Last Friday, I attended the John Byrne competition ceremony which I was a runner-up for. In class, we learned about different portrait styles by artists like Pablo Picasso, Leonardo DaVinci and Andy Warhol. I chose to make mine realistic. Me and 29 other runners-up were selected as well as 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd. John Byrne was there when the certificates and prizes were given to us. It was really cool to see my picture up in a gallery! I was proud of myself as the 30 runners-up were picked out of about 4000 entries! I didn’t think I would get chosen, so it was a great surprise when I did. I really enjoyed the experience, it was fun drawing my entry and I’m really happy that I was picked.

Holly Johnson P6a

On Monday 14^th March the Orchestra went to the Glasgow Music Festival. The festival was set in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow city centre. We played against Hamilton College, the pieces they played were Joy to the World and we Will Rock You. The pieces we played were EastEnders, Star Wars, Hunter’s House (a solo that Robbie Fisher played and the orchestra accompanied him) Symphony No. 7, The Great Escape. We came 1^st place with 88 points!

On Tuesday 15^th March Netherlee’s lunch bunch went to the Glasgow Music Festival. We played against another primary school. The primary school played 2 of their own songs that there conductor had written. The Lunch Bunch played Brian Boru’s March, St Antonym Coral and Yellow Bird. We came 1^st with 88 points! All of us really enjoyed the experience and it was great fun!

Report by Ruby White and Olivia Overend P6a

Over the winter holidays, we decided to raise money for the SSPCA because they help lots of animals. Originally, we gave out Hama Bead creations in return for a reasonable donation. Unfortunately, we realised not many people were interested. We thought we would try home baking, and we made chocolate chip cookies, and vanilla cupcakes to sell round our neighbourhood. We sold each cookie at 50p each, and each cupcake at £1 each. We raised a grand total of £25 in one afternoon! Once we counted up our money, we sent it off to the SSPCA along with a letter from us. Sharon Meiklejohn, a Senior Community Fundraiser, replied to it, and sent us each certificates too.

By Rachel and Holly, P6a

Yesterday, P6a played the Chocolate Trade Game.  The point was to teach us how Fairtrade ensures that everyone involved gets their fair share. We were all given a pack for each of the different jobs. This included independent cocoa farmers, Fairtrade cocoa farmers, the Big Chocolate Company, and Fairtrade Chocolate Company. There were also shoppers and supermarkets. The cocoa farmers had to draw and cut out Fairtrade cocoa beans and non-Fairtrade cocoa beans. They were then sold to the chocolate companies so they could make chocolate to sell to supermarkets, which would then be bought by shoppers (consumers). But there were new rules as we advanced through the 4 seasons. Things were good for certain companies, and bad for others. At one point all the farmers were affected by a black pod disease and they lost half of their crops! Us journalists got a few quotes from different groups. “I feel devastated and emotional that we can’t feed our families well!” –Alice, (independent cocoa farmer) “I’m extremely agitated!” –Beth, (Fairtrade farmer) At the end, the Fairtrade farmers and the Fairtrade Chocolate Company made a profit about five times the amount of the non-Fairtrade! This was a really fun activity, a great way to learn about Fairtrade!

The Big Chocolate Company (non-Fair Trade) negotiating some deals.

The Fair Trade Chocolate Company busy producing their chocolate.

The Supermarkets calculating their profits. 

Shoppers buying chocolate from one of the supermarkets.

Fair Trade farmers busy preparing Cocoa Beans and being interviewed by a journalist.

Report by Holly Johnson and Lee Miller

Primary 6 have been sharing our learning with the primary 1s. We have been learning about the British astronaut Tim Peake, and we have also been learning about how to teach the primary 1s. We had to think carefully about the words that we used so that they could understand us. They were showing us their drawings of spaceman and we were showing them PowerPoints about the ISS and Tim Peake we were also using posters to catch their little eyes! We showed them our Sky Studios video about a mission to Mars. We enjoyed sharing our learning with the primary 1s and would love to do it again!

By Alice and Natalya

On Friday I went to karate because it was my grading. A grading is a week where you can move up a belt. I moved up to a purple belt 2 tabs. I am very excited to be a purple belt. I have been learning karate for four years. At my karate grading I did kata.  Kata is a bunch of karate moves in a row. We also did compound steps. Compound steps are moves like step punch block. I also did free fighting in free fighting you can punch and kick which is soft touch.

Julie P6a

In Global Citizenship a person from Mary’s Meals charity came in to talk about what they do. Before the lady came in we did some research on Mary’s Meals and if we had any questions we put them on a Microsoft Word document. We worked on our own for this but if you were an older pupil you could choose to go with a younger one so I chose to go with a girl called Olivia Prentice [P1a]. At around about 1:30 the lady arrived and showed us a PowerPoint then she asked us some questions. Most of the Global Citizenship representatives knew all the questions. Aafter all the questions were answered we put our painting shirts on and got into groups of three to paint a bag for Mary’s Meals to take away and sell. I went in a group with Olivia again and a boy called Charlie Annad [P1b]. A photographer came in from the Evening Times and took a photo of the three of us painting the bag and asked for our names. After we had finished and tidied up some of the older ones took back the younger ones. I had a great afternoon and really enjoyed working with different people from around the school.

Thomas (P6a)

On Sunday the 15^th of November I did a cross country in Gourock. It was very muddy and there were steep hills, most girls slipped on the hills – luckily I didn’t . When I was walking the mile my foot got stuck in a mud hole – funnily enough it had a pile on leaves over so I couldn’t see it!

No girls over took me except at the start of the race when the man shot the airgun in the air – that’s why I was thirteenth. I have already improved my time by 15.1 seconds so I’m very proud of these achievements, I can’t wait to achieve more!

By Ruby White P6a

On Thursday 12th November P6  performed their version of ‘Mars’ by Holst. We wrote a few lines to chant about the planets and Mr Watson showed us the notes and beats we were supposed to play on the glockenspiels, drums and our own instruments like guitars, flutes and clarinets. Our practise paid off and our performance went successfully. The P3s, 4s and 5s watched us and we were glad when they gave us feedback – they thought we were outstanding! It was a fun, great experience.

Holly

On Friday the 13^th we had Children in Need day where we dressed in the opposite way. You could dress for night time, be a baby, an adult, as a girl if you were a boy or  be a boy if you were a girl. We asked people to donate one pound for Children in Need. After donating a pound we hopefully had enough money to buy a Pudsey biscuit – 35p – at tuck. The pupil council collected all the money – and counted it. At the end of the day we raised a grand total of £678.90! We all enjoyed the experience and would like to do it again.

Cameron (Pupil Council, P6a)