Acting Principal Teacher until Mr Mackenzie returns to post.

We are saying goodbye to some of our staff team:  Miss Macleod will be leaving her post at Drakies to take up a new Pupil Support Assistant post at Tarradale Primary. We thank her for her years of service and wish her well in the future.  Miss Booth finishes her time with us at the end of this term before taking up a new post at , we thank her for her time with us and wish her well in the future.

Ms MacGregor was appointed to the part time Clerical post. Ms MacGregor will work Wednesday and Friday. Mrs McMurchy will continue to work Monday to Thursday to ensure the office is fully covered.

We welcome new members to the Drakies Team in the new school session:  Mrs Barclay will be joining us from Primary. Mrs Barclay will be working 3

days a week – Monday – Wednesday.

 Mrs McCheyne will be joining us from Foyers Primary. Mrs McCheyne will be working

2 days a week – Thur – Fri and will be Mrs Barclays teaching partner.

 Miss Sparling is a Newly Qualified Teacher from Fife and she will be joining us for the

year from August 2017 – June 2018.

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Continuing in posts at Drakies are:  Mrs Rashid has been successful at interview within Highland Council and will continue at Drakies for an additional year covering Mrs Henstridge’s maternity post.  Mr McArthur will continue to be Mr Mackenzie’s teaching partner until Christmas 2017

Moving Up Dates This year we are going to have two days of settling in where the pupils and teachers have the opportunity to get to know each other before the summer break. This is to support transition for pupils as well as take away ‘first day back’ fears. Day 1 will take place on Wednesday 21st June and Day 2 will take place on Thursday 22nd June. P4-7 pupils should take PE kits for these days. The classes have been created in conjunction with all staff - class teachers, Management Team and Miss Rose – ASN Teacher.

Digital Technologies The Millburn Associated School Groups have been successful in our bid to become the pilot schools for Digital Technologies in the Highlands. This has meant that every pupil in P5 – 7 will be given a personal Chromebook which can be used in school daily and at home. A contract at the beginning of the year will be signed by pupils and parents to ensure it has been accepted and will be used appropriately throughout the year for learning. All staff will be given Chromebooks and there will be 1 Chromebook for every 5 pupils for in class use in P1-4. There will be a focus on Google Classrooms which staff have been trained in. Mr Mackenzie is the Digital Leader for the new year. We hope to have a parent’s information evening about this in the new year. We have established links with University of Highlands and Islands STEM hub as well as Skills Development Scotland and hope to provide technology skills such as : coding, engineering, My World of Work and digital studios.

School Community Community Café Thank you so much to the Primary 7 class, Mrs Gray and Miss Grant for their tireless efforts at Community Café. They took the reins from last year’s P7’s and the café is still flourishing. Another huge thank you to everyone who attends the cafes, we appreciate all your help and attendance. The community café contributions have enabled all classes to part fund a school trip and a special day out that the P7 are about to have.

Baby and Toddler Group Our 0-3 age group has been organised by Parent Council Vice Chair Eilidh McNaughton and has been attended by around 10-14 families. There is an opportunity for one or two parents to be PEEP trained. PEEP are an organisation who run baby and toddler groups

who support parent and child relationships and developments. We are really keen to have

a well-established group linked to PEEP so if you are interested in becoming trained please

contact Eilidh on [email protected]

School Day There was a parent survey put out last term to gather Parent views on the school day. We needed to have 75% consensus to go ahead with the school day change and the parent body was split 60 / 40 therefore there will be no changes to the school day.

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Week 8 / 10 Health Week Wednesday 14th June P4-7 PE with Mr Scott-Woodhouse Sports Day P1-7 Thursday 15th June Baillie Cup Friday 16th June Streetjam – Healthy Diets Assembly and classes Week 9 / 10 Monday 19th June IRA P7 Transition Tuesday 20th June IRA P7 Transition Wednesday 21st June Stepping Up Day 1 – Classes to meet new teacher IRA P7 Transition / Millburn P7 Transition P4-7 PE with Mr McNab Thursday 22nd June P4-7 PE with Mr Scott-Woodhouse Stepping Up Day 2 – Classes to meet new teacher Millburn P7 Transition School Disco 6pm onwards Friday 23rd June Nursery transition Day Week 10 / 10 Monday 26th June Primary 7 Leavers Assembly 2pm – parents invited Tuesday 27th June Nursery Graduation parents invited from 11am PE P4-7 Wednesday 28th June PE P4-7 Thursday 29th June End of term assembly 9.30am Friday 30th June School closes 12pm

Good luck to our P7’s who have been a Thank you to all our Parent Council members who have done a brilliant fundraising fantastic yearand group development this task! session! You will all enjoy the next step in your learning and please come back to visit often. Teamwork makes the dream work!

Thank you to Thank you to all our Thank you to all our great staff Parent Council members parent and family team at Drakies who have done a brilliant volunteers who help fundraising and build our school

development task! community