Because You’re a Sky Full of Stars

Saint Joseph’s Primary School St. Joseph’s primary school wants the best possible outcomes for us the children of St. Joseph’s it wants to make sure that it gets it right for every child (GIRFEC) so that we have the best start in life and are ready to succeed by becoming Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors to society (CfE)

Saint Joseph’s Primary School We want to know how well we are doing this as a school and how we can improve. We are continuously evaluating what we do and how it makes a difference to us learners.

How well do we the pupils learn and achieve? We think that have we made very good progress in this area. Yellow for Yes Maths We have a new Maths Curriculum within our school. We are using Big Maths, Heinemann, Active Maths, TJ and Scottish Heinemann Maths to ensure that we all succeed in Maths. Our mental maths strategies are improving with our use of CLIC every day.

How well do we the pupils learn and achieve? Our work on our whiteboards really helps our teachers to see how we are learning, and what we are achieving.

Active Maths games make learning fun. How well do we the pupils learn and achieve?

HAM board games help to consolidate our learning. How well do we the pupils learn and achieve?

Education city games challenge us. How well do we the pupils learn and achieve?

SUMDOG and Heinneman Active Maths ICT games allow us to apply this learning in different contexts How well do we the pupils learn and achieve?

Literacy Our Big Writing mornings help us to write super stories - Our great wall displays and resources for writing, give us ideas on how to use VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation).

Literacy The use of VCOP pyramids and games help us to up-level our writing.

ICT Our school has recently been able to purchase more laptops. This means that there is one laptop between 3 pupils.

ICT We like being able to use ICT across the curriculum to help us with our research and with our presentation skills.

ICT We like learning to use games like Scratch which teach us about programming.

French In modern languages we are learning French in all classes. This helps us to develop our French language skills from P1 to P7. We enjoy playing French games on Language nut and EDPAX to help enhance our learning

Spanish Spanish is currently taught as a Masterclass Session for P1-3 who can choose to do if they would like to.

Masterclasses Our Masterclasses allow all pupils to have choice and personalisation within our Curriculum at St. Josephs school. P1-P3 pupils can choose Spanish, Arts and Crafts or Nature Walks

Masterclasses P4-P7 pupils can choose Stage Design, Photography or ICT. We like to learn and achieve at St. Joseph’s Primary so it is great to be able to learn new skills at our Masterclasses.

Performing P1 and P2 also worked together to produce an Annual Nativity Performance for parents and the wider school community.

Performing Performing to a large audience has helped us to feel a sense of pride and achievement in our musical and dramatic ability.

Performing During the final term at St. Joseph’s Primary last year our Whole School worked together on a Back to the Fifties Interdisciplinary Learning Theme leading to a Whole School Production of Grease is the Word at St. Joseph’s.

Performing The School Gala Day Committee worked with staff and pupils to create backdrops and props which were used to create our Grease Gala Day Float

Performing Grease was the word at St. Joseph’s………This was a great achievement for all our pupils and families and an excellent example of working together as a school community..

Performing And….we won first prize…...yeah!!!.

How well is our school helping us to develop and learn? Very good progress has been made in this area. Yellow for Yes – Our Pupil Profiles help us to set achievable targets

How well is our school helping us to develop and learn? They help to provide richer evidence of what we say, write, make and do. We like to look back through our profiles and see how our work has improved as we move from P1 to P7

Assessment Summative We enjoy using computers for our CEM Adaptive tests These tests help our teachers know how well we are doing in maths and literacy

Assessment Formative We held a competition to create new Learning Intention and Success Characters. Pupils now have a better understanding of what we are learning and how we can be successful and set next steps.

Questioning Formative We also like our Questioning Walls and Higher Order Thinking Fans. This helps us to question our peers in group work and to create questions of our own.

Challenge Morning and topic challenges are helping us to develop our problem solving skills.

Growth Mindset Growth Mindset wall displays and discussions make us believe that we can achieve in all areas of the curriculum.

How well is the school improving the quality of its work? We are always asked for our opinions on how we can improve our learning. Yellow for Yes At St. Joseph’s we work together to self- evaluate to improve learning for all our pupils.

Learning Chats We have Learning Chats when we can talk about our learning and discuss our work in our mono- jotters

Business Lunches We attend Pupil Business Lunches; where we can discuss our views on learning and achievement in our school

Evaluation We can give our opinions on Learning and Achievement at the Evaluation Station

How well is the school working with partners? The school is making very good progress with this area and we think that our school communicates with our parent and the community. Yellow For Yes We think that the School is Getting it Right for all Pupils.

How well is the school working with partners? Information is communicated very clearly to our parents through termly newsletters, monthly bulletins, ongoing updates, weekly learning updates ongoing news on the School Website.

How well is the school working with partners? Our ICT Masterclass pupils are responsible for updating our school Blog so our parents and friends can find out about our learning.

How well is the school working with partners? We like to work with our church community At the Church Fete At Sacramental preparation At other church celebrations.

How well is the school working with partners? Our School has decided that is should have a Theme Song. The song chosen was Happy and the community worked together to develop a Happy Production. This shows our shared vision for getting it right for every child and reflected our aims as a Rights Respecting School.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Our School Committee Life has continued to be a great way for us to meet pupils from P1-P7.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Our School Playground Committee have worked hard to buy new playground equipment. They have also created a P7 Legacy Wall.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Our school also have a Gardening Gang of parents and pupils. This will help us to benefit from outdoor learning activities.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Our school offers a wide choice of After School Clubs. These include Choir, Football, Netball and Bookclub.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Our Going for Gold award gives pupils a chance to celebrate all kinds of achievements and enjoy success at Golden Afternoons.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Our Rainbow Gang has helped our younger pupils to benefit from a more flexible afternoon curriculum.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? The Golden Gang in the upper school has helped to develop the confidence and social skills of all pupils who have taken part.

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? Fizzy Group has helped some pupils with their fine motor skills. Chatterbox helps some of us with our speaking skills

How does the school ensure equality and inclusion and promote diversity across the school? The School’s Rainbow Reward System based upon the Gifts of the Holy Spirit means that we have great behaviour in our school. We enjoy achievement and recognition for this by taking part in Fun Themed Afternoons.

Raising Attainment Our key areas for development to take this priority forward are: Green for growth: We would like more topic themes throughout the school. Green for growth: We would like more opportunities for further investigations in science.