A gentle reminder that our Primary 5 class are heading to the North West Bowling Club on Monday morning. The class will be leaving at around 9:15am. Please ensure that the children have suitable clothing on (including flat shoes for the bowling green) as we will be walking there and back. The children are very excited to be taking part in this experience for the next few weeks.

That’s rehearsals underway today with the main cast having their very first read through.

Get your dates in the diary … Tuesday 11th June evening performance and Wednesday 12th June afternoon performance.  Tickets on sale soon. Keep your eyes peeled!!

Curricular Update Primary 6

Term 4 – 2024

Welcome back to Primary 6 curricular update, a busy and exciting final term. Primary 6 will prepare to transition into primary 7 and will have the opportunity to interview for captain and vice-captain house roles. Primary 6 will have the responsibility of becoming a buddy to new primary 1’s who will be starting Mount Carmel in August. The upper school summer show will be performed in June and we will be showcasing all of our hard work as we present to you …… ‘Matilda’!!

Please see below for an overview of what we will be learning this term:

Numeracy

This term we will focus on Area, Perimeter and Volume, Angles, Information Handling and Function Machines. Daily revision and rigour of decimals, percentages and fractions and the four operations will still continue throughout term 4. Children are as always encouraged to practise their multiplication tables.

Literacy

Reading – We will continue to read books appropriate to our levels and we will focus on fiction texts. We will complete daily reading to writing tasks and work on our active comprehension tasks. This term we will focus on understanding the difference between fact and opinion, the authors use of language, and inference.

Writing - This term we will be completing report writing where we will be linking it with our science topic. Further into term 4 we will complete recount writing.

Spelling - we will continue to follow the active literacy spelling programme in our appropriate groups, focusing on common words and phonemes relevant to their level and stage. Some weeks pupils will be given topic-specific vocabulary as part of their topic.  New spelling words will be introduced each week, which will coincide with homework tasks. Pupils will revise the Active Spelling strategies throughout Term 4.

HWB

In term 4 primary 6 will continue to take part in Do Be-Mindful activities, some activities will be part of homework tasks. At the start of the term P6 will complete a mini topic on Substance Misuse looking at the dangers of smoking/vaping, alcohol and drugs usage.

PE days will be Wednesday and Thursday please remember to bring full PE kit on these days. This term we will be participating in Volleyball, Athletics and Orienteering. Pupils are asked to bring FULL PE kit on these days, this includes indoor shoes.

Expressive Arts

This term we have our summer show which P6 are very excited about as there are lots of jobs available to apply for. This gives them opportunities to enjoy being creative and imaginative, express emotions, performing for different audiences and being part of audiences for others. They will be able to showcase their talents from performing, props, sound production and stage settings. Working together as un upper school team we will be learning key skills in music, art and design, dance and drama.

Religious Education

Throughout this term P6 will continue to work on their Pope Francis Faith Award, reflecting on how they use the different gifts in their wider world which will continue with them into P7. We will listen and engage with stories from the Gospel of Matthew.

Modern Languages 

This term pupils will focus on hobbies, food and drink and descriptions in French.

We will continue French with the aim to increase their confidence in reading, writing and talking in French.

IDL

This term a big part of our topic will be on enterprise and the summer show. We will all have very important roles to play in the production to make sure the show is successful. Part of our mini science topic this term, primary 6 voted to learn more around volcanoes and chemical reactions.

Thank you for your support,

Miss Maitland.

Primary 5 Curricular update – Term 4

Welcome back and I hope you all had an excellent Easter. 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 summer.

IDL

The children are thoroughly enjoying their continents topic. This will continue for a short time after the holidays before we complete our final topic of P5 – A night at the movies. This is an enterprise topic in which the children must budget and plan an event in order to make a profit. My current thoughts on this are to hold a movie night for P1-4 in late May/early June. The P5 children will plan a night with popcorn, juice and show a movie at a small cost to the P1-4s. I have not discussed these plans with the children yet; therefore they might change as the term progresses.

Literacy

Throughout our grammar this term, we will be learning about pronouns, proper nouns, adverbs and metaphors. We will also be looking at onomatopoeia. These skills will be transferred across our learning in writing as well as reading.

We will continue to learn about our comprehension skills such as prior knowledge, metalinguistics, visualisation etc. We have already began to take notes when watching or listening to a piece of media. We will explore this skill so that the children can decide what style of note taking they prefer.

Primary 5 will continue to proof read and edit all writing tasks. The children find this task difficult and can often skip over their mistakes. This skill takes a lot of concentration and patience. We will be practising this for the rest of the school year.

Our writing focus for the term ahead will be on report writing and recounts. The children will continue to work on their spelling rules through active spelling activities such as diacritical marking and definition spelling.

Our listening and talking skills to be worked on this term are our ability to present to the class. The children will create a SWAY (an online power point) and then present this to the class. They will work towards achieving specific success criteria throughout this process such as good eye contact, pace of speech etc.

Numeracy

After an extremely busy term between January and March, the children are ready to begin division after Easter. Division links well with the teaching of fractions and decimals which is the reason behind them being taught together. Our beyond number topics will include data handling and measurement. The children worked very well on learning their 24 hour time. Although there is good understanding of this, we will continue to practise this skill as the majority of the class did find this topic difficult.

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

Health and Wellbeing

Our P.E. days will be on a Monday and a Wednesday. Our topics that will be covered this term are dancing (this will be completed through our summer show), tennis, athletics (in preparation for sports day) and outdoor games as we approach summer.

Primary 5 have also been lucky enough to have Bob from the North West bowling club into school to teach us how to play lawn bowls. When the new season of bowls starts up in April, Primary 5 will also be visiting the North West bowling club to play bowls on the actual green. We are very excited.

We will also continue 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. 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.

We will also be looking at what it takes to be a parent/carer. The children will discuss what it means to care for someone the way their adults care for them.

Religious Education

This term will focus on how God reveals himself to us through Jesus and how we can nurture our relationship with God. We will also learn how our relationship with God can be deepened through prayer and placing our trust in him. The class will also look at the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit can help guide us through life’s difficulties.

During the month of May, we celebrate the mother of God Mary. We will look at Mary’s importance in our everyday lives and how important she was in Jesus’ life.

The class will also learn about the rosary. We will look at the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous mysteries of the rosary.

Technology

The children’s I.T. skills are growing every day. They can now confidently send emails with attachments in them. We have been working on creating sways of our choice. Next term, we will be using our research skills to create a SWAY about our continents topic. The children will then present this to the class.

Expressive Arts

This term’s expressive arts will be completely covered during our summer show. We will complete art, music, drama and dance through this. Staff are already busy getting ready and re looking forward to inviting you all in for the final show. Keep your eyes peeled for all the important information on the blog.

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

We hope you all had a lovely Easter break. As we head into our final term, Primary 1 are “in training” for moving up to Primary 2.  As well as pushing on with new learning, we will be working hard to consolidate the learning that has taken place throughout the year.

Literacy

Phonics – Now that we have learnt all the sounds in the alphabet and are using these to make and break words, we are going to start learning the sounds made by two or more letters such as “sh” “ch” “th” (joint phonemes).

Spelling – We will continue to practise the spelling of our tricky common words to ensure we can use these when writing sentences. We will learn some new words to add to our ever growing bank of vocabulary.

Writing – We are continuing to develop our skills in describing this term and using these skills to write reports about what we are learning in our topic.

Letter formation and hand writing will continue to be a focus to allow us to present our wonderful work as neatly as we can. Knowing how to form our letters automatically will help us to spell words with ease too.

Reading – Reading for information will be a focus this term. We will look at non-fiction texts and record the facts we learn.  We will also continue to practise our decoding skills by reading all types of text whenever we can.

Numeracy – Primary 1

The focus for Numeracy this term will be number processes, measure and time.

P1 – We will keep strengthening our addition and subtraction skills this term by exploring how the two processes link together. We will be transferring these skills into our money activities and using them to solve word problems.

Measure will also be a focus for us and will be linked to our “Plants” topic as we use the correct language to describe the size of various plants. We will measure using non-standard units such as our hand spans, feet and cubes. We will also be exploring data handling to interpret information from graphs and sort our plants into specific groups.

Health & Well-Being (HWB)

During our last term of PATHS lessons we will be introduced to some new emotions. We will explore each emotion in detail, thinking about how each emotion looks and feels and will consider whether it would be a “comfortable” or “uncomfortable” feeling.

We will also continue to reinforce our strategy of “Doing Turtle” and will use our PATHS sessions to talk through our feelings about moving into our new class at the end of the year.

We will be learning about our amazing bodies and the correct names for each body part.

During PE we will be focusing on Athletics, Striking and Fielding Games and Dance.

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR TAKING ALL EARRINGS OUT FOR GYM DAYS ON MONDAYS AND THURDAYS.

RE

During the month of May, we honour “Mary”. We will recite our special prayer of the “Hail Mary” and revisit the stories of the Nativity, Annunciation and Visitation; giving special consideration to the role of Mary in each one. We will prepare our class altar in honour of Mary.

During this term, we will link our RE with our HWB through the teaching of “God’s Loving Plan.” We will be thanking God for our amazing bodies! We will learn the names of the body parts and consider the choices we can make to help look after our bodies.

We will also talk about the needs of a new born baby; learning about the tasks and equipment required to look after a baby.

IDL (Topic)

Our topic this term will be “Plants”. We will investigate the parts of a plant and consider the things we need to do to help them grow.

During our topic we will also link with Literacy, Health and Well-being and Numeracy. There will be opportunities for reading and writing for information as well as practical activities involving measuring and comparing.

A fun and exciting summer term ahead with lots to look forward to!

Mrs Duff

A busy meeting after school today (in the sunshine)…

All cast members and roles to be announced tomorrow….

Keep your eyes peeled for updates ☺️

To all parents and carers of p4&5 children,

Myself and Mrs MacKinnon have been keeping an eye on the forecast for our trip to the Dean Park tomorrow and in true Scottish fashion, it has to be rainy and windy. We have made the decision to postpone this trip until the last term. We have made this decision based on a few reasons. First and foremost, this trip was a treat for the children and we don’t want them being cold, wet and miserable. Secondly, if it is raining heavily, we will be unable to access the park (the slide in particular) as it will not be safe for the children to access. And lastly, we had already heard from the rangers at the Dean Park to say that they were unable to accommodate our inputs of mammals and den building tomorrow due to unforseen circumstances (although they are more than willing to change the date for these). We were happy to go ahead with our trip regardless of this, however we feel that with the added restrictions due to bad weather, we would be better to go at a later date. We are very sorry to have had to make this decision, but as always, the children’s safety is paramount. I hope everyone understands and we will definitely get looking at another date for the trip in the next term.

As always, we thank you for your support,

Mrs McCreadie

What a day we had to raise money for SCIAF on Tuesday. Thank you to all of our parents and carers. We raised an amazing amount of money for SCIAF and the children (and staff) had a day full of fun activities too. 

We had a superb turn out of pupils wearing green for St. Patrick’s Day last week ☘

On Tuesday 19th March, Primary 5 are organising a SCIAF fun day for the entire school. We are asking all our children to bring in a donation to take part in this day full of activities. The money raised will go straight into the charity boxes in each class. On this day, we have our active schools co-ordinator Mark Devlin providing a golf input for every class, we have gardening with Mr Leslie, litter picking, egg decorating and much more. We are also going to have some outdoor play and with this ask that your child brings in an outdoor toy such as a bike or a scooter for this time. They must bring a helmet due to health and safety reasons.

We are also asking that children wear old clothes on their bottom half due to the nature of these activities as we may get mucky during them. School jumpers should be worn on top.

Please give a small donation to this wonderful charity.

We can’t wait!

Thank you, Primary 5

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

We wish you all a prayerful and restful holiday time as well as a Happy New Year.

We look forward to welcoming our children back to school on Monday 8th January at 9am.

Breakfast club will return on this day at 8.15am for those that access this.

This year, we are continuing our use of the Learning Journals platform to allow us to share some of your child’s learning with you.

Click on the link below for some further information on the use of Learning Journals.  The link will provide information on how you can sign in.

Learning journals info

Please note thar due to unforseen circumstances swimming lessons for P5 are  cancelled today  and will  now commence on Thursday 23rd November.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused

TeamMC

Term 2 is upon us! Primary 6 are making progress in all areas and are showing leadership across the school.

Literacy

Listening and Talking

Listening and Talking will continue to be a focus across the curriculum. Pupils will participate in a range of activities to allow for this.

Reading

The class novel this term is ‘Titanic Detective Agency’ by Lindsay Littleson. The pupils will complete various reading and writing tasks related to this appropriate to their level. This novel study also has links to our Social Studies and Science topic ‘Titanic’.

We will also continue using the ‘Bug Club’ reading resource to aid our comprehension skills.

Spelling

Spelling will be individualised to groups and will form a focus for homework as well as class tasks.

 Numeracy

All groups made great progress last term and will continue with addition and subtraction this term, this will be followed by a topic of multiplication and division, so get practising those tables! Outcomes are determined in groups.

Money will be a focus during beyond number lessons again differentiated across the class. Please discuss financial aspects with children at home; topics could include budgeting, credit and debit and savings.

 Health and Wellbeing

Our focus this term is Health and Wellbeing Champions, pupils will participate in an authority wide topic via ‘Teams’, this will allow participation from P6 classes across the area where they will collaborate in challenges from the comfort of our classroom!

Primary 6 will continue to be PATHs playground leaders; an important responsibility, and one we are more than ready for!

Children will also continue to follow the PATHs resources, this helps pupils to identify their emotions, act accordingly and build resilience.

‘Do be mindful’ strategies and mindful learning blocks will reinforce all that we do.

Religious Education

Children will examine the initial stages of the ‘Pope Francis Faith Award’ this term, this focusses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the unique qualities we all possess. We will look at 3 gifts this term and will continue this journey into primary 7. There will be an occasional homework task related to this.

French

Our French skills are developing and pupils are becoming more confident in this area. We will focus our attention this term on discussing pets and familiarising ourselves with accessing French dictionaries.

  Homework

Homework will be issued weekly and at primary 6 level children should be able to complete these tasks individually with limited support. Please check that your child is accessing these tasks and is becoming responsible around this. Homework will always be issued to reinforce learning and children will have been taught the area in class. Homework creates routine and independence and will be an expectation at every stage of school life especially secondary school. In developing good habits in the upper primary this will ease that transition when the time comes.

 As always your continued support is appreciated across the school year.

Mrs Crawford and Mrs McIntyre.

Term 2 has arrived and Primary 1 are back on the learning train! We have a busy and fun filled term ahead. We have started the term with some spooky Halloween activities and look forward to celebrating our first Christmas as part of the Mount Carmel school community.

Literacy

This term we will be continuing to practise our letter formation and pencil control skills to ensure we can write the letters we have been learning.

Now that we know some of the sounds the letters of the alphabet make, we will be “blending” these together to make words. These words will help us with our reading and writing tasks.

We are very excited that we are becoming “readers” in Primary 1 and will soon be bringing home our first texts with words in them. We will be answering questions about the stories we read in class, to check our comprehension skills.

During writing activities, we will be describing a range of objects by thinking about their colour, size, texture and shape.

Numeracy

Now that we have explored the numbers to 10 fully, identifying quantities which are “more” and “less”, we will be focusing on the concept of addition. We will begin by combining two quantities and understanding that when you do this, the quantity gets bigger. This will lead us on to learning the addition facts, where we learn the different ways to “make” our numbers. These number stories (or facts) are the building blocks to which all of our calculations are built upon, so we will spend a lot of time on these, ensuring they are well embedded before moving on.

Numbers are tricky to write, so number formation will continue to be reinforced in class and through homework tasks.

Health & Wellbeing

We will continue to welcome our PATHS puppets to help us talk about our emotions and friendships. We have been talking about the kinds of things friends do together and have discussed what makes a good friend.

We have been exploring our emotions and sharing our experiences and we will be looking at ways to help us manage our feelings.

We will also be talking about ways to keep ourselves safe when indoors and outdoors.

Topic

Our topic this term is “Local Superheroes”. We will initially be exploring our community and identifying shops, buildings and our natural environment. We will then consider the “heroes” who work in or serve these areas. Through our discussions and role play opportunities, we will learn more about the world of work and the different types of jobs which we find interesting.

RE

During RE we will continue to give thanks for God’s love.

We will also explore the story of creation, developing our awareness of the natural wonders of the world around us.

As the term progresses, we will celebrate advent together, preparing for the birth of Jesus by showing love and kindness to those around us as much as we possibly can. We will be exploring the story of the nativity through songs, role play and craft activities.

Expressive Arts

The seasonal themes of Autumn, Winter and Christmas will be the focus of our drama, music and art activities this term.

A very exciting and busy time ahead. Now that we are getting into the colder weather, could the zipping/fastening up of coats please be practised at home.

Thank you,

Mrs Duff

Curricular update term 2 – Primary 5

The children have been working very hard in term 1 and are ready to begin term 2.

IDL

Our interdisciplinary topic for the term ahead is Knights and Castles. We have already began learning about castles and their purpose throughout time (with a particular interest in Scottish castles). We will look at the different parts of a castle and what purpose they serve. In terms of a Knight, we will learn all about their lifestyle, their job and how they ended up in such a position.

Literacy

They thoroughly enjoyed our class novel “The Butterfly Lion” and the tasks that complimented this text. Moving forward into term 2, our reading tasks will come from our bug club books. We will be looking at lots of comprehension strategies including visualisation and metalinguistics as well as different styles of questioning which will allow the children to explore their understanding of literal, evaluative and inferential questions and how each of these should be answered correctly. Our writing genres that we are learning about this term are narrative writing and response writing. The learning that took place last term (descriptive writing) will compliment these genres and allow the children to up-level their writing using the knowledge already gained. The tools for writing will also extend to speech marks, commas as well as the children’s opinions on what they are writing about.

Numeracy

The children will be learning about addition and subtraction up to 4 digit numbers whilst exploring carrying and exchanging. We will look at decimal numbers and their place within number and link this to our money topic (this will then be represented by pence). Throughout the year, we will be learning how to tackle word problems. This means using our existing knowledge, taking apart the question and only using the information that we need to solve the calculation. During their learning, the children will also be developing their ability and understanding of using the correct mathematical language when discussing their number work and learning. The class will be working with Mrs McIntyre for part of the week and will be looking at time and angles in particular this term.

Health and Well-being

This term will focus on food health and what makes us healthy. We will be learning about portions of food whilst examining what a good portion size is for each of the food groups. We will be looking at current healthy eating messages from the Scottish government (i.e. lowering salt and sugar or how to avoid obesity)

Our P.E. days remain a Monday and a Wednesday for now; however this ay change as the term progresses. Our topics for P.E. this term are gymnastics, football and social dancing in preparation for our Christmas party.

R.E.

Our R.E. focus for this term will consist of Saints during November and Advent during December. During P5 there is a constant theme throughout all religious lessons linked to the Gospel of Mark and the class know that it is this gospel that provides us with our learning this year.

Expressive Arts

Art – We will be painting from observation using a range of materials and techniques. We will also be building a castle as a homework task which will link to our class topic of Knights and castles. There will have to be a design brief prior to building this.

Music – All music for the term ahead will have a focus on the Christmas show and party.

Drama – Our learning through drama will revolve around our topic (knights and castles) as well as PATHS when the children act out specific situations.

Dance – Social dancing in preparation for our Christmas party.

Science

We will be learning about water during science this term. Within this topic, we will be exploring how water is collected, cleaned and transferred to our houses for us to use. We will also link this to the different ways a family uses water as well as how we can conserve it.

Technology

The children are now much more confident in accessing their own school accounts as well as their online accounts (such as GLOW, bug club and sumdog). We will continue to work on this as the year progresses as well as practising our word processing skills. We will be practising how to save and retrieve documents as well as editing their work before printing.

I am thoroughly enjoying teaching Primary 5 and look forward to the term ahead. As always, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your continuing support. I hope to see you all in November at our pupil progress meetings.

Take care,

Mrs McCreadie

Primary 5 are working hard alongside our active schools co-ordinator, Mark Devlin. We are learning how we can support the children in our school with play.

Primary 2 Blog Post 

Hello and welcome to our very first blog post of the new session.  Primary 2 have been very busy settling into our new classroom and our new routines.  Children have been working hard to consolidate previous learning and are enhancing these skills through our novel study and outdoor learning.

Literacy

Our class novel is ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’ and through this text, pupils will explore our outdoor area and write about why dark is fun!  Pupils will create some descriptive writing pieces, describing our main character, Plop, and using adjectives to describe the people he meets and the things he sees.

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 these written pieces will come from our class novel and topic of Houses and Homes.

Homework will be sent out week beginning Monday 4^th September. 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. 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, initially to 20 and then 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. Addition to 10 or 20 will also be a focus as well as word problems to consolidate our strategies within this operation of number.  Children will begin use their ‘Busy Bee’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for 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 Tuesday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 1 will be on football and basketball.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their listening skills and awareness of space.

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 Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, we will be doing a mini topic which focuses on exciting things that happen in the dark, 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 houses and homes, comparing houses in the countryside to those we find in the towns and cities. Children will explore and develop an understanding of how houses have changed in the last 100 years, comparing it to life as we know it now.

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

Primary 3 Blog Post (Term 1 Update)

Hello and welcome to our first Primary 3 blog post this term. P3 have been very busy settling into our classroom and learning new routines.  Children have been working hard through carrying out revision activities to consolidate previous learning and are enhancing these skills through our novel study and outdoor learning.

Literacy

Our class novel is ‘Horton Hears a Who’ and through this book pupils will be exploring their curiosity through using their senses during outdoor learning. Pupils will create some descriptive writing by describing the main character, Horton, and using rhyming words and adjectives to describe what he hears and the things he sees. This novel underpins an important message in the story “A person’s a person, no matter how small”. This reinforces to the children that no matter how different we might seem from one another, we are all equal.

P3 have been participating in reading and spelling activities 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 writing focus is currently descriptive writing, and these written pieces will come from our class novel and topic of Vertebrates.

Homework will be sent out week beginning Monday 4th September. 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. 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 consolidating previous learning on 2-digit numbers, initially to 99. Then moving to three-digit numbers beyond 100.  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. Addition to 100 and beyond will also be a focus as well as word problems to consolidate our strategies within this operation of number.  Children will begin 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 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, and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others and learning how to control them.

In P.E, our sessions will take place on a Tuesday and a Thursday and our focus in term 1 will be on hockey and badminton.  Children will have the opportunity to participate in some team working games which focus on developing their skills and abilities as well as their awareness of space.

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 ‘Horton Hears a Who’ by Dr Seuss, the children will be participating in activities in different areas of the curriculum including outdoor learning. This will help to develop children’s imaginations and ideas in fictional texts.  Children will explore and develop an understanding of living things as these are a feature in the class novel and will tie in nicely with out term 1 science topic about Vertebrates, children will be sorting and categorising living things into vertebrates and non-vertebrates.

The children are so excited to be back to see all of their friends and teachers. We look forward to term 1 in primary 3.

Thank you,

Miss Grimley

A very warm welcome to the Primary 1 Blog. The children are settling into their new school surroundings beautifully and have already established routines and friendships within their new class.

We have had a lovely start to the term getting to know one another but we are most definitely poised and ready to LEARN! Below you will find an overview of what we will be covering this term.

Literacy

During literacy times, P1 have already been developing their phonological awareness (the ability to hear sounds in words). We are doing this by focusing on the rhythm and rhyme of language through clapping syllables and working on our nursery rhymes.

We are also working on our fine motor control to develop our mark making skills. Name writing is a focus to ensure we can always sign off on our masterpieces!

Developing our listening and talking skills forms a huge part of our day. We are learning to follow our “carpet time rules” to ensure we do our best listening while the teacher is talking. We are also learning to take turns at communicating our thoughts and feelings.

Numeracy

We know numbers are all around us and have had a chance to talk about those which are special to us, for example, our age, door number etc.

Number times will consist of lots and lots of counting! We will be developing our “number sense” by counting out and comparing quantities and becoming familiar with the language of mathematics.

We will be reciting our number sequences forwards and backwards, understanding that each number we say represents a quantity.

As our pencil control improves we will be learning how to form our digits correctly. Pattern and Shape will also be a focus this term.  We will link this to outdoor learning by looking for natural patterns and shape in our environment.

Health & Well-being (HWB)

Our PATHS programme will feature heavily during our HWB time. The children will be meeting Twiggle and friends, our PATHS puppets, who will help us explore our feelings and friendships. We will also be introduced to our “Pupil of the Day” initiative, which allows each and every member of the class to be the focus of our kind words and actions for a whole day.

In PE we will initially develop our spatial awareness through games before moving onto large ball skills.

RE

The children have been introduced to our RE times during which we have been discussing God’s love for us all. We will continue to explore this unconditional love by considering the gifts God has given us, including our families and the qualities which make each and every one of us so special and unique.

IDL

Our theme of Nursery Rhymes will be used to explore other areas of the curriculum such as art, music and technology.

We will also be looking at our own “history” by thinking about the people and events involved in our journey from newborn baby to Primary 1 pupil!

Expressive Arts

During art sessions we will be creating our favourite characters from the Nursery rhymes we have been learning. We will be exploring the visual elements of line, pattern and colour.

During music sessions, we will be singing and keeping the beat to our Nursery rhyme favourites.

PE DAYS WILL BE MONDAY AND THURSDAY – please think carefully about uniform and ensure NO JEWELLERY is worn on these days.

Homework will be issued from Monday 11^th September.

Mrs Duff

Primary 5 – Term 1

Hi everyone. This is the first term’s update on Primary 5’s learning. The class are already working very hard and are eager to learn. This is a quick snapshot of what will be covered in the term ahead. There is lots to do and I am sure that there will be lots of fun along the way.

IDL

Our interdisciplinary topic this term is knights and castles. We have already started this and the children are enjoying learning about what castles are nearby and what knights did. I am hopeful to take the class to visit the Dean Castle.

Literacy

The class have already started reading our class novel, ‘The Butterfly Lion’ by Michael Morpurgo. They have been completing tasks relating to the text and I am already impressed with their comprehension skills. Within reading this term, we will be looking at the main purpose of a text as well as the different genres of books. We have an extensive class library that the children can access for personal choice and enjoyment, as well as our school library which we will also be visiting. The children will continue with bug club and this will have a learning focus of metalinguistics and visualisation. The children will develop their understanding of what they are reading and I am hopeful of your support at homework time to complete their reading online. All children will be encouraged to read their texts with expression and fluency.

Our writing genres for the term ahead are descriptive writing and narrative writing. The class will be working on writing their piece, editing it and re drafting it, focussing on layout in order to engage their reader. This is when the children will access ICT in order to type their re draft piece of writing.

In terms of our listening and talking element of literacy, the children will be focussing on listening to and for instructions. This is something that the class find difficult at times. They will work on their ability to show respect to everyone in the class by giving good looking eyes and listening ears when it is appropriate to do so.

The class will complete handwriting every week within class and we would ask that this is promoted at home in terms of homework also.

Numeracy

The entire class will continue to work on their times tables throughout the year.  We have already began working on our understanding of place value and what value each digit holds within the columns. Depending on what group the children are in for their numeracy, they will be working on place value using units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands and hundred thousands.

We will also be looking at rounding to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand. This will enable the children to develop their skill of estimating so they can then find approximate answers to calculations and problems.

The children will develop their knowledge of shape. Some of the things that the class will be investigating through shapes are describing triangles by their sides and defining what kind of triangle it is, for example, equilateral, isosceles and scalene. The class will investigate the symmetrical values of each shape, looking for a line of symmetry, and will learn how to make patterns and designs using these symmetrical properties. This topic will be covered by Mrs McIntyre on a Wednesday.

Our whole school will concentrate on number talks throughout the year. These lessons encourage children to solve calculations using different strategies. This allows children to have ownership of their own learning by using the strategies that suit their learning style best.

Health and Wellbeing

Our P.E. days are a Monday and a Wednesday. We are currently learning about hockey and developing our ability to dribble, pass and shoot to target. After this topic, we will hopefully be moving onto to rugby and the skills involved with this.

Primary 5 already participate in mindfulness every day, this is something that the entire class benefit from and have been doing this since the beginning of Primary 4.  It is my intention to train all children in the massage in schools programme which will enable the children to develop another skill in managing their mental health on a day to day basis. I will, of course, be seeking parent’s permission before this would be introduced and further information is available on request.

Our PATHS programme will help the children to develop positive relationships within the class and school.  Delving into the emotions that the children feel will help them to understand why they are feeling this way as well as giving them the tools to cope with these emotions.

Our core health and wellbeing teaching will focus on good diet, how much sleep a child of their age needs to stay healthy and how they can rest. We will also look at the skills that are required to manage changing relationships focussing on tolerance and mutual trust.

R.E.

In order to link our R.E. with our health and wellbeing, we will be learning about friendship through bible stories. The class will earn some of the miracle stories that allowed Jesus to show that he was the son of God. We will continue to pray to God and ask for forgiveness when we need it and say thank you for things we are grateful for.  In preparation for mass throughout the year, the children will be learning new hymns and prayers.

Expressive arts

This term, the class will be focussing on art through drawing. We will look at the use of lines and texture within a drawing and what materials we can use effectively. Our music this term will be focussing on singing. This will be completed through our hymn practises and drama will be explored later in the year.

ICT

Now that the children have access to their usernames and passwords for the network, we will spend this term practising logging in and accessing the computer network, bug club, Sumdog and glow. The children will also be looking at re-drafting some of their writing which will develop their word processing and formatting skills. They will then to encourage to save this work to their own desktop.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support so far this term and look forward to everything that is to come.

Take care,

Mrs McCreadie

Welcome back! The summer seems like an already distant memory and primary 6 have settled into their new routine well.

Children are encouraged to have all items they require daily and a PE kit which remains in school please.

Our learning this term:

 Literacy

A focus on legible and cursive handwriting will be a priority this term with individuals being supported accordingly around this.

Reading

The class novel this term is ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl. The pupils will complete various reading and writing tasks related to this appropriate to their level. This novel study also has links to other curricular areas including Health and Well-being, art and drama.

We will also continue using the ‘Bug Club’ reading resource to aid our comprehension skills.

Spelling will be individualised to groups and will form a focus for homework as well as class tasks.

Numeracy

Children have completed necessary revision of previous learning and are ready to tackle their new learning. This term the class will focus on place value; outcomes are determined in groups, this will lead to a period of addition and subtraction across the groups.

Time will be a focus during beyond number lessons again differentiated across the class. Children will be focussing on duration and digital as well as analogue. Circles and Rectangles will also explore 24hr conversion. Please provide opportunities for time telling at home.  Children will also look at 2D and 3D shape this term, they will investigate properties and tiling.

Health and Wellbeing

Our focus this term is ‘Class Community’ we are together creating a charter for our class rights and expectations. Pupils are involved in discussions around areas that we define as ‘Quality’. Children will also choose a school community group to join. This will allow pupils to showcase their upper primary maturity and help drive the school priorities and community forward.

Children will also continue to follow the PATHs resources, this helps pupils to identify their emotions, act accordingly and build resilience.

‘Do be mindful’ strategies and mindful learning blocks will reinforce all that we do.

Religious Education

 Pupils will be encouraged to join discussions around biblical stories, particularly ‘Creation’ with a focus on science and religion. We will explore when the two compliment each other. They will be encouraged to think ‘deeper’ and ask questions to help develop their faith.

 French

Primary 6 have looked at ‘Francophone’ countries and are developing an understanding of the French language in travel and economy. We will be revising colours and numbers to 100 this term. Dates and times will also be reinforced.

  Homework

Homework will be issued weekly and at primary 6 level children should be able to complete these tasks individually with limited support. Please check that your child is accessing these tasks and is becoming responsible around this. Homework will always be issued to reinforce learning and children will have been taught the area in class. Homework creates routine and independence and will be an expectation at every stage of school life especially secondary school. In developing good habits in the upper primary this will ease that transition when the time comes.

As always your continued support is appreciated across the school year. We look forward to working with you and your child this academic session.

 Mrs Crawford and Mrs McIntyre.

Primary 5 have taken full advantage of the beautiful weather today and have taken their numeracy outside.

Primary 5 enjoyed an outdoor learning session with a focus of rounding to the nearest 10 in numeracy. They worked hard in pairs to complete their rounding flowers 😁

Reminder that if you child(ren) have been allocated a place at this sessions breakfast club then this will begin on Monday 21st August @ 8.15am

Thankyou

The school will be starting our session for 2023/24 with the Week 1 menu for school lunches, please see a copy of the menu below,  this will also be available on the school app.

Thankyou

Should your require the school to administer any medication to your child during the school day you must complete a medical form which can be obtained from the school office.  This form should be completed at the beginning of every school year.

Thankyou