Tomorrow we are having an awareness day for Dyscalculia. Miss Smith has prepared a daily plan for P1-3 and P4-7, full of activities and resources to explore. Our DFS Inclusion Committee are excited to explore different topics with you as they focus on inclusion as their main priority.

Below you will find links to the planners, resources, questionnaires and videos that should help you and your child to gain a better understanding of Dyscalculia. Please remember to fill out the feedback form to let us know what you thought of the activities. Thank you!

Dyscalculia Day Plan P1-3 Fri 5th Feb

Dyscalculia Day Plan P4-7 Fri 5th Feb

Information leaflets to support parents/carers:

Dyscalculia Parent Leaflet

iPad Apps for Learners with Dyscalculia Numeracy Difficulties

Today is our final post for Children’s Mental Health Week. We hope you have enjoyed the daily videos and pictures from our staff and children .

Our last videos come from Mr Maddocks and Millie Hogg P5, telling us about how they try to stay positive during lockdown.

Activitiy

Have a listen to the story In My Heart: A Book of Feelings. These are feelings that I am sure we have all experienced at some point in our life. Can you relate to these feelings? Think about a time you have experienced one of these feelings. How did you manage that feeling? Who helped you?

Activity

Have a go at the Squiggle Game (double click to download) Escape into an imaginary world, let your feelings out and your imagination run wild!

Today we have videos from Mrs Mitchell, Mrs Brown and Abigail McAdam P5/6 telling us about things that help cheer them up and how they keep themselves feeling positive right now.

Activities

These are poems written by children of their experiences of lockdown. We all have our good days and our bad days. It’s about remembering the things that make us happy.

Creative writing is a great way to express how you are feeling. Why not have a go at writing your own?

Activity

Here are my boys playing the Help, We’re Running Out of Toilet Paper Game

Get together with your family and play too. Relax, chat and explore your emotions. 😃 (click on link above to download)

Today we have videos from Mrs Brady, Jake Young P6 and Megan Watkins P5 talking about how they maintain a positive mindset during lockdown. Have a look!😊

Take some time today to watch this virtual assembly made by Children’s Mental Health Charity  – Place2be

It has plenty of familiar faces talking about their mental health and how they express themselves through art, music, drama and other activities to help stay mentally healthy.                                                 Perhaps try some out yourself.

Activities

Squeeze away any negative feelings – If you haven’t already done so, have a go at making your very own Ninja Stress Ball

Try this game with your family at home (click to download).                It’s fun, tasty and gets you talking about your feelings and emotions. Win, win!😊

Sweet Talk

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week.

Now, more than ever, looking after our mental health is vital.

The theme this year is ‘Express Yourself’

Each day this week we will post videos and pictures sent in from our staff and children, telling us how they have coped with lockdown and the things they do to try and stay mentally healthy.

Also, look out for some games and activities you can try at home to help you express yourself and lift your mood.

Today, we have Mrs Bradley and Lara Ferguson (P5 and Rights Respecting School committee member) telling us about how they try to stay motivated and mentally healthy.

Activities 

Research shows that people feel more positive after singing to music than they do just listening to music.

Listen and have a sing-a-long to Labrinth ‘Express Yourself’    

Sing out, sing loud!  

Please find a link to our video of some of our children reciting Scottish and Burns poems.  Unfortunately, we are unable to hold our annual celebration and competition this year, but we still wanted to showcase the talents of our children.  A huge well done and thank you to everyone who sent a recitation, we have included them all in the video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izG4sQYMKmk

Our P6 and 7 children are currently working away on their Burns’ Supper tasks.  We will choose some of their contributions and share our virtual Burns’ Supper with you over the next week or two. 

We hope you enjoy the children reciting their poems, they have all done a fantastic job and as always, we are extremely proud. Well done!

Children’s Rights (Jan-Feb)

Article 6 – The right to life, survival and development

Have a look at the PowerPoint below that explains what it means to have the right to life, survival and development. Discuss what you think about it at home and try some of the activities to help raise your awareness of this right.

RRS Article 6 – You have the right to be given what you need to survive and develop

Please find attached a flyer for a great opportunity for children to take part in some free online Karate classes from Senjokai Karate. The details are all on the flyer for sign up which goes directly to the club coach from the parent.

At this time of year we traditionally celebrate the life, times and works of our national bard Robert Burns and have enjoyed some really successful events over the last few years.  We are keen to encourage children to learn about Robert Burns this year despite the current situation.  We are always blown away by the talent of our children.

As we do every year, we have allocated a poem for each stage and encourage children to do their best to learn the poem.  If the children want to they can be recorded reciting their allocated poem and this can either be emailed to their teacher or uploaded to MS Teams to share with their class.

A video will be created of some of the selected performances to be shared with the school community to enjoy.

If you / your child would like to record their recitation please upload or email this by Wednesday 27th January.

Please see the table below detailing the allocated poems for each stage.  For the P5/6 class, if P5 children can learn ‘The Boy in the Train’ and P6 children ‘To a Mouse’.

I have attached links to each of the poems below the table.

Tam o Shanter

THE BOY IN THE TRAIN

TO A MOUSE

MICHAEL

THE SAIR FINGER

MY HOGGIE

UP IN THE MORNING EARLY

The emphasis is on enjoyment and we look forward to seeing and hearing some of the recitations.  They are always very entertaining and make us smile.

If any of our talented musicians would like to send a musical performance, this would also be very welcomed and can be shared with the school community.

Thank you

We would like to welcome all the children to the first week of online learning and wish everyone a Happy New Year!  I am sure you will agree that this is not the way that we ideally wanted to start 2021, but we need to make the best of this situation and we are here to support you as much as we can.

We fully appreciate that everyone’s circumstances are different, so please do what you can.

ECC

Links and activities will be posted on the app on a daily basis for you to access at home.  We will try to ensure that there is a wide variety of activities and links shared.

PRIMARY
ONLINE LEARNING

During this period of home learning, all teachers will post their weekly plans and resources on the school blog in their own class page. This will be done at the beginning of each week.  If you hover over the name of your child’s class, you will see additional tabs appear. We have created a new one for each class, specifically for remote learning. This is where teachers will post their weekly plans and sometimes resources that can be used to support remote learning.

HOME LEARNING PACKS

We understand that access to digital learning is not suitable for everyone and we will be creating physical home learning packs again to support learning at home. Teachers will create the packs for each class stage and specific groups within these stages.  We will let you know as soon as the packs are available to be collected.

As stated above, there will be activities included in teacher’s weekly plans that do not require IT facilities.  The weekly plans will provide direction and instructions that will support learning at home and will include a variety of activities that the children should already be familiar with.

GLOW BLOG / TEAMS / BUG CLUB

Microsoft Teams will continue to be used as a communication tool for P3 – P7 pupils and their teachers. We have not reset the passwords for children, so they will still be able to access Glow and Teams using their previous login details. If your child needs their password reset or a reminder of their login details for Glow, Teams or Bug Club; please complete the form on the app to let us know.

LIVE / RECORDED TEACHER INPUTS

Following updated guidance, we will be moving towards an online learning model that includes live interactions.  These inputs from teachers will support the weekly overviews that will be posted on our Glow blog / school app each Monday.  As we move forward teachers will clearly detail in their weekly overviews when the teacher inputs and live interactions will be taking place.  Teachers will also detail when they are supporting in the hub.  On the days teachers are supporting in the hub, children will be directed to activities detailed in weekly overviews but teachers will not be contactable.  If any pupils or parents need to contact their class teacher for a particular reason (either on Teams or via email), please note that they will respond during their working hours.

The interactions may be in the form of:
– A pre-recorded lesson
– PowerPoint presentation with teacher audio pre-recorded
– Microsoft Teams live chat (P3 – 7)
– V-Scene live chat (P1 – 2, more information to follow)

The inputs will then be followed up with suitable activities and teachers will be available to communicate with children during set, allocated times.

SUBMITTING WORK

We look forward to seeing your children’s work.  P3 – 7 will be able to upload work to the MS Teams page and P1 and 2 children can email work to their teachers.  You can either scan work and email or take a photograph.

Staff email addresses:
Mrs Brady P1a – jacqueline.brady@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Glasgow P1b – lorna.glasgow@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Hogarth P2a – megan.hogarth@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Adams P2b – rachael.adams@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Coulter P3a – jane.coulter@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Dyce P3b – lauren.dyce@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Brown P4 – agnes.brown@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Hainey P5 – petra.hainey@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Mitchell P5/6 – joan.mitchell@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Smith P6 – rebecca.smith1@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Cowie P7 – lynsey.cowie@eastayrshire.org.uk

Thank you for your ongoing support. We fully appreciate that these are challenging times and we will work with you to support you and your children as much as we possibly can.