St Andrew's Primary School Blog

After many weeks of hard work P7 loaded 82 shoeboxes into the vans to be taken to the Carlisle collection depot ready to be posted out to Eastern Europe.  There was a great article in the Standard publicising the hard work of all the school, parents and parishioners and thanking everyone for their efforts.  P7 did a great job of this enterprise and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  We could barely get all the boxes in the van!

    

As part of our PE we have been having a go at Floorball, this is through Active Schools. Floorball is like Ice Hockey (without the ice) and Coach Joey from the Solway Sharks Ice Hockey Team has been taking the sessions. We have be learning hoe to hold the sick properly and play safely as well as playing as part of a team.

This week our Nursery and Primary 1 children got together to welcome an author to our school.  Hazel Stevens the author of Poppy Wants to Bake a Cake came to visit us.  This was a great opportunity for us to ask questions about the book including finding out about the characters and setting and how an author gets the ideas for the story.

The children took part in 4 activities linked to the book including using pastels to create masks, designing rag dolls and icing their own tasty cake! The final group got to listen to the author read her story and ask all their super questions.

We would like to thank Mrs Stevens for her visit and hope to have more authors visit us in the future.

Here are a few photographs of our afternoon:

As primary 7 have been reading War Horse and learning about WW1 we decided to go on a trip to The Devil’s Porridge Museum in Eastriggs on Wednesday.  The children enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the munitions factory, the life of the Gretna Girls and conditions in the trenches from the excellent volunteer speakers.

  

They also had an interesting time handling artefacts such as the Brodie helmet, the shell and bullet cases, a bayonet and many more objects.  There was time to dress up in uniform and take a look around the museum too before heading back to school.  It was a super day learning about our local history and we must thank all the parent helpers who came along too.

  

 

        

It was a very busy, spooky week for P7 preparing Halloween discos for the whole school.  They have been baking, making games up, preparing music, dressing up and creating fun for their peers all in the effort to raise lots of money for their Pope Francis project, Operation Christmas Child (shoebox appeal.)

     

I am so proud of their efforts and teamwork.  It’s been hard work but also a lot of fun for everyone! Thank you very much to everyone for your donations!

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Primary 2 took part in a challenge homework to create a musical instrument. We had some excellent ideas and creations and the children were really proud of their work. We had a great time playing our instruments for other classes and they gave us some really good feedback. We were also able to talk about how sound is made through vibrations and we thank P4 for being our audience for our Sound Video

 

Primary 6 would like to thank parents, children and parishioners who donated items for our Food for our Neighbour Mass on Friday 13th October. After a lovely Mass which was organised by Primary 6,  Mr. Valentine, Sinead, Rokas and Eryk took the donations to our local food bank where they were gratefully received.

To coincide with our work on the local connections with JM Barrie, Primary 6 visited the Theatre Royal. We were given a fun, fact filled tour of the theatre from Peter Bain, the Heritage and Education Officer, who took us around all areas including the sound and lighting box, stage, props room and dressing rooms. The class learned lots about the history of the theatre and the many changes it has been through, including where the stage was originally and where JM Barrie would have watched the performances from. Before we left, the children took part in a variety of drama games.

Thanks to those who attended our first meeting for parents of children who have English as an additional language. The excellent turn out helped to show how important a topic it is for all concerned.

We agreed to meet each term, so that we can find ways of supporting families for the benefit of their children.

Parents felt that the group may have several initial benefits, including keeping up to speed with the differences between the Scottish education system and those in their own countries and also of it being an opportunity to make links with other parents in similar situations. Other issues discussed included that of children who learn English more quickly than their parents, and the importance of encouraging use of the first language as that is what the child’s development is based on.

We look forward to our second meeting next term.

 

A  group of 11 boys and girls in P7 have been working hard over the past weeks to compete in this festival.  It was a great experience which included a group warm up, a professional Jive dance workshop, a Flash mob dance with 8 other schools and the final dance competition in the afternoon.  Luckily for us, two sixth year pupils, Nathan and Nicole have choreographed and helped teach a fantastic group dance.  Everyone was brilliant on the day, we came back with medals and very happy faces.  Here are just a few photos of our day.