How has Dallas Primary School improved this year?

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1 How has Dallas Primary School improved this year? An end of year report for Parents June 2015

2 Why have reports about the school? This report looks at how the school has progressed since August 2014 and shows the direction the school will take in Sharing it with you is part of the improvement planning process at the school. What was different? In August, four pupils left Dallas Primary to continue their education at Forres Academy. Two Primary One pupils began their school career at Dallas School. For most of the year our role remained steady at 23 pupils with attendance in line with the national average. The year began with Mrs Wilson continuing her secondment and Mr Watson continuing as Acting Head Teacher 4 days per week. Our long-standing Head Teacher relief, Amanda Mailer left the school over the summer to take up a fulltime post in another school and was replaced permanently by Mairi Grant in October. Teacher shortages across the authority left the school short of a teacher for 2.5 days per week so Mr Watson and Mrs Wilson took on more teaching commitment to cover this. In February, we appointed Megan Wood to cover the staffing shortfall which also included our Support for Learning Teacher Erin Fraser who had been appointed temporarily as a class teacher in another school. Throughout the year, learning has been supported in the classrooms by Bev MacDonald and Helen Humphries. Jenny Petrie, our administrator, supported the day-to-day running of the school. At the end of September, a wall was removed between the two classrooms giving greater flexibility for learning activities. Further improvements to the school building the upgrading of the toilets and new flooring in the art, technology and science area was put on hold as the school was being considered for closure following the results of the Sustainable Education Review in Moray. In November, we received news that the school was to remain open as the council had agreed to a 5-year moratorium on the closure of any rural schools in Moray. Despite the number and the nature of the staffing challenges we have faced at the school, staff have still been able to forge ahead with planned improvements which have made a significant difference to learning, wellbeing and attainment.

3 How well do the children learn? All pupils are very well-behaved and are keen to learn. They are very supportive of each other and they work well in pairs, trios and groups. They enjoy contributing their ideas and thoughts to everything that is going on in the school and do so through our regular pupil council surgeries. Throughout the year there have been a wide variety of opportunities for the children to apply the skills they have been developing in their classroom learning. These have included events involving charities such as MFR Cash for Kids and UNICEF. There have been visits to The Findhorn Foundation and Moray Wastebusters to support science and sustainability learning and to the small school sports day at Dyke Primary School. Parents delivered Bikeability training to all pupils and Forres Active Schools provided Playground Leader training to P6/7 pupils and weekly lunchtime physical activities. Lieutenant General Seymour Monro, supported pupils in their contribution to the VC celebrations for William Anderson and staff and community members joined P6/7 pupils for weekly Book Group session to support reading learning. Primary-aged German footballers visited the school as part of our link with the Forres Vienenburg Twinning Association. The children and their teachers organised community events including our Harvest and Christmas Church services, a Burns Afternoon, Kids Teach the Parents Numeracy and Maths, ipads and Internet Safety Evening and our La Français Fantastique French afternoon. They also held activities to celebrate World Book Day. The pupils represented the school very successfully at the Forres Youth Entertains Concert, as marshals for the Glenn Moray Marathon and at the Forres Library and Rotary quizzes. Small groups of pupils participated in the Moray Cross Country competition, the Scottish Schools Swimming Championship and the Scottish Mathematics Challenge. Particular individual pupil successes this year include prize winners at the Moray Inter-school Sports, the Forres Flower Show, Elgin BID Winter Art competition and poems published as part of national Young Writers competitions. Pupils also had artwork displayed at Elgin Museum as part of their WWI exhibition.

4 How is learning supported? The introduction of ipads for every pupil has made a significant difference to learning this year. Internet access is now instantaneous allowing learners to access information quickly and easily. The children are organised as one class with teachers and classroom assistants working collaboratively to plan, deliver and assess learning experiences. At most times, two lessons with a similar learning focus take place in order to differentiate the learning experience and to meet individual needs. Pupils practise and apply learning through independent activities. Partnership with parents/carers is central to how we support learners. Planning for Progress and Progress Update appointments provide opportunities for dialogue between the child, parents and staff. Homelink folders continue to be our means of communication between school and home. Attainment at the school continues to improve. Assessments to track progress and assess potential were carried out in August for P1 and for the whole school, including P1, towards the end of May. This is in line with other schools in Moray and provides the authority, and the school, with consistent data that can be used to plan for improvement and pinpoint challenges. Ongoing assessment continues throughout the year and is based on what the children can make, say, write and do. Look at my learning shared weekly with parents continues to keep parents up to date with what their child has been learning and what they can do to improve. It is hoped that the use of ipads to share learning at home will replace and enhance this process next year as we work towards continuous profiling of the skills the children are developing. Supporting Challenges Children who find aspects of learning challenging have benefitted from the small pupil teacher ratio, additional support from our classroom assistants, additional support for learning from Mr Watson, and the school nurse. The added benefit of this support is apparent in the behaviour and application of our pupils and in the way that they support each other. Challenges to learning are and will continue to be identified and addressed as early as possible.

5 What s being done to improve the school? Our development work this year has focused on improving the early identification of the wellbeing need of the children by introducing them to all aspects of the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators. The children all know what it is like to feel Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Responsible, Respected and Included. Teachers have worked on their questioning techniques to develop deeper thinking and improve motivation for learning. Teachers have noticed different questioning techniques elicit varying responses and have been adjusting their questions accordingly. The children have become much more familiar with the skills that they are developing with displays, skills mats and lessons all highlighting skills as well as knowledge being learned. The next step is for the children to use ipad technology to record how they have been developing their skills and to use this to develop their skills profile and portfolio of learning. The introduction of French across the school and opportunities for children to apply their learning in the new curricular learning areas created by the alterations to the school completed last October has contributed to improved engagement and attainment in modern languages as well as some other areas of the curriculum. Throughout the year Dallas Primary School Partnership, chaired by Fiona Dey, met on a regular basis and tackled a consistent agenda which dealt with events at the school, how to improve the experience for the children and fundraising. Are the pupils meeting expected standards? Standards of attainment and achievement remain high with most children attaining better than their actual age for reading and around their actual age for mathematics. Almost all children are learning at the expected curriculum for excellence level for their age with some children making significant progress from prior levels.

6 What will happen in ? The pupil roll is projected to rise slightly with new families beginning to move into the area. Mrs Wilson will return from secondment after the summer holidays and will team teach 2-3 days per week with Mr Watson and Mrs Grant. Mr Watson will return to his substantive full time class teacher position and Mrs Grant will teach 2-3 days each week as Head Teacher relief. Mrs MacDonald will be available all day to assist learning and Mrs Petrie will be in the office every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Mrs Humphries will assist learning 2-3 afternoons per week. Mrs Sircus (PE) and Mrs Gilles (Recorder) will continue as normal. It is expected that Mr Watson will continue to deliver Support for Learning next session. As ever, the staff team will continue to work to improve the Dallas Experience for the children by continuing to develop learning and teaching and to build the curriculum by paying greater attention to the context of the school and its community. We will focus on the agenda set by the 2014 Children and Young People s Act to take account of the wellbeing of all pupils. We will also continue our work to develop the skills of the children in all areas of the curriculum. We will work closely with other schools in Forres ASG on modern languages, science, moderation of learning and raising awareness of children s rights. Our full improvement plan for is available on the school s website should you wish more details of improvements for next year; Thank you for your continuing support of Dallas Primary School. Arlene Wilson and Ross Watson June 2015