East Craigs Primary School Newsletter March 2021 Welcoming our Learners Back!

It has been lovely to welcome our Nursery, P1, P2 and P3 learners back to school, giving us all a little gimmer of positivity and hope for the future. Our younger groups of pupils seem to be genuinely delighted to be back to school and to see their teachers and classmates and seem, on the whole, quite unphased by the lengthy break from normal routine. Thank you to all parents, carers and other family members who helped to keep our pupils in routine and engaged with their learning during this period of remote learning. Hopefully, P4 – P7 will be able to return to school in the near future!

Home Learning Survey – Parent/Carer results

Thank you to all of our parents/carers who took part in the recent survey on home learning. we had 119 responses, which was a very good number. Here is an overview of the results:

Question 1 - “Is Home Learning working for you?”Yes 71%No 29% (several parents went on to explain that this was because their child would much prefer

to be at school, not because of the quality of work being set.

Question 2 – “What is going well?”What is going well? Number of times this was mentioned

Communication/support/feedback from teachers 29Check-ins/phone calls with teacher 28Recorded videos from teachers 27Organisation/structure/work plan for the day 25Variety and amount of work provided 21Work being uploaded the night before 15Games/apps (eg Education City, Reading Eggs etc) 13

Question 3 – “What could be improved?”The two main responses to this question were areas we were already developing, based on other, informal feedback from parents/carers. Clearly, the most effective way of motivating our pupils when learning remotely is by enabling them to see/hear their teachers.

You said We didMore pre-recorded lessons from teachers

All class teachers posted literacy and numeracy teaching clips on a daily basis and specialist teachers also created these for Science, PE and French/German.

Every child could watch a video of an East Craigs teacher reading a story every day.

Weekly HT led assembliesLive Interaction with teachers Phone calls to our younger learners

Regular check-ins on Teams Having access to learning resources beforehand, to allow time to get organised for home learning.

Resources uploaded the evening before

Home Learning Survey – Pupil results

East Craigs Primary School Newsletter March 2021 Class teachers asked their pupils to answer similar questions to those in the parent/carer survey. 169 pupils took part. Here is a summary of the results.

Question 1 - “Is Home Learning working for you?”Yes 66%Sometimes 20%No 14% (again, several pupils who answered “No” also explained that this was because they

would rather be at school)

Question 2 – “What is going well?”What is going well? Number of times this was mentioned

Check-ins/Teams Calls/Being able to see friends 24Teacher videos/lessons 19Getting help online from teachers 12Using Apps/Games 10Being able to work on my own/at my own pace 8Story time 6Art/Craft activities 6Using Teams 5

Question 3 – “What could we improve on?”Similar themes to the parent survey. And we seem to have very creative pupils!

“What could we improve on?” Number of times this was mentionedMore check-ins with my teacher and friends 11More video lessons 10More art/drawing lessons 7

Nursery update

Our Nursery pupils continue to show themselves as very resilient individuals, coping amazing well with both the return to school after a lengthy break and a change of location for the first two weeks. They are enjoying their new space in the main school building, whilst the kitchen upgrade is carried out. At the time of writing, this is progressing as expected and we are hoping it will be fully operational by next week.

Forest Kindergarten has also started back, and both staff and pupils are enjoying exploring the environment at Cammo again!

World Book Day – Thursday 4 March

We have a busy programme of events planned for World Book Day this year, spanning the whole week. Pupils will take part in daily online sessions with authors and illustrators as well as hearing East Craigs teachers reading their favourite texts. On Thursday, those pupils in school will Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) every time the bell rings. Pupils in P4 – 7 who are learning from home will be able to utilise their creativity skills to create a story sack, make a book trailer and design a book cover. There will also be the “Take a Shelfie” competition, where photos of bookshelves will be shared, including some from teachers. Can you guess which “shelfie” belongs to which teacher??

East Craigs Primary School Newsletter March 2021 Staffing Update

Several new members of staff have joined the East Craigs team recently. Mrs Afnan Kamal is P1a’s class teacher on Thursdays and Fridays. Our new Pupil Support Assistants are Miss Jade Hickey, Miss Ruth Pow, Ms Maddie Ledingham, Mr Ross McColm, Miss Lynsay McLaughlin and Miss Kirsten Wales. In the nursery, we have new Early Year Practitioners Mrs Shamim Akhtar and Mrs Sveta Ivanova, PSA Mrs Nikkie McSorley, MA student Miss Mhairi Proudfoot and Domestic Assistant Mrs Stacey Cheung. A big welcome to all new staff!

In January, Mrs Sarah Millar, P1 teacher, had a baby boy, called Finlay. We would like to extend our congratulations to Mrs Millar and her family.

LGBT History MonthP4-7 started learning about LGBT+ History month after the half term week. P4 learnt about different gender stereotypes and wrote about why we need to change the way clothes are advertised. P5 found out more about discrimination, what an ally is and some famous LGBT+ Allies. P6 learnt about different inspirational LGBT+ people and what it means to be an ally to the community. P7 linked their learning to their WW2 topic and learnt about Alan Turing.

Throughout these lessons, P4-7 pupils learnt more about our school value, ‘inclusive’ and how we can all continue to be kinder and more inclusive to different communities of people. You can view some of our pupils’ work at the end of this newsletter.

East Craigs Parent Council (ECPC)

ECPC main aims are:

• to support the school in its partnerships with pupils and parents/carers

• to represent the views of parents/carers• to promote relationships between the school,

parents, carers, pupils, providers of nursery education and the community

• co-chairs are involved in the appointment of senior promoted members of staff

We would love to have parents/carers come along from every year group to ensure that everyone is represented, therefore hearing all viewpoints.

Please feel free to contact us:

Email – eastcraigspc@live.com

Twitter @ecpcinfo

Or via the School Office

Co-Chairs for Session 2020/2021 – Caroline Wilkinson and Nicki Russell

The next ECPC meeting will be held on Wednesday 17 March at 6.45pm using Microsoft Teams. If you would like to join in, please email admin@eastcraigs.edin.sch.uk by Monday 15 March and you will be sent a Teams invite.

Health and Safety at the School Gates

The increased numbers of pupils back at school also means more adults around the school gates at the start and end of the school day. It is vitally important that the following Government and NHS guidance is adhered to, to minimise the risk of localised outbreaks of coronavirus.

Pupils at primary school do not need to physically

distance from one another, but adults do. Please help us to keep everyone at East Craigs safe by remembering to:

Only have one adult per family come to the school at drop off and pick up times

Allow P4 and older pupils to travel to school on their own

Not arrive before your child’s start time Maintain 2m distance between yourself and

adults and children from other families Do not gather and wait outside the school gates

once your child has entered the playground

Face coverings must be worn in any part of the school premises and are strongly encouraged at the school gates.Thank you for your support with this.

East Craigs Primary School Newsletter March 2021

Equalities focus

Along with all other schools in Edinburgh we are working hard to improve all equalities issues. Our School Renewal Plan sets out the actions we expect to achieve this session. They include better ways of tackling racist incidents and reviewing our curriculum. One of the most important actions for us is to improve pupil voice in this area. Some of our senior pupils will be leading this work. I will be in touch soon to ask for your support. If you are interested in getting more involved, a city-wide Staff Reference Group for Equalities has been formed and you would be very welcome to join. Please contact Annemarie.Procter@ea.edin.sch.uk to find out more.

Thank you – Mrs S Scott (Head Teacher)

Playground Improvements

Just before Christmas, the Eco Group at Craigsbank Church very kindly donated three fruit trees to the school – plum, apple and pear. They have been planted at the edge of our playing field and, despite the snowy weather since then, seem to be thriving. We are very grateful to the Church for their generosity and look forward to watching the trees grow and hopefully producing some fruit for us to sample!

Other recent playground developments have been the line markings. Some of the older, faded lines have been re-painted and a new beanbag target and dance area have been created. Pupils have been loving using these for different games!

Dates for your Diary Wednesday 17 March – ECPC Meeting on Teams 6.45pm Thursday 1 April – term ends at the usual afternoon times, and Easter Holidays begin Tuesday 20 April – all resume Monday 3 May – May Day Holiday – school closed Tuesday 4 May – In-Service Training (staff only) Wednesday 5 May – pupils resume Monday 24 May – Victoria Day – school closed Tuesday 25 May – all resume Friday 25 June – term ends, and Summer holidays begin

East Craigs Primary School Newsletter March 2021