Pencaitland Primary Blog

Headteacher

Session 2008-2009

August 2008

We look forward to the new school year with great enthusiasm.  Our new Depute Head Teacher, Mrs McBean has now started and is very impressed by the school.  The achievements of last session were a credit to all staff, pupils and parents and contribute to the great reputation the school enjoys in the community.

School developments last session saw the development of the school blog which is now running very effectively and allows children to share their achievements with a wider audience.  International Blogging Day is on 31st August so hopefully you will take the opportunity to have a look and perhaps even leave a comment.  The comments are greatly appreciated by the children.

The introduction of more active learning opportunities was the major impact of the talking and listening development last session and we look forward to developing this area further over the current session.  The nursery development led to the introduction of ‘learning stories’ and provided parents and carers with a more vivid picture of what the children do in the nursery class.

Developments this session will focus on developing thinking skills with the children, ensuring more depth and relevance to the language and mathematics programmes and looking at Scottish culture links.

Once again I look forward to working with parents, pupils, staff and the wider school community to improve the already high quality of education for our children.

Session 2007-2008

January 2008

A belated Happy New Year to all,  I am absolutely delighted to be back at Pencaitland after my secondment to Haddington Infant School.  I found the experience very enjoyable and I return with renewed enthusiasm and some good ideas.  It is always beneficial to see other settings and systems.  I am pleased with the ease  of settling back in and appreciate this is due to the excellent work of Mrs Swinton, who was acting Head Teacher while I was away, and to the dedicated staff we have at Pencaitland.

I found the blog a great way to keep in touch while I was away and it is great to see this initiative developing.  I have just checked the statistics and in the last 24 hour alone we have had 18 visitors - 1154 visits since the blog started so there is certainly an audience out there.

The staff have agreed a target of a blog post at least once per month and I will try to update this page at least once per month.  Keep checking us out and do please leave comments - it encourages staff and children.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the PTA Ceilidh on Saturday.

September 2007

The new term is now well underway and I never cease to be amazed at how quickly the classrooms are up and running.

Great news from the last entry  -  the school has achieved its second Green Flag, earned an Enterprise Award, achieved Level 1 in the Health Promoting Schools Scheme and has been awarded £50 for it’s success with Walk to School Week.   Well done to every one involved.  These awards all arrived on my desk in the last week of term or the first week of the new session and are testimony to the hard work and achievements of parents, staff and pupils and to the ethos of Pencaitland Primary School.

A recent visit from Stuart McKinnon, our new Quality Improvement Officer, confirmed this view. He was very impressed with the ethos of the school and felt so strongly about the quality of our new P7 PR officers, who showed him round the school, that he wrote each of them a personal letter.  I had been a bit concerned when I spotted them showing him the storage cupboards and the back of the stage which is still cluttered with excess furniture!  Honestly Stuart - it will soon be cleared!

A priority development for this session is the development of the school blog.  If you remember I was a little dubious at the start of this development last session but am now totally converted.  I have had a huge amount of positive feedback on this development and was delighted when staff agreed that this was to be a development priority for the new session.  Cutting edge developments are great but sustainability is really what it is all about. To this end we all had a first development session on blogging this afternoon and are determined to sustain the good work started by Lynne Lewis last session.  I hope you read this Lynne and are proud of us! On behalf of the Pencaitland Primary School community I would like to thank you for all the work you put in and for opening our eyes to the possibilities presented by new technology.  I would also like to thank Mr Peter Kingsbury, who will be supporting staff through this development.  Good Luck Peter.

I hope as parents you will join us on this learning journey - encourage your children to check out the blog and make comments and please do make comments yourself.

At the  first meeting of the new Parent Council on Thursday the use of the blog as a means of opening up a new and vibrant way of communicating with parents through the blog was discussed and they hope to open up a category on this site very soon.  Perhaps the PTA could follow suit? Let me know what you think?

Please remember that this is a learning curve for all staff and pupils and do forgive any mistakes that we make.

Happy Blogging!

PS - We hope to update our events calendar soon.

Session 2006-2007

Welcome to the new Pencaitland Primary School blog.  Ms Lewis has just convinced me it is a good idea!  I must admit to being a little ignorant on such things but the prospect of learning something new is always exciting.  Over the next few months I look forward to learning more, and hope parents, children and staff will join me on this learning journey.

Freda Ross

Visit from Alan Blackie -

Yesterday Alan Blackie, the Director of Education and Children’s Services visited the school.  He was very impressed by the warm welcome he received from our three public relation officers.  He commented on how great it was to see so many children working hard in groups, pairs and individually.  We saw some children in Primary three playing a very exciting game to help them learn maths and many of you were busy using IT to help you learn.  We enjoyed a fantastic highland dancing demonstration as part of the nursery celebrations for St. Andrew’s day.  I was very proud of all the pupils and staff as we walked round.  Thank you so much for all your hard work.  You are all a credit to the school,

Freda Ross December 1st 2006

January 2007

I trust everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.  The first assembly of the new year focused on new year resolutions and it was remarkable how many children have resolved to cut down on chocolate.  All things in moderation.  Some children had resolved to work even harder in school which was great to hear.  All children agreed to keep to the Golden Rules.  An information sheet on the school discipline policy, created with the help of the School Board, was sent home to parents.

Working with parents always enhances the work of the school.  Thankyou to all the parents who are involved in after school clubs at the moment and also to the small focus group who helped produce parent information sheets to support the sex education programme in P6.  They are currently being used and I know the parents of P6 children will find them very helpful.

The blog is going from strength to strength and there is a growing enthusiasm in the school for it.  I certainly look forward to looking at it and yesterday alone 53 people logged on to it - we even have a reader in Los Angeles.

March 2007

What a fantastic month March has been so far.  Health Week was the most exciting ever with a huge range of activities planned for the children.  Red Nose Day was organised by our very enterprising P7s and raised £415.  Well done to everyone who took part.  The blog is growing from strength to strength and it was interesting to see the link to the school in Australia.  It would seem that school to school links are a definite advantage.  Perhaps Pupil Councils in different schools could communicate in this way.  A little project I think!

May 2007

A busy term ahead for staff and pupils.  Mrs Swinton and the ECO members have just sent the application for the school’s second Green Eco flag.  Mrs Schimmerman and Mrs Swinton are running a gardening club for some P5 children who are busying tidying up the playground barrels as part of the ongoing maintenance work for the flag.

The school is just about to submit an application to officially become a health promoting school.  I will keep you updated on the outcomes of these two initiatives.

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