Category Archives: Health and Wellbeing

Health and Wellbeing

My P1 Buddy

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In Primary 6, my classmates and I found out that we were going to be getting a Primary 1 buddy to support through their first year of school.  Mrs Falconer, told us the date that we were going to meet them at their nursery and also told us the name of our new buddy.

Finally, the day arrived! I was going to meet my buddy. I was nervous but also excited at the same time. My buddies name is Lucy, she has blonde hair, a big smile and the great thing about her is her constant happiness which I feel rubs off on me too! Not that I am unhappy but I always feel happier around Lucy. I like surrounding myself with positive people!

In August. when we started P7, our buddies finally moved from nursery to primary school. I was so excited to see Lucy again and hoped her happy nature wasn’t a one off. I needn’t have worried as she was still the bubbly, cheery Lucy I had met before the summer.

I loved introducing Lucy to new people and helping he to make new friends. Our job as buddies for the first few weeks, was to go down to their playground and help her make new friends. It makes me feel good to know that she won’t be lonely as she now has lots of good friends.

Another job we have as a buddy is to visit the Primary One class on a Friday to help them with their learning. I have enjoyed helping Lucy complete some maths work, read some new books and learn her spelling words. I love it when they get a chance to take part in some art activities or structured play.

I only hope that when I go to high school I feel as confident as she did starting Primary School. Hopefully with the skills I have learned that shouldn’t be a problem._DSC0176

Health and Wellbeing

Ski Club

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Ski 18At the start of January, myself and some of my peers were given the opportunity to go back to Bearsden Skiing Centre and complete another block of skiing lessons. We really enjoyed ski club last year and were desperate to improve on what we learned in Primary 6.

Going skiing is a great opportunity to take existing skills such as agility, stamina, balance and control and improve them by learning simple things like how to turn properly, how to get on the poma lift and how to position my skis. This all helps to make me a better skier.

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Knowing how to ski is a great skill to have  because I would love to go to the Alps on a skiing holiday with my friends when I am older. To do this I would need to become a very competent skier.

My instructor has really helped me become a better skier, he has really helped me improve my technique and my overall ability. I feel really confident on the higher slopes now.

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I think the skiing lessons this year have went very well, everybody  learned something new and helpful every week. It has been so much fun!

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Health and Wellbeing

P1 Buddies

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image imageAt the start of primary 7, each one us were matched with a primary 1 buddy. The whole process starts at the end of primary 6 when we visit them in their nurseries and play with them so they get used to us and we become a familiar face before they begin school.

When I went up to see my buddy Lawrie, I introduced myself and asked him his name. We played for a bit and his friend from nursery joined in too! We played in the water pool with the dinosaurs, he really enjoyed it. As I left I told him I would see him again on his induction days and on his first day at school.

imageI was really excited to start Primary 7, I couldn’t wait to see my buddy again. My whole primary 7 class went down to help get the Primary ones ready for playtime and then we went outside to the playground to play with them and help them make new friends.

One of the main reasons we do this is because it builds our communication skills, makes us put someone else before ourselves as we have to think about their needs and how we might support them in their first few weeks of school. We had to put ourselves in their shoes and remember how big a change it was coming to school for the first time and thinking that eveything was so new – the building, the classroom, the noise of the playground, all the different faces and of course getting used to a new teacher. When we are older, we might have children of our own and this is good experience of having some responsibility where we get to see what it is like to be a role model and set a good example.

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We are learning to use these skills because its important in life to look after others and think of others before yourself.  We had the opportunity to build so many skills and this help us in the future because we will know how to relate to others who might not have the same interests as us and also the younger ones have different needs. I really enjoyed visiting the P1 classroom each Friday and helping them with their learning. We were able to encourage them as they worked on their tasks such as writing or artwork. We also helped to teach them how to look after themselves and were a friendly face to go to if they had a worry.

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I learned most of these skills by looking after my wee sister when she was younger and it encouraged me as I was growing up so I was ready for primary 6 when I became a playground pal too.

l have found being a buddy pretty successful as I am a good role model. I remember not being very focused when I was younger and sometimes I would have a carry on but now I have learnt my mistake and matured a bit and I hope the P1’s follow our examples.

 

Building our 'Toolbox of Skills', Health and Wellbeing

Developing Sports Leadership Skills

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At the start of Primary 7, we came together as a class to discuss ways in which we could develop our leadership skills. Due to the great success we had leading and organising our school sports day last year, we wanted to find a way to build on these skills. The first thing we did was to decide on all the different skills and qualities needed to be a successful Sports Leader.  Here’s what we came up with…

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At the start of term, each class was given an extra gym slot to make up our 2.5 hours of PE a week and for our class this was great news! We try to use one of our slots of PE to focus on developing leadership skills. Many of us have had the chance to lead warm ups and games, referee matches and demonstrate sport and specific skills to our peers. Throughout our PE slots we have been taking part in various activities such as team invasion games, fitness circuits, skipping and running around the world. We manage to fit so much into the hour and that’s why we like to be called the Sporty Sevens!

Gourock Primary recently completed our Sponsored Skip to raise money for school funds. This has become an annual event and it’s  great fun!

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Primary 7 have re-launched ‘Super Skipper’.  This was a further opportunity to build our confidence when we delivered skipping workshops to all the classes in the school. The class I taught was P3/2 and in my opinion I think they enjoyed the gym session as they smiled and tried hard the whole time.  Super Skipper works like this; we have ten minutes each week to improve our skipping skills and tricks then we are timed for one minute to see how many skips we can manage in that time. Afterwards, our scores are recorded. In our class, this is by a member of the Fit4Life team.  We love it because it is a fun way to keep fit and challenge yourself.

Our recent contribution towards developing our sports leadership skills, was the leadership course delivered by Lynne, Inverclyde’s PE Lead Officer and her colleague, Gillian, who is an Active Schools Coordinator. Today we finally completed it and can’t wait to be awarded our certificates. Throughout it, we were leading groups, creating activities and giving feedback.  We will update you in our next blog post!

 

Building our 'Toolbox of Skills', Health and Wellbeing, Outdoor Learning

Cycling Success!

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Primary 7 achieved Bikeability level 2 during the summer term of Primary 6. This level gets you onto the roads, and able to deal with traffic such as cycling to school and other short journeys. Until we were ready for the real thing, we learned the rules of the road in the playground, using the painted road markings.

Once we were all competent, we ventured out with Inverclyde’s Road Safety Officers to a quiet road near our school.

 

Last week, we participated in a Inverclyde Cycling Competition at Lady Alice Primary. There were two pupils representing each of the Inverclyde Schools. We had great fun cycling through the mock road course.

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Before heading out into the rain to start the cycling, we completed a question sheet about road safety and cycling.

The course included traffic lights, a roundabout, junctions, slalom and a parked car. Our favourite was the roundabout because it was a new experience for us. Even though it was pouring , we still managed to complete it. It really improved our bike ability skills. The most challenging part was the junction as we had to cross a mock road that cars would have been on and move from one road position to another.

After both girls and boys had finished the test, everyone was excited to hear the results. Eventually, the results were announced. Andrew came second! We were so pleased!

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The cycling competition was a great experience and we would gladly do it again. Thanks to Inverclyde Phoenix Car Club for organising the competition!

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Andrew and Eve

 

bootcamp, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy

A Recipe For Success

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We are P7 pupils from Gourock Primary School.  We took part in the Blogging Bootcamp last year and we are looking forward to participating again and taking part in new challenges this upcoming year.

Primary  seven is a big year for us because we are getting ready for moving up to the high school, which means we need to push ourselves to our limits  and ‘take every opportunity’, which is our class motto!

We have been looking at poetry and figurative language and decided the best way to introduce ourselves was through a ‘Recipe for Success’.

We have used alliteration in our recipe to make it sound more interesting. We hope you enjoy it!

Matthew Orr.

P7 Recipe for Success
P7 Recipe for Success
Health and Wellbeing, Outdoor Learning

Outdoor Learning

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Our class visited Ardentinny centre in Dunoon for two nights and three days and we were lucky enough to be joined by our friends in Moorfoot Primary School. Over the time we spent there, we took part in lots of different activities such as orienteering, team challenges, seashore safari, gorge walk, night hike and search and rescue.

Everyone loved the gorge walk because you walk up a gushing river of water and then climb up through waterfalls. There’s even a section at the top called The Plunge Pool – it is basically a water slide into an ice cold pool! The best part was just getting soaking wet! We loved it!

Another favourite was Team Challenges. These were lots of activities where the key to success was working together. My favourite was an activity was called Around the World. There was a rope swing and three platforms and you had to land on every platform without touching the ground to have successfully made it ‘Around the World’. We also took part in other fun activities such as Gutter Ball, Toxic Waste, Crane Challenge and the Laser Challenge.

I can’t fail to mention the night activities! Night hike was scary! We all headed out in the dark with our torches and went on a big hike around the area and often in the woods! Sometimes you were told to turn your torches off so we could test out our night vision in the dark . We were really surprised at how well your eyes adjust! We went to a place called Lairds Grave and we turned our torches off and walked in the dark. It was so funny because the teachers were trying to scare us by shouting things like “Who is that?!” and Isla was imitating a wolf howl (which is so realistic!).

We got the opportunity to develop our orienteering skills too. We were given a map and shown where north is and then had to go and find places indicated on the centre map. Each location had a hidden letter. Once we’d found all the letters, we had to figure out  the famous Scottish landmark. It turned out to be Ben Nevis. We couldn’t believe how long it took to figure it out!

On the last day, my group went on a Seashore safari to find different shells, sea creatures and rocks. The variety of sea creatures was amazing and I learned about different types of jelly fish and also that crabs shed their shells!

I have come home with a whole new set of skills! Including life saving skills! Our Search and Rescue mission was at night and my team were tasked with finding a camouflaged dummy, a camouflaged small seal and a camouflage duck. We were also taught how to help someone if you find them unconscious. A top tip that I’ve told my family is to saving the word’ ICE’ (In Case of Emergency) in front of one of your contacts in your phone so the police know who to contact if you are in an accident. You can also write ICE2 which means if your ICE number was not responding they would contact your ICE2.

I would just like to say a big thank you to all the staff at Ardentinny and Gourock Primary School for coming with us and making our trip one to remember.

Building our 'Toolbox of Skills', Health and Wellbeing, IDL

Animation Aspirations

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Recently we’ve had a World of Work week, where lots people came in and talked about their jobs. This made a lot of us think about the career we would like to have in the future. I’ve decided that I’d like to be an animator.

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An animator is someone who creates hundreds of different drawings and puts them together. They then play them one after the other really quickly to create the illusion that they’re moving. This takes a lot of time and hard work and can be very repetitive.

I want to be an animator because I love drawing and creating stories. I got inspired to animate through animations that people have uploaded on YouTube.

To be an animator you need to be good at art, have creativity and a good animation, meet deadlines, have a lot of patience and accuracy and attention to detail. Communication and presentation skills are also essential.

Previously, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be an author or artist. I decided that I want to be an animator so I could put my stories into hundreds of different drawings. I’m already animating on an app on my tablet. At the moment, the quality of my animation isn’t very good, but it’s improving and if I keep practicing, my animations might even become as good as Walt Disney’s!

It might get challenging at times if I’d need to get an animation done very quickly or if there’s a lot of movement in the animation, but it’s better to have a challenge every once in a while rather than an easy boring job!

World of Work has taught us that we have to have a job that we love so that it’s as if we aren’t working at all. I love animating and I hope that I get this career in the future!

Building our 'Toolbox of Skills', Health and Wellbeing, IDL

World of Work- My Future Career as a Film Director

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Recently we have been learning about the world of work and we were thinking about what we would like to be in later life. My future ambition is to become a film director. A film director makes lots of the creative decisions for a movie and also edits scenes.

My future!
My future!

To become a film director a lot of experience is needed. The experience can come from working around movie sets such as being an actor/actress or cameraman or by creating your own short films and animations too. Creativity, time keeping, management and communication skills are also very useful for film directing.

I would like to become a movie director because I am imaginative and creative. This would be good for movie directing because I would need to come up with imaginative ideas for the storyline and make creative decisions for the movie. Another reason I would like to do this job in the future is because I like writing and reading stories and this would be like putting them into action. I also like making short films and skits at home with my friends too.

The challenge I might face if I become a movie director is trying to stay in budget when I have good ideas. I’ll also need to be able to solve and adapt to problems that occur on set like if someone is working around the area I was filming in and is making too much noise I could change set or film the scene another day.  I would like to gain some of my own experience in acting so that I would be able to advise and guide the famous stars I may be fortunate to be working with! I really admire, Emma Watson from the Harry Potter film series and my dream come true would be to work with her on set.

Emma Watson

I am very passionate about movie directing and that’s what you need to be for any job. Even though I will face challenges and things won’t always go as planned, I would love to be a film director and will work hard to achieve it.

CUT!

Eve P6

Blogging, Health and Wellbeing

Winning the GIRFEC Hero mascot

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The GIRFEC group helps to ensure that the whole school are SHANARRI (Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured, Achieving, Respected, Responsible and Included) but they needed a mascot to represent them.

The group decided that they would get the whole school involved and hold a mascot designing competition. Each pupil would get the chance to design a superhero, giving it a name and a special GIRFEC power.

Nearly everyone gave in an entry, which made it even harder for the GIRFEC group to decide on a winner. It was a very hard decision for them to make because everyone’s character was great.

Finally, the group was sure of a winner. They announced that I had won in front of the class and I couldn’t believe it!

At the start, I wasn’t going to enter but I’m glad I did because my design is now going to get spray painted on the gym hall wall along with the Funky 5 characters.

My hero is a friendly robot called GIRFEC GoBot. He has 8 arms, each holding a bottle with every letter of the word SHANARRI on them.

GIRFEC GoBot

To finish him off I added a red cape to his back. His power is being able to make every child that is not SHANARRI safe and healthy by skooshing them with the magic inside each of the different bottles. I can’t wait to see my character on the wall!

By Grace Thomson, P6