Category Archives: Health and Wellbeing

Transition Sports Day – Mearns Castle

June 8, 2016 Gayle Santi

Today, at Mearns Castle, we attended a Transition Sports Day. We took part in a variety of sports such as Rugby, Athletics and Bocce.

At the beginning, we were split into our houses: Ramsay, Wallace, Caledonia, Balmoral, Gleneagles and Sutherland. Then we went onto the pitch across the road to start with the activities.

We each took turns in each sport with other pupils from lots of different schools, this gave us a chance to make new friends and learn new skills.

To play bocce you had to split into two teams and one person rolls the white ball and then the other players have to try and get the coloured balls as close to the white ball as possible. Bocce is a Paralympic sport and we even had a champion Bocce player teaching us how to play.

We also played different types of athletics, this included relay races and javelin exercises. All coached by a coach from Giffnock North Athletics Club and S3 pupils.

When playing rugby we played three different games. The first one was rugby rounders, then we played five aside touch rugby and then regular touch rugby.

Today allowed us to try new sports that we will continue to learn when we are in high school next year. The coaches also reminded us about all the different opportunities for clubs we could join next year.

The idea behind today was to give us the opportunity to meet pupils from other schools that would be joining us next year. It gave us the chance to meet new friends so that when we go up to s1 we have people to talk to and lots more familiar faces. This makes the first few days starting a new school a little more exciting.

We’re looking forward to the Transition days next!

The Primary 7 Class

Health and Wellbeing

Health Week

May 16, 2016 Gayle Santi

This week has been slightly different at Calderwood Lodge, as it has been Health Week!

As part of Health Week, everyone has to come dressed in their P.E. kit to school, which we all loved.

On the first day of Health Week for Primary 7, we were initially meant to have volleyball. However, the volleyball people had to cancel, so we were set a challenge that involved maths and health. We had to run around the perimeter of our back pitch – which Archie measured for us and told us that it was 25m – as many times as possible and then work out the overall distance we would have ran. Our next task was to work out where that distance would take us to if we left from Calderwood Lodge. Luckily, Primary 6 joined us in the challenge and we all completed many laps, scoring high numbers in the end.

On Tuesday, Steven Morris, who is a British Karate Champion in 1985, came into our school to teach Primary 6 and Primary 7 the rules and moves in Karate. We were taught many positions and what to say in a Karate match. As soon as we felt confident enough, Steven paired us up and put us to the test. We attempted to catch our opponents’ hair and push pressure points to stop them holding onto you.

On Wednesday, our campus police officer, PC David Cunningham came to talk to us about internet safety and cyber bullying. We discussed realistic scenarios which could occur just through social media. After that, a professional fitness trainer who works at Nuffield Health, greeted us in the gym hall with some circuits. When lunch was over, a man from Scottish SPCA (Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) came into Primary 7 to talk to us about the SSPCA and what they do. He showed us animals which they had saved and wild animals and pets.
Health Week has been very interesting and fun. Hopefully we get to all do this next year in High School.

By Freddie Hyman

Health and Wellbeing, Literacy and English, Sciences

Science Experiments in Primary 7

April 6, 2016 Gayle Santi

A few weeks ago, we started our new Science topic, all about Microorganisms. We have been learning that microorganisms can only be seen with a microscope and that they are absolutely everywhere! Some of these, like yeast, are useful to us and many are not. Some are harmful and disease causing, like bacteria. So in Primary 7, we have been learning about the bad ones and how to avoid spreading them.

Microorganisms that cause diseases are often called germs. Some diseases, like chickenpox, are caused by viruses. Diseases caused by viruses usually spread easily from one person to another. We learned about uncooked foods (especially meat) and how they can contain bacteria. We kill the bacteria when we cook the food properly. But if you eat food that has not been cooked properly, the bacteria may survive and make you quite unwell. Bacteria left in your mouth by not brushing your teeth properly can cause a tooth infection which we learned about when we had our dental checks.

We decided we would carry out our own experiment all about mould and different foods. We split into 4 science teams and created our experiment to test milk, cheese, bread and banana. We chose our own packaging and containers. We chose our own location and we were in charge of all of our own monitoring and recording.

We are half way through our experiment and we have been really interested to see the changes that are occurring and why. We have been making graphs about the mould development and we have been comparing and discussing with the other groups.

We’ll let you know our results when it’s all over. We certainly won’t be eating the samples come the end of the experiment.

Fiaqa and Mrs Santi
Along with the rest of the Primary 7 pupils.

-My Achievements, Health and Wellbeing

Tennis in Primary 7

March 30, 2016 Gayle Santi

New topic in P.E

Tennis

In P.E we have started our new topic, Tennis. In tennis, for the last couple of weeks, we have been practicing forehand, backhand and serving. Luckily for our class, tennis coaches came in and gave us lots of tips at the start of our session. They taught us how to hold the racket and how to swing the properly. Everyone enjoyed the coaches coming in because it then helped them in our P.E lessons afterwards.

At the start, we were practicing running and walking around the hall balancing the ball on your racket while Mrs Santi gave different instructions we had to follow at the same time. This was definitely harder than it sounds. We learned about the stance we would need, where you stand on the balls of your feet and take tiny steps up and down.

We have been working with partners and having to hit the ball to them and they have to catch it. From the beginning of the block we have improved a lot in hitting the ball, catching the ball and throwing the ball. This has all hopefully helped with our hand/eye coordination. A lot of people now practice at home throwing a ball at a wall and then catching it with one or two hands.

In serving, we have gone with a partner and served the ball to them and they have to catch it. We have also been practicing the way we hit the ball and working on our precision and aim.

We have also learnt about rally’s, a rally is when you go with someone and hit the ball back and forth for as long as you can. Lilah Cowen was a big fan, “I believe that the tennis lessons have improved our skills”.

Look out for us at Wimbledon one day!

Rachel Jacobs

-My Achievements, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy and English, Numeracy and Mathematics, Technologies

Upper School Master Classes

March 22, 2016 Gayle Santi

The Primary Four, Five, Six and Seven classes have recently started Master Classes every Friday. Each one of the master classes will run for 4 weeks.

The classes consist of:

Film making
Sewing
Woodwork
Baking/cooking

Each class is led by one of the class teachers.

In Primary Seven, we have recently started Film Making with Mrs Santi. We have been given the challenge of creating a short film that will send a message to the viewers. This will then be shown to the rest of the school at one of our weekly assemblies.

We have completed projects like this in the past. Mrs Santi was able to show us some of the work from the project we did a few years ago, when we were all in Primary 3. One of the most helpful tips we picked up on was the importance of impact. We realised that sometimes the use of dialogue in a short film can take away from the message that the group are trying to share.

We chose groups to create our films with and with those groups we had to come up with a team name and a message for our film.

We then had to plan out where the scenes would be shot and what props would be needed. We carried this out in a similar way as we had [previously done in our writing lessons for Script-Writing.

Now we have completed practice scenes and watched them back to see would we could add in or take out, to help make our short film even better. The groups have also discussed if their short film will look realistic and if the characters are easy to play.

Overall the film making work shop will not only help with filming and editing skills, it will also help improve our dramatic acting skills too!

We have loved the Master Classes so far and look forward to trying the other ones. We have heard that the Primary Six class have been learning to sew and have been using their new skills to help them make things like puppets.

In Primary Five, they are learning about woodwork and have been using their new skills to make bird houses. This sounded really interesting. First of all they planned out the design and structure of their bird house and then cut their wood to be a fitting size, they are soon to move on to actually building their bird houses.

Finally, in Primary Four, they have been learning about cooking and baking skills. So far they have made savoury things like cheese scones and pizzas. Then they have also made sweet things, like flapjacks. I am extremely excited to learn all these new skills that I have never tried before.

By Madeline Friel

-My Achievements, Health and Wellbeing

Football Tournament…the sequel

March 22, 2016 Gayle Santi

East Renfrewshire Football Festival

Coming up shortly, is the East Renfrewshire Football Festival. Sadly, last time, Calderwood were not very successful. However, we are adamant to try our hardest and prove ourselves at the tournament as worthy opponents.

Personally, I am extremely excited, as I love playing football whenever and wherever possible and I am definitely sure my teammates are equally as eager to play and perform to their best level.

At the tournament, we will have some Primary Fives, Primary Sixes and Primary Sevens playing in our team.

In Calderwood, we are counting on our best players to help others to become better at football. It is a great opportunity for people, as some schools may have pupils who aren’t the most avid players. This means that these pupils can experience something new and it may turn out they enjoy it more than they thought they would.

There may be some tough competition, but I feel that Calderwood are ready for the games. Especially for a school that doesn’t have a proper team and does not participate in training. I believe that Calderwood can improve and develop our skills and efforts from last time.

Calderwood Lodge definitely have the ability to win, which is very important. Football comes with a great deal of sportsmanship and teamwork which are two aspects of our team which we possess.

Wish us luck!

By Freddie Hyman

-My Achievements, Health and Wellbeing

The Muddy Mile

March 22, 2016 Gayle Santi

The Muddy Mile

On Sunday the 20^th of March, I travelled with my family to Craufurdland Castle, to take part in the Muddy Mile.

Although I was 15 minutes late, I was still able to run. My little sister Albie, who is in Primary 2, ran with me. The others were already ahead of us because they had started earlier than we had.

At the start of the mile, my sister and I kept saying that we didn’t think it was really that muddy. However, we then came to a big patch of mud and it was really quite deep! Not as deep as some of the ones we were about to come up against. My little sister’s shoe even came off in one of the puddles, so I ended up holding her shoes the whole way around.

We came to a swamp where they had to have somebody there to help you across because it was so deep. It wentall the way up to my neck.

When we crossed the swamp we went through very thick mud and I got stuck in the middle of it, but thankfully Albie helped me out.

I was very proud of myself and also I had carried my sister most of the way so I was extremely tired. I ran to the finish line and was given a treat bag and met up with the rest of the Calderwood Lodge Team. We got a picture taken with Mrs Carlton, which I will put up here once we get a copy of it.

Well done to all the Calderwood Lodge Muddy Mile runner. We will all be wearing our t-shirts proudly!

By Lyla Gaizely-Gardiner

Health and Wellbeing

Hockey Tournament

November 30, 2015 Gayle Santi

On Thursday 14th November, schools from all over East Renfrewshire went to a hockey tournament to compete with each other. At first, each team had 4 points each. Many people participated in the event.

Most of the teams were older and had more experience than our Calderwood Team had. We hadn’t been a team for as long as some of the other schools, so we had not had as much time to practise. Pupils from primary 4, 5, 6 and 7 made up our team. We did try our hardest, but we weren’t good enough for them this time round.

What I found fascinating, was that there were two people in one of the teams that we played against that were actually Polish!

In the end, we finished and had not scored any points. However, Miss Abercrombie and Miss Munro were right, it wasn’t about winning or losing, it was about trying our hardest in the time we had and also about having fun. That’s what makes Calderwood Lodge so special, always trying our hardest in everything, no matter what.

Anna Karpov

Class Trip, Health and Wellbeing, Latest News, Literacy and English, Religious and Moral Education

Mitzvah Day

November 26, 2015 Gayle Santi

On Thursday 26^th November, the Primary 7 class visited the People’s Palace, as part of our World War Two topic. Once we had finished with our workshops and had lunch, we drove over to Westacres Care Home as part of our Mitzvah Day activity.

The Primary 1 class had all made lovely Chanukah cards as part of their Mitzvah Day activities. Since they are all a little young to visit Westacres, we took the cards and delivered them all for them. When we arrived, we sang a number of Chanukah songs for the residents and Lilah and Maddie played a Chanukah song on their violins. We also brought our writing jotters along with us to read them stories that we had written at school. By the looks of it, some of the men and women fantastically enjoyed them!

At the end, we sang once again because they had enjoyed it so much first time round. We sang a few Chanukah songs such as Ner Li, Maoz Tzur, and Sevivon. They all gave us a massive clap at the end. Some also said that we were amazing!

To end off our visit we decided to sing Bim Bom because everyone loves that song! We said goodbye to the elderly people and they us to come visit us again soon! I think we did a great mitzvah by visiting the elderly people and hopefully we can do it more often through the year and not wait a whole year for Mitzvah Day again.

Vaneeza Ali

-My Achievements, Class Trip, Health and Wellbeing

Swimming

October 8, 2015 Gayle Santi

This year, the Primary 7 class have been first to start their swimming lessons. We go to Eastwood Swimming Pool every Thursday for a 6 week block.
We all started off by getting changed for swimming and getting everything ready and putting a pound in the locker for all of our stuff. Once everybody is ready, we all start head for the pool. For our first lesson, we were all very excited to jump in the pool. To begin, we had to do the front crawl in pairs from the shallow end to the deep end.
In other lessons, we have been working on our back stroke with a float. The teacher is always there to give us help along the way.
At the end of each lesson, we all get to dive or jump into the pool and choose our favourite stroke to swim a length.
We asked a few people about their thoughts on the swimming:

Gabby “I enjoy having swimming lessons because when we started in Primary 7, I wasn’t able to do the front crawl and now I am getting much better”.

Freddie “It’s fun and healthy at the same time”.

Amy “Our teachers are really helpful, they are always giving us tips on how we can improve”.