Day Two In Amsterdam

May 24, 2016 User deactivated

Today was our second day in Amsterdam, and what a great day it has been. It was extremely busy and it is safe to say we are all very tired! We started our day with a big breakfast and made our way to one of Holland’s famous canal boat trips. The canal tour took us across the water, explaining about the history of Amsterdam and allowed us to see the capital’s great buildings and architecture as well as many famous spots around the city. We all managed to take some great photos.

The weather thankfully picked up from yesterday’s grey clouds and rain. We were lucky enough to even get a few hours of sunshine. It was at this point that we had a lovely walk through some of the tourist shops, where we all managed to buy a few souvenirs or two! Mrs Yedd even managed to buy herself a few badges for her collection, from her favourite shop! As we continued with our walk, we made our way to Dam Square, where we all enjoyed our lunch in the sunshine.

Recently, as part of our class Enterprise Topic, we all worked together in teams to create businesses where we sold a variety of products to the pupils of the school. We also sold badges, water bottles and pencil cases provided by the school. We had this great big Enterprise Day and raised £235. This money was to contribute to our Amsterdam trip. We decided, as a class, that a really wonderful way of spending this money would be to all visit Amsterdam’s Madame Tussauds Museum together. What a great decision! Everyone really enjoyed getting lots of pictures taken and posing with the wax statues of famous celebrities. With Mrs Santi’s selfie stick, we got a lot of very funny memories. We all thoroughly enjoyed doing this extra activity which had not been planned prior to the visit. It was a nice bonus that made all our hard work seem worthwhile. Even Mr Robson and Mrs Santi got some very funny photos too!

To complete our busy day, we walked round to the Anne Frank house, where we expanded our knowledge about World War Two and got a real insight into what we have been learning about throughout Primary 7. We were given a lesson about Anne’s life and how her life changed as she went into hiding before we entered the house. We were also told about the layout of the building which included the offices of Otto Frank’s business. We all found this time very emotional and fascinating as we have been learning a lot about Anne Frank’s life in school and it meant a lot to visit the actual house together as a class. This is a memory we won’t forget.

“I found the house very different in real life compared to the movies we have watched and some of the things we have read” – Rachel.

“It was a very overwhelming experience.” – Maddie.

“It was an exciting and interesting visit to the house.” – Hassan.

A big dinner finished off our day and it really has been a terrific day. We’re looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

By Freddie, Josh, Iman and Rachel

Class Trip

Our First Day in Amsterdam

May 23, 2016 User deactivated

That’s us in Amsterdam. We started our day with a slightly delayed KLM flight and arrived in Amsterdam in the afternoon. Once we had landed, we were met by a lady who had organised a bus to take us to our hotel. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and went to the dining area to have some lunch. We also got split into three different groups led by Mr Robson, Mrs Santi and Mrs Yedd.
Once we had finished, we hopped onto a bus that took us to a City Sightseeing Tour Bus that would take us around eleven parts of Amsterdam, telling us all about the different areas and its history. On this trip we saw famous landmarks such as, The Secret Annex, famous canals, the only windmill left in the city centre and the Jewish History Museum. Some of us were already a little tired and had a small snooze on the bus!
At the end of the tour, we ventured back to our hotel, where we were given the keys to our hotel rooms and told who we would be sharing with. With a little time to settle in to our rooms, we got to relax a little and unpack. The teachers then came in to check on us to see how things were going, before dinner.
At dinner, we got the chance to sit with our friends and talk about our rooms and favourite parts of the day. We can’t wait for the next few days and all the adventures to come!
By Maddie, Susie and Lilah

-My Achievements, Expressive Arts, festival, Religious and Moral Education

Yom Hasoah

May 16, 2016 Gayle Santi

It was recently Yom Hashoah and in order to commemorate this day, there was an event held at Giffnock Shul, which I as fortunate enough to attend. This day marks a day of remembrance for the people that died in the Holocaust. 2 school pupils lead the service and we had a Jewish male choir preforming. As the names of all those family members who had been killed were shown on the screen, a man played the violin. There were lots of clips from various Holocaust survivors and we had speeches from special guests, including Ben Helfgot, who is a very well known Holocaust survivor.

6 candles were lit for the 6 million Jews who had died in the War. Pupils from the school or the local area came up to light 5 candles and then the sixth candle was lit by Ben Helfgot, our special guest.

The theme of the evening was “from Poland to Windmere”, and his speech told us all about his story and his journey and how he feels about the Holocaust today.

Primary 7 had also been working on a project and had picked a person from the ‘Boys’ to commemorate and make a hand stitched tea towel that were all displayed in the Shul hall.

It was a special day to be a part of.

By Susie Tenby

Class Trip, Latest News

Mearns Castle Transitions

May 16, 2016 Gayle Santi

Some pupils from Calderwood Lodge have recently gone to Mearns Castle for extended transitions.

At the extended transitions you get to meet some staff who work at the school. This is a great opportunity to be shown all around the school and told all about what the school is like and what we should expect when we go there.

A little while after the extended transitions, two pupils from Mearns Castle, who had been former pupils at Calderwood Lodge, visited our class. Their names were Ryan and Olivia. We remember them well from when they came to Calderwood. They are now Mearns Castle pupils and came to tell us when the whole class all about the school and what to expect from transitions. They told us about the clubs we can attend, the classes, the teachers, the school uniform and what subjects you will take. They also talked about which house you will be in and who your year head will be.

This was a great chance to ask questions and hopefully ease any nerves we had.

Not long now!

By Josh and Amy

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, Expressive Arts, Literacy and English

Primary 7 Art Inspiration

March 30, 2016 Gayle Santi

Recently, the pupils in our class each presented a solo talk about a famous person who truly inspired us. It was great to hear the varied individuals that we each chose and why we found them inspirational in the first place.

Afterwards, we thought it would be a good idea if we made collages about our inspirational person, so that the rest of the school could see our work. We were to collect images, words, newspaper and magazine cut-outs all about our inspirational person. Then when we had all the cut-outs that we needed, we stuck them on to coloured board in the shape of something to do with our inspirational person. Later we put PVA glue on them so that they hardened permanently.

Finally, our teacher, Mrs Santi, put them on the wall proudly for the rest of the school to see and as a daily reminder to each of us about those people in the world or the past that inspire us to become better visions of ourselves.

By Josh Zeitlin

-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

Calderwood Book Fair

March 30, 2016 Gayle Santi

Last week, Primary 7 helped to host Calderwood’s annual Book Fair.

Every day, some Primary 7 pupils would help to sell books to each of the younger stages.

On the first day, the book fair was packed! We were very happy to see lots of children thrilled about getting and reading new books.

Personally, I found it quite enjoyable to sell the books while my other friends were helping out as well.

On Parent’s Evening, a few primary 7’s volunteered to help out at the book fair so that any pupils that were there with their parents, still had the chance to buy some books.

As time went by, we realised that we had sold lots of books and plenty of stationary. Mr Robson was extremely happy that the younger pupils were enthusiastic about the Fair again.

Mr Robson and all of Primary 7 were incredibly amazed that we were able to raise over £500! We were delighted.

Vaneeza Ali

-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