Our main objective as a cluster is to close the current attainment gap through excellence and equity. The ways in which we believe we can do this include the following; firstly, promoting foreign language learning in the Castlebrae Cluster from an early stage, in Primary 1 to S3, as part of the Scottish 1+2 Language Initiative. The most important factor in being able to do this is ensuring we have a confident team of staff who are skilled in the teaching of a foreign language. The target languages will then be embedded across the School and reinforced through extra-curricular activities. Trained staff will foster good practice throughout the cluster by disseminating information taken from the job shadowing in Spain. Workshops, presentations, shared resources on SharePoint and development days will allow our staff to reach our cluster colleagues effectively. Secondly, we aim to increase pupil uptake of languages in the senior phase with opportunities to work with European partners on exciting new projects. We want to provide our pupils with authentic experiences and up-to-date materials that will engage and inspire. Staff on the mobility will be able to exchange ideas, create future link projects/pupil exchanges and learn how to successfully develop European projects on platforms such as E-Twinning. Thirdly, we need to develop better literacy skills across the curriculum. By learning about new methodologies and language teaching strategies, staff will be better equipped to facilitate the teaching of reading, talking, listening and writing across the curriculum in a way which will support all our learners in their literacy development. Lastly, we aim to increase parental engagement with the cluster through various channels. We intend on sharing our achievements with language learning in our Castlebrae Bulletin, in our newsletter, in the Community news website for East Edinburgh and on our School Twitter accounts. We want to have a group of trained staff who are confident about language teaching and its benefits so that they can engage parents at events such as Parent’s Evening, our Course Choice Fair and special assemblies.
Castlebrae cluster serves the Greendykes area of Edinburgh, Scotland. We are a Scottish Attainment Challenge cluster and one which has been invited to take part in the Positive Action School’s Edinburgh-Paris Partnership Project. Both initiatives have been pushed forward to help raise attainment in Scottish schools based in poorer socio-economic locations. We are applying for Erasmus+ KA1 funding for 30 of our staff members to participate in separate job shadowings in Spain. The group of participants planning on going on this professional development opportunity include teaching and non-teaching staff, all enthusiastic about language learning and teaching.