All posts by eamelanie.bradley@glow

RRS Committee’s Wear, Share, Care Campaign for Cash for Kids

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP US?

Make a difference to your wardrobe and a child’s life!

As part of their work towards achieving Rights Respecting Schools Gold accreditation, Drongan Primary School with the help of the RRS committee are supporting the Cash for Kids Wear, Share, Care campaign.

We are encouraging our community to come together and donate any unwanted clothes and textiles you may have. These can be brought to school in bags and will be weighed and collected by Rag Bag.  Every tonne collected will raise £400 for disadvantaged children.

Look out for our posters in the community!

Items that can be bagged and brought to school are;

Wearable Clothing

  • Sports wear
  • Suits
  • Dresses
  • Jackets
  • Scarves
  • Baby Clothes
  • Handbags
  • Belts
  • Hats
  • Paired shoes

(No uniforms or work clothes with logos please)

Please bring any bagged items to the front entrance of the school anytime before the 30th March.

Thank you for helping us raise as much money as we can for disadvantaged children and promoting the importance of recycling ahead of Global Recycling Day on 18th March.

The RRS Committee

 

P3 and P5 Pupils Exploring the Wider Curriculum

Some  of our P3 and P5 pupils have had the opportunity over the last few weeks to explore and engage in some exciting, wider curricular activities.

The children have shown great team work and these activities have stimulated great discussion.

Making Pancakes

The children got the chance to measure their ingredients, whisk and stir the mixture, make and flip the pancakes on the griddle and prepare and add toppings. Don’t they look delicious?!

 

Making Modelling Dough

The children enjoyed watching the liquid turn into dough as it warmed up. They had a great time exploring the different textures and making their creations.

Weaving

What beautiful patterns the children created through their weaving. These were made into coasters, hanging decorations and gifts. Very talented children!

Making Rocky Road Cake

 

Our New Playground Charters

As part of our Rights Respecting Schools journey, we now have Playground Charters in both our infant and upper playgrounds.

Last session, P6 and P7 took part in a ‘Design a Playground Charter ‘ competition.  The RRS committee worked together to decide on the rights that should be included.

Our Playground Charter Rights are;

  • Article 15 – You have the right to choose your friends and groups.

  • Article 19 – You have the right to be looked after, protected and kept safe.

  • Article 12 – You have the right to give your opinions on things and for others to listen.

  • Article 31 – You have the right to play and rest.

The winning designs were originally going to be displayed in windows looking out onto our playgrounds. However the fantastic team at @BrandingHub in Ayr, very kindly printed our designs as huge banners.

Our banners are displayed in our playgrounds to remind our children of their rights and the responsibilities both adults and children have in promoting these rights.

Children’s Mental Health Week

The children enjoyed ‘Dressing to Express’ and taking part in different activities to help raise awareness of Children’s Mental Health week.

P7 talked about things that make them feel good. They created Positivity Posters about the things in their life that makes them happy and who and what they are grateful for. They also gave tips to others on how to stay positive.

Some children in P1b talking about their feelings.

Feeling happy in P7!

P1a giving compliments and being kind to one another.

P1a talked about different feelings and wrote and drew a picture about a time they experienced a certain feeling.

P3b taking part in some body percussion.

 

Meet Our New Wellbeing Champions

Being Children’s Mental Health week this Week, there is no better time to introduce to you our new Drongan Primary Wellbeing Champions.

Some of our P6 and P6/7 pupils recently took part in several weeks of training and are eager and ready to take on their new and very important role within our school.

We are very proud of our young people for acknowledging the importance of mental wellbeing and taking on such a responsibility.

Congratulations to them all…we can’t wait to see the positive influence they have on our younger pupils.

 

 

Children’s Mental Health Week 7th-13th February

Next week we are celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week.

As you know, supporting mental wellbeing is already a huge priority at Drongan PS and is weaved through our daily curriculum.

Next week there will be an even bigger focus on mental wellbeing, with our pupils learning more about what mental health is and the different emotions that can be experienced and how to cope with them.

Part of the message children will learn, is that each one of them is unique and should be proud of who they are.

So, on Thursday 10th February we are encouraging children to come to school ‘Dressed to Express’.  This could be wearing an outfit/colours that best match their personality,  showing off their favourite hairstyles. Subtle or standout…anything goes!

No money donation will be required. This will simply be a day for children to express themselves and support this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week.

Look out for further posts next week, with tips and ideas on how you can help support your child/children’s mental health at home.

 

 

 

 

Thank You!

A huge thank you must go to one of our parents, Mrs Alma Wightman.

Her lovely, handmade ‘Worry Worms’ that she kindly donated for our LIAM group (a small group of children who experience mild/moderate anxiety) have been a huge hit!

Mrs Wightman has made us many more, which I am sure will be a great addition to the coping tools available for our children.

Our Continued Learning about Rights of the Child and Global Goals

We have continued on our Rights Respecting journey over the last few months and the RRSA committee have worked hard to think of activities and ideas to help our pupils to learn more about different rights.

Climate Change

Article 24 – Children have the right to good health care, nutritious  food and clean drinking water

Article 27 – Children have a right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs.

Global Goals –

During the COP 26 conference pupils took part in many activities that allowed them to learn more about the effects of climate change on our planet and how children’s rights are being affected.

P1a enjoyed learning and singing a song about how they can take small steps to help stop climate change.

P4b telling us what they can do to reduce their Carbon Footprint.

P2 children made Nature Mandalas. A mandala is a common design among many different cultures. A mandala is a symbol representing the universe and life. The circular design is meant to show how everything in life is connected.
P7 made are taking action against climate change and have made their very own ‘Forest of Promises’
P1 also made a ‘Promise Tree’ showing the different ways they can help in the fight against climate change.
P4b create climate change poems to help them understand more about the effects of climate change on our planet.

P5 made their own ‘Protest Banners’ and learned how peaceful protesting can help raise awareness of important issues.

Anti- bullying Week

Article 2 – All children have rights without discrimination, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status.

Article 12 – Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views respectfully considered and taken seriously.

The children took part in ‘Anti-bullying Week’ and made the link between this and articles from Rights of the Child.

P4a discussed what respect looks like, feels like and sounds like. They created excellent Mind Maps demonstrating how they can show respect to others.

Children in P6/7 made Anti-bullying posters to be displayed around the school and community.

They also used scenario cards to open up discussion on different types of bullying.

P4b made a class Anti-bullying acrostic poem.

Wellbeing Check-in Term 1 2021/22

Now that we are few weeks into our new school year, and our pupils have had time to settle into their new classes,  we would like to ask them to complete a simple well-being check in form as part of their homework this week. Children will be told about this in school and shown the form.

This form will allow us to check how our pupils are feeling based on the 8 well-being indicators -Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included.

This is a simple form that P4-7 children should be able to complete independently. However, we would encourage parents to sit alongside their P3 children as they complete this and support where needed.

Our P2 pupils will complete this in class.

Our new  P1 pupils won’t complete this activity until Term 3: giving them more time to learn about the wellbeing indicators.

If pupils could click on the link below to complete the form before Friday 1st October that would be much appreciated.

Rights Respecting School

We have been working hard during the last year helping our children learn more about their rights.

We took part in Outright 2020 which focused on the affect of climate change, we celebrated International Women’s Day as well as celebrating and embracing Inclusion and Diversity. We placed a huge focus on mental health and celebrated Children’s Mental Health week by sharing lots of videos and activities to support this.

Each month the RRS school committee will continue to choose a ‘Right of the Month’ that will be delivered to each class to focus on and discuss. These will continue to be put on the blog and school app for everyone to  learn about.

Please have a look at our SWAY,  which shows our work so far with Children’s rights Our RRS Journey

Here is a reminders of the United Nations Rights of the Child.