Sacred Heart Primary, Sacred Heart Nursery
and
Orbiston Nursery Class
Bellshill
IMPROVEMENT REPORT
2015
1. Introduction
Sacred Heart Primary School was opened in June 1937. Later the school received a Nursery class and most recently, we were joined with Orbiston Nursery. The school has a current role of 273 pupils aged 5 – 12yrs with 20 morning and 20 afternoon children in Sacred Heart Nursery Class and 40 morning and 40 afternoon children in Orbiston Nursery.
Within the year we have had some Management restructuring. Originally all three establishments were Managed by a HT, DHT, an Early Years Principal Teacher and 3 class committed PT's. From August 2015 the establishments will be managed by the Head Teacher, a Depute Head Teacher and a Principal Teacher.
Our school motto is; “A School Where Everyone Matters” and an overall motto to acknowledge all three establishments; ‘Working in Partnership, Together’.
We continue to work with all partners in providing a nurturing, stimulating and high achieving community of learning, both indoors and out, where individuals are supported to become active, independent and successful learners. We will build on our successes with our most recent awards in June 2015, endorsing and acknowledging the needs within our community and recognising our endeavours in promoting quality Partnerships within our community at the Early stages and building on them to promote the GIRFEC agenda, from Scottish Education 'Transforming Lives Through Partnerships' and 'Social Enterprise in Education'.
Our aims are to provide the best quality of Learning and Teaching and Care, allowing all pupils to achieve their potential in our society.
Our catchment area is composed of pupils from the Orbiston Area of Bellshill, West End area, the “Barratt” estate and the “Seaforth Road” estate. The school and Nurseries are situated on Liberty Road in the Orbiston area of Bellshill with easy access to the M8 and M74. Significant features of our Establishments are; the commitment of Care and Welfare of our pupils, our Inclusive, Nurturing ethos, our very strong relationships with Parents and the Distributed Leadership of Staff in developing partnership and teamwork. We aim to continue to welcome innovation and curricular flexibility and creativity in meeting local needs, where we welcome diversity and promote social inclusion in an environment 'Where Everyone Matters', 'Working in Partnership Together' within our three establishments; Sacred Heart Primary, Sacred Heart Nursery and Orbiston Nursery.
2. How well do young people learn and achieve?
HGIOS 3 - 1.1 Improvements in performance, 2.1 Learners’ experiences
Our pupils are motivated learners well supported by SMT, Teaching Staff and Support Staff. Staff are dedicated and focused in all priorities of pupils' needs. The HT, DHT and EYPT meets regularly to plan for improvements and track the effectiveness of these.
Early Years
The EYPT is supported by SMT to micro manage the day to day running of our Nurseries, coordinating very effectively the additional 600 hours, NAMS and staffing rotas and duties. Engagement in NL 'Early Years' refresh has engaged staff in quality CPD opportunities developing quality planning of Early Play, Literacy and Numeracy. These opportunities have been implemented into the everyday planning in the Early Years curriculum and have been monitored by SMT at regular Nursery visits. Pupils have been celebrating their successes which are displayed and documented in the Nursery walls and in Care Plans. Most effectively is the focus in Assessment, where pupils were encouraged to regularly talk about their own learning. Pupils were able to talk collaboratively with key adults and recall their strengths and successes. Staff update the Care Plans regularly to collate the quality of experiences pupils are having. A strong focus at the Early Years stages is building trust and partnership with Parents / Carers. On a day to day basis this has been very effective with the daily leadership of the EYPT organising induction meetings, support for learning visits, workshops, partnership collaborations and improvements in transition.
Parents and Carers have been involved more often than ever with their child's learning and have enjoyed more opportunities to work alongside staff in Forest Rambles, Lunch Clubs, Outdoor Play and Learning opportunities and fundraising.
Links with Partner Nurseries have been strengthened by the support of NL Early Learning Refresh, where key staff have facilitated quality CPD opportunities for staff to develop resources within the community. The HT of SHN and Orbiston Nursery was identified as a representative 'Champion' within the Bellshill and Uddingston area to further facilitate support meetings with colleagues and encourage collaboration among Early Years staff. This has been very effective in developing further leadership and networking skills and building capacity for improvements within each establishment. Consistent approaches have been developed therefore throughout the Authority.
Early Years staff continue to work collaboratively with their Primary school colleagues addressing the Improvement Plan Priorities from Early to second stages creating programmes of study's in Assessment, Technologies, Music Art and design. Collaboration with Parents and carers has helped further develop the quality and quantity of transition events that pupils experience. SMT were able to build up better information of pupils’ strengths and recognise areas of support to ensure a happy and fulfilling transition to Primary 1.
Staff engage in discussions for improvements, and collectively meet the needs of the Care Inspectorate.
Pupils have had rich experiences of being members of Committees and having their opinions heard regarding improvements in their Establishments and raising awareness of Eco / Health and Outdoor Learning and Play. Sacred Heart Nursery has Piloted, NL Early Years Active Literacy strategies and will liaise with Orbiston Nursery to implement these fully this Year. We are Forest members in the Authority and training has been shared to develop ‘Outdoor Learning and Play’ at the Early Years Establishments.
Our Partnership work with Staff, Pupils, Parents, YMCA and Community Learning and Development has been recognised in June 2015 by Education Scotland 'Transforming Lives through Partnership' and Social Enterprise in Education as a model of excellent practice where families from Sacred Heart Primary and Lawmuir Primary have worked collaboratively to promote respect, ambition and achievement, coming together regularly at lunch clubs in a neutral setting in the YMCA. Here the Nursery parents build trust and confidence in themselves with the support of Staff to help them further support their children in the Orbiston community throughout the year prior to P1 transition. These awards well publicised and celebrated within the community. With the Management restructuring, staff and parents will collaborate together in August 2015 to enable the continuation of this vital project within our community with existing resources.
Primary School
We started the year with the welcome return of several temporary staff members, a changing management structure and unforeseen promotions within the year which changed the overall dynamics of staff. which have been with us for several years now. These proved to be serious considerations in the Management of any consistency in improvements and have seen at the end of the year successful appointments of 4 permanent posts to the Teaching staff while redeploying the EYPT and losing two other Managers to other Authorities. SMT had to work hard to supply internally within the resources available in all three establishments to ensure continuity of care and education for pupils. With that in mind and with the appointment of two Probationer Staff members and the 600 hours additional staffing in the Nursery classes, the history of systems and processes in place for building the Curriculum for Excellence has had to be further explained and placed in context for better understanding of the Strategic planning necessary of Sacred Heart Primary and Nurseries in 2015.
Priority 1 Technologies - Year 1
In it's first year of focus, almost all staff were already competent users of technology in their everyday lives. Through the IT refurbishment classes were given two new PC's in class. Through PFA fundraising and school budgeting each class was provided with ipads, digital cameras, smartboards or overhead projectors. From previous years, SMT monitoring scheduled, class lessons had observed the use of technology as an essential tool for effective learning, teaching and research. The improvement priorities built on opportunities for pupils to access GLOW, eportfolios and staff to utilise SEEMIS reporting and interactive website subscriptions ie Education City, BBC, Gogglebox and new apps through ipads to further develop technologies to improve the quality of L&T in lessons.
Through monitoring, pupils regularly accessed IT to develop research skills, confidence in CfEx experiences and engage in quality activities to record active learning and play, which were in turn presented at assemblies, Parents' evenings and SMT visits as evidence of 'good practice.
Challenges in accessing GLOW were hindered temporarily within the year when the site was upgraded.
More use of technology has been apparent at assemblies, managing visual evidence of pupils' learning. Sound and vision has added more quality and interest to these gatherings, celebrating pupils' successes.
Some staff have volunteered to attend IT twilight courses in NL to further develop their IT skills. Staff have been very supportive of each other in applying IT in class lessons and have supported colleagues in their collegiate time and INSET days.
Staff continue to access SEEMIS for reporting and everyday admin tasks. Office Staff are very competent in utilising IT and are very supportive of others.
Reports this year went very well, with reduced technical problems. Time was given on several occasions to support staff to meet the deadlines for this task.
Development days allowed working parties to look at the School Improvement Plan, Priority 1, in particular the IT infrastructure of the establishments and develop programmes of study to develop skills in IT and application of use in IT.
· With the appointment of permanent posts, the school will benefit from consistent IT coordinators in the Primary and nursery setting.
· All staff will continue to built confidence in providing daily opportunities of utilising IT in class to further develop pupils skills in IT for lifelong learning.
· More funding will be assigned to further develop IT provisions, including upgrades to older machines to extend their usage.
· Pupils will continue to build their confidence in utilising IT in research, consolidating skills and practice and presenting to others.
· SEEMIS pastoral reports will be further developed with new SMT structure as a chronological account of incidents within the GIRFEC agenda.
· Technologies will be further developed in 2015 / 2016 Priority 1 - Year 2
Priority 2 'God's Loving Plan' Year 1
Primary staff were introduced to this new Resource from SCES in August 2014 INSET. Staff were able to read the resource and discuss the implication of implementation. All resources were displayed for everyone to read. A Parents' Information Evening was planned to explain the impact the new resource would have within the Curriculum for Excellence and how it would be implemented alongside 'This is Our Faith'
Attendance was low. Parents who were unable to attend meeting, were also given an opportunity to view the resources displayed in the foyer and during the Parents' Night. Information letters were also given to families inviting parents to contact school if they had any questions.
This resource was implemented in the Forward Planners and staff were able to build confidence in its implementation.
Pupils were given a presentation at assembly from SMT to explain the new resource. Pupils were given opportunities to ask question with their Class Teacher and / or with HT / DHT.
God's Loving Plan will run consistently throughout the year at all stages in the Primary school.
Additional work was developed in the planning stages for staff to improve Forward Planning procedures of 'God' Loving Plan' and to look at their links with 'Health and Wellbeing'
Staff discussions have agreed that the implementation was successful and pupils are enjoying engaging with this new resource.
We will continue to monitor its impact on pupils' learning and develop any resources necessary to help further understanding.
Continue to encourage participation at P6 and P7 stages in 'Pope Francis Faith Award'
Introduce this document once launched in September 2015 at SCES Conference as a self evaluation document for School, Parish and Community; 'Charter for Catholic Schools in Scotland'
Priority 3 Monitoring Planning, Tracking assessment and Reporting - Year
This continues to prove a substantial Priority within the establishments' Curriculum for excellence. A visual display of all Improvements is present in the establishments' foyer for Parents / carers and visitors to view throughout the year. Practical evidence is added by staff as the priority is developed in the year and this is represented by photos and copies from Learning Journals.
The Learning Journals have been developed alongside a chart or grid that has written expectations at each class stage and their realistic ability in producing evidence of pupils' learning.
From Monitoring 'Learning and Teaching' SMT and staff had already established a consistent approach to the lesson being taught ie Learning Intentions, WALT & WILF and Success Criteria. Pupils and staff had established symbols, stampers and messages to alert pupils about their 'next steps' and success in learning. Messages of specific feedback were also included to give pupils more details of their 'next steps'
Pupils and staff continue to manage three jotters include a WAC jotter (work across the curriculum including interdisciplinary work) Taught Writing (Formal Literacy skills building of creative writing in the form of Narrations or Genres) and Maths Jotter and a Learning Journal.
SMT have built in discussions which are monitored with Staff and Pupils about Learning and Teaching. Pupils are able to identify in their jotters their successes in learning through
· Traffic Lights, 2 Stars and a Wish, Target achieved Stamper
With SMT, pupils can identify that they are successful learners, from the evidence in their work and identify their 'next steps' to improve. Pupils are invited to meet with SMT each term to present and discuss their work. From P1 - P7 they then can record an overall picture of success in their Learning Journals;
· All about Me drawings and writing (each term capturing their ability to build on detail of themselves which is linked to Bilateral Integration)