Baljaffray Primary School  http://www.baljaffray.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Bearsden Primary School  http://www.bearsden.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Castlehill Primary School  http://www.castlehill.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Mosshead Primary School http://www.mosshead.e-dunbarton.sch.uk

The Bearsden Academy Cluster schools work closely together to ensure the development of the Early and 3 to 18 Curriculum is seamless for young learners. 

We recognise the many transitions which young people make in their daily learning journeys and the impact of the management of these daily transitions on their achievement and attainment. We focus particularly on transitions between Primary 5 to S1 in recognition of the significant leap for young people when moving from one context to another.

At P7 stage, we work collaboratively with primary pupils, parents/carers, teachers and community partners to plan a year long Transitions experience.  This helps pupils and families to navigate one of the most important transitions in a young person’s learner journey. Please see our Transitions page for full overview of Transition experiences for young people. 

Below are some examples of how we work in partnership with our cluster schools 

Pupils

• Are visited in their primary schools by teachers from Bearsden Academy so that they will already know some teachers before they come to us, and so that teachers can be familiar with, and can build upon, the excellent work being done by pupils in our primary schools. 
• Pupils and their Parent/Carers have the opportunity to attend series of Transition experience in their transfer year including.
• September Open Evening Getting to Know You
• Science Transition
• Modern Languages Transition
• Full Curriculum Transition
• Making the Wellbeing Curriculum Visible Transition
• Pupil/Parent/Carer Workshops
• Two Day Induction Mid June
• Final information evening Mid June

Parents

Parents learn about the school via a range of opportunities including:

• P7 Open Evening in September
• Wellbeing events
• Personalised visits
• Copies of digital newsletters issued by the school.
• Digital platforms including Twitter
• Attending PTA events
• Developing Young Workforce events
• Bearsden Academy staff visits to primary meetings & events
• Relevant staff also attend pupil reviews when appropriate.

Teachers

Links with our associated primaries are well established and include the following transitions supports.

• There are regular meetings of the Depute Head Pupil Support and the Head Teacher with the Primary Head Teachers.
• Principal Teachers of subject participate in these meetings on issues of current interest and ongoing development work.
• The PT Support for Learning from Bearsden Academy meets appropriate colleagues in our associated primaries in order to arrange to assist pupils with transition to the secondary context. 
• Primary teachers and secondary teachers work collaboratively on curriculum based activities.
• English department visits each primary school regularly to work with pupils & staff.
• Mathematics departments visits each primary school regularly to work with pupils & staff.

All of our work within Transitions planning is underpinned by Getting it Right for Every Child. Useful links here:

https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/ 

The Bearsden Academy Cluster also focuses on teacher continuous professional development as well as curricular developments to ensure learner experiences, at point of transitions, are seamless.  This includes staff across both sectors coming together to learn and develop curriculum areas and practices which will support the learner journey. These developments have included the following areas:

• Science – Literacy within note taking
• Numeracy - Measurement
• Computational Thinking
• Mindset for Mathematics – Developing a Growth Mindset within the Mathematics Curriculum
• Languages 3 – Focus on Spanish and French
• Digital Learning & Teaching – Focus on Digital Learning & Teaching and skills for Learning Life and Work

You can find out more about teacher professional development using the links below

 https://www.scelscotland.org.uk

We are always very keen to involve parents in the training and development work of the school. If you have an area you would like to support, please use the following link. 

Careers Education Partner form

You can find out more about Career education planning using the following link  Developing the Young Workforce