Monthly Archives: January 2024

Whole School News

Burns Celebration Day

We have had a wonderful day celebrating the life of Robert Burns and Scots language. At our morning assembly we were entertained with amazing performances from every class and enjoyed singing The Jeely Piece Song and Auld Lang Syne as a whole school. Lunchtime brought lots of happy faces as we tucked into a menu of haggis, neeps and tatties, steak pie and some delicious shortbread! 

 

Whole School News

Primary 1 Curricular Update – Term 3

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a very enjoyable festive break with your families.

In Primary 1 we are ready for a new year of learning!! Please have a look at the information below to see what we will be focusing on in each subject.

Literacy

Phonics – We will learn the remaining letter sounds of the alphabet this term while improving our word building skills.

Spelling – Now that we can read and write our sounds, we will be writing as many words as we can! Some of our common words cannot be sounded out so we have to practise the spelling of these in lots of different ways to help us remember the letter order.

Writing – We are continuing to develop our skills in sentence building this term. We will be using our knowledge of the letter sounds to independently write words in a simple sentence for a variety of stimuli.

Letter formation and hand writing will continue to be a focus to allow us to showcase our spelling skills with ease.

Reading – Now that we are using worded texts, we will be developing our word attack skills, remembering to use our letter sounds to help us with unfamiliar words, while looking for our common words too.

We will also be developing our comprehension skills by answering questions about our texts. This term we will be looking at Traditional Tales, discussing character traits and sequencing the main events of the stories.

 

Numeracy

During our Mental Maths sessions, we will continue to practise counting forwards and backwards. We will also be seeing how quickly we can respond to more and less questions.

We will continue to focus on our addition skills, partitioning the quantities to 10 and learning the different ways to make each number. We will be learning about the doubling and halving of quantities.

Towards the end of term, we will be exploring Money, initially brainstorming our ideas about when and how we use it. We will be introduced to all coins up to £2, ensuring we can correctly identify these and as our addition skills develop, we will combine these coins to “pay” for goods in our class shop.

Through our topic work, we will also be exploring Data Handling; sorting a variety of objects into groups and recording and displaying the information that we have gathered.

Health & Well-Being (HWB)

During PATHS time, we will be learning to “Do Turtle” when things become stressful. We are going to be problem solving for Twiggle and his friends by helping them overcome difficult friendship scenarios. We are confident we have the necessary knowledge and strategies to help them!

In other areas of HWB, we are considering the impact of physical activity on our bodies and identifying the physical changes we feel after a period of exercise.

We will also be discussing the importance of personal hygiene; reinforcing our tooth brushing and handwashing techniques.

Keeping ourselves safe will also be a focus this term as we think about our road safety techniques and how to react in an emergency situation.

During our PE sessions we will be completing a block of gymnastics, reinforcing the skills from last term while incorporating these into sequenced movements.

Fun fitness will be our final topic, developing each child’s personal level of speed, agility, stamina and strength through fun activities and exercises.

GYM DAYS ARE MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS – PLEASE RETURN ALL GYM BAGS AND ENSURE EARRINGS ARE NOT WORN ON THESE DAYS.

RE

The first half of the term will focus on the Holy Family and how life would have been for Jesus as He grew up in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph. We will talk about the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and revisit our own.

As we move towards Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, we will talk about the meaning of this special time. During Lent we will take part in special prayer and reflection times to prepare ourselves for the special celebration of Easter.

 

IDL (Topic)

Our first topic this term will be “Weather”. We will be exploring and naming the different types of weather and discussing which of these are typically seen during each season. We will record the weather in different way and discuss the impact it has on our daily lives.

Our second topic will be “Senses”. We will identify and explore our 5 senses through a variety of practical activities.

Expressive Arts

Our art and music will be linked to our topics this term. Art will see us focus on the “design” aspect of the subject and within Music we will be using our senses to listen to excerpts, identifying the beat, pitch and tone of the music before exploring these on tuned and untuned percussion instruments.

We cannot wait to get started!

Mrs Duff.

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P7 Curricular update – Term 3

Happy New Year to you all and I hope Santa was good to you! And so we enter P7’s final year at primary!!  Good to see all the pupils back after the holidays, refreshed and ready to learn.  Here is a brief overview of our learning focus this term.

Literacy

This term we will continue to develop reading skills through a non-fiction class book.  We will also be reading texts to identify fact and opinion and discuss the reliability of sources of information.  For writing, we are concentrating on persuasive texts until the February holiday then look at discussion writing, focussing on topical debates.  For spelling, the Suns will continue to look at prefixes and how they change the meaning of words.  The Moons and Stars will continue to focus on core phonemes with their different representations.  Our grammar will be looking at using topic sentences in paragraphs and using formal language in texts.

Numeracy

The emphasis of our numeracy this term is on fractions, decimals and percentages and how they interlink.  Having completed the set Number Talk discussions, we will continue to use Number Talk strategies to develop mental strategies using all four processes.  The class are also working on skills beyond number and will be investigating data handling.

Health and Wellbeing

The PATHS focus this term is ­­­­­­­­­looking at respect and how to deal with conflicts and identifying positive steps to de-escalate situations.  We will also continue to praise and compliment children through Pupil of the Day.  We are also exploring risk taking behaviour including substance misuse and practise basic first aid procedures.

We will be first concentrating on gymnastics looking at combing our skills in to creating a short sequence of manoeuvres.  We also aim to develop our team game skills through netball where we will understand different roles within the team.

IDL

The topic this term is investigating Land Uses with emphasis on business and tourism.  Pupils will be investigating local tourist attractions and how land around us is used.  Children will also look at using the land in a sustainable way and what steps they can take to live in a more eco-friendly way.

RE

This term we will be aiming to complete our Pope Francis Faith Award journals, revising all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and giving evidence of them being used in the school, at home and in the community or Parish.  As well as this, there will be a final reflection on how the Gifts will help support them as they develop and grow.

French

Through a range of talking, listening, reading and writing tasks, this term the focus will be on describing pets as well as their likes and dislikes.

 

Technologies

This term P7 will look at coding and understand its importance within society.  We will use block coding software to program small digital devices and explore various commands to create games and move characters within games.

 

I look forward to working with P7 in their final year and will enjoy accompanying them on their trip to Lockerbie this term.

Mr Bertoncini

 

 

 

 

 

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

P4 Curricular Update – Term 3

Welcome back! I hope that you have all had a restful time over the festive period. It is lovely to see all the children back in class and ready for another busy term. Here is an overview of term 3.

Literacy

For our reading focus, the children will explore two class books. In January we will read, ‘The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster,’ this will tie in with our Scotland theme as we explore Scottish stories and poems. The children will have an opportunity to develop their comprehension skills such as metalinguistics, prediction and summarising.

We will then move on to a non-fiction text,’ Cool Castles’,  which again will be linked to our learning about Scottish Castles. The children will look at the features of this non-fiction text. We will look at the skills of summarising and note taking. Children will continue to be assigned a Bug Club reader as part of their homework tasks.

During writing, we will look at report and explanatory writing. We will look at the features of these writing genres and use of reading and notetaking skills to link our reading and writing tasks.

Spelling will take the form of active spelling activities and the children will experience phonemes and blends at their working level.

We will continue to build on our knowledge of various elements of grammar, linking this to our reading and writing tasks.

Numeracy & Maths

The children will continue with a daily number talk, to develop a range of mental maths strategies. We will be looking at various strategies for solving multiplication and division problems.

In beyond number, the children will continue to look at time before moving on to money.

Health and Wellbeing

We will be continuing with our PATHs programme focussing on making good choices and working effectively with others.

We have been following the Do Be Mindful programme, focussing on mindful attention, we will continue with this programme as well as our various daily mindful tasks.

We will also look at the various ways of staying safe and how to respond to emergency situations. We will link this to the world of work.

PE

PE is on a Thursday and Friday. This term we will be covering;

  • Fun fitness
  • Basketball

Children require PE kit for all PE days. Please ensure that all items of uniform and PE kit have your child’s name clearly marked on them.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

French

We will be continuing with our French conversational skills, and will be looking at numbers beyond 20. The children will engage in a range of listening, talking and writing tasks. We will be looking at the months of the year and will be investigating what school is like in France.

IDL

This term, we will be exploring the topic of Scottish Castles. We will look at the features, location and history of these historic buildings. We will link this learning with our literacy tasks and our expressive art tasks, where we will be looking at line drawings and adding shape, shade and tone.

Expressive Arts 

This term, we will be linking our learning in RE with our drama activities, allowing us to retell the story of the lives of some well-known saints. We will work on our characterisation skills and develop our sense audience and space.

We will link our artwork this term with our topic. Using the elements of tone, shape and shade the children will enjoy various art activities.

Religious Education

This term we will be looking at the importance and meaning of the Sacrament of Confirmation. We will explore the story of Pentecost and look at the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and how we can use these in our daily lives. We will read about the lives of some well-known saints, and reflect on how they are an inspiration to us.

As the term progresses we will look at the meaning of the season of Lent. The children will take part of class prayers and School Masses, and we will continue to build on our knowledge of common prayers and Mass responses.

 

Homework will continue in the same format as last term, it will be distributed on a Monday to be completed and returned by Friday.

As we start preparation for the Sacraments, there will also be some home tasks sent home in the Confirmation Work book for those children preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in February.

Keep an eye on the School blog and Learning Journals for updates on some of our wonderful activities and learning.

Thank you as always, for your continued support.

Mrs MacKinnon.

 

Whole School News

Primary 5 curricular update Term 3

Primary 5 Curricular update – Term 3

Welcome back and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! The children have settled well back into school and are ready for the term ahead. Please find a brief overview of the learning that will take place in the term ahead as we approach Easter.

IDL

Our topic we will be learning about this term is continents. The children will learn all about the 7 continents across the globe and we will look at many curricular areas throughout this topic. They have already demonstrated an interest in continents, with a special focus on animals that live in each one.

Literacy

Our grammar focus for the term ahead is going to be a revision of adjectives before using them comparatively and some new learning in the form of similes and alliteration.

Our comprehension skills that will be looked at this term will be a revision on metalinguistics, visualisation, prior knowledge and different types of questioning. The main focus will be on summarising however; using visual organisers to record own thoughts and ideas. This will lend itself nicely to the skill of note taking where we will practise using bullet points and mind maps to organise our ideas.

The genre of writing that will be taught this term is persuasive writing where we will look at the language required to persuade someone of your opinion or point of view. We will continue to investigate what a reliable source of information could be and as always, punctuation and its correct use will continue to be promoted within all language tasks completed.

We have been working hard on our ability to listen and talk at appropriate times, as well as listening for instructions. This term’s focus will be centred on presentation skills, for example, good eye contact, positive body language as well as tone and volume of voice. The children will have opportunities to experience using their presentation skills throughout the term ahead.

Numeracy

For the first couple of weeks of the new term, we will be looking at money and what it is used for in the real world. Within this topic, the children will be learning about budgeting, exchanging money as well as things like wages, banks, accounts etc.

Once this mini topic is completed, we will resume learning on our number processing skills with a particular focus on multiplication and division. This is where the previous learning regarding times tables will be crucial in our new learning. We will be encountering new mathematical language such as factors, multiples and products. The beyond number topic that will be taught is time, learning 24 hour format as well as durations of time and its importance in our everyday lives.

Our learning through number talks will continue as the children develop their ability to solve calculations mentally.

Health and Wellbeing

Our P.E. days will be on a Monday and a Friday moving forward with us having 3 more sessions left in our swimming inputs (25th January, 1st February, 8th February).We will be learning the skills required for basketball (different styles of throws, how to dribble etc) as well as the skills required for fitness (agility, accuracy, balance, co-ordination, endurance and flexibility).

We will also begin our Do be mindful programme of work which encourages us all to be more mindful of our surroundings and provides us all with strategies to stay calm. Following on from our focus on relationships at the beginning of term, our focus will be on children’s mental health and how we can nurture this and stay healthy. As we progress through the term, we will be learning about substance misuse and the consequences on our health and well-being that substance misuse can cause.

In correlation with our I.C.T. sessions, we will also be learning about online safety and cyber awareness as well as how to recognise dangers when playing online. We will also discuss online bullying and what we should do if we ever found ourselves in a situation that made us feel uncomfortable.

Religious Education

During our R.E. time, we will explore who the outcasts were during Jesus’ time and how Jesus perceived and treated these people. Examples of outcasts during this time are shepherds, tax collectors and people who were suffering from leprosy. We will then discuss which people are regarded as outcasts in today’s society and how we can show kindness to people who are less fortunate than us.

The children will also examine miracle stories from the bible as we move towards our preparation for Lent.

Technology

I am so impressed with the level of skill Primary 5 have shown me regarding their computing skills. During term 3, we will be learning how to save and retrieve files, attach documents to emails and cyber security.

French

Our French learning this term will be focussed around what the children like/dislike as well as what their hobbies are.

Science

Our science topic is animals and their habitats. This will be examined through our IDL topic when we learn about what animals live in what continents.

World of Work

We have been learning about the world of work and the different jobs that people in our life and community have. Term 3 will look at the children and their ambitions for the future. Wat do they want to be when they are older? How will they achieve this goal? In line with our Health and Wellbeing topic on substance misuse, the children will learn about the amazing jobs our NHS do when faced with emergencies etc.

I, as always, thank you for your ongoing support. If there is anything you are concerned about please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Many thanks,

Mrs McCreadie

 

 

Whole School News

Primary 3 Term 3 Curricular Update

Hello and welcome to our Term 3 curriculum update. With another busy term ahead of us as we begin to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as well as our school activities as we approach closer to Easter.

Literacy

Our focus in term 2 was prediction and summarising skills which we will continue to revisit regularly alongside our participation in reading and spelling activities where children work individually and in groups to revisit previous sounds and texts, using their skills and strategies to tackle new and unfamiliar spelling sounds and reading books. Throughout Term 3 we will develop our understanding of literal and inferential comprehension using the ‘Find It, Prove It, Talk about It’ strategies.

As part of our term 3 topic of Romans, children will be finding specific information and working on recognising different parts of texts ‘pictures, diagrams, charts and headings) and how to scan and locate related key words or facts in texts. Pupils will be focusing on punctuation and why commas are used and how to properly use commas in their own writing.

In writing, we will be continuing to focus on narrative story writing and report writing through our science topic of climates and social studies topic of Romans. We will also continue to revisit listening and talking games and activities to help children develop key skills needed in whole class group discussions and sharing information in a topic presentation.

Numeracy

In term 2, our focus has been addition and subtraction with two and three digit numbers and using different word problems strategies within this operation of number. In term 3 we will be looking at multiplication and division and the link between the two through fact families. The children will begin mentally counting in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables.

In beyond number the focus was identifying real life examples of 2D and 3D shapes, comparing the properties of 2D and 3D objects, and creating their own 3D shapes. Moving forward in term 3 the children will look at how to tell the time using hours and minutes and will use concrete materials which will promote a deeper understanding so the children know how to use analogue and digital time. Children will continue using their ‘Thinking it through’ jotters to develop

problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

All children will have the opportunity to be Pupil of the Day again in term 3 and will continue to explore emotions, and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others and learning how to control them. As well as looking at different strategies that we can do to help manage our conflicts or resolve disagreements in the playground or in small group activities.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to take place on a Tuesday and a Thursday and our focus this term will be Gymnastics, Football and Fitness. Children will continue to use their transferrable skills in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst continuing to develop their knowledge of how we keep in our body healthy with fitness and nutrition.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on the Sacrament of Reconciliation during January and February, with a focus being on the Life of Jesus and Lent as we move into March.

Topic

The children will be participating in activities in different areas of the curriculum including social studies and will be finishing our climates and weather around the world topic. We will also be looking at The Romans and their impact in Scotland. The children will have the opportunity to look at different aspects of Roman Society, Roman Gods and the Roman invasion in Britain. We will look at Roman inventions considered ahead of their time, such as bath houses, under floor pipes for water supplies, heating and sanitation.

We hope this is the start of another really successful term and that the children enjoyed their Christmas break.

Thank you,

Miss Grimley

Whole School News

Primary 2 Term 3 Curricular Update

Hello and welcome to our term 3 blog post.  Primary 2 have been very busy over the previous two terms and it ended on a high with the most fantastic Nativity production.  We hope all our children had a fantastic Christmas and are ready to continue with their new learning in term 3.

Literacy

Our focus in reading will be to develop the skills to read to self and to others in small group or in paired reading tasks. Children will use word attack strategies and knowledge of phonemes covered to date, to decode unfamiliar words. We will also learn to scan and find particular words in texts and complete read to write tasks linked to our reading book. We will begin to look at the effect punctuation has within texts and be able to identify this in our books as well as using some punctuation within our own writing.

In writing, our focus will continue to build on letter formation, the use of capital letters and full stops and building confidence to write a few sentences independently, using our knowledge of common words and spelling strategies. Using our skills from descriptive writing, we will expand our sentences and add more detail when writing larger pieces of work.

Our spelling activities will continue to help children retain knowledge of previously taught phonemes and to build confidence in tackling trickier joined phonemes as we progress through term 3.

Homework will be sent out week beginning Monday 15th January. Please check your child’s homework bag, weekly, for the homework to be completed that week.  Reading books will be attached to pupils’ accounts through our online Bug Club reading programme. These will be issued on a Monday and should be returned to school on a Friday.

Numeracy

Our focus in number work will continue to build on knowledge of place value, with children working on 2-digit numbers to 99. Children will be able to partition these numbers and discuss this in terms of tens (T) and units (u), whilst building on their understanding of number and number patterns. Subtraction within 10 or 20 will also be a focus as well as word problems to consolidate our strategies within this operation of number.  Children will also consolidate learning in money and begin to look at fractions, halves and quarters of shape and whole number as we progress through term 3.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Paths Pupil of the Day will continue in term 3, with our Pupil of the Day receiving lots of compliments.  Children will also tackle uncomfortable emotions and develop strategies for managing situations in the playground or classroom when we experience these emotions. This links to our whole school Paths strategies which help children to recognise when they need help to manage emotions or social situations.

In P.E, our sessions will take place on a Tuesday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 3 will be on fitness, racquet skills and gymnastics.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing general fitness, endurance, balancing and jumping safely whilst using apparatus.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on the life of Jesus as we build up to our preparations for Lent and Easter.  We will also look at Baptism and associated symbols and their meaning.  As always, we will also spend some time reading and discussing bible stories relating to friendship and family.

Topic (IDL)

Our class topic this term will be Living Things and Minibeasts.  We will look at how we know something is living or non-living, looking at the characteristics of these groups and we will take this knowledge forward to find out what minibeast are, where they live and how we categorise them into different subgroups.

French

In French, we will continue to build our knowledge of greetings and numbers to 10. We will also discuss colours, days of the week and basic classroom commands.

We hope this is the start of another successful term and that the pupils are enjoying their return to school following the Christmas break.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Whole School News

Primary 1 Registration- August 2024

P1 Registration

Children who attain the age of 5 years between 1 March 2024 and 28 February 2025 and whose parents/carers wish them to attend school should be registered for education during the week Monday 8 January 2024 until Friday 12 January 2024.  To register you should complete an online application and submit no later than Friday 12 January 2024.

 Register at: – https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions

If you are unable to register online then please phone your local school who will assist you to register your child.