Manor Park Primary – Page 2 – Imagining Aberdeen

Girls day out!

The girls from the Imagineers group talked about what women in their communities need to be healthy, happy and safe. Why? Well, if children are healthy, happy and safe, the adults need to be too. Then Imagineers met the Community, Housing and Infrastructure Committee. The girls played the fortune-teller game with the councillors, designing their own questions.

Miriam asked the councillors ‘how do you make sure all children have enough to eat?’ Demi-Leigh inquired ‘how do you help to make the parks poo-free?’ and Tijana asked ‘how can you make sure children have a say at home and school?’

Boys day out!

The boys form the Imagineers group talked about what men in their communities need to be healthy, happy and safe. Why? Well, if children are healthy, happy and safe, the adults need to be too. Then Imagineers met the Education and Children’s Services Committee – quite an occasion. The Imagineers did a grand job representing their vision for the city.

Looking for a new year’s resolution for 2017?

These 30 ideas for adults come from the children who are Imagining Aberdeen…. Go on! Pick one!

My new year’s resolution is that I will:

Spend less time on my phone
Give up smoking
Drink less alcohol
Spend more time having fun with my kids
Be a good role model for children
Realise children make mistakes and so I won’t get angry with them
Give children more respect
Stop swearing in front of children
Take more interest in my children’s work
Always treat people the same
Not be sad, be happy
Always smile
Get on better with my family
Help my children to learn to stay safe
Shout less
Give help to people when they need it badly
Give more love to my kids
Do what I can to stop racism
Do what I can to stop bullying
Do what I can to stop killing and bombing
Not leave my children in the house
Get on better with my children’s grandparents
Won’t lie to my kids (surprises are okay)
Stop drinking in front of my children
Help my children with everything
Eat healthier
Do more exercise
Go to the gym
Stop taking drugs
Do stuff with my children that they want to do

Treasure hunting at Bramble Brae!

Today at Bramble Brae we went on a treasure hunt. We were exploring some of the different learning treasures available to us and looking and which ones we felt we possessed and which ones we would like to become more like.

Kate felt she was very good at ‘listening and understanding how other people feel and she wanted to work on asking questions.’

Quite a few of us noticed that we identified with characters other than the one we picked and we could also see who we would like to become more like.

Alex wanted to become ‘more resilient like Robert and not to give up.’ Nicole and Cameron felt that they were good at ‘keeping going like Robert.’

The treasure maps were great for helping us recognise our strengths and look at how we come become more like our learning characters.

What helps us learn

Children think about what helps them to learn and what gets in the way of of their learning by creating learn-ometers.

‘PSAs help you learn because they are always kind and they understand you and will listen to you. I’m Polish so my sister helps me with my homework as my mum and dad don’t understand. Maths games like Unlucky 13 help me remember more and more things.’

Julia

‘Things that get in the way of me learning are chatting to people when you have to work, when the teachers is busy and my phone because I don’t go off it and then I am very tired.’

Sara

‘When my teacher says ‘good work’ it helps me learn. I also like the spelling and maths sheets on the wall in our classroom and using YouTube.’

John

‘Running out of time, writing being hard and being distracted by people talking and shouting gets in the way of me learning. My mum, dad and teacher give me tips to help me learn. It is good when you get to work outside the room at school.’

Conal

‘When people get bullied it gets in the way of learning because you are angry and you can’t concentrate on your work. Sometimes I get sad because my dad works offshore and I this gets in the way of me doing my best. Doing Reading Wise with my PSA and doing challenges with my brothers helps me learn. I also like when my friends help me with the answers.’

Matas

I am like…

To help children think about themselves as learners they have been introduced to some learning characters who have different learning characteristics.

‘I’m like Robert. When I am at football and I’m losing I try and do my best and keep going. Also when I run the daily mail I keep on running even though I am tired. I’m not so reflective or good at planning.’

Kacper

‘I chose Rebecca because I like making plans and being careful about my jobs. When I am doing my writing I check.’

Shannon

‘I’m like Ruby because I love to go to the library. I just feel like her. I ask a lot of questions about different stuff if I don’t understand, I think and I think. If I still don’t know I ask the teacher. I’m a bit like all the characters but mostly Ruby.’

Diana

‘Ryan because I like relationships. I like learning with other people – like maths games. I’m not like Rebecca as I’m not reflective. I like to go for stuff, not plan.’

Julia

Learning Selfies at Manor Park

Children need people in their lives to help them learn. They need to be able to reflect on what they have learned and learn things that they like to do.

‘These people are important to me: my mum and my brothers, my teacher. Miss Lindi who is my basketball coach. My friends including Daniel, Matas, John, Caitlin L and Zoe. I’d like to learn different languages, art, parkour, backflips, to do a 360 on my bike and sing.’

Kristers

‘I have learned to draw, dance and do maths. I like to dance, play, watch TV, do gymnastics, draw, sing, go on my phone and annoy my brothers. My mum, dad, brothers and grandma are important to me. I would like to learn how to speak, how to skate and how to do crabs.’

Nicole

‘My mum, dad, John, Pat, two cousins, uncle, myself, auntie, teachers and PSAs are important to me. I have learned all the timetables. I like to play Xbox, got to the skatepark, go out with my friends, do art, break at school and to watch youtube. I would like to learn how to fly and how to do the spine at the skate park.’

Barty

Introducing the Doing Our Best classes to Children’s Parliament

Children have rights throughout their life – they should be healthy, happy, safe and have human dignity.

Here are some ideas from the children:

‘Things that can give human dignity are: being yourself, getting hugs and kisses, getting presents, being included, sticking up for yourself, being unique, being happy, helping others, sharing, having a family, having friends, following your dreams, being a jokester, bravery.

Things that can take away human dignity are: someone dying, getting injured, having cancer, being arrested, being left out, getting bullied, fighting, feeling lonely, getting grounded, having your rights disrespected, being shouted at and not being listened to.

Myself as a Learner

We have done the ‘Myself as a Learner’ (MALs) questionnaire with each child we are working with so we can see how they view themselves as learners with the aim to build on this in the following weeks. It was also a great opportunity to get to know each child individually.

Here are some of the thoughts expressed while we were doing the questionnaires.

‘We have just done a questionnaire which will show me how we feel about ourselves and being in school. Surprisingly we have never done anything like this. Children’s Parliament wanted to know about us. We had to answer a big yes, a normal yes, not sure, no or a NO WAY!’ Some of the questions were easy to answer and some were really difficult, like ‘I’m not good at problem solving.’

Introducing Doing our Best!

Children’s Parliament is continuing to work with the four partner schools on a new programme called ‘Doing Our Best’. In Scotland it is every child’s right to an education, however there are many barriers, particular those associated with poverty, that get in the way of a child achieving their full potential. Doing Our Best is about developing learning self-perception and nurturing teacher/ pupil relationships.

Introducing P6 in Bramble Brae: Our teacher is Miss Mitchell. Our topic is ‘The Rainforest’ and this week we have been writing letters as if we were James on the Giant Peach!

Introducing P6 in Manor Park: Our teacher is Mr Murray. We like to ERIC – Everyone Reads In Class for 15minutes everyday. We have been learning about respect!

Introducing P5 in Riverbank: Our teacher is Miss Gardner. Our topic is space and today we wrote a diary entry as if we were astronauts up in space!

Introducing P5 in Tullos: Our teacher is Miss Charles. We like to learn art, maths and science. Today we had First Aid and learned the recovery position!