Our Rationale

At St Gerardine School, we aim to provide a nurturing environment that enables children to experience challenges, succeed in their learning, and have a sense that learning can be fun and relevant to their lives. We want children to become independent and enthusiastic learners with a willingness to take risks. From the earliest opportunity, children at St. Gerardine will be encouraged to build respectful relationships, make responsible choices, develop resilience and demonstrate kindness to themselves and others in readiness for them taking their place in society. At the heart of productive, high quality teaching and learning opportunities is exemplary behaviour.  We will instil in our children the values of our school: to be kind, respectful, responsible and resilient. We will help our children to develop the skills they need, including social skills, to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors both now and in the future.

 

‘Social and emotional competencies have been found to be a more significant determinant of academic achievement than IQ’

                                                                        (Duckworth and Seligman 2005).

 

How We Deliver the Entitlements

The St Gerardine experience involves the children experiencing a coherent, well planned curriculum which encapsulated the 4 contexts of learning. We have robust transitions not only into and out of the setting but between classes and stages. The learning is engaging and active and appropriate support is put in place to ensure all learners are progressing in their learning.

The key focus for the school is to develop skills for learning, life and work, with a continuous focus on Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing, in particular, the social, emotional and mental health of the children in a post pandemic world.

 

How We Develop Capacity in our Pupils

We aim to develop success in learning, confidence, resilience and self- esteem.  Children are encouraged to take on responsibility and make an effective contribution to the life of the school.  They experience a breadth of learning through studying all eight curricular areas as discrete subjects as well as in an interdisciplinary fashion.  They engage in the ethos and life of the school and we promote their personal achievements and share with the local community when appropriate.

 

The Context of the School, What Makes Us Unique and How this Influences What We Do

Our curriculum is influenced by our geographical location, lying on the coast. Our position within Moray, Scotland and the UK influences the contexts for learning selected for the children to study. The heritage of the school and its community is important to the school and this allows for strong links to be made with local community groups e.g. The Lossiemouth Heritage group, Senior Citizens, Churches, RAF Lossiemouth, etc.  Our school is located one mile from the only active RAF base in Scotland. Therefore over one third of our children are from military families which is quite a unique aspect of our context. Consequently, there is a transient element to our school and  many children have parents and carers who are on deployment. This requires our curriculum to ensure it is a nurturing one and meets the Health and Wellbeing needs of these children and their parents. Many of our parents also work off shore due to our geographic location which further necessitates a nurturing curriculum within school.

 

Our Key Drivers

Through self-evaluation, we have identified these key drivers for our school presently:

• Due to fact that over 30% of our children are military families and many other children have parents who work off shore, there is a large percentage of our children who have long periods of time when their parents are away. Therefore the main driver for our curriculum is to ensure we are supporting the emotional and mental health of these children and our families by ensuring that our curriculum is a nurturing one and we are  we are fully implementing the GIRFEC agenda and confident  that SHANARI is embedded across our curriculum. We aim to instil resilience in our children who can adapt to an ever changing environment both at home and at school.
• From interrogation of current data another key driver for curriculum development for the school is to improve attainment levels at first level, particularly in Literacy and Numeracy.
• To prepare our children for a life in the 21^st century we wish to ensure we are providing our children will skills, knowledge and attributes for jobs of the future, therefore teaching digital literacy and sustainability.

 

Our Approaches to Learning

Learning is set within the context of the school and aims to develop skills, knowledge and resilient attitudes in all children. The essential core skills of Literacy, Numeracy and Health & Wellbeing are regarded as extremely important and link to all other curricular areas. Other approaches to learning include Creativity, Global Citizenship, Enterprise, Sustainability, Outdoor Learning, Learning through Play, Digital Learning, Scottish Contexts and other relevant contexts which are meaningful to the children of Scotland and the UK.

Approaches shifted to ‘Remote Learning’ during both lockdowns, where digital solutions were employed to ensure all children could access learning. Despite moving back into the school settings we still utilise some of these effective digital resources to enhance the curriculum further.

 

How Pupils Are Supported and Their Needs Met

Our curriculum and its delivery is based on GIRFEC guidelines. SHANARRI wellbeing indicators are used to assess wellbeing needs. Needs are identified early with the use of baseline assessments such as SNSA’s, INCAS, Glasgow Toolkit, Boxall Profile and other standardised tests, teacher judgement and pupil and parental involvement. Additional support is provided by SfL teachers where support is provided in class or by extraction in small groups or as individuals, There is an excellent team of Pupil Support Assistants and Classroom Assistants who work in tandem with teachers and the Head Teacher to support all children.  

Partner agencies – Educational Psychologist, SALT, School Nurse, Rowan Centre, Early Years’ Service, SEBN Service, Social Work etc.

We have an excellent nurture team who work with children individually or in small groups to meet their emotional, social and mental health and wellbeing needs. Support is recorded and monitored through IEPs, Support Plans, Inclusion Meetings and Child’s Planning Meetings. Currently we have no children recorded as having a CSP. Additional support through transitions is arranged as required. We currently have a teacher employed to work with children who need targeted academic support regarding the impact of the pandemic to ensure we have narrowed any gaps which may have emerged due to lockdowns and also to rebuild the confidence of children.

 

How the Contexts for Learning Work

The totality of the learning experience is based on 4 CONTEXTS:

Curricular Areas – Expressive Arts, Technologies, Languages & Literacy, Social Studies, Health & Wellbeing, Sciences, Mathematics & Numeracy and Religious & Moral Education.

Ethos and Life of the School – children are involved in and contributing to the life and work of the school

Interdisciplinary Learning – children’s learning is enhanced through the development of knowledge, attitudes and skills to deepen their understanding through learning across a small group of curricular areas.

Opportunities for Personal Achievement – Planned opportunities for achievement through encouragement & support.

 

How Pupils are Involved

• Self and peer assessment
• Co-construction of SC and setting their own targets
• Pupil Council
• Rights Respecting Group
• Eco Group
• Playground Pals
• Peer Mediators
• Buddies
• Reports
• House Captains
• Prefects
• Star Helpers

How We Ensure Learning is Effective

There is continuous reflection and evaluation of learning and teaching both informally and formally as individuals and with colleagues, including the following aspects:

• Observation of lessons
• Peer observation
• Moderation activities
• Assessment for Learning (AfL)
• Critical Skills
• Higher Order Thinking
• ICT-use of laptops  in particular and whiteboards
• Leadership Coaching
• Enterprise in Education
•  Active Learning
• Leadership opportunities-Captains/Vice Captains, School Council, Peer Mediation, Buddies etc.

 

How the Design Principles Are Used

The design principles are outlined below and these serve as an aid memoir to the planning of activities and experiences which are appropriate for the children at St. Gerardine:

• Challenge and Enjoyment
• Personalisation and Choice
• Progression
• Depth
• Relevance
• Coherence
• Breadth

 

 

How Parents Are Involved

Due to restrictions in place during the pandemic, physical parental involvement had been curtailed. However, the school still very much adopts an ‘open door policy’ in that the parents are free to contact the school at any time. We encourage parental involvement in all aspects of the development of the school through parental focus groups.  We communicate regularly with parents via weekly newsletters, sharing of weekly learning journals, phone calls, Class Dojo and social media. Parent evenings happen once a year and parents are provided with a summative report compiled by the children and the teachers termly. The Parents’ Council meet regularly throughout the year. Questionnaires, curriculum meetings and special events allow for consultation and reporting to parents. Shared learning afternoons are held in P1 to invite parents in for Literacy and Numeracy sessions when they first transition into P1. We appreciate all our parent and community volunteers.

 

How We Raise Achievement

• Early intervention
• Parental involvement
• Intervention teacher
• Nurture provision
• Interrogation of data from baseline assessments and identifying gaps and implementing strategies to narrow them
• SfL
• Inclusion meetings
• Ongoing tracking and monitoring of learning

• Development and applications of skills
• Taking account of wider achievement
• High expectations of pupils, parents and staff influence levels of achievement of all.

 

How the Curriculum is Developed

We continually revisit the Key Principles of CfE through using the refreshed narrative to support professional discussion and ensure the staff team can support learners on their journey and meet the needs of the whole school. We have establishing the key areas for development as part of a recovery curriculum following the pandemic and in order to re-align the curriculum following a period of focus on Literacy, Numeracy and HWB. We continually ensure the curriculum can be flexible to meet learners’ needs and also to accommodate change to support changing needs e.g. as indicated by attainment data. We endeavour to incorporate a continuing emphasis on the development of digital skills/play pedagogy/outdoor learning and cross cutting themes.

 

How We Communicate What We Do and Our Successes

The annual Standards and Quality report provides a summary of the work of the school and its success. Homework jotters and diaries, reading cards and informal notes are undertaken.   Phone calls, regular newsletters and Class Dojo also celebrate success. We hold annual parent appointments and a, ‘Meet the Teacher’ session at the beginning of the academic year.  

 

How Our Programmes and Courses Meet the Needs of Our Learners

They are based on the context of the school and the current needs of our learners, therefore they are flexible and constantly reviewed and evaluated. They also demonstrate a clear progression of skills, knowledge and attributes.

 

How We Ensure Effective Transitions At All Stages

Transition between stages is enhanced through the class compositions but is carefully managed by staff working together and taking every opportunity to support transition through liaison both formally and informally. Provision is made for good social and emotional transitions from Nursery into P1 and from P7 into S1.