Upcoming events

Don’t forget to check the school calendar for upcoming events, in addition to those detailed below:

https://www.tayvallich.argyll-bute.sch.uk/events/

This week’s update is a bit of a catch up where we are sharing some photos of some of the amazing learning activities that have taken place over the last few weeks, involving many of you and other members of our fantastic wider school community.

Staffing

We are absolutely delighted that Miss Katie MacKinnon will be joining us as P1 to 4 class teacher for the last term of Mrs Dixon’s Maternity Leave, starting in August. Miss MacKinnon spent some of the Inservice Day with us today and can’t wait to come back and meet the children in June.

You may have seen that the advert for the Head Teacher post is now live:

Joint Head Teacher – ARB16187 | Argyll & Bute Council | myjobscotland

Please share it far and wide and make sure that you highlight that the role is Joint Head Teacher of both our lovely schools.

Visit from Miss Fraser’s Grandad – Our extra-special fabulous family Friday.

You will remember that on 8^th May, we had an amazing treat when author and Miss Fraser’s Grandad Trevor Black came and shared his book with the children. We hope that you have enjoyed reading all about The Life and Adventures of Trevor the Trout in the book that Trevor generously gifted to each child to take home.

Check out the photos from his visit here:  Fabulous Family Friday with Grandad Trevor – Tayvallich Primary School and ELC

Parent Council Coffee Morning Fundraiser:

We were so grateful to our Parent Council for arranging the fantastic Car Wash and Coffee morning on Saturday 10^th May, to all the parent volunteers who helped out and to the members of our wonderful community, who came along and gave generously. Our final total raised was over £916.10!

Check out the photos here (unfortunately the car-washers were too hard at work to stop and take pictures!): Parent Council Coffee Morning Fundraiser – Tayvallich Primary School and ELC

Family Garden Tidy

As you will know, our Garden Tidy on Friday 16^th May, with tasks that had been organised by the children who attend Gardening Club and Farm Club, was a huge success. There was planting, clearing, sweeping and tidying and lots of the children’s ideas became a reality, with the help of some very helpful adults.

You can see some pictures here:  Family Garden Tidy – Tayvallich Primary School and ELC

Last Outdoor Learning Session with the Tayvallich Rangers

We had our last of four Outdoor Learning sessions with Sal and Rowan this week and once again, the children were really lucky to benefit from their time and knowledge.

Rowan has summarised what the children have done over the last 4 sessions:

The TI rangers have run 4 afternoon sessions in April and May with the pupils at Tayvallich Primary School. The sessions were designed to give the children an opportunity to explore the land we now steward as a community.

Over the course of these four sessions, the children did the following activities:

• Helping remove invasive Himalayan Balsam
• Learned about the selective felling of Sitka Spruce that shades out native trees
• Started learning how to read a map 
• Observed the seasonal changes in the woodland as spring got underway
• Visited a site of rhododendron removal to see the saplings that are now popping up
• Learned to ID common native trees by the shape of their leaves
• Learned about ground flora that indicates a ancient woodland site
• Pulled bracken around newly planted saplings to give them a good start
• Listened to woodland birds
• Understanding the meaning of community ownership 
• Learning how to interact with community land in a safe and responsible way

The Ranger team have enjoyed spending time with the school children on the community land and are open to more sessions in the future. 

We are so incredibly grateful to the Rangers for facilitating these important sessions, that have enabled the children to further develop their understanding of the natural landscape and community around them and their place in it, now and in the future.

We very much hope that they will come back again next session.

You can see some photos here: Last Outdoor Learning Session with the Tayvallich Rangers – Tayvallich Primary School and ELC

Tayvallich’s Fabulous Family Friday Festival

As you know, on the Friday 20th of June 2025 we will host the inaugural Tayvallich Primary School Summer Festival.

Please note that the festival will also incorporate our Sports Day, so any working parents who need to plan time off to attend will only need to do so for the Friday.

The programme for the day is being planned by the pupils and will be issued soon.

Leavers’ Assembly

Please note that we will hold our Leavers’ Assembly for our P7 Pupils on (- updated 2.6.25 due to previous error, apologies -) Tuesday 1st July. All will be welcome to join us. We finish for the holidays at 1pm that day, so we are planning that we have the assembly at 11.30 and then parents/guests will be invited to join us for a (bring their own) picnic lunch until 1pm. The children could either order a school lunch as normal, or have a packed lunch from home. We will ask you to confirm whether you will be able to join us closer to the time.

Progress Reports

These are being finalised by class teachers and will be issued next week; we will send a message via Messenger 5 when they are in bags. Please return your parental feedback form as soon as possible after receiving the report.

Improvement Plan 2025/26

It is the time of year when we ask you to think about how we can build on all we have achieved over the last 12 months and make our school even better, as we move into 2025/26.

You can see the priorities we set for last year by clicking the link here: http://www.tayvallich.argyll-bute.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Priorities-summary-Tayvallich-Primary-School-Establishment-Improvement-Plan-2024-25-Copy.pdf

We think you will agree that we have made really good progress with these over the last year, particularly if you take some time to look back at our website galleries, as well as you own child’s progress over the session.

A full evaluation of our progress will be published in our annual standards and quality report which will be issued next month.

Staff have already had some useful discussions about our key areas of focus for next session and have suggested the following:

1. FURTHER INCREASE FAMILY ENGAGEMENT/INVOLVEMENT-

Suggested actions:

• Offer more opportunities for parents/carers to learn alongside pupils in school
• Provide termly curriculum overviews showing planned learning and themes, which parents/carers can pick up on at home
• Review our communication strategy and protocols – how best do we communicate around learning with families?
• Involve parents as we progress on our journey to become a Silver and then Gold Rights Respecting School

2. ENSURING DEPTH, BREADTH AND CHALLENGE FOR ALL LEARNERS –

Suggested actions:

• Further develop interdisciplinary learning and curriculum rationale
• Develop progression frameworks for the wider curriculum areas and ensure that they link and cross reference, as well as linking to progression frameworks for literacy and numeracy
• Access expertise in specific curricular areas from staff in our sister school

3. OUTDOOR LEARNING/LEARNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY –

Suggested actions:

• Staff to participate in practical outdoor learning training and using the spaces available
• An outdoor slot timetabled every fortnight
• Regular timetabled walks around the community
• Free flow use of the P1-4 garden for the P1 to 4 class.

We need your views on these suggestions, along with any other ideas that you and the pupils have about our next steps as a school.

Please email your feedback and ideas to enquiries-tayvallich@argyll-bute.gov.uk with the title Improvement Suggestions by Friday 30^th May.

Please note that until the end of term, we will be moving to fortnightly updates from me.

Have a great weekend. 

Lena