Pizza is the perfect convenience food – they have a dough base with a selection of vegetable  and/or meat layers, topped with cheese. They can be a balanced diet all in one.

So often people buy ready made pizzas but they are infact easy and fun to make in your kitchen at home.

We decided to make pizza to show the children how easy they are to make and to show that they can be personalised so that many of your favourite ingredients can be included as toppings.

At a different level Tracy, our school cook, demonstrated how a wide range of ‘not so popular but very healthy’  ingredients can be incorporated into the base or tomato paste without the consumer being none the wiser. Slightly sneaky but very effective – especially when the children admitted the taste was great!

 A dough base made from a mix of white and wholemeal flour is spread with a thin layer of tomato paste. The tomatoes can be pureed with other vegetables including onions, courgettes, peppers to name but a few.      

Then selected sliced vegetables and meats, if desired, are placed ontop of the base. 

Finally grated cheese is liberally sprinkled on top. Once again you can use a mix of you favourite cheeses. 

Place in a hot oven and cook until the cheese is melted and the base is cooked (about 15 – 20 mins).

Eat and enjoy!!

What are your favourite toppings for a pizza?

During a healthy eating lesson I was amazed to discover that none of the children knew what pasta was made from nor how it was made. They all said that pasta was dried and came in packets from the supermarket. Most knew vaguely how it was cooked and most of the children enjoyed eating it.

It was then the childrens turn to be amazed when I told them they could make it themselves from flour and eggs!

Tracy and her team in the kitchen offered to help the children to make fresh pasta; they even offered to cook it at the end of the activity so the children could try their homemade pasta.

Before we turned the class into mini chefs each child had to complete a short course on hygiene and safety in the kitchen. This was essential because the children would be working with raw ingredients, especially egg. They all passed with flying colours.

Now for the fun part!! Having prepared themselves fully for working in the kitchen the children started the steps to making pasta. Pasta is made from finely milled flour (0 grade) and eggs. On this occassion we used dried, pasturized egg rather than raw eggs.

In pairs the children mixed the flour and egg mixture to form a dough ball.

They then used a rolling pin to roll the dough repeatedly, making an ever thinner, pliable layer of dough. This process certainly took longer than the children thought and needed lots of muscle power! The more effort they put into this part of the process the more delicious the pasta would be!  (After the lesson we showed the class pictures of pasta making machines which did the hard work or rolling the dough – they all wanted to use that machine!).

Finally, with help the thin layer was rolled up and cut into thin strips to make tagliatelli.

The tasting session was a big success!! Naturally the conversation turned to our favourite pasta recipes – the list  was extensive!

What is your favourite pasta recipe?

On Tuesday P2/1 attended a ‘food taster session’ in the dining hall. A wide variety of fruit and vegetables had been donated by Total Produce and carefully prepared by the kitchen staff for the children.

The children were keen to try new and unusual foods and seemed genuinely surprised by how many they liked. Time was spent discussing how the fruit and vegetables were prepared and where they came from.

Some of the children were able to explain which variety they preferred when they were tasting red and green peppers and a selection of melons.

We hope that the children will recognize the fruits and vegetables when shopping with their parents and carers and discuss what they experienced in school.

Going, going …….. gone!    Everything was eaten!

Primary 6H created some imaginative posters to promote Friendship Recipes, as part of Friendship Week. The pupils carefully considered what makes a good friend and then transferred their thoughts into writing/creating a poster.

The display was fun to read and made us think of what we each look for in a friend. See what you think.

As part of National Anti Bullying Week 19th – 23rd November 2012 we held an Anti Bullying Workshop with the Primary 7 classes. This was an intensive, whole morning session with follow up activities planned to consolidate what was learned. The workshop was part of a schoolwide Friendship Week, involving all classes.

The aims of the workshop were shared with the children –

At some point in your life you will be involved with bullying – either directly or indirectly. This workshop aims to give you

• important information about bullying
• skills to identify a situation where bullying is taking place
• strategies to cope with bullying
• positive communication techniques to use in a range of relationships

During the workshop you will be

• asked questions to encourage you to think about a specific issues
• working in pairs and small groups to share your thoughts and to listen to the view of others
• taking part in role play to ‘experience’ some of the issues discussed
• watching performances from other groups of children and to reflect on their views
• taking notes to remind you of key information
• sharing your thoughts
• contributing to the school

and

helping the school community at Glebelands to create a ‘zero tolerance zone’ for bullying

The children were each given a workbook which explained the aims, Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for the workshop. It included key questions for the children to answer and gave them space to record their own personal thoughts and feelings as the morning progressed.

At the end of the workshop each group of children (4) wrote a Code of Conduct which they felt the children of Glebelands should follow, linked to bullying. A member of each group then presented the Head Teacher with their ideas. She was impressed by many of the suggestions and hoped to include the key ideas in a schoolwide anti bullying policy.

During the workshop the children watched some excellent short films based on real life examples of verbal, physical and cyber bullying, some of which were written and produced by scottish high school children. The children then reflected on what they had seen in pairs and in small groups.

The children also took an active part in role play exercises where they experienced, for a short time, what it was like to be ‘a bully’, ‘a victim’ and ‘a watcher’. This was an eye opener to many of the childre as they hadn’t previousy considered the complexity of emotions that each person can face. They then extended their thoughts to the emotions of parents and other friends and family involved in a bullying scenario. Many more people are affected by bullying than the children initially thought.

Finally each group was asked to come up with their own mini drama showing a bullying scenario of their chosing. Each group produced excellent work in a short space of time. At the end of each groups production other members of the class were encouraged to make suggestions of how to change the course of events so that the end was a positive reflection on resorative practice.

Throughout the workshop there were references to positive commuication skills and how to defuse situations. The children promised to try some of these techniques out and report back, watch this space!

Student Comments

As the workshop was written and presented by adults the P7’s are keen to find out what other students of a similar age think about the subject of bullying. They have come up with a list of questions and comments that they are hoping their peers in other schools will respond to in the comment box below.

Do you have any bullies in your school?    Erin

Why do some people bully others?      Seykat

What happens when you are bullied?     Shubho

Have you ever been physically or mentally bullied?       Jack, Lewis

How can we prevent bullying getting worse?    Logan

Have you ever been bullied by people you don’t know?     Rhaigan

Please respond to these questions.

P7 suggested a Code of Conduct for children at Glebelands

• Don’t bully
• If you see bullying tell someone – a teacher, another member of staff, your parents/carers
• Don’t bring items or valuables into school that cause fights
• If you don’t tell anyone about bullying your friend should tell
• Don’t video or take pictures of fights or bullying
• Primary 7’s can act to ‘police’ the playground and to explain to younger children how to avoid bullying
• Don’t join in if you see someone being bullied

The Primary 7’s would like the School to

• have sticky notes so that bullying can be reported easily and quickly
• sometimes have teachers in the playground
• have after school detention for bullies
• phone parents and/or have meetings in school with the parents of bullies

The P7’s devised these points in house groups. No adults were leading or taking part in the discussion. Each group agreed the points then wrote them down. One person from each group presented their ideas to the Head Teacher.

At the beginning of October the Primary 7’s took part in the first Inter House Basketball Tournament at Glebelands. The weather stayed fair for most of the afternoon so that most matches were played outside in the MUGA. Each house had a squad of players made up of P7’s.

Discovery – Scott L, Ryan, Bilal, Arron, Robert, Nadia, Erin, Megan, Shannon, Hagar, Amy, Jack, Jordan.

McManus – Rhaigan, Dani, Nicole, Seykat, Connor, Jaden, Amirah, Ideeb, Holly , Dylan.

Slessor – Brandon, Jay, Daniel, Scott H, Lewis, Mikaela, Holly, Aqsaa, Beth, Sara. 

Unicorn – Usmaan, Anna, Shannon, Nicole, Rebecca, Gurlshan, Hamish, Logan, Sheryar, Ben, Daniel, Shubho.                                                                             

The House Captains and Vice Captains picked the teams for each match following the rules that

• Everyone on the squad must play atleast one match
• There must be at least 2 girls on court at any one time
• The referree’s decision is final

All Houses were very well supported by other classes who spent part of the afternoon watching the games.

Results

Unicorn V Slessor            3-4

Discovery V McManus   2-2

Slessor V Discovery        4-5

McManus V Unicorn       1-1

Unicorn V Discovery      0-4

Slessor V McManus         4-1

Points

Win – 3        Draw – 1        Loss – 0

Final Result 

1st – Discovery        7pts

2nd – Slessor            6pts

3rd= – McManus and Unicorn        2pts

From the referree’s point of view, all the children who took part played very well – they all worked for their team and were very supportive of each other. They all respected the other teams before, during and after the games. All the P7’s were good role models for other classes in the school community.

Ryan D

Me Scoring a wonder basket against McManus 

Last October there was a massive Basketball tournament involving both primary seven classes. The teams were based on the four school houses (Discovery, Slessor, McManus and Unicorn) and every team played every team. I am in Discovery and guess what… We Won! Our first match was against McManus but we drew 2-2 with them. Our second match was against Slessor and we won 5-3. So that meant we would have to win against Unicorn to win the cup. Right enough we absolutely scubbed them 4-0 and won the cup. Our top scorer was Robert but I was second top scorer for Discovery. 

Well done to all those involved in this tournament!

The Paralympics have been a huge success and many of the older pupils have been inspired by the athletes taking part.

We have reflected on the Olympic and Paralympic Values which all athletes follow. As well as the Olympic values of Friendship, Respect and Excellence which we agree with and try to follow ourselves, we were particularly interested in the additional values for the Paralympians of

Courage

Determination

Equality

Inspiration

Some of the classes chose a Paralympic athlete to study in more detail and to see if they followed these values.

We chose Derek Derenalagi who represented Team GB in the discus. We read his biography on the Help4Heroes website and listened to him being interviewed on the radio and TV.

Derek was a soldier who lost both his legs . 

 On 9th July 2007 he was in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His objective was to clear a heli pad but his armoured jeep reversed over an IED, a bomb. It exploded. Derek lay there with his shattered legs and prayed. He heard people screaming and there was blood everywhere. As he looked up to the sky he prayed, “Jesus, if You want me to help others, please save my life.”

He was rushed to the hospital at Camp Bastian. The doctors announced he was dead because his heart and breathing had stopped but one of the doctors saw a small pulse so they managed to save him. They operated on him and had to amputate both his legs. He was moved to the UK and kept in a coma for two weeks.

When he woke up his wife and doctors were standing there. Derek asked if he could go to the toilet. His wife told him that he had no legs. Derek was shocked because he could still feel the boots on him and his feet felt warm!

Since that day Derek hasn’t let his disability get in the way of anything. With the support of Help4Heroes he became an athlete. He has already broken 2 British records in the javelin and the shot put. He has been to lots of charity events and even played rugby on prosthetic legs. He has been very proud to represent his country in the Paralympics.

Written by Scott, Lewis, Cerys, Julliane, Zuzia, Peter, Calum, Kristen, Katie, Sarah and Neve P6H

The P7’s felt that Derek reflected all the Olympic and Paralympic values.

“Derek shows courage by being brave enough to be a part of the armed forces in Afghanistan. Despite his amputation, Derek was determined to continue and represent Team GB in the Paralympics. Ryan

He is still wanting to play rugby the same and all the other sports. Even though a lot of bad things have happened to him he is always cheerful and filled with spirit. Gurlshan

He is always determined to win at everything. Derek makes me want to win at everything. Robert

He has the guts to show everyone his talent. He makes me feel I should try. Rhaigan

There were more than 2400 athletes in the Paralympics with amazing stories to tell. They were certainly inspirational to the children of Glebelands.