The Rouken Glen Park play area is being completely refurbished shortly and a fantastic new play facility will be put in its place.
Please see the You Tube animation.
Please note that building works will start after the Easter break and will be completed before the summer holidays. Please also note that during this period the play area will be out of use.
The school closes at 2.30pm today and re-opens at 9am on 22nd April 2014.
Have a wonderful Easter!
It’s the first day of Spring and what better way to celebrate than having our own disco! The parent council are hosting St Mark’s Spring Disco tonight at 7pm. Primary 6 and 7 pupils are invited to this fabulous event.
Tomorrow is build a sandwich day in St Mark’s restaurant. Pupils can choose from a wide range of breads and fillings to create the ultimate sandwich.
Primary 2a and P2b joined Generation Science for their workshop Day or Night. P2 discovered why we go to bed when it is dark and also why it gets dark in different parts of the world at different times.
Blog 7
On Tuesday 11 March we released our trout into the wild. In the morning we carried out our final checks. We made sure that all classes who wanted to had seen the trout before they left. We then visited as a class and got our photos taken beside the hatchery. Sadly, another two trout had died, which took our total to 30 dead eggs/alevin. That meant we were releasing approximately 170 trout.
During our lunchtime, Caroline captured our trout and put around 5 trout into each tub for us to release. When we arrived back from our lunch she was waiting for us in the classroom. At this point some of us started to feel quite sad and emotional because we would no longer be able to look after our trout. We would miss following the rota to see what duties needed to be performed. We also felt quite excited because we were finally releasing our trout – what we had been working towards for five weeks.
It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked to the ABC park. It was lovely to see so many of our parents and carers waiting for us at the park. Caroline helped us to get into groups of three and the first group was called forward to release their trout. If we were wearing wellies we could stand in the burn. We then had to open our tubs and gently put the tubs into the water. We then tipped the tubs slightly which allowed the waters to mix and many of our trout disappeared very quickly. A few of us were lucky enough to see our trout swim off but many were just too quick for us!
We have really loved this topic and will be sharing our thoughts with the rest of our school. We would also like to share our work with other schools who have not yet been involved in this topic. We really hope to do something similar to this again.
Calls of the wild gives anyone and everyone an opportunity to take part in important scientific research at home, school or even on the move on their mobile. This fun online activity takes 5-10 minutes and is a great way to get involved with real science.
Calls of the wild was first run for National Science & Engineering Week 2013. Working with researchers at the University of Surrey and the University of Salford, the study aimed to gain a deeper understanding into the emotions evoked by certain natural sounds.
Wildlife education charity Wildscreen has created a new online educational game, Team Wild, for National Science & Engineering Week. The game offers young people aged 7 to 14 a fun opportunity to find out about science careers.
Team wild highlights some of the lesser-known science careers and inspiring the next generation of science superheroes and environmental stewards.
From jungle to savanna, rainforest to coral reef, the Team WILD game will turn students into science superheroes by developing their speed, skill and coordination.
As they play, students will discover a diverse range of field tasks a conservation scientist or ecologist must do in order to protect the world’s species and habitats and will unlock exclusive videos to hear from leading conservationists about what careers in the natural world involve.
To kick off National Science and Engineering Week, P3a,P3b, P4 and P4/5 took part in the Generation Science Good Vibrations workshop. During the workshop we learned that sound is made by particles vibrating in the air. We learned that sound can travel through solids, liquids and air and that the pitch of sound depends on how quickly the particles are vibrating. We used lots of unusual instruments to make sounds and we finished our workshop by making a class rap! Please ask us what else we know about making sounds and we can whisper or shout our knowledge to you.
Blog 6
Our trout are still developing well and they are growing daily. We can see their eyes properly and their yolk sac has now disappeared. This tells us that they are now ready to be released and begin hunting for their own food. We are feeling quite nervous about this and we hope they will survive in the wild.
Over the weekend some more of our trout were leaving the tank to swim about the area at the top. Sadly this resulted in five of our fish dying. However, we are very pleased that so many have survived. So far we have removed 30 dead eggs or alevin over five weeks. Caroline predicted that we would lose up to 5 each day initially, with probably 100 eggs/alevin dying. We are delighted to be releasing approximately 170 alevin later on today. This is a result of us being extremely careful and checking and monitoring our eggs very carefully. Our four times daily checks were very worthwhile.
Yesterday we invited the children from each class to visit the trout and to see their progress firsthand. All of the children enjoyed this and many of them were able to ask us questions about the progress we’ve been making.
Later on today we are visiting the ABC park in Barrhead to release our trout. We are feeling a little upset because we will really miss the trout and our daily visits to them. We are also quite excited as we will see them swim off to start a new chapter in their lives. We hope that they will all thrive in the next stages of their life cycle.
A reminder that there are no afterschool clubs running this week due to parents evening on Thursday 13th March.
Looking to get involved in sport over the next three months? Take a look at East Renfrewshire’s Sports for All programmes .
Christopher Brookmyre visited Primary 6 and 6/7 on World Book Day. As a former pupil of the school he had some funny stories to share. Life in school has certainly changed! He also spent time answering some really probing questions, reading excerpts and provided writing tips to pupils. Well done Primary 6, 6/7 and thank you so much to Christopher.
Blog 6
5 March 2014
Recently we have been discovering many changes to our trout. The yolk sac has almost disappeared and the alevin are getting bigger each day. The colour is now dark brown and they have a more “fish-like” appearance. When we visit each day the fish are starting to move much closer to the top of the tank – some of them are even jumping!
Over the weekend, two fish managed to escape from the tank and were found swimming around the top of the two tanks. Fortunately some water had been spilled so they were able to survive. It was very surprising and little bit funny. To say that we were shocked was an understatement. We were even more surprised when two more fish did this again on Monday night. We realised that the tank was too full and had to remove nearly 22 cups of water from the fish tank.
Yesterday we invited our parents and carers into the classroom for a short presentation. We prepared a slideshow for the parents, including lots of information and photographs of all that we have been doing over the last four weeks. Our parents were extremely interested in all we had to say and were asking us questions, all of which we could answer successfully.
The final part of this day included inviting our parents/carers into the P Pod to see our fish and discuss the progress they have made. We were extremely proud of ourselves and were true ambassadors for St Mark’s.
We are now excitedly waitng for the day we release the trout. Caroline will be accompanying us to the ABC park in Barrhead on Tuesday 11 March, where we will all be involved in the release of the fish! Look out for our next update and many more photographs.
Parent’s evening and book fair take place on 13th March. If you have not already done so please return the slip as soon as possible. If you do not return the slip an appointment will be allocated. Appointments will be issued on Friday 7th March. It has become tradition at St Mark’s to bring a bottle for the summer fair. These donations are much appreciated by the Parent Council and the school.
St Mark’s Parent Council will be meeting Wednesday 5th March at 7pm.
Fairtrade Fortnight (24 February – 9 March) marked the launch of a unique campaign that aims to transform the banana industry to ensure the millions of struggling banana farmers and workers, get a fair deal.
Don’t forget to support Foncho by signing his petition.
P6/7 made fairtrade banana smoothies as part of their Fairtrade topic.
