Standards & Quality Report 2015/2016 Improvement Plan August 2016

1. Standards & Quality Report 2015/2016 Improvement Plan August 2016 LASSWADE ASG VISION - To provide the highest quality of learning experiences for all children and young people in our community. We aim to achieve this through: Excellent learning and teaching; Working together in partnership; Ensuring a sense of belonging; Promoting achievement and attainment.

2. Standards and Quality Report ~ Session 2015/2016 SOME OF OUR ACHIEVEMENTS & SUCCESSES – Achieving Rights Respecting Level 2 Award; - Becoming a FairAware School; - School Hockey Team coming 3rd in Midlothian and being entered into National Finals; - Raising over £1 100 for charities, including UNICEF School in a Box and Children in Need; - making the most donations of any school to Midlothian Foodbank; - Nursery Hay bale planting; - continuing to develop local community links, including Loanhead Community Garden, IKEA and Loanhead Library; - Numerous individual achievements including, Calum Evans (P7) in swimming, Kelly Wynne (P7) being on the podium for her gymnastics skills, Ross Simpson (P3) in karate, Ben Mapstone (P7) with his Cornet playing, Kerr Notman (P2) in Tae Kwon Do and a number of children being selected to play for various football teams; - Kirsty Murrin (Learning Assistant) completing a skydive; - the P6 Learning Council, successfully introducing the language of learning from Nursery to P7; - children moving from our “learning centre” back into class; - Primary 5-7 children successfully completing Bikeability Training; - Nursery Bake Sale raising funds for their East Links Trip; - introducing French across the school; - efforts made by many children completing home learning tasks that evidence skills for learning, life and work; - Parent Council raising funds for ipads and other school activities; - use of Twitter to share learning and achievements; the introduction of Junior Award Scheme Scotland and a small number of pupils already gaining their Bronze Awards. • HOW GOOD ARE WE AT ENSURING THE BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOMES FOR ALL OF OUR LEARNERS? • As a result of our approach to ensuring the wellbeing of our children and their families, we are improving outcomes for learners. Through the data gathered for successfully achieving our Rights Respecting Schools Level 2 Award, we know and can demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of our children feel safe, nurtured and respected. Relationships across the school community are positive and supportive, founded on a climate of mutual respect within a strong sense of community, shared values and high expectations for all. We consider each child as an individual with her/her own needs, risks and rights. Equity of opportunity and support remains a focus. We strive to ensure that all children are active participants in discussions and decisions which may affect their lives. All learners are included with the overwhelming majority being engaged and involved in the life of the school. Our average attendance continues to sit around the Authority target of 95.5%. Exclusion rates are low. • Curriculum Levels achieved at Primary 4 and 7 do not accurately reflect other attainment and assessment data collected. Primary 4 maths and Primary 7 writing in particular have very low results. Through professional discussion with staff, it is clear that moderation and building staff confidence in interpreting criteria for achieving a level requires a major focus next session. Further guidance from Education Scotland will be welcomed to support this work. Standardised testing results however show us that most learners are making good progress from their prior levels of attainment in reading and mathematics. We have raised attainment in both reading and numeracy at P1, 4 & 7 with our P7 reading score increasing to 1% below the Authority target of 90% (average score was 88% in 2013/14) and our P7 mathematics score increasing to 4 points above the Authority target of a standardised score of 96 (average score was 97 in 2013/14). Overall, all of our learners are successful with many displaying confidence, exercising responsibility and contributing to the life of the school, wider community and as global citizens.

3. HOW GOOD IS THE QUALITY OF CARE AND EDUCATION WE OFFER? The quality of care and education on offer revolves around being a Level 2 Rights Respecting School which we were awarded in June 2016. The impact this has had on the care and education we offer has been particularly identified by parents and reflected in the children’s knowledge and understanding of their rights. Staff are expected to have high expectations for all and strive to provide a nurturing, child centred learning environment. This session the school has continued to develop its Visible Learning journey. The Pupil Learning Council have identified ten learning dispositions which have been shared across the whole school. All of our learners have been familiarising themselves with learning dispositions and we are seeing more of them using this language in certain lessons within the classroom environment and some parents, particularly in the nursery, are commenting on their children’s use of the language at home. There is good evidence across the school that a range of learning environments and creative teaching approaches, particularly within interdisciplinary learning, are used to stimulate and engage most learners. Increasing numbers of children are beginning to use appropriate language when talking about their learning and next steps. Children are encouraged to lead their learning through discussion and in identifying key questions. Our curriculum has a clear vision and is grounded in our commitment to securing children’s rights and wellbeing. We have updated our rationale to ensure that it is unique to our learners and provides good opportunities for them to develop skills for learning and life, in particular. Further work is required to provide opportunities for developing skills for work. Greater focus has been given to planning to ensure that it is proportionate and manageable and clearly identifies what is to be learned. We now need to continue this work to ensure that the planning identifies what aspects are to be assessed. We have used a variety of assessment approaches to allow our learners to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, skills, and attributes. Moderation processes, particularly in reading comprehension and writing are in place across the school and the evidence from this is valid and reliable. There is now a need to develop moderation processes across the Associated Schools Group, to support staff confidence in knowing when learners have achieved a level. We have made very good use of twitter to celebrate learners achievements in and out of school. We have launched the Junior Award Scheme in P5-7 to provide further opportunities to develop skills for learning, life and work and, to recognise personal achievements. HOW GOOD IS OUR LEADERSHIP AND APPROACH TO IMPROVEMENT? The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) continue to promote an ethos and culture where the overwhelming majority of staff feel valued and are empowered and trusted to be innovative and experimental with learning and teaching without the fear of being judged. Many staff at all levels take on leadership roles which have a direct focus on leading learning. Support Staff feel more included in the school improvement process. Closing the Gaps Meetings have been more focused in identifying areas for improvement. Identified areas for improvement have been supported by planned individual and collective career-long professional learning. In particular, Visible Learning input for support staff has allowed them to be more engaged in the learning process. Staff have been developing a clearer understanding of the social, economic and cultural context in which our learners and their families live. Moving forward with our aim to be nationally recognised as a Nurture school , it is fundamental that staff knowledge is further developed and a sustainable and agreed system is put in place to meet the needs of all children. WHAT IS OUR CAPACITY FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT? We continue to use a range of effective approaches to ensure that staff, parents/carers, our learners and other stakeholders are actively involved in our on-going self evaluation process. Pupil participation in our regular circle meetings is a strong feature of our approach to self-evaluation and continuous improvement. Although we have accurate data about the quality of learning and teaching and the attainment and achievement of learners, this needs to be gathered more widely in order that we can monitor and track progress for all learners more accurately. Staff work effectively as a team. There is a strong ethos of sharing practice and of peer support. Opportunities need to be provided for staff to challenge the practice of their peers as appropriate. A programme for monitoring and evaluating learning and teaching and children’s achievements has been in place however this has not been as thorough as it could have been due to staff absence and the need for SLT members to teach more regularly. We have however, been able to show clear evidence of improvement based on actions taken as a result of self-evaluation.

4. Improvement Plan August 2016 • SCHOOL PRIORITIES : • Meeting the needs of all learners • Learning & Teaching • Developing our Curriculum • ASG PRIORITIES : • Health & Wellbeing • Moderation Across Learning in Literacy & Numeracy LASSWADE ASG VISION - To provide the highest quality of learning experiences for all children and young people in our community. We aim to achieve this through: Excellent learning and teaching; Working together in partnership; Ensuring a sense of belonging; Promoting achievement and attainment.

6. PRIORITY 1 – GIRFEC - Key adults are allocated to support specific pupils identified with attachment difficulties - Team around the Child approach is introduced for some pupils identified as having specific emotional needs - Audit staff needs from Creating Confident Kids programme and then provide specific input as identified - Begin the journey to achieve the National Nurturing Schools Award. • PRIORITY 2 – EXCELLENCE THROUGH RAISING ATTAINMENT/CLOSING THE GAP • - Continue to use research to improve achievement and attainment - focus on Visible Learning (Midlothian Council priority) • - Implement action plan from our revised Strategy to Improve Outcomes in Literacy & Numeracy – see action plan • Develop a deeper language of learning across the school through further use of learning powers and in developing assessment capable learners • Undertake moderation work across ASG in relation to reading, writing, numeracy and mathematics (ASG action plan) • - Make more effective use of outdoor learning to raise attainment and achievement • PRIORITY 4 – HEALTH & WELLBEING • Work across ASG to build a progressive programme • (3-18) for Substance Misuse. • Work across ASG to build a progressive programme (3-18) that addresses issues around anti-social behaviour linked to Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical Wellbeing PRIORITY 3 – POSITIVE DESTINATIONS - Update Curriculum Rationale to provide opportunities for all pupils to develop skills for work, including employability skills

7. Priority 1 - GIRFEC

8. Priority 2 – EXCELLENCE THROUGH RAISING ATTAINMENT/CLOSING THE GAP VISIBLE LEARNING

9. Priority 3 – Positive Destinations