Auchterhouse Primary School

Our nursery have been selected as one of the winners of the One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden design competition! The competition is run by Keep Scotland Beautiful in partnership with the Garden for Life Forum, and this year, Scottish Book Trust have joined them in celebration of the 2022 Year of Stories.

The challenge was to design a miniature garden that uses edible plants, plants that attract wildlife, and to reuse something which would otherwise have been thrown away.

The themes were the Year of Stories, One Planet Picnic and Wildlife Gardening so we had to tell a story through our Pocket Garden. The story we chose to tell was ‘Bee – Nature’s tiny miracle’ by Patricia Hegarty and  Britta Teckentrup. The bee travelled through beautifully coloured gardens, woodlands alongside other animals and with its bee friends, sharing pollen.  This predominately visual story was communicated with all the children in our setting, sparking curiosity and generating ideas.

As you can imagine, we are thrilled to have been chosen and are now looking forward to building our design. The garden will be around the size of a wooden palette and will be photographed or filmed to feature in an online showcase for a public vote on the Keep Scotland Beautiful website between 8 June – 20 June.

We’ll keep you updated on our progress and a reminder of when you can go and vote!

Since we have posted the blog last we have been quite busy. 

 This week, teachers from Monikie and Newbigging Primary came to both watch our presentation we did for the Head Teachers meeting and see how rights are used in our school and our learning. All students were involved by not just doing the presentation but also answering their questions. It felt good to share all the things we learnt about to the other teachers. 

During the previous month we have had Covid hit the school. At one point we had only 8 pupils in our class It was strange as we were more used to having a bigger class. 

We have gotten new books for the class. Mrs. Clark picked Scottish stories, Scottish Authors, and stories about different countries. We are all excited about the new books for our book talk. 

We have had another visitor called Colin. He was from the Sidlaw Path Network, he taught us what to bring for a long walk or a walk up a hill. He wanted us to go on a walk and try to find everything good in the nature. All of us enjoyed learning about walks. 

We have a new right of the month. This month is different because we have 2 different rights. These rights are number 22 Refugee Children and 38 Protection In War because of the situation in Ukraine.  

For Burns Week we learned variety of things including poems and Scottish country dancing. We also went on live video calls and learnt about Robert Burns and what his childhood was like. Our class tried some traditional Scottish food like tablet. The dances we did at school were Gay Gordens, Canadian Barn Dance and Flying Scotsman. The children in p4-7 class also listened to the music for Tam O’Shanter.   

This afternoon, we are having our Scottish Afternoon. We will have fun with our dances, hear the winners of our Poetry Competition and enjoy some Irn Bru and shortbread ! 

Aislin, Evie and Mrs Clark

Celebrations at Auchterhouse Primary are so much fun. Some of the things we do are the Christmas Service, our Christmas party, and Job Well Done, which this year, is watching a film. We also did a Christmas crafts morning, where we made paper gingerbread men, Christmas scratch art, Christmas cards, hand reindeer, lolly stick reindeer or Christmas trees, paper snowflakes, and we decorated baubles. We also get to do Christmas themed book talk, maths, spelling and writing.  

We made reindeers out of logs and willow to sell, and we have made over £300 for our school! Auchterhouse is so festive at this time of year, we can’t wait for next year’s Christmas! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM EVERYONE AT TEAM AUCHTERHOUSE!

We are hoping some people in the community would help us donate children’s books (ages 0 – 16) to Togs for Tots to try and make sure every child has at least one book to enjoy.  

What is Tog for Tots?  

They are a clothing and equipment bank providing aid to families and community groups in and around the City of Dundee. 

We have arranged with Togs for Tots that they will include at least one book in every parcel that they deliver for children. 

If you have any children’s books (that are in good condition) please hand them into Auchterhouse Primary School or phone us on 01382 768091 and we can come and collect them.  

#UNCRCArticle28accesstoeducation 

#UNCRCArticle31rest,play,culture,arts       

Thank you 

Molly, Callum & Evie 

For one week can you…

Because COP 26 has started, we thought that we could all do something more to help the planet. COP 26 is a gathering of world leaders to discuss climate change. We know that everyone has been trying their best, but there are some things that are harder to remember, like switching off the lights when you’re done with them, recycling everything you can, and using active travel instead of using cars on short journeys. Also, at our school we have a Rag Bag at the back entrance. The rag bag is a place where you can put old clothes that you don’t wear anymore. So, if you have any old clothes, please put them there. We know that these things are hard to do when you’re in a rush, but for one week can you try some? If you feel confident in doing this maybe you could try to do more. When you have done those things for 1 week, try doing these things for another two weeks. If you do something for 21 days, then it soon becomes a habit. Then if we do these things every day, that will help our planet enormously. So, please, for one week, try and save our planet.

# Savetheplanet

#COP 26

#Auchterhouseprimaryschool

#Article12UNCRC

#Article13UNCRC

By Bella, Bridget, and Trudie.

Take Action 

We are writing this blog post because we want people to act about climate change. Climate change is affecting all of us. We are raising awareness through this blog post. Because of our actions to cause global warming we are stopping the earth to become a better place. This is not good for us and others. We are trying different ways to get to school like running, walking, scooting, cycling, and car sharing. This all lowers your carbon footprint (how much carbon you use over your life). All the little things you do helps your climate. We have a climate action plan at our school. The five things on it are to improve biodiversity, reduce food waste, reduce plastic waste, improve active travel and campaign all about climate change. Our school thinks that having an action plan helps you to think about what you can do next. So, please take action against climate change. 

By Bella, Bridget and Trudie