Rothes Primary - joint planning for early level outcomes

Rosemary Garrity, Headteacher, Rothes Primary

The partnership between the nursery and Primary 1 came about because when we looked at the outcomes we realised that the early ones were an interface between our youngest children and the Primary 1s. So we looked together with the nursery, the teacher and the nursery nurse and the staff in the nursery, at how we could deliver that.

We had to resource each project quite imaginatively and we had to have a lot of resources because we would maybe have forty children working on the same outcome in the same space of time.

We want them to have first-hand knowledge and we want them to experience learning in an open, unthreatening environment so that they’re going right back to early learning, and it’s an active skill for them. And then they can them use that initial skills that they’ve learnt to draw inferences, to draw conclusions, hypothesise, so that as they go up the school they’ve got that balance, that foundation.

A project like this involves a leader taking risks, because we had to let go of certain areas of the curriculum to allow this to happen.

All our children learn differently and through different styles, and I think this will allow the different styles of learning to come to the forefront.

My advice for taking the Curriculum for Excellence forward, anyone else in another school who’s doing this, is to look at the outcomes in a focused way, and look at them individually, clearly and confidently, and plan for them. But when you’re planning allow for that flexibility, look at the children that are in your school, look at the needs in your school, look at your staff, and decide how to use that expertise to the best benefit for your children.

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