Term 3 at St. Albert’s means SOCIAL SUBJECTS is the focus for the whole school and this year we are looking specifically at ‘MIGRATION’.

Social Subjects

P6/7 will be considering how migration has made Glasgow’s population the way it is. We will be looking at our local area and the ethnicity of the people living in Pollokshields and comparing this to other parts of Glasgow. As part of this context, we’ll be visiting the Scotland Street School exhibition ‘GlaswegAsians’ which is currently showcasing the contributions that immigrants from parts of Asia have made to Glasgow’s success as a thriving city.

Languages and Literacy

Linking with our context of migration, P6/7 will be reading the important novel ‘Divided City’. This story takes place in Glasgow and follows two young boys who share a love of football but who come from families with different backgrounds: one is Catholic and the other is Protestant. One boy supports Celtic Football Club whilst the other supports Rangers and this means their families and communities could be seen as rivals. The text is a key one for Glasgow pupils because it discusses prejudices that are still causing problems today. In reading and responding to the text, the children will be focusing on connecting what they are reading to what they have experienced and will be learning to put themselves in the place of the characters through writing diary entries, comparing the characters’ experiences to their own and justifying their opinions on the subjects discussed. We will take part in a special workshop hosted by the St. Mungo Museum linked to this text.

The English-Speaking Union Debate League will be working with the children on Fridays to give them some experience in debating skills: constructing arguments and persuasion are the two key skills pupils will develop and need later in life as they enter the workplace.

Mathematics

This term in maths we will be working with negative numbers and learning how these can be manipulated. This will be useful in contexts such as understanding the cold, winter temperatures, historical dates (especially when talking about dates that are before the common era (BCE)). We will also revisit fractions and look at equivalent fractions so that we can start to add and subtract fractions. Linking with our topic we will look at data sets on the subject of population and migration so we can compare countries.

Our mental maths work will focus on applying the strategies we know to negative numbers and fractions. We will be learning to recognise and memorise common equivalences between fractions, decimals and percentages e.g. 10% = 1/10 = 0.1

Health and Wellbeing

Our Health and Wellbeing focus for this term is the hygiene and physical development teaching of ‘God’s Loving Plan’. This Catholic education programme provides the pupils with essential information on the changes in their bodies during puberty and how they can manage these.

In P.E. we will be looking at the striking and fielding skills involved in the game of cricket as well as developing individual event skills for athletics (sprinting, throwing, long jump, hurdles and long-distance running).

Expressive Arts

Building on the success of our A-samba-ly, the children will continue to work with Mr McCormack on their samba performances leading up to a public performance towards Easter. Mrs Brightman will also be taking them on from rhythm with their musical learning to attempt following musical notation for pitched instruments so they can begin to play melodies.

If you have any questions regarding this term’s learning, please email Mrs Brightman at gw16viggarsshirleyan@glow.sch.uk