Angus MacRury’s Weblog

Wednesday 22 March

We have had notification that we are to be inspected.

More later…

Monday 13th March 2006

Today we only have 19 children in school. We have been hit really badly by a winter flu and vomiting bug. Two teachers are off and our classroom assistant. I contact Ruth Munro for Advice and by 10:30 we are in discussions with NHS Lothian just in case it is an outbreak of anything dangerous. We supply all the details of all the children and why they are off. I phone all the parents of absent children to pass on advice from NHS Lothian and record the symptoms of each child and relay this all back to NHS Lothian. I have to go home at 1:30pm with a severe headache and vomiting. I spend the next 17hours in bed.

Tuesday 14th March

We are still three staff down. I am back again feeling awful but able to function. We have 20 children today. I am in Nursery and help to cover the classes that have been combined for the week. Parents’ night for tomorrow and Thursday are postponed till next week. This information is relayed by letter to those in school and by phone to all those absent. ICT Club is cancelled.

Wednesday 15th March

Three staff is off today.21 children off. We have supply so run with a P5/7 and a P1/4. I am in Nursery and the day goes well. I have to cancel going to the Assessment working group, as I have to cover P1/4. The P5/7 have Traditional music tuition today and this goes well with the 5 children. They also work with Glenn Masters on Playground games. We are helped today by Marion who delivers a fun music lesson for all the children in school and then each class. Our ICTO arrives to sort out 5 of the new Macs that are not showing the correct dock when the pupils log in.

I manage to complete my Stage 2 self-evaluation stuff for Ruth Munro and e-mail it on to her.

Thursday 16th March

Christine is off today. We have four staff members off today We now have 20 children. We run with the same classes as yesterday. I am in Nursery.

In the afternoon I manage to catch up on outstanding paper work. I have an unarranged meeting with Rob Armitage regarding a pupil absence. I have another unarranged meeting with Tom Neal regarding some building improvements scheduled for the April Break. Sports Club is cancelled

Friday 17th March

We still have 20 pupils absent and three members of staff down. Some children in Nursery are now ill. We manage to get through today. Assembly is cancelled. What a week!!

A Barra Beach at sunset, Summer 2005

Monday 6th March

I have strained my back over the weekend. Too much sport as a teenager, and 5 a side football for the last 10 years. My body is feeling the strain. The Nursery is calm and everything goes as planned today, we have seven pupils in the Nursery today and we are making daffodils and painting a wall frieze. At 11:20 Pauline and myself spend 1 and a half hours planning the rest of the week, evaluating the previous week and writing up observations and next steps and targets for each of the pupils.

I manage to fire out a couple of e-mails that could not wait. I put a newsletter together with Christine. We have been awarded £1000 from East Lammemiur Community Council and Crystal Rigg to help fund the basketball court for the community in the playground. This will be a fantastic facility for a small rural community. It will also add to the significant ground improvements undertaken in the past 18months.

I am at JMH in the Afternoon for a meeting about the proposed move away from the Phoenix MIS that we all have in our schools currently. There is no doubt that we need to move with the times on this one and find a product that will deliver what the School, Authority and Scottish Executive want. We decide that in order to do this a project manager would require to be appointed as this job would be a huge undertaking.

Tuesday 7th March

I have to deal with an issue raised by CAMHS first thing this morning. It takes the next hour to unravel the detail. I then spend the rest of the morning painting and making in the Nursery. In the afternoon I am at JMH again, this time for the long haul of the Moderation panel.. I quite enjoy this meeting as there is some lively debate and general disagreement at times. A lot of debate about pupil behaviour and whether behaviour can deem a child exceptional. You decide the answer to that one as I am totally confused!!

The meeting takes almost 4 hours by which time I am almost crippled. I hobble to the car.

Wednesday 8th March

I am 41 today but feel 81 I can hardly walk today as my back is so sore. I manage to get to work at 8:30 after getting cakes for the staff, Nursery and House of the Month.

I struggle in the Nursery and in the end have to ask Sue to take over as I stuck a couple of times and could not move. I arrange o see a doctor and head into Dunbar to get some pain relieving gel. By 8pm I am feeling a lot better but it is not the type of day you want on your birthday. At least two good things happen today. We get all our Macs refreshed. And as if by magic a basketball court appears in the playground.

In terms of school work, very little is achieved today.

Thursday 9th March

I am almost back to full mobility. I spend the morning in Nursery trying to encourage the pupils to make crocuses. I fail. For some reason the pupils seem to be going on about superman, Batman and so on. Pauline decides to run with it and starts to make superheroe capes out of material for each of the pupils. I go online and get some logos. Pauline and the pupils make hats. By 10:30 we have 8 superheroes in the room and a Head teacher preparing the snack (for sanity). We take them to the gym to be superheroes and they all go home still dressed that way. None of this was on our plan from Monday but it got them all going and it came from them. What a morning!

In the afternoon I am at the IT group meeting in JMH. Although I have to leave early I am beginning to see a much clearer vision of where we are going with this. I have my own personal concerns about SSDN due to the debacle that was NOF training. Did that move the capabilities of all teachers on? Are all teachers ready for the challenges that SSDN will bring. I hope so but I have my concerns. In terms of hardware all schools should at least in my view have access to 1 modern computer between 4, two good quality laser printers with manuals or digital displays, an interactive whiteboard in each teaching area, at least 2 data projectors, a digital camera in every class, a digital video camera in each teaching area, a DVD player and TV in every classroom and access to Digital TV in the school. I could go on but this should be a minimum. At Inner wick we are well on the way to most of this but have had to be very creative in terms of funding this hardware.

Friday 10th March

 

Monday 27th February

This morning I am in the Nursery. I am wondering how many Nursery Classes have a male teacher or even a male presence in the class. Maybe we have something unique here in Innerwick that should be promoted and publicised. We have 12 spaces in the Nursery at present.

On the 24th Feb statistics on Pre-school education and childcare workforce were published. The finding are sobering.

There were 30,640 staff in pre-school and childcare centres in Scotland in September 2005. Of these, 6,110 worked directly with children and managed other staff, 22,000 worked directly with children but had no management responsibility, and 2,520 did not work directly with children.

The vast majority of staff working in pre-school education and childcare were female (98 per cent) and White (98 per cent). Approximately 15 per cent of the workforce were aged 50 years or older. In the Scottish workforce as a whole, 47 percent of staff were female, 98 percent were White and 26 per cent were aged 50 years or older.

The Nursery is fantastic and last year received a very positive HMIE/CC Inspection. I also have been trawling good
Nursery Websites and came across this one which I fond useful. Sometimes the Nursery provides you with an insight to how the mainstream setting should be organised, at other times you question whether you still will have your sanity in a years time. We read the Gruffalo today which will be followed all week by books written by Julia Donaldson.

 

Tuesday 28th February

Today we are making pancakes. How many other Headteachers in Scotland are being paid to make pancakes with 3 and 4 year olds today?

After a messy morning the pancakes are devoured at snack time. All the children made their own batch, cooked by myself and then invited P5/6/7 up to the Nursery to share snack with them. Fantastic. We should have been reading Mr Wolves Pancakes today but I forgot to take it in from home. We read The Smartest Giant in Town instead. In the afternoon I meet with Kay Chapman at West Barns Primary School about some of the finer points regarding the combined trip to York.

From 3:15 I take the ICT Club tonight we have 18 pupils from a roll of 41. This figure is very impressive.

I rush home for tea and I am back to school for 7:30pm for a PTA meeting which I have been asked to attend. The meeting turns in to a Headteachers Question Time. I do my best to explain the implications of moving to two classes next session and how this will be organised. I try to encourage the PTA to be more proactive in promoting the school achievements.

These are some of the events that are happening now or soon at Innerwick.
New Bins
Primary 1 and 2 are creating visually stimulating wastebins for the school grounds. This is with parental help and funding from
Virador Ltd.

Playground Games development. As a development of a Pupil Council request Katie Forsyth and Glen Masters are working with P5-7 on playground games for all pupils.

THE WAFFLE a school magazine, written and published by the pupils of P5-7. This will be published in March and available Free throughout the Dunbar Area. An electronic version will be posted on the soon to be published Determined to Succeed pages at
www.take2theweb.com/pub/sso/Innerwick. Pupils are contacting advertisers this week.

Coming Soon
Coming in March 2006
Jump Rope for Heart. To raise money for heart research.
Coming in April 2006 Stars in your Eyes Innerwick This will be to raise funds for Cancer research. Organised by the pupil council/ PTA
Coming in June/August
In conjunction with
Community Wind power a Wind turbine and electronic display equipment is to be constructed at the school. Plans currently on display at the school.

School and Community BBQ organised by the Pupil Council and PTA

I talk a bit about children in our catchment that go to school in the Borders yet transfer to Dunbar grammar for Secondary as they are in the catchments. This has always been an issue for Innerwick Primary School. Two parents at the meeting know of 8 children in their local area and in our catchment that go to school in Borders. I sometimes talk too much…I get home at 9:47pm

 

Wednesday 1st March

HM Senior Chief Inspector Graham Donaldson presents his keynote address on the report on
Improving Scottish Education

2002-05 today. In his presentation he provides an overview of performance, he comments on the broad themes across sectors, he indicates capacity for improvement and he suggests key areas for future action.

 

Powerful and interesting stuff. We have no excuses.

I meet with contractors who are installing our basketball court at 8:15am. I do a site survey with them and leave them to get on with it after explaining H and S implications of working in the play area during school time. We keep the pupils inside today.

I have Euan at work this morning, as Marion is sick in bed. It is either that or I am off. I take him to Nursery at 12:30.

Today is St David’s Day in Nursery the pupils are all making Welsh flags colouring pictures of St David and taking home daffodils for mum. The smiles from the parents at pick up time make the job worthwhile. We read Monkey Puzzle today. I meet with a parent regarding the issue s raised at last night meeting. This is the 5th parent I have now met on the class restructuring.

 

Thursday 2nd March

I am at JMH for Moderation Panel this morning. The meeting is jam-packed and we do our best to allocate resources in a fair and consistent manner. Sometimes we have disagreements but I am sure that this must be the whole point of a panel rather than a single persons decision. I always feel mentally drained by these meetings.

I am back at school for 1:00pm. I manage to send a note out to parents about a Staff member getting a new post. I speak with another parent regarding the class restructuring for session 2006/07. I spend the rest of the afternoon looking through all recent Staff Development Training and updating my own records.

 

Friday 3rd March

It is Snowing in Innerwick but not that much. I am in P5/7 this morning and we are working on Number machines Level D, Symmetry Level C and Graphs, Level B.

After working with a pupil doing the graph work we were discussing a problem they were having with the question. I tried to explain.

“If 6 walk to school and 2 come by train what is the difference?”

“The pupils that come by train get to school quicker” was the answer. I kid you not. I will need to revise my questioning skills.