Welcome to our March/April 2021 Blog.

As always in Scotland we had all the seasons during the last month. That said we are just delighted to be back together as our P4A family, and I have so enjoyed the chat from the children about their remote learning experiences! You will be reassured to know that all children have settled back into our routines and have been making the most of the outdoor spaces. When the weather permits, we have been outside enjoying the resources provided by your fund raising and donations.

Following the return to the classroom before the break, I have been working to support the children and identify any areas for reinforcement across the core curricular areas. We have the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA)(P1/4/7) during May. The data from these assessments will be implemented to inform planning, learning, teaching, and further assessment during the remainder of the term. Also, the pupils will still have the support used to access the daily curriculum for the assessments.

In numeracy we have explored shape, symmetry, and number processes in our Numeracy lessons. Consequently, we identified how to assimilate maths within our world and culminated in the children creating symmetrical Easter Bunny cards, which I am sure you all loved. This week we have begun to look at factors and primes alongside data handling and place value.

We concluded our study of the novel Kensuke’s Kingdom when the children delivered individual presentations to the class on the topic of Japan. Whilst allowing them to hone their talking and listening skills, this also provided a wonderful confidence building opportunity. All of the children delivered fabulous presentations showcasing their artistic and technology skills and sharing their knowledge confidently with their peers. Thank you for all your support in helping the children to prepare their work at home. Not surprisingly the children were very interested to hear about the current legal challenge between Marks & Spencer and Aldi and their respective chocolate caterpillar cakes! After examining how this has developed on social media, the children used their persuasive letter writing skills to convey their opinion on the matter, and who they believed was right and wrong. The results are fabulous, and I am sure you have enjoyed reading them on twitter. Apologies for the messy faces, but how could we not take part in a little bit of personal research to celebrate the holiday weekend!

Acknowledging that this has been a tumultuous year for us all, each child has begun to create a personal Time Capsule, charting the events of the past year and most importantly their emotions. As well as being a cathartic and enjoyable process for the children I am hoping that this will be a lovely snapshot of this quite unbelievable time which the children will reflect on in the future.

It was wonderful to get to ‘meet’ you all during our remote parents’ evenings. We introduced the School Cloud video calling system for our second parents’ evenings. This was as a result of parental feedback and we hope this gave you a chance to, at least virtually, meet me and hear about progress to date. I must say, overall, this seems to have been a resounding success with just a few parents missing their appointments. There were minimal technical difficulties and the process itself was efficient and worked to schedule. You will of course be provided with a comprehensive report before the end of term. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

The return to school enabled us to continue our Lenten Journey with the celebration of the Feast Days of St Patrick and St Joseph. We participated in the online Mass at St Cadoc’s Church and learned all about the lives of these two great Saints. We also enjoyed some shamrock cakes to round off our day! We had a very special day when P4 made their Sacrament of Reconciliation and were delighted to have completed this step on the journey to the next Sacrament of First Holy Communion. During Holy Week, the significance of the Last Supper was highlighted for the children when we enjoyed a traditional Jewish Seder Meal together while learning the story of the Exodus and sampling matzo, grape juice, and bitter herbs, just as Jesus and his disciples did. Our preparation continues with your ongoing support and it really is a very exciting time for the children as they continue their faith journey!

On Thursday 22nd of April we joined with the whole school to acknowledge Earth Day 2021. As a Rights Respecting and Laudate Si school we were able to recognise the part that we all must play in healing our common home for our, and future generations, benefit. We are working towards achieving our gold award and Rights Respecting discussion will feature heavily in the coming weeks.

Finally, I hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend and thank you for all your support in these challenging times – however, we have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks and if we all continue to work together the children will continue to flourish – and finally, sending love and prayers to all our wonderful families.

Thank you