Cawdor Primary School

Welcome to Team Cawdor P1

The Early Level Learning Journey Continues
KINDNESS - TEAMWORK - BELONGING - RESPECT

Transition into P1

Most children in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and P1 are learning in the Early Level of Curriculum for Excellence. In Cawdor Primary School, our ELC team works closely with our Primary 1 teachers who will continue to support your child's learning, development and wellbeing through quality play and direct teaching. For those children in our ELC setting, our transition takes place throughout the year. If your child is joining from another ELC setting, we would welcome, with your permission, the opportunity for your child's ELC to make contact with us to support your child's transition.

In Cawdor, we believe that it is important for the school to be ready for your child, not for your child to be 'ready for school'. The information on Highland Council's Bumps2Bairns site is helpful for the families of young children.

In May/ June there will be an opportunity:

to meet you at our P1 induction meeting
to have a 1-1 meeting with your child's prospective class teacher(s)
for your child to spend the day in their P1 classroom with their teacher(s).

P7 Buddies

All of our new Primary 1 children will be allocated P7 Buddies to support your child's transition into Primary 1. The buddies will initially support at break times and lunchtime, and we will work closely with our buddies in Primary 1.

All About Us

The P1-P7 day in Cawdor Primary School is 9.15am - 3.10pm.

Mrs Harper
(CLASS Teacher)

Hello! I'm Joanne (Mrs Harper). I currently teach P3 in Cawdor. Our classes for next year are not confirmed yet, but I am planning P1 transition with our Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) team as a teacher who will be teaching your child next year.

Mr Cook
(Head Teacher)

Hi! I'm James (Mr Cook). I am the Head Teacher at Cawdor Primary School, and I am delighted to welcome both those new to the #TeamCawdor family, and those continuing their Team Cawdor journey from Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) into Primary 1. We do not have our classes confirmed for next year, however, we know that Mrs Harper will be teaching your child in P1.

Contacting Us

If you need to speak with us or get in touch, you can contact us:

at the school on 01667 402460 or cawdor.primary@highland.gov.uk

The Cawdor Primary School Contact Overview has been created to support you as a family.

See Saw: Communication

We use an electronic system called SeeSaw as a way to share general Cawdor Primary 1 and Cawdor Primary School information with you. This allows us to share information about the setting with you digitally. You will receive information about SeeSaw when your child first begins in primary 1 at Cawdor.

Information for families is also communicated via the Cawdor Primary School website

Cawdor Primary School Parents' Facebook Page

Supporting Your Child's Learning, Development and Wellbeing

Learning through Play

We know from research and guidance that young children learn best through high quality play, supported by caring adults.

In Primary 1 in Cawdor Primary School, we support your child's development, learning and wellbeing through an approach which balances play led by your child, play facilitated by adults and direct teaching throughout the day.

Through watching, listening to, and playing and talking together with your child, we support their learning through experiences and interactions that are tailored to their stage of development and their interests.

In Cawdor we value that each child is an individual. Our planning is therefore matched to your child's individual strengths and areas of development, continuing their learning from ELC and at home.

Our spaces are designed to support your child to build, to construct and be creative and curious.

We support your child to take risks in their play, developing confidence and independence.

We prioritise your child's wellbeing, with spaces to explore on their own, with friends and with adults.

We plan for games, rhymes, songs and stories to support your child's language development. These are skills which support reading and writing.

Your child has opportunities to develop big and small movements and make marks - all of which are essential for their early writing development.

Your child will be supported to develop their thinking about maths and numbers through their play.

Direct Teaching

Throughout the day your child will have a number of short direct teaching inputs. These may be individual or part of a small group. They will focus on phonics, reading, counting and mathematics, which will be planned appropriate to your child's strengths and areas of development. There will also be short whole-class direct teaching.

Focus Tasks

During the day your child will have the opportunity to work on focus tasks to develop previous teacher inputs to their learning. These tasks are planned appropriate to your child's strengths and areas of development. These tasks will promote independence and develop a breadth of understanding in a learning area.

Our Outdoor Spaces

We have a dedicated space outdoors in our school playground which we can use daily to support your child's learning outdoors. We also use spaces in our local community, such as the woods and the field. It is helpful for your child to have appropriate clothing so that we can go outdoors every day. It is helpful for children to have a change of clothes with them in their bag.

Our Indoor Spaces

Our children change their footwear when they're going between indoors and outdoors. It's helpful to have indoor and outdoor shoes, as well as a jacket with fastenings that your child can put on and take off independently.

Capturing, Planning for and Sharing Your Child's Learning

Your Child's Profile

We believe that each child is an individual. We support their individual development, learning and wellbeing. Your child's learning will be captured in their Profile. This is a folder that contains observations about your child's learning, relevant assessments on their progress, the planning for their individual learning and key information about them that you provide and that we gather.

The Profile is owned by your child and includes:

All About Me – information that you provide about your child (we ask that families update this twice each year).
Observational Assessments – which demonstrate your child’s knowledge, skills and interests.
Learning Conversations and Highlights - your child regularly reflects on their learning throughout the year, identifying significant learning milestones and the progress that they are making. Your child chooses evidence of their learning each term as a learning highlight that they are proud of to add to their Profile.
Wider Achievements – information that you provide about your child out with school. This is to celebrate the achievements and milestone for your child, e.g. helping setting up for dinner, staying at their grandparents' house for the first time, going somewhere or trying something different or new, or participating in a club or sport etc. This also includes their achievements in school.

You can find out more on our Sharing the Learning page on our school website.

As children begin P1:

In Early Learning and Childcare, your child will have had a Pre-School Developmental Overview, a tool created by Highland Council to capture information on the milestones that your child develops. We receive these from your child's ELC setting as part of the transition and continue to plan for any areas of development in Primary 1. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Ongoing ASSESSMENT

We capture significant observational assessment information as an ongoing process. These ongoing observations are connected to the curriculum to record the knowledge, understanding and skills that your child develop in our approach to development, learning and wellbeing through play.

Adult Directed Teaching

Each day your children will have periods of adult directed teaching as one approach to delivering our curriculum. This adult directed teaching will be a mixture of small group, large group and individual teaching, dependent on the content being taught, and your child’s strengths and areas of development. We share our adult directed teaching points through the use of SeeSaw.

Sharing Your Child's Learning

As well as using SeeSaw to communicate information with you, your child will be taught how to independently share their learning highlights with you via SeeSaw.

Throughout the year we will also have opportunities for you to visit your child’s learning spaces. We have two opportunities for Pupil Progress Discussions throughout the year. One of these will take place prior to the winter break, and one in March. This will give you the opportunity to discuss your child's progress, and consider how we can work together to support your child's development, learning and wellbeing.

At the end of the year you will receive a brief report which shares the Curriculum for Excellence Levels that your child is working at, and an overall comment on your child’s personal qualities and wider learning this year.

These ongoing approaches to sharing your child's learning are designed to work in partnership together, valuing the key role that you have as your child's primary caregiver.

See Saw: Sharing Learning

As well as using SeeSaw to communicate information with you, your child will be taught how to independently share their learning highlights with you via SeeSaw.

Planning for Your Child's Learning

We use our observations and ongoing assessments to plan for your child's learning, matching our planning to your child's development and interests through Curriculum for Excellence. We record this through our:

Ongoing Assessments to evidence your child's key learning

Floorbooks which capture the current learning that has taken place through play and inquiry

Learning Overviews which detail the key adult-directed learning themes for the term

Tracking of children's progress in key aspects of direct teaching

A Day in Primary 1

Ready for School

Our school uniform comprises any combination of:

Navy blue school sweatshirt or polo fleece with embroidered badge;
Navy blue jogging bottoms/ Navy blue or grey trousers/ shorts/ skirt/ pinafore;
Navy blue, sky blue or white polo shirt with embroidered badge;
Blue, grey or white shirt or blouse.

Pre-loved school uniform can be purchased via the school office.

Househill Embroidery and Schoolwear Made Easy are the stockists of Cawdor branded school uniform items.

Your Child's Belongings

In your child's bag or their tray, they may find it helpful to have a:

water bottle;
PE kit;
change of clothes;
pencil case with pencils and/or crayons and/or pens.

It's important that all of your child's belongings are labelled clearly with their name to help them find their return to their owner if they go wandering.

Drop-oFF/ Pick-Up

The school day at Cawdor is 9.15am - 3.10pm.

The playground gate will open at 9am. As most of our pupil support staff do not begin until 9.15am, supervision in the playground between 9am-9.15am is limited to the school gate to ensure that children remain within the playground and away from our car park during drop-off.

At 9.15am when the bell rings, your child will line up on the '1' line at the back door. Your child will make their lunch selection and share how they're getting home before having their morning play until 9.45am.

At 3.10pm your child will be dismissed from the front of the school. They will come out the main entrance if they are getting a bus, and they will come of of the Community Centre entrance if they are being picked up.

A Day of Learning

Your child's day will consist of a balanced approach of child led play, play which is initiated by an adult, and direct teaching. Learning will take place in our classrooms, our playground, our local community and the P.E. hall.

Outdoor Free-Play

Children will have three short outdoor free play sessions throughout the day - one at the beginning of the day, one mid-morning and one over lunchtime.

Children tend to bring a snack with them for their mid-morning outdoor free play. Alternatively there are a range of snacks sold in our canteen.

SNACK

Children can bring a snack each day for their mid-morning break. The canteen also sell a selection of snacks including fruit, toast, crackers, and bagels.

The canteen will offer a selection of items from the list each day.

Prices correct as of April 2024.

Lunch

Children in P1 are entitled to a free lunch prepared by our catering team. Each day your child will have three choices for lunch. If your child has a specific dietary need, this should be identified at enrolment and communicated with the school office prior to beginning P1.

CLICK HERE - Highland Council School Meals

Page updated

Report abuse