On Thursday 20th June, we had a very successful WoW day. The kids had a ball and enjoyed seeing the many different careers on offer in our big hall!

A huge thank you to Miss Grimley for organising this event  And a big thank you to all our parents/carers and all who came to demonstrate and inspire the next generation with their fantastic displays of their profession.

On Thursday 20th June, we had a very successful WoW day. The kids had a ball and enjoyed seeing the many different careers on offer in our big hall!

A huge thank you to Miss Grimley for organising this event  And a big thank you to all our parents/carers and all who came to demonstrate and inspire the next generation with their fantastic displays of their profession.

On Thursday 20th June, we had a very successful WoW day. The kids had a ball and enjoyed seeing the many different careers on offer in our big hall!

A huge thank you to Miss Grimley for organising this event  And a big thank you to all our parents/carers and all who came to demonstrate and inspire the next generation with their fantastic displays of their profession.

Hello and welcome to our term 4 blog post.  Primary 2 have been very busy over term 3 and have been busy consolidating previous learning and building their skills in preparation for our summer term.

Literacy

Our focus in reading will be to continue to use word attack strategies and knowledge of phonemes covered to date, to decode unfamiliar words. We will also focus on inferential questioning and building our understanding of the deeper messages evident in our books whilst completing read to write tasks linked to these texts. We will continue to look at the effect punctuation has within texts, with a particular focus on speech. Pupils will then be able to identify this in our books as well as using some evidence of speech within our own writing.

In writing, our focus will continue to build on written formation, the use of capital letters and full stops and building confidence to write a few sentences independently, using our knowledge of common words, spelling strategies and increased use of punctuation. Using our skills from descriptive writing, we will expand our sentences and add more detail when writing larger pieces of work, with narrative being our focus over this final term of primary 2.

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 4.

Numeracy

Our focus will move from addition and subtraction to early skills in multiplication and division, using our previous knowledge of fractions to help us with multiplication and division strategies. We will frequently revisit place value to help us as we continue to work with numbers to 99. Children will also consolidate learning in measure and begin to look at data handling and time as we progress through term 4.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Paths Pupil of the Day will continue in term 4, with our Pupil of the Day receiving lots of compliments.  Children will also tackle more comfortable and 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 4 will be on athletics and striking and fielding games.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing general fitness, whilst developing skills in activities such as hurdles, running and team races.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on Mary, Mother of God.  We will also continue with themes of prayer and worship and routines of the church.  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 mapping with a particular focus on my school and my town. We will link this to our place in Scotland, the UK and the rest of the world to develop our understanding of geography and the globe. Our narrative writing will be developed through this topic and with the return of ‘Plop’ to our classroom, he will help us navigate our local environment.

French

In French, we will continue to build our knowledge of greetings and numbers to 20. We will also discuss colours, days of the week and family members.

Homework

Homework will be sent out weekly on a Monday as normal. Please check your child’s homework bag 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.

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

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Hello and welcome to our Term 4 curriculum update. With another busy term ahead of us again as begin to prepare our children for their transition to primary 4 within the upper school.

Literacy

Our focus in term 3 was developing our understanding of literal and inferential comprehension using the ‘Find It, Prove It, Talk about It’ strategies. This will continue to be a focus in Term 4 so the children can discuss and write responses to questions linking to their reading/topic book. Alongside this,  spelling activities where children will continue to 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.

We will continue to focus more on the Romans in term 4 and the 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 continuing to focus on punctuation and why commas and exclamation marks have an impact on how a text is read.

In writing, we will be finishing our narrative story book and start our report writing through the 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. Also, Show and Tell will start again in Term 4 to give the children the opportunity to share an  item from home.

Numeracy

In term 3, our focus has been looking at multiplication. The children have been mentally counting in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables.  Within multiplication there has been a variety of hands on activities for the children to use and visually see the pattern of these tables form through using a variety of different materials such as, Numicon pegs and boards, Numicon number lines etc. In term 4 we will be revisiting the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times table to retain our knowledge and use this knowledge to understand the inverse calculation for division which will tie in with fractions.

Beyond Number

In beyond number the focus was, 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. In term 4 the focus will be mini topics, which will cover, data handling, angles and area. 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 4  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 feelings and control our breathing through ‘Do be Mindful’ activities.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to take place on a Tuesday and a Thursday and our focus this term will be athletics, striking and fielding games. 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 ‘Our Lady’ our mother and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and lives of others.

Topic

The children will be participating in activities in different areas of the curriculum including social studies for 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.  In our science topic we will look at materials with a focus on dissolving. Pupils will research dissolving and make predictions about substances that dissolve in water, looking at hot water can impact on substances through changing their state or what they look like.

We hope this will be a successful term 4 and the children have enjoyed their Easter break.

Thank you,

Miss Grimley

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

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 15^th 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

Hello, I cannot believe I am writing that we are now in term 4. During term 4 we continue working hard with new learning but also consolidating the learning that has taken place throughout the year.

Please see an outline of what we will be focusing on for each subject below:

 Literacy

Phonics – during term 4 we will continue to learn our sounds following the Active Literacy Framework, we will be introduced to split phonemes and focusing on the words with the magic ‘e’. We will still practice new spelling words related to our sounds and learn new common words which can sometimes be tricky, these will help develop our independent writing skills.

Writing – Our focus this term will be narrative writing, we will use our skills from descriptive writing to create detailed characters and settings.

We will still be putting in a lot of effort into handwriting, ensuring we are correctly forming our letters and taking care with their position and size on our lined pages. Our writing targets will still include capital letters, full stops, finger spaces.

Reading – This term our focus will be on reading for information. Children will be introduced to skimming and scanning a text to select key words. We will continue to focus on features of fiction and non-fiction texts.

Numeracy

Following on from Term 3 we will continue to learn about multiplication and division. We will be using a lot of concrete materials to complete activities which focuses on making groups and sharing amounts. We will then be exploring fractions by taking part in practical activities to show how a single item can be shared equally into halves and quarters. As part of our cool clubs topic we will also be looking at data handling, this will involve selecting, recording and analysing the information gathered.

 Health & Well-Being (HWB)

In term 4 we will be continuing with our PATHS programme, last term we introduced some new emotions and we will explore these in more detail this term. As always children will gift and receive compliments through our pupil of the day. As a whole class we will be taking part in Do Be Mindful activities throughout the term to gauge our focus and have better attention skills. Children will complete their own do be mindful booklet to record feelings. We will explore where some food comes from and have some healthy eating taster activities, thinking about how some foods are better for us than others.

P.E.

During our PE sessions in term 4 we will be taking part in expressive dance, striking and fielding games and athletics.

(PE days continue to be on Tuesday and Thursday.)

RE

At the start of term 4 during the month of May we will honour Mary, reciting the hail Mary prayer and revisiting bible stories. As a class we will prepare our class alter in honour of Mary and learn to say the Rosary. During this term we will link HWB with RE through the teaching of Gods Loving Plan, we will be thanking God for our bodies and consider ways we can look after our wonderful bodies.

 IDL (Topic)

Our two topics this term will be cool clubs and science in the news. For our science in the news topic, we will be exploring the news of the first plants to grow in moon dirt. We will grow our own plants in the classroom, we will be exploring, observing and discussing the basic needs of plants and what they need to grow. We will be observing how plants grow from seeds and recording their height and appearance in different conditions. We will also be busy caring for our own plants in the classroom in the hope that we can take them home to continue to care for them over the summer. For cool clubs we will be exploring our likes and dislikes in relation to hobbies looking at gathering data to record and analyse the information. We will also explore aspects of drama creating our own club which children need to run for the others in the class.

Expressive Arts

Our art, music and drama in term 3 will again link in with both of our topics this term.

Another busy and exciting term for primary 2 with lots of playing, exploring and learning but also preparing for out next step in our school journey as we get ready for primary 3.

 Thank you for visiting our Primary 2 blog on what we will be learning this term!

Miss Maitland

Welcome to our curriculum update for term 4. It is sure to be a busy term as we begin to prepare our pupils for the transition to the upper school and primary 4.

Literacy

Reading & Comprehension

During term 3 our focus was summarising skills and to develop our understanding of literal and inferential comprehension using the ‘Find It, Prove It, Talk About It’ strategies. This will continue into term 4 as pupils begin to develop these skills in discussion and formulating written responses.  Pupils will also look at different writing styles, the message the writer is trying to convey and when we are presented with fact or opinion in the texts.

As part of our term 4 topic in science, children will be asked to find specific information and how to scan for and locate key words or topic related facts in texts. Pupils will be focussing on punctuation and the use of commas and exclamation marks and the impact this has on texts for the reader, as well as beginning to use different punctuation in their own writing. We will revisit speech marks, and how we can use these in our own written tasks.

Writing

In writing, we will be focussing on science-based report writing through our mini science topic on dissolving. This topic was moved from term 3 into term 4, to allow pupils to spend more time on The Romans last term, as this was such a huge topic, more time was given to this to fully engage in the topic outcomes. We will also begin to look at the outcomes for response and persuasive writing, using facts and the pupils own thoughts and opinions on texts to help develop these skills.

Listening & Talking

We will continue with our listening and talking games and activities to help children develop the key skills needed when in whole class or group discussions or when sharing information in a topic presentation activity.  ‘Show and Tell’ will continue throughout term 4, giving pupils the opportunity to share information on an item from home, once per week.

Maths

In term 3, our focus was on fractions and the link between multiplication and division through fact families. We will however, regularly revisit the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables to retain our knowledge of these facts and use this understanding to look at the inverse calculation for division. Our primary focus in maths in term 4, will be mini topics, covering areas such as measurement (length, weight, mass and area) and data handling.

In beyond number, the focus in term 4 will be angles, recognising right angles in shapes and when an angle is bigger or smaller than 90 degrees.  Within this topic we will also look at compass points, and full, half and quarter turns to describe the route of a journey. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

All children will have the opportunity to be pupil of the day again in term 4 and will continue to explore emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others. We will look at strategies for fair play, how to support others to manage their emotions using strategies we have already put in place within our classroom setting.

In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Tuesday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 4 will be athletics and striking and fielding games.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their knowledge of how we keep our body healthy with fitness and nutrition needs too.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on ‘Our Lady’ our mother and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and others.

Topic

In term 4 the focus of topic will be social studies with a focus on groups and charities in our local community. Pupils will also research dissolving in our science topic and make predictions about substances that dissolve in water, looking at how water can impact on substances and change their appearance/state.

We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils enjoyed the Easter break and some well-earned rest over the holiday period.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

On Friday 28th April, Primary 1, 2 and 3 will have the opportunity to have some time outside, to use their scooter or bikes during our reward play time. We are asking that children bring a bike or scooter from home, including safety equipment such as helmets, to school on the morning of Friday 28th April and these items can be used during reward play in the afternoon.

These sessions are always greatly enjoyed by our pupils and we look forward to another fun packed afternoon next week.  Thank you!

Primary 2 Curricular Update – Term 3

Hello and a very happy New Year to you all, I hope you had a lovely break spending time with family over the festive period. Primary 2 are ready for term 3 and a new year full of learning and fun.

Please see an outline of what we will be focusing on for each subject below:

Literacy

Phonics- During term 3 we will continue to learn our joined phonemes and grow our confidence in reading and writing these. Spelling will continue to be a focus as we learn new common words which can be tricky, these will help develop our independent writing skills.

Writing – We will continue to develop our writing skills focusing on description using individual description bubbles, we will be writing about characters and settings. Handwriting will still be a focus this term, ensuring we are correctly forming our letters and taking care with their position and size on our lined pages.

Reading – We will be developing our comprehension skills during reading by answering inferential questions, using clues in the story and our previous knowledge to help us. Discussions and sequencing main events of stories will be a focus too as well as our word attack strategies as we develop our reading skills. We continue to read our bug club texts in class alongside homework.

Numeracy and Mathematics

Following on from Term 2 we will continue learning time using digital and analogue clocks and revisiting numbers to 100. During term 3 we will be transferring our addition and subtraction skills into the topic of Money. Identifying coins up to £2, when we are familiar with the coins, we will be able to combine these and create amounts to pay for items in our class shop. Some children will be expected to give change and use the correct signs for money. As part of our mapping topic, we will also be looking at position and movement. We will be exploring the use of grid references and using everyday language to describe position, movement and direction. Towards the end of the term, we will start looking at measure initially focusing on comparative language of measure (shorter, longer) then we will progress onto non-standard units of measure (cubes, hand spans).

Health & Well-Being (HWB)

In term 3 we will be helping Twiggle and his friends overcome some difficult friendship scenarios in our PATHS programme now we have learned how to do Turtle when things become a little stressful. In other areas of our HWB we will be considering the impact of physical activity on our bodies and identifying the physical changes we feel after a period of exercise. The importance of personal hygiene, tooth brushing and handwashing techniques will also be discussed. As well as completing our emotion check in each morning we will continue to gift and receive compliments through our pupil of the day.

P.E.

During our PE sessions in term 3 we will be completing our block of gymnastics, developing out skills in travelling, jumping and rolling. We will then incorporate these into sequenced movements. Another area of PE we will cover is fun fitness, this will develop personal level of speed, agility, strength and stamina through various fun activities and exercises. Towards the end of term we will be practicing our racquet skills and how to hold and use a racquet, we will then introduce ball control.

(PE days continue to be on Tuesday and Thursday.)

RE

At the start of term 3 we will look at how life would have been for Jesus as he grew up, discussing how he went to the Synagogue to worship compared to how we go to church to pray. We will look at Baptism and compare it to the naming ceremony which is held in the Jewish tradition. As we approach the start of lent and Ash Wednesday we will talk about the meaning of this special time. We will take time during Lent to prepare ourselves for the special celebration of Easter.

 IDL (Topic)

Our first topic this term will be germs (micro-organisms). We will be carrying out predictions and experiments which will emphasise the importance of handwashing and how germs are passed on. We will be looking at some common illness definitions and how we can have good and bad germs. Mapping will be our other topic this term which will include looking at our local community area but also Scotland and famous attractions/landmarks. We will look at a bit about Scotland’s history through Robert Burns and we will try some Scottish foods as well as reciting and listening to poems before writing our own poem together.

 Expressive Arts

Our art, music and drama in term 3 will again link in with our topics this term.

Thank you for visiting our Primary 2 blog on what we will be learning this term!

Miss Maitland

Primary 3 Blog Post (Term 3 Update)

Welcome to our curriculum update for term 3. It is sure to be a busy term as we begin to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as well as our whole school activities in the run up to Easter.

Literacy

During term 2 our focus was summarising skills and we will continue to revisit this skill regularly alongside our usual spelling and common word activities that help pupils retain and recognise their spelling sounds/phonemes and words in texts. 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 asked to find specific information, we will also be working on recognising different parts of texts (pictures, diagrams, charts and headings) and how to scan for and locate key words or topic related facts in texts. Pupils will be focussing on punctuation and the use of commas and the impact this has on texts for the reader, as well as beginning to use different punctuation in their own writing.

In writing, we will be focussing more on narrative story writing and report writing through our mini science topic on dissolving. We will also partake in some listening and talking games and activities to help children develop the key skills needed when in whole class or group discussions or when sharing information in a topic presentation activity.

Maths

In term 2, our focus was multiplication, with pupils mentally counting on in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables. As we move in to term 3 we will focus on division and the link between multiplication and division through fact families. We will regularly revisit the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables to retain our knowledge of these facts and use this understanding to look at the inverse calculation for division. We will also look at fractions, using knowledge of halving to help us understand how to find a fraction of an object or a number.

In beyond number, the focus in term 3 will be money, recognising coins and notes in pounds and pence and using addition and subtraction skills to add up the cost of several items bought at a shop or work out how much change to give. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any 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, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others. We will look at strategies for helping us when we are with others in playground or in small group activities, where we can find ways to manage conflict or resolve disagreements.

In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Monday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 3 will be fitness, gymnastics block 2, and ball skills.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their knowledge of how we keep 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 focus being on the Life of Jesus and Lent as we move into March.

Topic

In term 3 the focus of topic will be social studies and 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. Pupils will also research and make predictions about substances that dissolve in water in our mini science topic, looking at how water can impact on substances and change their appearance/state.

We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils enjoyed the Christmas break and some well-earned rest over the festive period.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Primary 3 Blog Post (Term 2 Update)

Welcome to our curriculum update for term 2. It is sure to be a busy term as we prepare for all the fun and exciting activities, we will be part of in the run up to advent and Christmas!

Literacy

During term 1 our focus in reading was to predict what might happen in our reading texts and to think about sequencing parts of a story. We also began to think about summarising what we had read and to put this information into our own words. During term 2, summarising skills will continue to be a focus alongside our usual spelling and common word activities that help pupils retain and recognise their spelling sounds/phonemes and words in texts.

As part of our topic and to help children find specific information, we will also be working on recognising different parts of texts (pictures, diagrams, charts and headings) and how to scan for and locate key words or topic related facts in texts. Children will also use their knowledge of nouns, verbs and adjectives from term 1 and identify these in texts we are accessing in class.  To build on from this, pupils will be focusing on punctuation and speech in texts and looking at the impact this has on texts for the reader, as well as beginning to use different punctuation in their own writing.

In writing, we have been focused on descriptive writing in term 1 and will now focus on report writing and narrative throughout term 2. We will also partake in some listening and talking games and activities to help children develop the key skills needed when in whole class or group discussions or when sharing information in a show and tell type activity.

Maths

Our focus in maths will be to regularly revisit place value, recognising sequences and patterns in numbers 0-100 and how these patterns continue in larger numbers beyond 100.  In term 1 the focus was addition and subtraction strategies and although this will be revisited in term 2, our focus will move to multiplication, with pupils beginning to make the link to division.  Children will spend time mentally counting on in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables.

In beyond number, children were focused on 2D and 3D shapes and their properties in term 1.  The focus in term 2 will be time, analogue and digital with children learning to think about what the time will be in half an hour or in an hour’s time. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

All children will have the opportunity to be pupil of the day for a second time in term 2 and will continue to explore emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others. We will look at strategies for helping us deal with uncomfortable emotions and how we can help our friends if they are experiencing some of these emotions.

In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Monday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 2 will be football, gymnastics, and social dancing.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their listening skills, awareness of space and how to keep ourselves safe whilst using apparatus.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on the creation and Mary in October, moving to Saints and Remembrance in November before visiting advent and the nativity throughout December.

Topic

In term 2 the focus of topic will be on social studies and looking at climates and weather around the world.  The children will have the opportunity to measure our own weather, make weather reports and predictions as well as examine how living things survive in areas of extreme cold or heat. Pupils will research the impact of extreme weather such as tornadoes, floods, and drought and how climate change is affecting the planet.

We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils will continue to enjoy learning new topics across the curriculum.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Primary 3 Blog Post (Term 1 Update)

Hello and welcome to our very first blog post of the new session.  Primary 3 have been very busy settling into our new classroom and our new routines.  Children have been working hard to become familiarised with their class groups, recapping previous learning and are enhancing this through our novel study and outdoor learning.

Literacy

Our class novel is ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ and through this text, the context and the discovery of the lands at the top of the Faraway Tree, pupils will explore our outdoor area, looking for natural resources to create scenes from the text.  Pupils will continue to create some imaginative writing, describing the different lands that may arrive at the top of the Faraway Tree and will develop their use of descriptive words to describe characters from the novel.

Our reading and spelling activities are now underway, and children have been working within groups to revisit previous sounds and texts, ready to use their skills and strategies to tackle new and unfamiliar spelling sounds and reading books.  Our focus in writing currently is descriptive writing, and ideas will be developed from our class novel!

Homework began week beginning Monday 5^th September, please remember to check your children’s bags for a plastic wallet.  Reading books will be attached to pupils’ accounts through our online Bug Club reading programme. I will issue Bug Club login details when the first homework tasks are sent home. Homework will consist of spelling, reading and maths, both mental and worksheet/jotter jobs too. These will be issued on a Monday and should be returned to school on a Friday.

Maths

Our focus in maths will be place value, with children working on 2-digit numbers and this will increase to 3-digit numbers with our circle maths group. Children will be able to partition these numbers and discuss this in terms of hundreds (H), tens (T) and units (u), whilst building on their understanding of number and number patterns. Addition and subtraction will also be a focus as well as word problems to consolidate our strategies within these 2 operations of number.  Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Paths Pupil of the Day has now begun, and our Pupil of the Day has been receiving lots of compliments.  All children will have the opportunity to be pupil of the day.  We will begin exploring emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others.

In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Monday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 1 will be on team games, hockey, and badminton.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their listening skills, awareness of space and racquet skills.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on prayer, their meaning, the routines of the church and the celebration of Mass.  We will also spend some time reading and discussing bible stories relating to friendship and love, whilst considering how each of us are unique and have our own God given talents.

Topic

As the class novel is The Magic Faraway Tree, we will be doing a mini topic which focuses on exciting new lands at the top of the tree, developing children’s imaginations and ideas in fictional texts.  We will also look at woodland animals as these are a feature in the class novel and will tie in nicely with out term 1 science topic about vertebrates and how we categorise all living things. Children will explore and examine living things and look at the characteristics of what makes some living things vertebrates.

We hope this is the start of a very successful term and that the pupils are enjoying their return to school and seeing their friends and teachers.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

We are very lucky to have Mark Devlin coming to work with us from next week (wb 12/09/22) , through to October holidays.  He will be offering P2 and P3 multi-sports sessions. This will mean a change to our gym days.

P2 will now have gym on a Wednesday and Thursday.

P3 will now have gym on a Monday and a Wednesday, to accommodate Mark Devlin and his multi sports inputs.

Sorry for any inconvenience.  We appreciate your continued cooperation,

Mrs Travers and Miss Maitland

Primary 2/3 and Primary 5 had a fantastic day at Dean Park on Tuesday and enjoyed some time exploring the park, playing some games and spending time at the swing park and gardens.

The weather held out so the children thoroughly enjoyed picnicking at the park!

Beginning next week (23/05/22) we will be making a change to our PE days in P2/3.  Indoors on a Tuesday will remain the same, however our Thursday outside session will be changing to a Wednesday afternoon. This is to accommodate a multi-sports input with Mark Devlin.

I intend to keep the PE days to a Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the remainder of this summer term.

Many thanks for your cooperation,

Mrs Travers

As part of our health week activities, the children had asked if we could do a scooter/bike reward play session, like we had done previously for SCIAF.  The children can bring a scooter or bike to school on Friday and during reward play on Friday afternoon, each class will have a timetabled session for using their bikes or scooters in the playground.

Can all children please make sure they have a helmet with them for this outdoor activity as any child without a helmet, will not be able to take part in the scooter/bike activities.

We will have a variety of fun activities arranged over Friday afternoon, smoothie making, food tasting, Zumba, people who help us fancy dress and some art activities. It  should be a fun way to end our health week activities.

As promised, a selection of photos from our World Book Day activities from our infant department 🥰🥰

We had a fabulous World Book Day and the infant department had lots of book related activities going on throughout the day.

An updated blog post will go up tomorrow, showing some of our fabulous activities and super costumes worn by our children, but for now, here is a wee peek…

We had an ‘incredible’ time!!

Hogwarts came for a wee visit too!!

Well done to all the boys and girls from Primary 2/3, who participated in the recital of our Scots poem ‘Crocodile’ by JK Annand today in class.  The pupils spoke with confidence and expression and did such a good job of reciting this in front of their peers!  A huge well done! Each pupil has received a certificate for their efforts!  Super job!

Curriculum Update (Thursday 20^th January 2022)

Hello and welcome to our third curricular update blog post of the session.  Primary 2/3 have been very busy throughout term 2, working hard to organise and present their nativity production and complete their Christmas Enterprise topic of budgeting for and creating their Christmas crafts.

Literacy

In literacy our skills of prediction continued through links to our reading texts and class books and although this will continue to be applied in term 3, the focus will move toward sequencing and summarising the beginning, middle and end of our chapters or texts.  This will also apply during topic, where pupils will scan and select relevant facts or information, summarising and note taking to create a bank of facts that will support them in creating their own pieces of writing.

As in previous terms, our reading and spelling activities are continuing at various times throughout the week. Children are using a mixture of practical, hands-on activities such as play dough, scrabble tiles, stencils and chalk boards to practice their spelling words but are also employing strategies such as ‘rainbow spell’ and ‘pyramid spell’ to reinforce their spelling knowledge at home and in class. We are using the Active Literacy phoneme stories and word building applications to help us recognise our spelling sound and words in texts we are accessing.

Our focus in writing has been descriptive writing throughout terms 1 and 2, and this will continue this term to build our vocabulary.  In term 3, this will be extended to include narrative writing. Children will develop their own characters and settings, using their description skills to build their own stories whilst focusing on structure and sequencing of events to create a flow to tell a story using their own ideas.

Just a reminder that homework will continue to be sent out weekly on a Monday, so please check your children’s bags for their plastic wallet.  Reading books will be attached to pupils’ accounts through our online Bug Club reading programme and all homework should be returned to school on a Friday.

Maths

Our focus in maths this term will be multiplication and division, however children will regularly revisit addition and subtraction skills to retain this knowledge.  As with addition and subtraction, children will begin to make the link with multiplication and division through fact families and discussion of strategies.  Place value, as always will be revisited throughout the term and applied to the new maths topics. The Circle maths group will revisit the 2, 5 and 10 times table whilst seeing the link between the 2, 4 and 8 x tables, in order to develop further the skills in multiplication developed earlier in the year.  In the rectangle and triangle maths groups, the focus will be mainly the 2, 5 and 10 times tables.

In other areas of maths, time and fractions will be a focus as children build on their previous knowledge and apply this to a variety of problems. This will be a topic across all maths groups and differentiated appropriately to suit all learners.  Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Paths Pupil of the Day is still being received well with pupils and our Pupil of the Day continues to receive lots of compliments and special jobs around the classroom.  We are continuing to explore emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others.  We are also looking at problem solving strategies through discussion, deciding what steps to take if we should experience uncomfortable emotions and prevent escalation when we are angry or frustrated.  Using our traffic light system, which is displayed in the classroom, we hope to give children the tools to self-regulate these emotions or seek help to co-regulate.

In P.E, our sessions will happen inside (Tuesday) once per week, and outside (Thursday) once per week and our focus will be fitness and gymnastics. We are building on our term 2 topic of gymnastics to further develop skills as well as developing a sense of strength, speed, and stamina and how to look after our bodies through our fitness input.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be the Sacrament of Baptism whilst looking to the preparation required for our Sacrament of Reconciliation for our P3 pupils.  As we do not yet have a confirmed date for this, booklets for Reconciliation will be issued to the children when a date has been decided. Thereafter, home tasks should be completed at home with children, to prepare as a family for this upcoming Sacrament. As Easter approaches, we will begin to look at the Easter Story to prepare the children for the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Topic

Our topics over the next term will be ‘The Romans’.  This topic has already been well received by the children, who have already begun to look at the growth of The Roman Empire over a thousand-year period and the belief system of Roman people through research into their Roman Gods.  The topic will also look at Roman soldiers, Roman society and lifestyle as well as construction of roads, buildings, bridges and mosaics. The topic will conclude with the impact of the Roman Empire in Scotland.

As always, we hope this is the start of another successful term as we begin our new topics across the curriculum.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Recently we had a visit from our new Paths Co-Ordinator from the Barnardo’s support team and she has had the chance to visit all classes across the school, meet our staff and pupils and see how our Paths programme is being implemented school wide. Our Paths programme is going well throughout the school and children can confidently talk about comfortable and uncomfortable feelings and strategies for dealing with uncomfortable feelings or how to work through a conflict situation.

Our Primary 6 pupils were also given the chance to take part in ‘Buddy Training’ through our partnership with Barnardo’s, and develop the skills necessary to support younger pupils in the playground.  Our Barnardo Buddies were asked to submit an application, take part in a formal interview and complete training to help them train younger pupils in playground games.

The Barnardo’s Buddies recruitment has been very successful, with almost all primary 6 pupils successfully passing the training and soon receiving their certificate of achievement.  The primary 6 pupils are now supporting pupils in the playground and enjoying the process of working alongside the younger pupils and teaching fun playground games.  Well done to our Primary 6 pupils in this fantastic achievement!

Primary 2/3 have been looking at ‘Energy Around Us’ as part of our new topics.  We have been focussing on toys that need to be ‘pushed’ or ‘pulled’ to move.  This week we made our very own ‘Penny Spinners’ which require a pushing twist action to get it to move.  We moved into the open area to find a large smooth surface to test our spinners. Have a look at our wonderful designs and finished spinners…

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