Welcome back! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and managed to get some well-earned rest in between all the excitement of the festive period. It has been great to have Primary 6 back in class and I have loved hearing all about their Christmas holidays. Primary 6 have settled back into their school routine and are ready to take on term 3. Please see below an overview of the teaching and learning for the following term: 

Literacy 

Reading 

Primary 6 will continue to work on Bug Club books both in class as well as the independent texts assigned for children to read at home for enjoyment. Pupils will focus on a chapter each week and engage in good quality discussion with their reading group and teacher then work on tasks based around this chapter independently. This will help to aid and build on our active comprehension skills. Groups will continue to work on using evidence from the text to justify comprehension answers. 

Writing 

Our writing day will continue to be on a Tuesday. The pupils will have the opportunity to discuss and plan their writing the day before and will be encouraged to take time at home as a homework task to think about the content of their writing. Moreover, we will focus as a class on an aspect of grammar/punctuation each week to use in our writing which will hopefully transfer to all literacy areas. This term Primary 6 will be focusing on Narrative writing. We will refer back to using our description bubbles from Term 1 to aid in describing characters and settings while looking at the use of dialogue, figurative language, and plot structures to engage the reader.  

Spelling 

The spelling groups will continue to experience the Active Literacy spelling program, this will introduce common words and focus phonemes pertinent to their level and stage. The pupils will revise the Active Spelling strategies throughout the term. 

Numeracy 

This term P6 will focus on Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages and our Beyond Number topics will be Time and Measure. The pupils will experience activities at their stage and level. Constant revision of multiplication tables will be encouraged across all groups. Sumdog and Topmarks games can help with the rigor of times tables at home. Pupils will continue to engage in daily Number Talks to increase their mental maths agility. This is an area P6 have been working hard on throughout the last 2 terms and I look forward to seeing what they are capable of in term 3! 

Health and Wellbeing 

Last term P6 continued to work through our weekly PATHS lessons which focused on problem solving and making a plan. Moreover, the PATHS Barnardo Buddies programme has been up and running, all children involved have received training and have made a fantastic start on their buddying journey. This has given the Buddies a sense of responsibility and commitment, dedicating part of their lunchtime towards something that has a great benefit to both the school community and their own personal development. Our ‘Pupil of the Day’ continues, which encourages P6 to not only compliment their classmates, but to compliment and be kind to themselves, which can sometimes be trickier than we think. As always, all children in P6 are encouraged to use their ‘feelings jotter’ to share any worries or concerns they may be experiencing. P6 will cover a mini topic this term looking at substance misuse and making the right choices.  

Our PE days this term will return to Thursday and Friday. Our Thursday sessions will have a focus on Netball while our Friday sessions look at Fitness. Pupils are asked to come dressed for PE on these days – school uniform on top but leggings, joggers, trainers can be worn on the bottom. 

IDL 

Last term P6 focused on Titanic which they thoroughly enjoyed, especially making all their wonderful home projects – The Titanic Shoeboxes – which are proudly on display in our open area. This term our topic will be Scotland. Throughout this topic we will look at Literacy while examining Scots language and poetry; Social Studies as we explore Scotland on a map and study the landscape, mountains and rivers Scotland has to offer; as well as Expressive Arts, as we recreate some landscape artwork and study Steven Brown, a famous Scottish artist.  

RE 

Last term P6 began working towards their Pope Francis Faith Award during our RE sessions. So far, we have focused on the gift of Knowledge and completed various activities to support this. Children are encouraged to share this learning at home as part of the award and some homework tasks will focus on areas of this. Furthermore, this term we will study the life of Jesus in Jerusalem and look at key dates in the liturgical calendar such as Shrove Tuesday and the beginning of Lent in preparation for Easter.  

2+1 Languages 

This term, Primary 6 will continue to work on French as their main language with Mrs Mackinnon. In our classroom we have started to immerse ourselves in the French language with labels and displays in French. Each day, we fill in a French calendar with the aim of embedding the language into our classroom routines. 

In Primary 6 we promote hard work and amazing attitudes. Our reward card system allows pupils to gain reward cards for Wonderful Work, Amazing Attitude, and being a ‘Superstar’. When the pupils gain five cards, they can choose an individual reward. They can also choose to go for a class reward once everyone reaches five reward cards; this promotes teamwork within the class. Term 1 and term 2 have seen all children receive individual rewards. Many children have already put their reward towards a class reward, therefore, hopefully term 3 will be the one where we can achieve this and celebrate Primary 6’s combined success together! 

If you have any queries or questions, please contact the school directly. 

Thank you for your support and I look forward to another wonderful term in Primary 6. 

Miss McKenna