Nursery Education
Angus MacRury
Friday 03 March 2006
Monday 27th February
This morning I am in the Nursery. I am wondering how many Nursery Classes have a male teacher or even a male presence in the class. Maybe we have something unique here in Innerwick that should be promoted and publicised. We have 12 spaces in the Nursery at present.
On the 24th Feb statistics on Pre-school education and childcare workforce were published. The finding are sobering.
There were 30,640 staff in pre-school and childcare centres in Scotland in September 2005. Of these, 6,110 worked directly with children and managed other staff, 22,000 worked directly with children but had no management responsibility, and 2,520 did not work directly with children.
The vast majority of staff working in pre-school education and childcare were female (98 per cent) and White (98 per cent). Approximately 15 per cent of the workforce were aged 50 years or older. In the Scottish workforce as a whole, 47 percent of staff were female, 98 percent were White and 26 per cent were aged 50 years or older.
The Nursery is fantastic and last year received a very positive HMIE/CC Inspection. I also have been trawling good Nursery Websites and came across this one which I fond useful. Sometimes the Nursery provides you with an insight to how the mainstream setting should be organised, at other times you question whether you still will have your sanity in a years time. We read the Gruffalo today which will be followed all week by books written by Julia Donaldson.
Tuesday 28th February
Today we are making pancakes. How many other Headteachers in Scotland are being paid to make pancakes with 3 and 4 year olds today?
After a messy morning the pancakes are devoured at snack time. All the children made their own batch, cooked by myself and then invited P5/6/7 up to the Nursery to share snack with them. Fantastic. We should have been reading Mr Wolves Pancakes today but I forgot to take it in from home. We read The Smartest Giant in Town instead. In the afternoon I meet with Kay Chapman at West Barns Primary School about some of the finer points regarding the combined trip to York.
From 3:15 I take the ICT Club tonight we have 18 pupils from a roll of 41. This figure is very impressive.
I rush home for tea and I am back to school for 7:30pm for a PTA meeting which I have been asked to attend. The meeting turns in to a Headteachers Question Time. I do my best to explain the implications of moving to two classes next session and how this will be organised. I try to encourage the PTA to be more proactive in promoting the school achievements.
These are some of the events that are happening now or soon at Innerwick.
New Bins
Primary 1 and 2 are creating visually stimulating wastebins for the school grounds. This is with parental help and funding from
Virador Ltd.
Playground Games development. As a development of a Pupil Council request Katie Forsyth and Glen Masters are working with P5-7 on playground games for all pupils.
THE WAFFLE a school magazine, written and published by the pupils of P5-7. This will be published in March and available Free throughout the Dunbar Area. An electronic version will be posted on the soon to be published Determined to Succeed pages at www.take2theweb.com/pub/sso/Innerwick. Pupils are contacting advertisers this week.
Coming Soon
Coming in March 2006
Jump Rope for Heart. To raise money for heart research.
Coming in April 2006 Stars in your Eyes Innerwick This will be to raise funds for Cancer research. Organised by the pupil council/ PTA
Coming in June/August
In conjunction with
Community Wind power a Wind turbine and electronic display equipment is to be constructed at the school. Plans currently on display at the school.
School and Community BBQ organised by the Pupil Council and PTA
I talk a bit about children in our catchment that go to school in the Borders yet transfer to Dunbar grammar for Secondary as they are in the catchments. This has always been an issue for Innerwick Primary School. Two parents at the meeting know of 8 children in their local area and in our catchment that go to school in Borders. I sometimes talk too much…I get home at 9:47pm
Wednesday 1st March
HM Senior Chief Inspector Graham Donaldson presents his keynote address on the report on Improving Scottish Education
hmieise
hmieise.pdf 2.14 MB
2002-05 today. In his presentation he provides an overview of performance, he comments on the broad themes across sectors, he indicates capacity for improvement and he suggests key areas for future action.
ise launch keynote address 200206
Powerful and interesting stuff. We have no excuses.
I meet with contractors who are installing our basketball court at 8:15am. I do a site survey with them and leave them to get on with it after explaining H and S implications of working in the play area during school time. We keep the pupils inside today.
I have Euan at work this morning, as Marion is sick in bed. It is either that or I am off. I take him to Nursery at 12:30.
Today is St David’s Day in Nursery the pupils are all making Welsh flags colouring pictures of St David and taking home daffodils for mum. The smiles from the parents at pick up time make the job worthwhile. We read Monkey Puzzle today. I meet with a parent regarding the issue s raised at last night meeting. This is the 5th parent I have now met on the class restructuring.
Thursday 2nd March
I am at JMH for Moderation Panel this morning. The meeting is jam-packed and we do our best to allocate resources in a fair and consistent manner. Sometimes we have disagreements but I am sure that this must be the whole point of a panel rather than a single persons decision. I always feel mentally drained by these meetings.
I am back at school for 1:00pm. I manage to send a note out to parents about a Staff member getting a new post. I speak with another parent regarding the class restructuring for session 2006/07. I spend the rest of the afternoon looking through all recent Staff Development Training and updating my own records.
Friday 3rd March
It is Snowing in Innerwick but not that much. I am in P5/7 this morning and we are working on Number machines Level D, Symmetry Level C and Graphs, Level B.
After working with a pupil doing the graph work we were discussing a problem they were having with the question. I tried to explain.
“If 6 walk to school and 2 come by train what is the difference?”
“The pupils that come by train get to school quicker” was the answer. I kid you not. I will need to revise my questioning skills.
Thanks
Don
Friday 03 March 2006