Amsterdam

Amsterdam Blog Day 3

We started this morning by eating the Meininger’s fabulous breakfast.

We returned to the lobby after getting our stuff together and caught a tram to the really fun park from that we visited on Monday.

We had a play and then made our way to the oldest synagogue in Europe, The Portuguese synagogue.

We received an audio guide to tell us more information about the synagogue including that the only reason the synagogue wasn’t turned into a deportation centre during World War two was because the seventy-two giant windows would have been too hard to black-out.

After that, we went to the Jewish Historical Museum children’s section.

We got to make matzah, play PLENTY of instruments, sit on a giant ottoman pouf, which resembled the sea (lots of bumps and lumps), and even got to stand on a glass ceiling and look down three floors!

We headed to the adult section and read all about many things such as what happened to the Jewish population during the war and when it was over.

During lunch we went back to the park and played as I, Daniella, had a very engaging conversation about our opinions on “celebrity drama” with Mr Robson and Miss Berrett.

P.S. it was really warm and sunny so we had to wear lots of sunscreen.

We walked (or should I say jumped and skipped) to Madame Tussauds where we had the absolute time of our lives!

Everyone got to meet their idols and inspirations. Jessica got to meet Thor, Hadi met Captain America, Mr Robson met Adele, Mrs Yedd met Daniel Craig, of course, Daniella met Ariana Grande, and most important of all, Miss Berrett got to meet her idol, Beyonce.

We have no words to describe how wonderful our day was, despite it being our last day in Amsterdam city centre. See you tomorrow, on our very last day.

We miss you all so much,

Daniella, Hadi, Jessica, and the rest of P7.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam Blog Day 2

VERY, VERY early in the morning handsome Mr Robson came banging on everyone’s door to wake us up for the wonderful day ahead! Once we came downstairs we started with our morning prayers.

After that, we had our scrumptious breakfast, but we called it food mania! Once we finished our breakfast, we went upstairs and were filled with enthusiasm (Miss Corr’s favourite word) for the day ahead. We then set off to the tram station to make our way to the canal cruise.

When we got to the canal cruise, we chose our seats and we found out some really interesting facts about Amsterdam, its history and artistic heritage.

After about an hour of cruising, we got off the boat and spent some time souvenir shopping, splashing our cash (on gifts for our parents of course).

After this we decided to have our lunch at Dam Square. Jessica felt sorry for the pigeons that were around us, so she wanted to feed them a bit of her lunch.

This was a big mistake because when she fed one, an entire tsunami of pigeons attacked us! After the drama with the pigeons we decided to go for another shopping spree at the plaza across the road.

The last activity of the day was visiting the Anne Frank house. When we arrived we spent some time in an educational workshop. The lady working with us was very impressed with our knowledge.

After that we went to the actual Anne Frank House/museum. It felt so surreal actually being there not just looking at it on photos. We all felt a mixture of feelings such as being moved, because everything we felt and touched had also been touched by the Anne Frank family, and fortunate for being able to see and experience this moment.

Half way through the tour, a lady started to moan about us skipping the cue WHEN WE DIDN’T! so fiery Miss Berrett stuck up for justice and proved to the lady that she was wrong.

Over all we had a fantastic day! We got to discover more facts about Amsterdam and a little bit more about Anne Frank. We can’t wait for tomorrow and for Mr Robson to wake us up bright and early!

By Jake, Akshainee and Sania (keep reading)

P.S.

I just wanted to let all of the parents know how amazing all of your children have been this week so far. So many members of the public have commented on their impeccable manners and excellent behaviour.

We spoke with a member of staff at the Holocaust Memorial Museum yesterday who was hugely impressed with how respectful our children were during their visit. She is visiting Scotland soon, and now plans to come and visit us in school.

We had our educational workshop at the Anne Frank House and we were all totally blown away by the depth of knowledge the children displayed during this session. The leader, who is a high school teacher, said she genuinely has not worked with a group of children of any age who had such a good understanding of the Holocaust and the events that surrounded this.

We have had a great couple of days with the children, and they have been an absolute credit to all of you and to the school.

Mr Robson

 

 

Amsterdam

Amsterdam Blog Day 1

Day 1

Today our journey began very early at 4am. We all anxiously waited for everyone to arrive, and once everyone was there we were able to go through check in. At precisely 6am we boarded the plane.

When we arrived we collected our luggage and took a quick coach ride to our hotel. We dropped off our luggage, checked in and began our adventure.

We ate our lunch outside of the hotel in the sunshine. After that we walked to take a tram to get us closer to the city centre. We soon arrived at our destination.

The first place we visited was the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Before the war this building was a theatre, and once war broke out it was decided that only Jewish performers could work here, and they could only play to Jewish audiences.

As the war went on this building was used to house Jewish people before they were deported and sent to concentration camps. Roughly 46000 Jewish people stayed in this building before being deported. Many people did manage to escape with the help of some very brave people.

After that we went to the park and played some games on a huge stage, which was very fun. We took loads of pictures, and we even had a dance competition. Miss Berrett even showed us some moves that Lisa Tobias would have been proud of!

We then went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. On the way there we met a Scottish man who had a very cute French Bulldog in a basket on his bike.

When we got to the museum we had the opportunity to read some stories about children and their most prized possessions during the Holocaust. It was really moving.

We then found out all about how the children would be smuggled over a wall from a nursery which was used as a place for children belonging to the adults in the Hollandsche Schouwburg to stay before also being deported. The people who worked here saved hundreds of children’s lives.

After a long day we had a final walk then got the tram ride back to the hotel where we went to our rooms and chilled and chatted all about our amazing first day in Amsterdam. We can’t wait for tomorrow.

By Milla, Atika, Emmen and Amy

Outdoor Learning, Social Subjects

Outdoor learning – mapping

This week, we have been working with the primary 6’s from St Clare’s to begin our new Social Studies topic which will focus on the natural and social geography of our new school and surrounding area.

We began by investigating the outside of our school, sketching the building from a  bird’s eye view. This will develop our sense of place and also help us to create a final aerial view map, like the one below.

Areal view of our Joint Faith Campus


We will continue to develop our mapping and geography skills throughout this term by studying ordinance survey maps of the local area and rest of Scotland.

Science, STEM

STEM week

This week  some of the parents at our school have come into class to discuss their jobs in the STEM industry. We learnt about what a statistician and researcher does which was fascinating! We asked lots of questions and found out that subjects like maths and science are really important for these kinds of jobs.

Later on in the week we continued with our science topic on forces by developing our scientific understanding of static electricity. We learnt about electrons and atoms which is how electricity flows and what happens to cause static electricity.

“We now know that static electricity is caused when an electron is knocked off course and creates a positive atom and a negative atom. This means the opposite atoms attract and cause static electricity.” Liam

We explored this through a range of balloon activities such as bending water, moving an object, sticking the balloon to the wall and making hair attract to the balloon. We can now scientifically explain why these things were happening with the balloon and enjoyed developing our knowledge of static electricity.

                 

Social Subjects

Researching Victorian Inventions

In social studies, we have been learning about inventions from the Victorian era. We worked in groups to research a Victorian invention that is still important today and compared how it has changed from the Victorian times to now. Using the chrome books meant we could find out a lot of information about our chosen  invention and create an eye catching poster to present our research to the class. 

From the presentation we learnt a lot about inventions like the radio, electric train, moving pictures and even ice cream! We are now going to create our own inventions in groups and make an advert to encourage people to buy our invention. We can’t wait to record our adverts!

Israel70 project

Israel70 project

Over the last month we have been working on our Israel70 project which is a programme that is being run in 25 Jewish schools across the UK to celebrate the 70th year of Yom Ha’atzmaut.

The idea of the project is to select an object from an Israeli museum to explore its cultural, artistic and historic purpose. This then leads to the creation of our own piece of work.

We chose to study a sculpture (see below)  by Menashe Kadishman (1932-2015) which represents the story of the Sacrifice of Isaac which symbolises Israeli National Service.  We researched this sculpture and the meaning behind it and presented our research in our project book.

 

The class decided to focus on the ram for our art work and make our own horns. They hot glued wire to a headband and wrapped plastic bags around the wire to give it more thickness. Pupils then wrapped a lot of plastic twine around each piece of wire and when that was complete, the favourite bit, we spray painted the horns.

Everyone really enjoyed making their own sculptures and learning more about the original piece of art work by Kadishman which had such a profound meaning.

 

 

 

Science

Testing Gravity and Air-resistance

This week we went to the science lab to learn about gravity and air resistance.

We planned our science investigation by deciding to investigate if the length of a spinner (helicopter blade) affects the speed its falls. Pupils planned the investigation by choosing a variable  to study (length), writing a hypothesis and stating the method as well as how they will keep it a fair test.

The class then went out to the hub, which they decided was the best place to drop the spinners. Once all the spinners were dropped and timed, the results and averages were calculation. Finally, pupils were able to conclude and evaluate their investigation.

“the spinner with the shortest blade fell quicker because  there is less surface area for the air resistance to slow the fall of the object” Hadi

“we kept the test fair by only changing one thing, the length of the blade. Next time we could test a different variable like weight by adding paper clips to the spinner” Jake

Drama, Expressive Arts

Drama Workshop

This week we looker deeper into what it was like for children in the Victorian era compared to childhood nowadays.

Through a range of drama techniques (as seen in the pictures) we developed our understanding for what life was like for Victorian children who had to work. We created still pictures which then changed into scene making where we improvised in our roles as Victorian child workers. By putting ourself in their shoes and expressing our feelings through actions, it was clear how tough life was for children back then.

We then started to explore the progress for children that came from   the Education Act of 1870 and how people like Dr Bernardo were pioneers for protecting children. Finally, we compared it to our own lives and discussed how far our rights have come by discussing the UN’s Rights of the Child and expressing, through drama, what it means to experience the SHANARRI indicators at Calderwood Lodge.

 “Thought – provoking” Sophie

“Interactive and effective” Daniella

“Interesting and moving” Leo

“It made me think about children’s rights around the world and how fortunate we are” Jake

Role on the Wall

Thought Tracking

 

Still pictures and scene making

 

Conscience Alley
Social Subjects

Scotland Street Trip to experience a Victorian Classroom

This week we travelled back in time to experience what life was like for pupils in a Victorian classroom.

We walked into Scotland Street and as soon as the boys put on their waistcoats and the girls put in their pinafores we were marched in straight lines to the classroom. The terrifying teacher came out and get us our orders to sit in silence and not speak unless spoken to. 

In the classroom we had to address the teacher as ‘ma’am’ and completed work on slates. She even brought out the belt which had our knees trembling!

Luckily we were brought back to 2018 after a nerve wracking lesson. We learned a lot about how tough it was for children at school during this time and how different it is today. It was a fantastic real life experience that we will remember for a long time!

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