At the weekend I had a problem with my washing machine! It leaked everywhere!! I asked the boys and girls what they thought I did to solve the problem and fix my washing machine. These were some of their ideas:

-put cardboard down to soak up the water

-use sellotape to seal the leak

-buy a new washing machine

-call out a plumber

-buy a new house

-switch off the washing machine and then inspect it to see if I could use tools to fix it before calling a plumber

I shared with them what I did to fix it and luckily thanks to my toolkit I had lots of things I could use to make it better and  didn’t need to call a plumber or get a new washing machine!

We started to discuss how handy it would be if we had an ‘Emotions Toolkit’ which had lots of ideas/things that we could do inside it to help us face challenges or manage our emotions.

We listened to a story about a girl called Kate who told herself positive things to make her mind strong. For example, if she was scared to stand up in front of the class she would say to herself ‘It’s ok to feel a bit scared, you can do this’.

Saying positive things to ourselves to change negative thoughts helps to keep good mental health. These are called affirmations. We practised some in assembly today. Some children already tell themselves positive things when they’re feeling sad, scared or angry to change their mindset and they shared this with us this morning.

At home you can try this to help your little one think positively and talk about the importance of having an emotions toolkit. Over the rest of the term we will add new strategies to our toolkit!

Star Pupils of the Week: Congratulations to our star pupils this week for excellent effort, learning and positive attitudes.

Star Class of Assembly: Mrs Shaw was our Secret PSA and she chose P1M as the star assembly class this week. Well done for most of the class for sitting smartly and listening well to our story in assembly.

We welcomed the boys and girls back to school on Monday 15th April. It was wonderful to see them all looking refreshed and ready for Term 4.

We are celebrating the first week back by having a Kindness Week where we are aiming to be kind to others and ‘fill an egg’ to add it to our Easter themed basket! There is a secret person in each class who is looking out for others who are kind to them.

Have a lovely long weekend and we will see you back on Monday!

We looked again at all the emotions we have learned over the last few weeks. We know that things can happen to make us feel a certain way. We started to discuss the old saying ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’. A range of children came up to say unkind things to a paper man. Every time they said something it left creased a part of the man. Even after each person said sorry when we flattened him back out, there were still marks left from the unkind words. This showed us that actually words can hurt us. So we are trying to always say kind things to others.

Mrs Bennion and a couple of our P1 pupils confidently stood up to tell us all about how we can ‘fill each other’s buckets’. We imagined that every time we come to school our ‘bucket’ (heart) is empty and we need to help fill our friend’s buckets by saying kind things. This is our goal as it is important to be kind to others.

Star Assembly Class: Well done P2W for winning the trophy this week! You modelled how to sit smartly and quietly during our starting song.

Star Pupils: Congratulations to the final Star Pupils of the term.

Unit Star Class Winners: This term we saw the children working together as class teams to gain as many unit star stickers as they could (both the Green and Purple units). Every time they got a sticker for following and exceeding the school rules they were awarded a tally mark for their class. Congratulations to our first class winners of P2M and P3F. On W

Wednesday they were treated to a special games and party session and they were awarded a class certificate.

Open Day

Thank you to all the parents/carers/family that came to visit the children in school on Thursday 28th March. It was great to have you in and we hope you enjoyed it too.

Have a wonderful Easter holiday and we will see you all at the start of Term 4!

Miss Catlow

On Thursday 21st March it was our annual P1-3 disco ran by a very dedicated group of parents.

The children all had a great time. There was a lot of dancing, drawing, eating and drinking! Some teachers managed to come along for a quick boogie. I hope the children slept well after – I certainly did.

The effort and organisation that goes into such an event is huge and it has not gone unnoticed. So thank you to everyone who helped organise or volunteer to support. It makes the world of difference at these events and ensures the children have a safe, but fun time.

During assembly on Monday 18^th March the children all showed excellent listening skills. Well done!

We continued to learn about our emotions this week, where we looked at the last two emotions – Fear and Disgust. We listened to some examples of how children were feeling and had to guess whether that person was feeling Fear or Disgust and how to help them manage the feeling.

This was interesting because one of the examples was a little girl who was scared of cars and crossing the road. To start with the boys and girls thought she shouldn’t be scared of cars and the road. We explored this further and then began discussing how actually sometimes a little fear is healthy as it keeps us safe. In this example Fear would stop the girl from running in front of cars.

We then discussed the P1-3 Disco arrangements for Thursday evening, which the children were very excited about. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday everyone.

Finally, we wrapped up by celebrating some of our learning from Red Nose Day and thanking everyone for their contributions. The children were able to discuss how the money raised would go to help children who aren’t as fortunate as us.

Star Assembly Class: I was extremely please with P2K as they came in before everyone else, as quiet as mice, and sat down waiting patiently for the other children. An excellent role model to our younger P1 pupils.

Star Pupils: Congratulations again to all the Star Pupils this week.

For assembly this week we paused our learning about feelings as we had two special visitors!

We have learned all about the Walking Bus which is a fantastic way to get to school. We discussed why walking to school is so important for not only our health but also to help reduce the amount of cars on the road.

Alison, one of our school parents, helps to lead the Walking Bus and is really keen to get more children joining in. If you are interested please sign your child up – they can come once or twice a week or even every day! The children were shown a song that the walking bus like to sing on the way to school which looks great fun! We even had a visit from Strider, who is the Walking Bus mascot. The children were very excited by this! The Walking Bus also accommodates park and stride pupils, so even if you don’t live close you can park up and take your child to the Walking Bus – you just need to register your child first!

Red Nose Day is this week and it is wear a touch of red day with our school uniform.

Star Pupils: Well done to a range of people who achieved the star pupil certificates this week. Lots of hard work again!

On Monday 4^th March 2019 we focussed on the feeling of Anger. At the start of the assembly I asked the children if they felt that feeling anger was a ‘bad’ thing. Most of the children said that they felt it was bad.

With the help of some actors and the use of a volcano made by some boys in P2, we explored the feeling of anger and likened it to a ‘volcano in our tummy’. In the story a little boy ‘Sam’ found that during the day at school things annoyed him and made him angry. Slowly these things built up (we added bicarbonate of soda to the volcano each time he got angry) until eventually he tripped over someone who shouldn’t have been sitting on the floor and he exploded (we added vinegar to the volcano and there was a reaction). We saw Sam lash out and anger took control of him.

However we continued to discuss that we will feel anger at points, because it is a feeling and we are all human and can’t control what happens around us. Instead we discussed how ‘Sam’ could have taken control of anger instead of letting him take control of him. For example, the first thing that annoyed ‘Sam’ was when his friend ‘Mark’ didn’t sit next to him in the dinner hall. Instead of getting annoyed about it, this time ‘Sam’ used his feeling of anger to instead decide to start talking to the people around him and make new friends. Then ‘Sam’ started to feel better and this kept him in control of his anger.

For the times when we do get angry, we explored some strategies to use to help us calm down. In assembly we learned how to use a technique called square breathing. Ask your child to show you how to use this!

After exploring the feeling of anger I once again asked if it was a ‘bad’ thing. A lot of the children changed their mind and felt it didn’t have to be a bad thing as we realised that it is a normal feeling and if we learn to manage it rather than letting it control us, then we can still make positive behaviour choices even if we feel angry.

We then discussed the importance of using friendly hands outside in the playground even if a game doesn’t go our way and we get annoyed. There are green friendly hand reminders stuck to the outside doors to remind us to use friendly hands.

Finally we looked ahead to World Book Day on Thursday 7^th March. We are looking forward to celebrating reading and I am very much enjoying the World Book Day Family Selfies that have come in so far! Such a great effort from everyone and it will help to create a real ethos for the love of reading at Cults Primary.

STAR ASSEMBLY CLASS – Congratulations go to my P1D class. They listen so well all the time and we had some confident actors and actresses up helping to explore the feeling of Anger. Well done P1D.

STAR PUPILS: Congratulations again to the star pupils for this week. I continue to be very proud of the children and the teachers are too! Lots of children making real improvements in their learning as well, which is great to see. Keep up the fantastic work everyone!

Following on from last week where we watched a clip from Inside Out that showed Sadness appearing and changing the girls laugh (Joy) to a cry, we began to discuss the feeling of ‘Sad’. In partners we discussed some of the things that have made us sad. The children were very open and we realised that lots of people get sad about the same thing. It was discussed that we will all feel sad at some point, but it is important to know what to do when we feel sad. We listened to a story called ‘When I Feel Sad’ and realised that the character in the book cried, got a hug and made sure that he talked about what was making him sad so that he could move on.

The children identified adults in school, family and home and friends that they could talk to if they need.

This week in the Green Unit we have welcomed some University Students who are joining us as part of their teacher training journey. They have made a good start this week and are busy getting to know the children. The student teachers are fully supported by our teachers and they are working in specific classes with the aim to plan for teaching and learning with support.

STAR ASSEMBLY CLASS: Congratulations to P1M who worked well in partners discussing our topic of Sadness before sharing their ideas with the rest of the children.

STAR PUPILS: Congratulations goes to our Star Pupils. It was great that one of our pupils was awarded a certificate for her kindness to others and her ability to make others happy – this is very much in line with our emotion learning as we realised today that other people can have an impact on how we feel!

On Monday 18^th February assembly was very busy! To begin with we continued our learning about feelings. This week we focussed on the character Joy from Inside Out. We watched a small clip to show the ‘Birth of Joy’ and the effect that Joy had on Riley the girl in the movie.

After some think, pair, share time, we shared our ideas on the effect that feeling happy has on the body. We also shared things that made us happy.

We were then treated to something very special which made us all feel happy for a Monday morning! The Cults Glee Club came to perform their songs that they have been working very hard on. Their dancing was excellent and the singing too.

We then introduced our new unit leaders to the P1s and P2s and they were presented with their very own Unit Leader badge.

At the end of the assembly we discussed the playground and the children were clearly told that all stones should be left in the playground and not played with or thrown. There are some big stones in our playground and this can be dangerous to throw them. Our unit leaders met for the first time 2 weeks ago and they would like to focus on the playground and ensuring everyone is safe and happy.

Star assembly class: The trophy went to P2W this week as I have seen a significant improvement in their listening bodies and they were a great audience when the Glee club performed their songs.

Star Pupils: We had a lot of star certificates go to pupils who have been trying their very best and improving in reading. It is great to see pupils putting in the effort to improve in their learning.

Miss Catlow

In Assembly this week we continued to learn about our mental health by naming a range of feelings. We began to use the feeling characters from the movie ‘Inside Out’ to help us group our feelings. The feeling characters from Inside Out are Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Fear.

Lots of children have seen this movie and were quite excited! We watched a short clip where we met the Inside Out characters and saw the effect that the feelings had on the behaviour of the main character. For example when the girl was playing a game building a stack of cards she accidentally knocked one over and the feeling of Anger kicked in. We the then saw her smash the whole thing up because she was so frustrated. This led to a discussion about how our feelings can impact our behaviours. We will continue to explore this.

BARTS and CASPER children have now got a signposted meeting point in the Green GP area and a visual guide has been created to encourage the pupils to register, then find a seat in their area, have a chat to their friends and wait patiently until all children are collected. The area can get quite busy with the P2 children lining up to go home and reinforcement of these rules from parents of the afterschool club pupils is greatly appreciated.

Star Assembly Class: Congratulations goes to P2M. I saw some fantastic listening and the class is working well as a team.

Star Pupils: Congratulations to our star pupils for this week! The teachers are very proud.