falkirk council education services stenhousemuir primary …137538]st_and_qu_20… · first...

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FALKIRK COUNCIL

Education Services

Stenhousemuir Primary School Standards & Quality Report

Session 2014/15

Dear Parent/Carer,

Each year the government and the Council publish information designed to show

how well schools and local authorities are improving pupil performance year on

year.

In order to make Stenhousemuir Primary a better school, we would like to tell

you how we are progressing in our school. This document hopes to do just that.

It is our “Standards and Quality Report” for last session.

Inside, you will find information about what we do well. You will also find out

what we plan to do next session.

I hope you find this document helpful. We have tried to write it in “plain

English”. If you have any questions about it, please do not hesitate to phone the

school office for an appointment. I will be pleased to offer answers to any

questions parents may have.

On the school website, you can see our link to twitter which reports last session

in photographs and tweets. Your children may enjoy looking at the last year of

school in this way.

LindaLindaLindaLinda----Anne ReidAnne ReidAnne ReidAnne Reid

Headteacher

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What we achieved during session 2014/2015

Cluster good practice

Larbert High Stenhousemuir Kinnaird Carron Larbert Village Ladeside Carronshore Airth

Inchlair Larbert Day Cluster joint working

You are all aware that all the schools in the Larbert cluster work closely together

to make sure there is effective transition from nursery to primary and from

primary to secondary. Our vision is “United in Purpose” and posters

demonstrate this visually. These are displayed in all schools and each classroom.

Staff use the poster on their e-mail communication.

The best development this session has been the training provided in Spanish. It

has been fantastico! Read more about this later.

The enhanced transition for some pupils called “7 Up” has again supported

pupils on their move to Larbert High School.

Larbert High School further developed their approach to “Schools of” with

school of languages and school of media. Many pupils applied and many were

successful. Well done to all pupils involved in;

• School of football

• School of rugby

• School of basketball

• School of media

• School of languages

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Mr. Docherty from Larbert High School explaining about the school of media

During session 2015/2016 the cluster will take forward the following

developments.

1. Further developed shared leadership and consistency across the schools

within the Larbert Cluster.

2. Focus on raising attainment for all.

3. Ensure consistency across all schools in assessment, monitoring and

tracking.

4. Support groups of teachers across all schools to meet in groups to further

develop;

• Numeracy and maths

• Reading

• Spanish

• Science

• Religious and Moral Education

• P.E.

• Music

• ICT

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Successes from session 2014/15 We have had a great year at Stenhousemuir Primary School. Lots of great events

have taken place in all classes, and you can read about all these in the newsletters

and on twitter. However, a number are worth recounting here to give a flavour

of the excellent opportunities which we strive to provide for all pupils.

Spanish

The developments in Spanish this session have went well above expectations.

Although this was not part of the School Improvement Plan for this session, it

was on our cluster plan.

The Scottish Government have what they call a “1+2 approach” to learning

languages. This is pupils` own first language, and then two new languages. The

first language will be introduced from P1 and the second from P5.

The cluster working group developed a clear vision of the way ahead and it was

agreed by all schools that Spanish would be the language we would introduce

from P1.

Two staff from Larbert High School provided all our staff with a ten week

programme to introduce us to Spanish. The sessions were attended by all

teaching and support staff and were thoroughly enjoyed by all. This

demonstrates a clear commitment by all staff to go above and beyond in support

of national developments.

We held a successful in-service at Larbert high School for all teaching and

support staff.

We were also very lucky to secure the support of students from Stirling

University who visited to teach Spanish and French to pupils. This link will

further develop next session in support of language learning for staff and pupils.

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Throughout the session, we started to introduce pupils to Spanish in preparation

for full implementation in August 2015. P6/5 led an assembly to further reinforce

this approach.

A

We had a Spanish extra-curricular club!

P2 pupils designed Spanish Tapas plates

The pupils have embraced Spanish and you will hear lots of “Hola” and “Buenos

dias” when you are in school!

P6/5 and P6 debated the rights and wrongs of bullfighting

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P6 pupils wrote letters to Spanish friends

The feedback from parents has been very positive.

“We are enjoying hearing about the Spanish. This will come in handy on our

holiday to Majorca!”

“My son shares at home the Spanish language he has learned in class.”

“Spanish is a fantastic opportunity to learn something while you are young and

can retain information.”

“My child is enjoying learning Spanish.”

“I think learning a language at an early age is very important.”

Next session, we have arranged for a student from Barcelona University to spend

a year in the school supporting us in taking Spanish forward.

Education Scotland has now produced further advice about what we should

teach at each stage and staff will make use of this when planning Spanish

learning and vocabulary from August 2015.

Larbert cluster are at the leading edge of these developments and we are already

in discussion with Education Scotland so we can share our approach across

Scotland.

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Germany Trip

Last December a group of P7 pupils set off on an unforgettable four day visit to

Germany’s capital city, Berlin. They were accompanied by Falkirk Council staff as well as representatives from UK-German Connection who part-funded the

visit as part of their “Magical Christmas” package.

Pupils set off!

As this was also a transition project, five senior pupils from Larbert High joined

the group as Young Leaders/Mentors. They provided workshops in German

language and culture for the primary group in the weeks leading up to the

departure.

In Berlin the group visited a German primary school to meet new friends, shared

Christmas traditions and found out how English is taught! A visit to a craft

centre gave pupils an opportunity to make Christmas decorations while a guided

tour of the DDR Museum offered a glimpse of life in the former East Berlin.

Craft work!

Using public transport the group toured the city, taking in sights such as

Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Berlin Wall, The Brandenburg Gate and

The Reichstag. The group practised speaking German as much as possible and

the P7s were delighted to be able to shop for Christmas presents in the famous

Christmas markets.

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Brandenburg Gate

A very special moment was when the group met der Weihnachtsmann (Santa

Claus!) and sang Stille Nacht to him.

Meeting Santa!

Parents, children and staff were able to follow the group’s daily progress and

adventures on Twitter.

In January, the Director of UK-German Connection flew up from London to

attend a special assembly in Stenhousemuir Primary where the children reported

on their visit and shared their experience with representatives from local schools.

As a result of this highly successful visit, many of the P7s involved applied for,

and were accepted in Larbert High’s School of Languages.

Pupils’ comments:

“Definitely the best school trip ever!”

“I was very proud that I could ask for things in German at the market and

people understood me!”

“I was really pleased that I could talk to German pupils and make friends.”

“Before we left for Berlin we learned to say some German words. We learned

food words to help us choose what to eat, we thought of things to ask pupils in

the German primary school and we learned how to ask how much things cost”

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“I want to take German at high school and I want to go back to Berlin!”

“Germans drive on the right and no-one crosses the road until the green man

appears!”

Parents’ comments:

“What an experience! My child can’t stop talking about Berlin.”

“She is determined to study languages at high school now.”

“He wants the whole family to go to Berlin now so he can show us everything he

saw.

Food and Craft technology

During 2014/2015, Mrs. Black delivered Food Technology to all classes across the

school. This has been a fantastic development for our school. Before becoming a

primary teacher, Mrs. Black trained as a secondary home economics teacher.

Pupils have been very enthusiastic with many trying out new recipes at home.

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Mrs Black completed an audit of healthy snacks and classes worked to make

good choices of snack. P3/2 did incredibly well and were rewarded with a trip to

the soft play area at Carrongrange School.

Pupils also completed a healthy eating leaflet that was produced and distributed

at parents` night. This aims to support and encourage pupils and parents to

continue to eat healthily!

We were well supported by partners such as Asda and chefs for schools. This

enhanced the learning experiences for pupils and supporting the professional

learning of staff.

I am sure you will be delighted to know that food and craft technology will

continue in Stenhousemuir Primary School next session.

Pilot of PE The PE pilot has been excellent and a very successful addition to learning

experiences for pupils at Stenhousemuir.

Three teachers based at Larbert high School, and with secondary experience as

well as primary, have worked with pupils over the course of the session.

The pupils have received a high quality experience and the teaching staff at

Stenhousemuir have benefitted from shadowing the high school staff and further

improving their own approach to teaching PE.

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P1-3 sports` day

The staff have led after school clubs and lunch time events to further enhance

the pupils experience as well as supporting us in organising fund raising events

and school sports` days.

P1-

P4-7 sports` day

The high school staff have produced planning for all lessons and these will be

available to their primary colleagues from August 2015 to further support the

highest quality learning and teaching in this essential area.

We applied to Sport` Scotland and were awarded a Silver sports` award! We are

going for gold in November!

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Thanks to Mr. Miller, Mr. Grant and Mr. Fraser

This pilot will continue next session and we expect this approach to go from

strength to strength.

P7 pupil “The PE teachers have been fabulous because they spend all their time

teaching PE and are highly experienced.”

Football Team

Our football team supported by Mr. Watters and Mrs. Stewart won the Steve

Burns` memorial cup for the second year in a row! Well done boys!

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Snapshot jotters

This session we introduced “Snapshot” jotters. These were issued before the

parents` meetings in November and May.

The pupils use these jotters over a period of two weeks to show parents the type

of learning they have experienced. The pupils are encouraged to demonstrate the

very highest standards in these jotters.

Teachers are able to use the work the pupils produce as part of their assessment

of learning taught and to plans next steps for each pupil.

We have made a good start to this new approach and it will further develop over

next session.

Parents` feedback is very positive.

“My son` snapshot jotter allows me to see an overview of his work.”

“I enjoy looking at the snapshot jotter.”

“I think the snapshot jotters are very helpful and appreciate the effort that goes

into them.”

Rotary Quiz

Well done to Emily, Sean, Rhys and Jack, who represented the school in the

Larbert Rotary annual quiz. They beat Carronshore on a tie break! It was very

exciting.

They were then invited to Linlithgow Primary to take part in the next stage.

They came fourth and we were very proud of them!

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The rest of this report will focus on our how well we have

taken forward developments this session

Further raising levels of achievement and attainment amongst young people

Curriculum for Excellence Pupils throughout the school have been involved in a wide range of motivational,

challenging and enjoyable activities this session. For more details of all these,

please go to our website and review the newsletters for session 2014/2015 where

these are all detailed with photographs! You can also see our twitter feed

@stenhousemuirps as well as the class teachers` twitter pages.

Improve achievement in health and wellbeing

During session 2014/2015, we reviewed our approach to health and well-being.

Getting It Right For Every Child

In Stenhousemuir, we are totally committed to GIRFEC. We work hard to

support and challenge every pupil and their family. “Getting it right for every

child” is what we do in Stenhousemuir Primary School.

In the recent validated visit from Falkirk Council officers, the team were very

impressed with the work of the enhanced provision, support for learning and all

staff working to ensure the needs of every child are fully met.

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Attitudes to school

We check annually on pupils attitudes to school. This is assessed through Falkirk

Council`s approach to standardised assessment.

These standardised assessments completed at P1, P3, P5 and P7 give us very

useful data and statistics to support improvements in our school.

• At P1 positive attitudes to school were 82% last session and 84% this session



• At P7 positive attitudes to school were 77% last session and 87% this

session

This data indicates high satisfaction with school and this is an improving picture.

This information is vital in ensuring that pupils are achieving their potential in

school. Positive attitudes lead to better learning.

For the pupils who have indicated they do not have positive attitudes, we discuss

this with the new teacher and all staff will work hard to support these pupils in

order to change these attitudes to positives over the course of the session.

For pupils transferring to Larbert High, we ensure staff at the high school are

fully aware of the support and challenge pupils require.

Vertical groups

This session vertical groups were introduced and pupils have enjoyed working

within mixed age classes. This has been part of our approach to the

Commonwealth legacy and the groups were named after four of our medal

winners, Murdoch, Davis, Burton and Sharp.

Staff feel they know more pupils across the school and relationships among staff

and pupils are stronger. This approach has enhanced the ethos and life of the

school. One session each week focused on shared reading and this has had an

impact on reading attainment. This is supporting pupils to develop citizenship

skills in support of local and national issues.

We aim to further develop this approach next session and we will be consulting

with staff, parents and pupils in August before we make these plans.

Playground developments

There have been various sustainable developments in the playground that have

been supported by staff, parents and pupils.

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Mrs. Ritchie ensured both our sheds were in place before she left on maternity

leave. The pupils decided to call the shed “Oscar” and the infant shed “Oscar

Junior”!

Pupils are starting to make use of the loose materials and the younger pupils

enjoy playing with the mud kitchen.

Pupils are learning to manage their risks and be creative with various natural

resources.

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The Parents association has raised money for a trim trail. This will be installed

following Falkirk Council risk assessments and checks on underground services.

School meals

Free meals were introduced to pupils from P1 –P3. This has had an impact on

many families and their household budgets!

New seating in the dinner hall has helped to ensure that additional numbers of

pupils have been easily accommodated as well as creating a more pleasant

environment for eating lunch.

Nurture

Mrs Friar, Mrs Colbourne and Miss Donald have attended training and

achieved accreditation in ‘nurturing schools’. They will share their learning with

staff on the August in-service day. This will support staff in understanding and

supporting all our pupils.

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Walk and cycle to school

This session we have again been supporting and encouraging pupils to walk and

cycle to school.

All classes took part in walk to school events and this was further developed by

many classes taking part in the daily mile.

The cycle developments have been supported by the appointment of an i-bike

officer funded by “Sustrans”, the national cycle network and “Communities

across the Carron”.

Niamh Allum is our i-bike officer

Over 100 pupils took part in the bike breakfast, cycling, scooting or rolling to

school.

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The pupils who did come on their bikes, their scooters or their roller blades were

provided with a healthy breakfast.

We will be continuing to support and encourage all pupils to walk and cycle to

school next session.

Skipping

The P7 pupils contributed to the health and wellbeing agenda by organising a

fund raising event for the British Heart Foundation by supporting all classes to

get fitter through skipping. The pupils raised over £200.

Nursery to P1 transition

Transition from nursery to primary was further enhanced this session due to

“Sam from Stenny”.

Five Sam bears were delivered by teachers to our own nursery and the other

four nurseries who send pupils to us.

Sam also took some seeds for the pupils to plant and these grew into a beanstalk

which was then transferred to the Stenhousemuir garden.

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There were lots of events for the nursery pupils to join with us to support their

transition.

Pupils and their parents attended for school lunch and to share playtime. They

came and had picnics together. They went on a treasure hunt of the school to see

who they could meet!

The twitter account for Sam allowed us to keep in touch with all the pupils in all

the nurseries as well as letting the nurseries send us pictures of what Sam got up

to, and how well he/she was being looked after by the pupils.

We also set up a school blog for parents. This blog allows parents to see

photographs and films of all these activities. Parents are encouraged to use this

during the summer to support transition.

Nursery pupils with additional needs also have individual visits supported by

staff from the nurseries.

Class to class transition

Transition from class to class continues to develop and grows stronger every

year. Pupils all meet their new teacher during the last week of term. Some

parents and pupils have individual meetings if this is required to support these

children and their families.

Class teachers start to talk to the next teacher passing on essential information to

support the transition. Meetings are held with support for learning and

enhanced provision teachers to pass on key information for pupils with

additional needs.

Each teacher makes up a pack of information about the pupils` learning and

social needs and this is passed on. After the summer, the teaching staff meet to

discuss the information passed on and to visit their previous class to chat to the

new teacher about how pupils are settling and continuing their pace of learning.

Teaching staff and support staff continue to discuss pupil progress throughout

the first term until the pupils have built up the essential relationships with their

new teacher, and the pupils have settled well into their learning.

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P7 to S1 transition

Transition to Larbert High School is very strong and also develops year on year

as explained earlier. Another addition this session has been writing jotter

transition. The P7 pupils wrote two pieces of writing in their new “Learning to

Achieve” jotters. The first piece was supported by Mr. Docherty from the

English faculty. The second piece was unsupported. This will allow the teachers

at Larbert High School to continue to build on each pupils` prior learning.

At the recent validated self-evaluation, transition across the school was noted as

being excellent and sector leading.

Improve attainment in literacy

During session 2014/2015, we continued to implement Falkirk Council`s literacy

strategy.

Active literacy is now embedded across all stages of the school. The resource

packs provided last session are being used effectively to support the

implementation and there is clear consistency and progression across the school.

This was commented on during the validated self-evaluation in May 2015 by

authority officers.

Staff had reflected last session and identified reading as an area of literacy that

required further development. We reviewed our approach to reading and

agreed that we had to focus on the key comprehension strategies and ways of

providing a greater range of reading experiences for the children that would

build on these strategies and skills.

As a result, a group of staff was set up to focus on the development of reading.

Their focus was to develop reading across the school that would ensure more

consistency and progression. The group agreed that the ‘Thinking Reader’

approach would support the teaching of the key comprehension strategies and

this will be fully implemented next session. Many staff have already received

training on Thinking Reader this session and further training will be provided

for additional staff next session. The group identified the importance of sharing

the teaching of reading with parents and have organised a number of events to

support this. These will be provided next session.

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Miss Welsby has also been part of the cluster literacy group this session and has

used the information from this to inform the developments to take forward

within the school group. There will be an official launch of reading next session

in line with the cluster group developments.

Additional support for learning has been provided for children across the school

who have required to reinforce some of their previous learning. This has built on

their foundations of literacy and will support them in their future learning.

Results of assessments at the start and end of the session clearly demonstrate the

impact of this enhanced support for these pupils.

Mrs. Duncan and Mrs. Wilson supported a group of children in developing their

literacy skills with visits to Larbert Day Nursery. This was well received by staff

at the nursery who commented on the great attitude and behaviour of these

pupils.

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Support staff were involved in further training opportunities to allow them to

support children and class teachers more effectively in delivering active literacy.

A session on reading and writing was found to be extremely valuable.

Some of the staff piloted the new P1 literacy assessment resource with individual

children. We will be using the results from this to inform next steps for these

children and will continue to monitor the impact this has on attainment.

Mrs. Swan and Mrs. Wylie attended the Significant Aspects of Learning in

Literacy (reading) course and Mrs. Swan also attended a course on moderating

higher order reading skills. This information was shared with the staff group

and will be developed as part of our assessment process next session.

We will also use moderation of literacy across classes and stages to audit

consistency as well as challenge.

The attitudes to reading are assessed by the standardised assessments.

• 83% of P3 pupils have positive attitudes to reading compared with 84% past year

• 86% of P5 pupils have positive attitudes to reading compare with 87% last year

• 62% of P7 pupils have positive attitudes to reading compared with 77% last year

This indicates positive attitudes for P3 and P5. There is a drop at P7 and staff

have spoken to pupils about this to inform actions next session. Positive attitude

to reading has impact on attainment and achievement, due to increased

motivation and enthusiasm for reading.

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Analysis of the standardised assessment at P3, P5 and P7 show that;

• 68% of pupils at P3 are above their chronological age in reading compared to 63% last session

• 65% of pupils at P5 are above their chronological age in reading compared with 50% last session

• 41% of pupils at P7 are above their chronological age in reading compared with 37% last session

It is great to see these ongoing improvements due to the commitment of staff and

the developments taking place.

Pupils above their developed ability, (indicator of learning potential), have

increased significantly since last session. Pupils across all abilities are doing

exceptionally well and these results allow us to see that we are challenging all

pupils. A pupil can have a high reading score but if this score is below the

developed ability, they require further challenge. A pupil with a low developed

ability can be working above this score showing that they are working hard and

achieving above their potential.

• 44% of pupils at P7 are above their developed ability for reading compared with 10% last session

• 43% of pupils at P5 are above their developed ability for reading

compared with 32% last session

• 57% of pupils at P3 are above their developed ability for reading compared with 53% last session

Overall, we have again seen very positive results in reading across the school

with the vast majority of pupils achieving their potential in this key skill. We use

these results to further inform our next steps for each individual and for the

school as a whole.

Meetings took place in June with all teachers based on the results for their class.

They, in turn can pass on key information to the next teacher. The senior

leadership team will again meet with the new teacher early in the session to

discuss the results and ensure support and challenge for every pupil.

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Home learning

As a follow-up to our home learning consultation with parents, staff and children

over the past two years, a new home learning format was devised and piloted

across the school. Guidelines were provided for staff and parents to support the

implementation of this and to ensure a consistent and progressive experience for

all pupils.

Mrs Swan has undertaken further research this session as part of work on home

learning and used this to support the development of this further.

The format was simplified to meet the requests of staff, parents and pupils to

allow more flexibility and to minimise the impact home learning had on after

school clubs and activities.

P7 were exempt from the pilot as their home learning was linked with Larbert

High School. The P1 format differed from the rest of the school for the first part

of the pilot in order to support transition.

Staff, pupils and parents were given an opportunity to feedback on the pilot in

January and the results were collated and shared.

Percentage of parental feedback returns

P1 29%

P2/P3/2 51%

P3 64%

P4 32%

P5 37%

P6/P6/5 46%

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The feedback from the data highlighted the following.

• Over 75% agreed a fortnightly timescale allowed sufficient time to complete activities as they had it over a weekend.

• Over 85% agreed the activities supported what their child was learning in class.

• Over 80% agreed the new format allowed flexibility to accommodate the needs of their family.

• Over 60% agreed both parents and children enjoyed the new format.

The following comments from the feedback data helped identify the next steps

and any changes we had to make to the format.

“Think homework should be given over a weekend.”

“Fun and set out in a manner we understand.”

“Much better – allows us to spend quality time and not sit for ages on nights she

has clubs.”

“Would like clearer instructions on terms being used.”

“Good to have online Big Maths guide.”

“Like green, yellow, red – makes it clear.”

“Feel there is still too much and would like it condensed.”

“Content of grids need to be refreshed regularly.”

“I like my creative ideas. I would like to choose my topic.”

“The yellow activities let me choose what I like best.”

The feedback identified the following actions.

Flexibility

Parents requested home learning weekly and over the weekend for those families

who wish to have the opportunity to complete activities at this time.

Clear instructions

Parents say they need to know clearly what children are being asked to do. Any

new maths or literacy ideas or language should be explained.

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Pupil choice

Parents and pupils requested that there is personalisation and choice for pupils

in home learning activities. Activities should be age and stage appropriate and

not repetitive.

Progression

Teaching staff will ensure a clear progression of yellow activities from one level

to the next.

Home learning leaflet

Parents requested a home learning leaflet which provides advice to all parents.

This would explain to parents how to feedback to teachers.

An additional consultation with pupils on “Survey Monkey” helped clarify the

home learning activities the children felt best supported their learning and this

was also used to inform the changes made.

The development of the new home learning format has been a challenging and

lengthy process. The support and feedback from parents, staff and children and

the research undertaken have allowed us to develop a format that meets the

needs of the majority of our families.

The home learning format has now been finalised and will be implemented at the

beginning of next session. Guidelines will be given

to parents to support this at home.

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Numeracy and Maths

This session we have begun to implement Falkirk Council`s numeracy strategy.

This has involved auditing our current practice, as well as analysing the results

of the standardised assessments to see areas we are doing well in, as well as areas

that require further improvement.

We have also used moderation across classes and stages to audit consistency as

well as challenge.

There is greater consistency in the approach to teaching numeracy, but further

improvements are required in the teaching of maths and numeracy across the

curriculum.

We provided an awareness raising event for parents at the start of the session to

allow parents to better support at home.

We have ensured staff all have access to the support materials to help them

deliver this essential area of the curriculum.

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The attitudes to maths are assessed by the standardised assessments.

• 90% of P3 pupils have positive attitudes to maths compared with 83% last year

• 71% of P5 pupils have positive attitudes to maths compare with 61% last year

• 52% of P7 pupils have positive attitudes to maths compared with 67% last year

We are pleased with the results for P3 and P5 and staff have discussed with P7

pupils the reason for this drop. This feedback will help us make decision to

support pupils in future. We already have plans to make changes to the way we

teach numeracy and maths and the balance between both.

This is the second year of implementing the Big Maths approach. This session we

had a staff working group for this area to monitor the implementation and to

agree how we can make this approach fully meet the needs of all our pupils as

well as supporting the Curriculum for Excellence programme for numeracy and

maths.

Initially the group of staff identified key areas of numeracy development which

were felt to be a priority. It was agreed as a group that the focus should be on

ensuring progression through Big Maths as well as the effective tracking of

progress from P1 to P7.

Staff looked at the ‘CLIC on Your Planning’ document and trialled this to chart

progress through the “Progress Drives”. Pupils from P1 to P6 were issued with

their own individual “Progress Drive” booklets which allowed them to have an

individual record of their achievements in maths. These booklets tie in with

‘Assessment is for Learning’ strategies and will now be used to track progress

across future sessions. These are being passed onto next session`s teachers who

will continue to use these to support progression.

Through authority “Good Practice Network Meetings” the group explored an

electronic resource which supports the delivery of the Big Maths “CLIC”

(Counting, Learn its, It`s nothing new and Calculation) approach from P1

through to P7. These were shared with the wider staff. Many teachers have

trialled the use of these resources this term and they will now be used to support

the planning and teaching of CLIC sessions across all stages as well as support

the transition to the next class.

The numeracy group visited library services and reported back to the staff on

the range of resources and materials available to support active approaches to

numeracy and maths. Staff are now more aware of materials available to them

and this will support our resourcing in the future.

Following a series of quality assurance visits focusing on Big Maths, feedback

was shared with staff detailing good practice and areas for development. The

areas for development will be highlighted to staff at the August in-service.

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Staff have continued to work on approaches to teaching ‘outer maths’ and this is

an area which will be developed further next session. The use of topics, outdoor

learning as well as financial education, are all areas where pupils’ numeracy

skills will be applied to develop their understanding of maths.

The result of the standardised assessment indicate improvements in all stages for

mental agility.

• In P3, 65% of pupils are above their age for mental agility compared with 41% last session

• In P5, 51% of pupils are above their age for mental agility compared with 43% last session

• In P7, 21% of pupils are above their age for mental agility which was similar to last session

• In P3, 51% of pupils are above their developed ability for mental agility


• In P5, 30% of pupils are above their developed ability for mental agility compared with 14% last session

• In P7, 18% of pupils are above their developed ability for mental agility compared to 17% last session

The result of the standardised assessment indicate some improvements at P3 and

P5 for general maths.

• In P3, 57% of pupils are above their age for maths compared with 55% past session

• In P5, 35% of pupils are above their age for maths compared with 20% last session

• In P7, 9% of pupils are above their age for maths which is similar to last session

• In P3, 46% of pupils are above their developed ability for maths compared with 52% last session

• In P5, 16% of pupils are above their developed ability for maths


• In P7, 3% of pupils are above their developed ability for maths compared with 7% last session

There are further encouraging signs that this new approach to numeracy to

support maths is starting to have an impact on the attainment and achievement

of pupils. Further developments are planned for next session to further embed

this approach.

Parents stated:

“We have noticed how well my daughter has picked up her numbers and learn

its.”

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“Big maths is great. My daughter often recited her “Learn its” for fun!”

Next session we will be looking to further develop our approach to ensure maths

and numeracy are taught systematically to ensure that we continue to raise

attainment in mental agility as well as in general maths.

Building our curriculum

During session 2014/2015, we reviewed our approach to delivering the

curriculum at Stenhousemuir Primary School. We wanted the experiences that

pupils receive to meet the needs of a fast changing and complex world.

We audited our current practice and reflected on systems which can allow for

transformational change. Our aim was to be ambitious and forward thinking for

our pupils and your children.

Staff were issued with an overview of the session to ensure we had consistency of

thinking and approach across the school. Mrs. Jarvie ran the “Challenge

Annika” event at the August in-service to support staff to see how we could use

the outdoor environment as well as local shops and businesses in support of our

curriculum.

Staff used this overview to discuss at each stage how they would deliver the

curriculum over the whole session. They consulted with the pupils in their class

and then met at each stage to plan. They presented their annual plan to the

whole staff group and then to parents at the “Meet the teacher” event. Parents

were provided with a copy of the annual plan.

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The plans ensured pupils were receiving a broad, balanced and challenging

curriculum which met the needs to the Curriculum for Excellence. The plans

covered literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing, science, social studies,

religious and moral education, technologies and expressive arts. The plans also

showed how staff would help pupils to see links between all these curricular

areas.

The plans supported staff to include opportunities for creativity, sustainability,

enterprise and global citizenship

Learning experiences

Throughout the session, staff have provided pupils with opportunities that have

arisen to further enhance our curriculum. These have included;

Nursery medieval banquet

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Nursery music outside

P1 nativity

P1 trip to Almond Valley

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P1 Big Fit Walk

P2 pupils became playground protectors

P2 pupils trying the potatoes they planted, grew and cooked!

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P3/2 pupils being supported in their reading

P3 pupils met Alison Murray the author

P4 trip to Callendar House

P4 trip to La Banca

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P5 trip to the Kelpies

P6 and P6/5 elections

P6 pupils again took part in Go Dance at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow

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P7 pupils presenting to parents at end of induction week at Larbert High School.

P7 designing batteries

Some P7 pupils represented the school on a visit to the Kelpies and Falkirk

Football Stadium where the Larbert Cluster were presented with £500,000 for

the bike park

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P7 representative attended the wreath laying for remembrance

P7 visit to library exhibition

P7 representative attended the opening of the artwork in the community hospital

which was designed by pupils from the school

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Some P7 pupils visited Forth Valley College to learn about careers in engineering

All pupils took part in activities linked to the solar eclipse

All pupils took part in book week

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Whole school assembly to begin link with Bussi Primary School in Uganda

Extra-curricular

Pupils have also had the opportunity to attend extra-curricular events to

enhance their learning experiences including;

• Scripture Union

• Cross Country

• Choir

• Matilda

Parental support to enhance the curriculum

The Parents association supported the following events which enhance the

curriculum;

• Halloween discos

• Christmas discos

• Shorts and Shades disco

• Pancake day

The Thursday Parents’` group provide Easter treats for all staff and pupils.

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Many parents support teachers in class and it is much appreciated!

Commonwealth Legacy

Part of our curriculum developments were in support of the Commonwealth

legacy. To start this off, there was an assembly called “Mrs. Reid goes to

Glasgow.” This showed pupils all the exciting events that had happened during

the Commonwealth Games.

Two P7 pupils took part in events during the session to ensure we pledge to

ensure a legacy. Daisy and Ewan fed back to all pupils at assembly.

During the summer, the photographs taken by P4 pupils based on the

Commonwealth theme were displayed in Forth Valley Hospital. This was

produced with funding from the lottery.

Pupils were provided with many sporting activities to ensure a real legacy;

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• Football assembly

• Two pupils met Eilidh Child and took part in training with her. They then presented at the assembly

• Cross country events

• Rugby festival

• Girls football taster

• Cluster football festival

• Enhanced provision football taster

• P5 tennis tournament

• Badminton festival

• P5 swimming session

• P4 golf sessions

• P5 and P4 cricket session

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We won gold at the active school “Going for Glasgow” Awards.

Our “Murdoch 4” vertical group designed a Commonwealth Logo as part of our

legacy work

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Teaching and learning

HOTS All teaching staff received training in using higher order thinking skills, or

HOTS, to improve questioning and learning across the school. Staff use this

regularly with all pupils especially when discussing the learning intentions and

success criteria for each lesson.

Peer Visits

This session we again encouraged and supported staff in peer visits. The focus

for this session was again transition, and staff visited the class they had the

previous year. This provided valuable opportunities for professional dialogue

which ensured all staff were able to support and challenge all pupils.

Staff also visited the nursery to see the high level of pupil independence. This

allowed them to challenge all ages and stages to be more independent!

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Reporting to parents

Our Twitter account @Stenhousemuirps has gone from strength to strength. We

have tweeted over 6000 times and have over 1000 followers! All class teachers

now have twitter accounts allowing parents to become the “fly on the wall” every

day your child comes to school!

Twitter adds greatly to reporting to parents allowing you to see quickly all the

activities that we provide for your children and all that goes on in a busy school.

We used the twitter account “Sam from Stenny” to support the transition of

pupils from all our linked nurseries to P1.

We continue to issue regular newsletters and these are posted on the school

website with an alert letter being issued to parents.

Next session we have decided to set up a school blog which will allow all

information to be posted immediately and parents can check this daily. We will

alert you to when this is ready. Some classes will also be setting up class blogs to

support and communicate to parents.

Individual meetings with the teachers take place in November and in May. This

session we sent home the new snapshot jotters prior to these meetings.

This session we invited some parents to try out a new way of reporting. These

parents were provided with a longer meeting with a shorter written report. I will

meet with these parents in the new session to discuss what they thought of this

approach.

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Mrs. Kidd, chair of the parent council supported at parents` evening showing

parents how to access and make use of the “Parentzone” website.

Increasing our efforts to tackle disadvantage and

discrimination Tracking, monitoring and intervention with vulnerable groups

In line with GIRFEC, we track and monitor all pupil progress but we pay special

attention to vulnerable groups such as pupils in care, or pupils caring for adults.

Teaching staff are vigilant in ensuring that they adapt learning to meet the needs

of these pupils and keep their line manager fully informed of any changes to the

anticipated progress in learning.

Supporting the Poverty agenda Mrs. Jarvie, Mrs. Duncan and I attended a national conference about raising

attainment and poverty. We have tried to support parents in a number of ways.

We have tried to reduce the cost of schools trips. We have introduced “Foodbank

Friday”.

Our parents group continue to support the community corner to provide high

quality second-hand uniform for a small donation.

We provided Santa presents for families who requested this support.

Miss Seton advised parents of other supports available to them.

We realise that for many of our parents, there is real pressure and we want to

support in the best way possible. Let us know if you need help.

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Tracking and monitoring attendance Attendance at Stenhousemuir Primary is very good. Attendance is very

important as we are ensuring that all pupils are accessing an appropriate

education so that they can develop as confident and successful learners.

We continue to track and monitor attendance. Pupils cannot learn when they are

not in school.

We remind all parents that taking time off school for holidays is unauthorised by

Falkirk Council. Where we do realise that sometimes this is unavoidable, pupils

still miss out on essential learning experiences when they are away on holiday.

Many parents take the last week of term in June. This is a key week in the

learning of pupils as it involves the awards ceremonies and the chance to visit

their new class and meet their new teacher. We ask parents to think very

carefully before making decisions to take pupils out of school.

There are certain situations where absence from school is unacceptable. Taking

days off school to allow pupils to attend pop concerts is one example of

unacceptable absence. We discuss these absences directly with parents who have

the legal responsibility to make sure their child attends school every day.

All pupils who have had perfect attendance will receive a certificate during the

summer holidays from Falkirk Council. We congratulate these pupils of this

excellent achievement.

Consulting with parents

Consultation with parents ensures that all improvements and developments are

based on real evidence.

At the May parents` evenings, we consulted with parents on their child`s

experience from the previous year.

We asked how satisfied you were with the support given to you and your child

this session. The results were, with last years` scores in brackets:

Excellent 57% (64%) Very Good 32% (34%) Good 8% (0%)

Satisfactory 3% (0.5%) Weak 0% (0%) Unsatisfactory 0% (0%)

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Year on year, the feedback is positive and we welcome all your comments on how

we can continue to improve the school for your children.

Here are some of the positive and supportive comments from our parents.

“My daughter has matured greatly this session and is ready for high school.”

“Thank-you as I feel my daughter has had a wonderful experience and

Stenhousemuir staff are part of our family!”

“Big thank-you to all teachers and support staff for excellent level of teaching

and continuous support all through the year.”

“Nothing is ever a problem between teaching staff, office or helpers. I can see

everyone looks out for all pupils.”

“My son has settled in well to this school and is progressing very well. The school

and the staff are great and I could not think of anything they need to improve.”

“We are happy with the overall experience we have received as a family.”

“Could not be more pleased with the school.”

“I really like twitter as it helps me to know more about what is going on - more

of this!”

“My child was shy and withdrawn at the start of P1 and I am sincerely

overwhelmed at how much she has grown into her own wee person.”

“I have had amazing support from my child`s teacher.”

“I am pleased with my daughter`s progress. She has lots of opportunities to be

creative in different way which she enjoys.”

“Really pleased with Stenhousemuir Primary and their approach to learning.”

“My son is really enjoying the after school work on Matilda and really loves

singing and dancing with Go Dance.”

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“Class dojo app has been a good thing, it keeps you informed with what`s

happening in school.”

“We always read the newsletters on-line and all the notes and letters sent home,

so information is always readily given and available to parents.”

“I get the one page “forward plan” at the start of the year and this is really

helpful.”

Here are the comments that will help us to further improve our school with the feedback form Mrs. Reid.

Parents - “More notice of the need for parent helpers. It is difficult to get away

from work with only a few days’ notice.”

Parent - “Earlier warning of events happening at school which involve

costumes!”

Parent - “A little more info on what to wear on dress down days.”

Mrs. Reid - We will ensure parents are given more notice of all events.

Parent - “During the breaks and lunchtime, it would be good to have games

organised for children by the support staff and more toys and games to play

with.”

Mrs. Reid - The playground group will talk to support staff about this to

improve this area.

Parent - “Perhaps progress children and challenge then further.”

Mrs. Reid - All staff are encouraged and supported to challenge all pupils to

their potential. Let us know if you do not feel this is the case for your child.

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Parent - “Could pupils moving to the big playground be introduced to this in

June?”

Mrs. Reid – Great idea! The P3 staff organised this is June.

Parent - “Can you make parents more aware of transition from class to class?”

Mrs. Reid – Great idea, you will notice I have included information earlier.

Parent - “I would like to see twitter used more often.”

Mrs. Reid – All the teachers have started to use twitter and this will further

improve next session.

Parent - “The standard of school lunches. My daughter complains about cold

food or overcooked.”

Parent - “Reduce the time the children are told to hurry up with eating their

packed lunches.”

Mrs. Reid – I will check on this and speak to staff who supervise to alert me at

any times this happens so I can check with catering staff. I will remind staff who

supervise to allow pupils the time they need to eat their lunch.

Parent - “Reduces the time it takes for teachers to let children into class after the

bell as well as being let out quickly at end of day.”

Mrs. Reid – I will remind staff about being quicker to collect lines after the bell.

At the end of the day, the bell is the signal to tidy up, so parents should expect to

wait for pupils for a bit of time.

Parent - “The heat in the class is excessive on sunny days.”

Mrs. Reid – I regularly remind staff to open all windows first thing in morning

before the heat builds up. Staff are good at taking pupils outside when the days

are so hot – not a very common occurrence!

Parent - “I would appreciate more freedom to contact teacher possibly by e-

mail.”

Mrs. Reid – Many teacher communicate with parents by e-mail. You can send e-

mails to school address and these will be forwarded to teaching staff.

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Consultation with pupils We consult with pupils through learning and teaching in class regularly. We also

ask pupils for feedback on new developments and you can see some quotes from

pupils throughout this report.

Consultation with staff

All staff, through the annual employee and development meetings have a one-to-

one opportunity with their line manager to discuss and agree their actions and

priorities for the year ahead. We make use of this information to support our

next steps.

Consultation with other agencies and the wider community

We regularly ask for feedback from a range of other agencies and

representatives of our wider community, and we try to take action where

feedback suggests a course of action that would improve outcomes for our pupils.

We also ask for feedback from all visitors to our school. We get very positive

feedback from all visitors.

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What we aim to achieve during 2015/2016

Local authority Improvement Priorities

• Further developing a thriving, sustainable and vibrant economy

• Continuing to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of our citizens and communities

• Increasing our efforts to tackle disadvantage and discrimination

Authority expectations 2013-2016

• Entitlement 1 – A curriculum which is coherent from 3-18

• Entitlement 2 – A broad, general, education

• Entitlement 4 – Opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work with a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and

health and well-being

• Entitlement 5 – Personal Support to enable them to gain as much as

possible from the opportunities which Curriculum for Excellence can provide

School Priorities

Values

We will finalise our vision and values through consultation with staff, parents

and pupils. We will issue this statement to all and use this to inform all future

actions.

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Nurture

Mrs. Friar, Mrs. Colbourne and Miss Donald have all been trained to support

further work in nurture.

Staff will receive training in attachment theory at the August in-service and we

will let you know the many changes that will take place in support of nurture

through our monthly newsletters.

Teaching and learning

All teaching staff will be trained in effective differentiation to ensure we continue

to meet the needs of every pupil in every class. These sessions will also support

differentiation in Big Maths.

We will review our approached to planning and assessment to ensure we are

tracking and monitoring pupils progress rigorously and systematically. Our

planning will ensure pupils develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for

work.

We will further develop the use of “Snapshot” jotters to support dialogue with

pupils about their learning as well as opportunities for applying their learning.

The finalised home learning policy will be implemented.

Staff will ensure that all learning is support by appropriate technologies,

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Reading

We aim to further raise attainment in reading.

Next session all staff will be trained in the “Thinking Reader” approach. This

will ensure consistency across the school as some staff have received training this

session.

We will reflect on our whole school policy to ensure that our school programme

fully meets the Curriculum for Excellence and meets the needs of every pupil.

We will ensure pupils use ICT to extend their knowledge of text.

Maths

We aim to raise attainment in numeracy and maths.

We will continue to implement Big Maths ensuring a balance between numeracy

and maths.

We will ensure pupils use ICT in support of spreadsheets and databases.

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Health and Wellbeing

We will review our approach by auditing our current position against the health

and wellbeing accreditation guidelines from Falkirk Council.

We will continue to provide all pupils with a variety of opportunities to support

and encourage a healthy lifestyle. We will work closely with the i-bike officer to

support more pupils to walk, cycle, scoot and roll to school!

Building the Curriculum

We will write our curriculum rationale which will be based on consultation with

staff, parents and pupils. We will issue this to all and this will inform and guide

all future curriculum change.

We will raise awareness with all staff about “Developing Scotland`s Young

Workforce” and how this can built into all learning experiences.

We will again reflect on our annual curriculum plan and ensure that all classes

have clear plans to support the Scot`s language and the culture of Scotland.

Outdoor learning will become embedded in these plans.

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We will further develop our approach to planning inter-disciplinary learning.

We will implement Spanish to all pupils through daily classroom language and

through topic work.

We will further develop our approach to vertical grouping in support of the

citizenship and sustainability agenda. Through this approach all pupils will be

involved in supporting the wider needs of the school, the community and the

world.

We will further develop our approach to PE with an extension of the pilot

supported by Larbert High School staff.

We will further develop our approach to music with an extension of the pilot

supported by Larbert High School staff.

And Finally!!

Well done for reading all the way through. I hope you found this information

useful in giving you a picture of our achievements, successes and developments

over the last session, as well as our plans for the session ahead.

Thanks to all staff, parents and pupils for their hard work during session

2014/2015 and we look forward to session 2015/2016.

LindaLindaLindaLinda----Anne ReiAnne ReiAnne ReiAnne Reidddd

HT

Aspiring HT The real one!

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